Ivory and overheating?

[ksiragusa]

Hi guys,

Last gig my receptor (rev C), began what I suspect is caused by overheating.
Ivory starts to stutter and click while playing.
My receptor setup is pretty light (Ivory, B4II and two instances of Kontakt with very small samples >1mb in size).
I feel a bit 'on the edge' as I can't seem to predict the receptors behaviour at the moment.
Sometimes, in soundcheck, Ivory will make that digital 'frozen' sound, the receptor will reset itself and then won't miss a beat for the rest of the night. Other nights, like last gig, half way through the second set I'll get the stutter and clicks. I tried triple clicking, leaving it off for a minute but nothing seemed to fix the problem. And yet, a lot of nights it performs flawlessly.

What wouldn't have helped the matter is that I was stuck behind a valve guitar amp and it was a pretty hot stage. Unfortunately I can't do much about these situations.

So my question is, would trading out Ivory and installing something like TruePianos lighten the load on the receptor?
Can I even install TP on a RevC OS v1.6?

I also use a Motif XS rack to take a bit of the load off receptor, and I've programmed backup sounds out of the alternative outputs to unmute in case of the situation I had at the last gig. I'm almost thinking that I make the core piano sounds come from the Motif and just leave the receptor to B4 duties.

The OL SoundSlate does look interesting and they say they have 'heat tested' their boxes. But unfortunately it is hard to road test these things before purchasing.

Which is another point - I'm in Australia so we are about to hit summer which means even hotter stages/rooms so it would be great if I could feel a little more confident in my rig.

Does the Receptor 2 run any cooler?

It is a difficult decision whether to send my unit back to the US to get the upgrade that may still run into the same issues. Or go for a SoundSlate which again is a PC and can suffer from similar issues.
I'd quite happily go back to synths if only they could get the piano/hammond sounds as these boxes can - and still be light/portable at the same time

Would appreciate everyone's input.

Cheers
Kim

[looneytunes]

Hi Kim,

Hmm - I wouldn't expect the behavior that you are seeing based on the light plugin usage you are describing. I might suspect something like a disk failure or other disk issues.

I would suggest to file a service ticket with Muse - and let them perform some diagnostic (like an 'fsck' for disk health) to check your Receptor.

Hope this helps, Regards,
Kevin L

PS - TruePianos/PianoTeq will lighten the load from your Receptor's disk, but if you have fundemental disk issues, any VSTi configuration you have may fail.

[ksiragusa]

Hi Looneytunes,

Interesting.
I have had to call them over in the US to sort out an issue this drive has had before.
It was stuck on initialising. They worked me through the fix and we put it down to losing stage power before the receptor had had a chance to shut itself down properly.
Maybe this has had a lasting effect??

Cheers for your input.

Kim

[Bryan@MuseResearch]

Hi Looneytunes,

Interesting.
I have had to call them over in the US to sort out an issue this drive has had before.
It was stuck on initialising. They worked me through the fix and we put it down to losing stage power before the receptor had had a chance to shut itself down properly.
Maybe this has had a lasting effect??

Cheers for your input.

Kim

Hi Kim

I seriously doubt this is heat related. The Rev Cs run incredibly cool, and in fact have been tested with total cooling system failure and will run flat out for hours without failing. It could be the drive, but typically when a drive is going south you'll hear some loud clicking when it is seeking or some other indication that its getting a bit wobbly. Actually, I think maybe your RAM is loose, or otherwise not making a good connection to the motherboard. I hard of a band who had this same problem - I think it was Simply Red - and they took out the RAM, sprayed the connectors with DeOxit D5, and the problem never occurred again.

If you're comfortable opening up the unit, take the lid of and ensure that the RAM is FIRMLY SEATED in the two RAM slots. As the years go by, these connectors can work themselves loose, or worse yet collect dust and pyro / smoke machine residue and become intermittent. If you have computer repair experience and are at a static-free workbench, you can even remove and reinsert the RAM to ensure it is getting a good connection with the RAM slots. A computer tech would probably do this for $20 for you if you aren't comfortable doing it yourself.

The hard drives are warranted for 5 years, so if the RAM is not the problem, we can work out a drive swap with you. IN all likelihood its one or the other, so looking at the RAM first is easiest, and then worrying about the drive is next.

Bryan