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Typical maintenance for a digital mixing board?

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Steve Crump:
We have a Midas M32R that we use at our venue, it is around 6-7 years old. The room is an old cotton warehouse with no insulation, and we battle roof leaks.
We try to control humidity as best as we can. Oh yeah, and dust is also rampant. We keep a cover over the board when not in use to minimize its exposure to the dust.

We always keep the firmware up to date.

We have had some gremlins, bad no real failures with the board.

1. Channels 1 & 2 are linked for keys, and sometimes those faders will move ever so slightly with nothing else happening.
2. At one point the encoder knob on the input gain would not respond as it was being rotated. I would turn the knob to increase gain with no response and then in a split second the gain would leap several increments at once.
But the board has never failed to work for a show.

So, I did a reset on the board in the hopes that would fix any issues.

Yesterday I was at the venue setting up for a show and I decided to spend a minute routing output from a new Mac Mini into an Aux input on the board, via the USB card on the board. The first thing I noticed is that when I thumbed through the different taps on the routing screens that in the aux out screen when I selected each mix the highlighted selection for desired function would not be correct for our original setup, but almost immediately it would jump from the incorrect selection to the correct selection without me touching anything. Is this normal? I was using an iPad to make these changes.

I never knowingly changed the input selection on the board, but once I had my playback set from the Mac, I decided to do one more line check before going to eat and everything was dead from the stage, I opened the routing back up and the inputs were no longer highlighted, I reselected and then everything worked fine.

So, here is the question. Is this just life with a digital board, or is there a standard maintenance that should be done? Is there a company that tests, cleans?, digital boards? I just want to try to avoid a failure if it is possible. Or at least do some proper maintenance.

Scott Bolt:

--- Quote from: Steve Crump on January 22, 2023, 04:57:14 PM ---We have a Midas M32R that we use at our venue, it is around 6-7 years old. The room is an old cotton warehouse with no insulation, and we battle roof leaks.
We try to control humidity as best as we can. Oh yeah, and dust is also rampant. We keep a cover over the board when not in use to minimize its exposure to the dust.

We always keep the firmware up to date.

We have had some gremlins, bad no real failures with the board.

1. Channels 1 & 2 are linked for keys, and sometimes those faders will move ever so slightly with nothing else happening.
2. At one point the encoder knob on the input gain would not respond as it was being rotated. I would turn the knob to increase gain with no response and then in a split second the gain would leap several increments at once.
But the board has never failed to work for a show.

So, I did a reset on the board in the hopes that would fix any issues.

Yesterday I was at the venue setting up for a show and I decided to spend a minute routing output from a new Mac Mini into an Aux input on the board, via the USB card on the board. The first thing I noticed is that when I thumbed through the different taps on the routing screens that in the aux out screen when I selected each mix the highlighted selection for desired function would not be correct for our original setup, but almost immediately it would jump from the incorrect selection to the correct selection without me touching anything. Is this normal? I was using an iPad to make these changes.

I never knowingly changed the input selection on the board, but once I had my playback set from the Mac, I decided to do one more line check before going to eat and everything was dead from the stage, I opened the routing back up and the inputs were no longer highlighted, I reselected and then everything worked fine.

So, here is the question. Is this just life with a digital board, or is there a standard maintenance that should be done? Is there a company that tests, cleans?, digital boards? I just want to try to avoid a failure if it is possible. Or at least do some proper maintenance.

--- End quote ---

Hi Steve,

This does not seem like something that is caused by dust or humidity (ok, maybe the channel 1&2 fader movement, but this is pretty minor.  This may be caused by the positioning sensor being dirty on one or both of those channels faders). 

It is possible that the communications between the control surface and the CPU are being disrupted; however, since your encoder didn't actually lose any of the movement, and the movement was delayed, even that seems unlikely.

FYI, the round encoders are simple controls.  Their physical position doesn't have anything to do with the stored value of gain in the CPU.  The LED ring is lit from a stored value in the CPU and any movement from that position is then sensed by the CPU as you move it.  The LED then is updated from the CPU (this is my interpretation of how it is likely working based on my experience with other encoders.  I am an EE).

It seems like your CPU is fighting to keep up with its tasks (which are likely buffered as it works its way around the queue of stuff to take care of).  Sometimes a noisy sensor (which could be dirty) flickers back and fourth very fast causing tons of "do nothing" tasks for the CPU to handle that then delay its handling of everything else.

Resetting the firmware would do nothing to fix this.

I would send it in to an authorized repair facility.  They will have tools to help them locate the offending sensor (if that is the problem).

This is not normal for any digital board.  There isn't really anything that can be done other than finding the hardware problem that is vexing the CPU and replacing or cleaning it.

Perhaps others here have a different opinion.  That's my 2 cents :)

Steve Crump:
Thanks Scott for your insight. I found a service center online and I will contact them tomorrow. Peace of mind, if nothing else.

Bob Faulkner:
Your issues do not sound normal, but do sound like an issue with the electrical power your console is connected to.  Digital consoles are computers first, and mixing consoles second.  They are susceptible to voltage swings/noise and possibly frequency changes with the electricity.  Is the electricity good where the console is?  Steady correct voltage?  Steady frequency? 

I always use a voltage regulator on my digital consoles; have never experienced an issue.  If you have access to a voltage regulator or possibly a UPS, you may want to try either of these first.

Brian Jojade:
I agree with both of the previous posts.  As a general rule, there's no real computer maintenance that needs to be done on the console, such as defragging, or OS reinstall stuff.  Installing updates should be done when you're at a slow time (not 5 minutes before a show!!)

If you're having problems with encoders, it's certainly possible that dust or water have caused the damage.  First thing I'd do is open the unit and make sure it's not full of dust.  Dust can mess with the encoders and if it collects enough inside it can also create heat issues which can cause computers to do weird things.  Worst case scenario is dust becomes conductive and starts to short things out.

The next thing to look at would be networking issues.  If you're getting unexpected things happening, I'd disconnect the unit from the network.  If the problems go away, you'll then need to troubleshoot where on the network you're having problems. A weak WIFI signal to the iPad could potentially cause excess traffic and unexpected results if commands aren't sent and received completely.


Before you send the unit in for service, be aware that some repairs from MusicTribe can take a significant amount of time.  Parts availability is a real issue. There are horror stories floating around that some repairs have been several months or more.  That could be a major issue if you don't have a backup unit available and shows are coming up.

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