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[Samuel Rees]

Well, Samuel, believe it or not, I did encounter bugs on my SI-C. Yes. True.

I am an early user of the SI-C. I bought it when it was available here in France two years ago, and I received it with the first version of the software. I have been using every single version since. The console does not move, it is in a small venue and is used for like 50 shows per year.

Bugs I have encountered:
- FX does not return to main ST bus (while patched correctly), thus preventing to use reverbs.
- Impossible to change input patch
- Sound still slightly audible while fader at -infinite
- sound audible like fader at unity while at -infinite
- Slowdowns of the user interface, not responding for like 30s. But the console recovered itself and sound did not interrupt (I saw a yellow warning sign on top right screen corner)
- And on latest revision (2.3 build 10): some faders randomly not moving while changing layer. This happens only by pairs of consecutive faders, even unlinked. Go back to previous layer, switch back again to the one you desired, and everything is OK.

If you add to this that the features were added progressively, the big picture at the end is software that was delivered incomplete and with remaining bugs. Thus my comparison with MS.

Many friends of mine did encountered bugs as well (mostly the same as mine), we talked about them on French forums, and some bugs were listed as "corrected" in Soundcraft’s release letters.

None of the bugs prevented me to do sound on a show. The most anoying was the “no FX”, which I finaly solved by resetting the console to factory settings and recreated my configuration from scratch. Other bugs (fader at –inf, sound at unity) happened while I was optimizing the system, so no other side effect than me hearing strong pink noise.

Oh, by the way, I am very happy with this console. This is my first digital console. It sounds pretty good, it is extremely easy to operate (key point for me and sound guys I welcome for one-offs), it is small. I am not trying to troll ruining an acclaimed product.

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate the detail. One post can become "I read on the internet that..." so quickly. I had some of the slowness you refereed to, but that was my only issue and it was fixed with a software update. None of that fader stuff.

[Brian Jojade]

There's no software or firmware known to man that won't be, or won't need an upgrade/update from point of conception regardless of manufacturer. As I had stated prior, the V9 firmware has resolved the issue. I have no problems concerning the reliability of the product. The components are all first class, workmanship well above average, and if I have an issue, which I doubt, then at least I don't have to send the board to Las Vegas.
An FYI, the SD card is the internal "hard disk" and contains the boards OS. This is a design that has been in use by Cisco, IBM, Dell, UNISYS, EMC, HP, Data Domain, etc. since the conception of SD RAM. It's reliable, cost effective, easy to replace, and easy to expand. Many enterprise level systems rely on SD ram every day of the week without pause. I would be more concerned with a board that didn't use SD ram knowing failure of the NVRAM will usually require system board replacement. I would also be more concerned with unreliable expansion products such as stage boxes that won't sync, drop off line, etc..

Definitely all valid points. Having an SD card inside a machine isn't a big deal.  Having an SD card inside a machine that doesn't hold the card in well is going to eventually result in an unexpected failure.  The SI compact has a pretty rock solid reliability report, and uses a lot of the same concepts and technologies, so that's not the issue.  6 months ago, the SI expression had way too many reports of unreliable operation to be taken seriously.  The latest revisions seem to have reversed that, but only in the last few months.  Still, a product that made it out to the wild in that state will take longer to earn a reputation for reliability than one that came out of the gates working without major issues.

[Bob Leonard]

Definitely all valid points. Having an SD card inside a machine isn't a big deal.  Having an SD card inside a machine that doesn't hold the card in well is going to eventually result in an unexpected failure.  The SI compact has a pretty rock solid reliability report, and uses a lot of the same concepts and technologies, so that's not the issue.  6 months ago, the SI expression had way too many reports of unreliable operation to be taken seriously.  The latest revisions seem to have reversed that, but only in the last few months.  Still, a product that made it out to the wild in that state will take longer to earn a reputation for reliability than one that came out of the gates working without major issues.

I agree Brian, and fortunately the hardware and majority of the Expression is identical to the rest of the family. The differences were minor, but the firmware / scripts were changed. That's where the problems came from. V9 must be a pretty good release, it seems to be rock solid, and I have seen and heard of very few problems or issues since 9 came out.

[Nils Erickson]

I agree Brian, and fortunately the hardware and majority of the Expression is identical to the rest of the family. The differences were minor, but the firmware / scripts were changed. That's where the problems came from. V9 must be a pretty good release, it seems to be rock solid, and I have seen and heard of very few problems or issues since 9 came out.

Build 9 is working well for me on both of my SI Expression boards now too.  I have been testing the mini stagebox 32 without problems as well; it will do its first shows next weekend.

Nils

[Bob Leonard]

Nils,
How about a write up after the show, perhaps as a separate thread. I'm very interested, as are others, in how well the stage box works.

[Frederik Loris]

Hello

I have a question concerning my Si Compact Soundcraft 16 Channel table.
Last weekend the internal SD card lost all my stored settings.

I tried to reload the settings but on the right corner of the screen a "yellow triangular "!"  " appears, meaning the file is not good.

I resetted the table, resetted the SD card but the problem remains.

Setting up a new show (not from USB or internal SD card) workes fine, but when I power off the table, the settings are lost.
My table is updated to the latest firmware


I heard that the internal SD card might be broken or damaged, ...

Can you help me out finding a solution to fix my table agian.

Kind regards

Frederik

[Mac Kerr]

Hello

I have a question

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Mac

[Dave Garoutte]

Call Soundcraft support.

[ProSoundWeb Community]