G e n e x R e s e a r c h L i m i t e d

Genex GX8500 Release Notes

GX8500 Setup Menu

Audio

Global

Inp 1&2 I/O Cfg Bits in Bits out Dither AES cs

AES

SDIF2

DSD-raw

DSD-SDF3

Analogue

Single

Dual

Quad

16

18

20

22

24

16

18

20

22

24

None

Triangle

Shaped

prof’nal

cnsr cpy

cnsr inh

Control

Lcl/Rem RS422 RS422em Multimc Parallel

Local

Remote

Slave

Master

GX8000

DA88

PCM800

PCM7030

PCM7050

off

mastr1-8

slv 9-16

slv17-24

slv25-32

Input 1-16

off

Rec arm1-8

BVU800

BVU850

BVW75

slv33-40

slv41-48

Rev Sp’l

Rev Play

Stop

Play

Fwd Sp’l

Record

Previous

Next

Pol’ity

Act High

Act Low

-10 secs

+10 secs

Take

F/S

Note

End

Chase

Allinput

Diagnose

P’sword Blk Err Drv Type TC Freq Sine Gen GX8 Upg GXR Upg FPGA Rev FWarRev Serial# Ethernet

Rate

200 Hz

800 Hz

1kHz

2kHz

Level

0dBFS

-6dBFS

-12dBFS

-24dBFS

2dB

Clocks

Clk src Smple Rte Modify

Master

Inp 1&2

Inp 3&4

32000Hz

41000Hz

48000Hz

88200Hz

96000Hz

x1.000

x1.001

x0.999

x24/25

x25/24

Inp 5&6

Inp 7&8

Ext Clk

Vid ----

Mix Inp

176400Hz

192000Hz

44/88kHz

48/96kHz

Display

Frames PPM Peak PPM Over TC Disp Film Beg Film Type

Off

On

Off 2 secs

4 secs

16mm,24f

16mm,25f

LTC

ft & frDelay

On 35mm,24f

Fine PPM

normal

-12dB

-14dB

-16dB

-18dB

-20dB

On

35mm,25f

-22dB

S/ware RevisionV2.06.00

Date06/09/00

Inp 7&8

AES

SDIF2

DSD-raw

DSD-SDF3

Analogue

GX8500 Setup Menu

Playback

Sp’l Trk

Track 1

Record

Rec Mod Tracks Pre roll Pst roll X fd sh X fd ln Monitor

Pre

Post

Assemble

Insert

Non lin

1 00s

99s

Linear

Cosine

Cos 2

000ms

128ms

Pack NL

1 sec

00s

99s

1 sec 1ms

Sync

Chs Mode Biphrte Flywh’l TC Rate SyncSrc TC Gen TC set Stop TC

Still Fr

Off

Follow

Release

2pf 10fr

20fr

LTC

Biphase

Ext Inp

Rec run

24F

25F10pf

30fr 29.97DF

29.97NDF

30DF

30NDF

T.O.D.

Take Log

Ref Cue Auto Cue

Take

F/S

Off

Record

Note

End

Silence

-80dB

-40dB

CurDisk InsDisk DSPSCSI

SCSI

ExpDisk

10dB

4 sec

infinite

Format

DiskFmt FileFmt Format

Format

Genex

Genex +

Certify

Genex

Genex +

AutoFmt

Off

Genex

Genex +

8

’n’

Track 8

’n’

Mixer

Bits Out Dither Pan ctr

0dB8

24

None

Triangle

Shaped

6dB

0.5dB

Input

Track ’n’ C’brate Track ’n’

Input ’n’

MixOut L

MixOut R

Normal

Sine All

Output ’n’

Sine Gen

Routing

Disk

Projects

New Open Save As Delete Rename Backup Prj Data Presets

Artists

Client

Cr. Date

Cr. Time

Engin’r

Job #

Locat’n

Producer

Side #

Work

Date

Time

Recall Save BootFrm

Preset 1 Preset 1 Preset

Preset 9 Preset 9 Nvram’n’ ’n’

ID = ’0-7’

S/ware RevisionV2.06.00

Date06/09/00

1

Genex GX8500 Release Notes Restrictions in V2.06.00 GX8500 Firmware 01/09/00

• Dither on output is triangular PDF only. Selecting noise shaped dither has no effect.

• Track slip is not implemented.

• The Ethernet port is not implemented.

• Follow Chase Mode is not implemented.

• Packed non-linear record mode is not implemented.

• Crossfade shape is linear only. Selecting Cosine & Cos2 has no effect.

• Assemble record mode is only active within the Genex linear format.

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2

V2.06.00 GX8500 Firmware 01/09/00

New Features

• In the Audio submenu, you can select the input data format for individual channel pairs. AES, SDIF2 and analogue formats can be mixed as desired, however, switching any channel pair to a DSD format, switches all channels to DSD format. Likewise, switching any channel away from a DSD format switches all channels to the new format. A new menu structure drawing is available to reflect the change.

• The -/CLEAR button now clears incorrectly entered locate times.

• A password has been added to the Diagnose menu. Typing in the correct password and pressing the green ENTER button will disable the RECORD function, and the ENTER button. Typing in the password again will re-enable the RECORD and ENTER buttons. This state is stored in non-volatile memory and is recalled on power up. The function is intended for pressing plants and hire companies, where the machine is configured for a particular application, and cannot be subsequently altered without the password. The password is currently hard-coded and is available on request by emailing kevin@genex.co.uk. The next version of software will allow the password to be changed.

• A message on power up informs if you are booting from nvram. Remember that the last open preset is always recalled on power up, but depending on the boot setting, some of the preset data may be overwritten by data stored in the nvram. A preset stores the entire machine setup, whereas the nvram only stores a selection of settings.

Bug Fixes

• You can no longer select an invalid number of tracks in dual and quad mode when no disk, or an unformatted disk is loaded.

• Recalling a preset where the stored drive is the same SCSI ID as the current drive, now re-logs the drive correctly.

• The quad wire mode is now compatible with DCS and SADIE quad wire modes. The software automatically detects existing quad wire recordings, and compensates to match the output to the DCS coding method. However this means that you should not append new material to existing quad wire recordings.

• In multi-machine mode, you no longer get a link error when pressing +/-10 seconds while already in play.

• In multi-machine mode, the master and slave machines correctly drop out of play when reaching the end of disk marker.

• The issue of tracks muting for extended periods when playing back high sample rate material has been solved. Muting is still possible if data can’t be read off the disk fast enough, but the muting period should be short.

• GX8000 24/96 recordings can no longer have the number of tracks field in the directory altered incorrectly, when playing them back in a GX8500.

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V2.05.00 GX8500 Firmware 27/07/00

Bug Fixes

• The fault that appeared with V2.04.00 where the input signal was lost when switching between Analogue and AES inputs has been fixed.

• The fault that appeared with V2.04.00 where the input signal was lost when switching between DSD and SDF2 inputs has been fixed

• The signal present LED’s are now correct for quad wire mode. Only channels 1 + 2 light when AES data is present at the inputs to the machine.

• In previous versions, updating the Dither setting caused the I/O format to be set back to single wire, with no indication that this had happened. The dither setting no longer affects the I/O format.

• The problems with monitoring the input in dual or quad wire mode, with no disk or an unformatted disk loaded, have been corrected.

• Previously, Autoformat appeared not to function because the disk parameters were not read back after the autoformat was executed. This has been corrected.

• After pressing the LOCATE button, you can now locate successfully, without any further data entry, to the timecode that appears in the Locate window.

• The problem where re-logging the current drive hung the SCSI bus, has been corrected.

Warning We have discovered that DCS converters handle quad wire encoding in a different way to the GX8500. The table below shows the differences;

Quad Wire Coding Wire 1 Sub-frame 0

Wire 1 Sub-frame 1

Wire 2 Sub-frame 0

Wire 2 Sub-frame 1

Genex coding Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4

DCS Coding Sample 1 Sample 3 Sample 2 Sample 4

If a recording is made in quad wire mode using the DCS 904 A-D converter and is played out in quad wire mode using the DCS 954 D-A converter, the audio bitstream is correct. However, the audio bitstream is NOT correct if the recording was made dual wire, and played out quad, and vice-versa. The audio bitstream is also NOT correct if the recording is made via a DCS ADC in quad wire and played back through another manufacturers device. We expect to offer a solution for this problem in the next release. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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V2.04.00 GX8500 Firmware 02/07/00

New Features

• AES and SDIF2 outputs are now available simultaneously when AES, SDIF2 or analogue are selected as an input source.

• A new menu heading has been added to the Format menu, called AutoFormat (AutoFmt). This detects a blank disk and automatically formats the disk with the selected disk format. Using this feature allows you to record immediately onto a blank disk with no further action.

• A new menu heading has been added to the Projects | Presets menu called Boot From (BootFrm). Possible options are Presets and Nvram. Use this to select the power up configuration of the GX8500. If Preset is selected, then the last open preset is recalled as normal. If Nvram is selected, then the last open preset is recalled BUT, in addition, some settings are taken from Nvram which represent the state of the machine just before the machine was last turned off.

• Please note that due to Nvram storage limitations, only the following parameters are stored;

I. Audio | I/O Format,

II. Audio | I/O Cfg,

III. Audio | Bits In,

IV. Audio | Bits Out,

V. Audio | Dither,

VI. Audio | AES cs,

VII. Clocks | Clk Src,

VIII. Clocks | SmplRte,

IX. Clocks | Modify,

X. Control | Multimc,

XI. Display | Frames,

XII. Format | AutoFmt,

XIII. Record | Rec Mod,

XIV. Record | Tracks,

XV. Record | X fd sh,

XVI. Record | Monitor,

XVII. Sync | ChsMode,

XVIII. Sync | Flywh’l,

XIX. Sync | TC Rate,

XX. Sync | TC Gen,

XXI. Sync | Stop TC,

XXII. Take Log | AutoCue.

• A new menu heading has been added to the Diagnose | FPGARev menu. Pressing the right hand VALUE button now displays the revision number of the AES/SDIF gate array or the DSD gate array depending on the format I/O format loaded.

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Bug Fixes • The digital mixer output is now the correct polarity and level. In previous revisions the mixer

output was 6dB down in level.

• The time remaining display is now correct for large (>18GB) drives.

• The SCSI drive allocations are now recalled correctly when recalling a preset as well as on power up.

• An external hard drive can now be logged if it is already powered up and has been previously logged when the GX8500 is turned on.

• The parallel port can now control the record function if play and record are pressed simultaneously or sequentially.

• The bug which caused the message ‘couldn’t update the directory’ to be displayed, when going quickly back into record, has been resolved.

• The timecode output is now correct when the generator is locked to external input. Also the timecode output matches the input in phase and in count.

• The RECORD | Monitor setting is now initialised correctly to avoid false display of setting.

• The SDIF3 setting is now functional with the DSD processing card.

• You can now have some tracks in record wile playing back others in DSD mode. Previously the playback tracks looped around data in the output buffer.

• The REHEARSE function in a master/slave combination no longer puts the slave machine into record at the in point.

• The REHEARSE function is no longer disabled when selected from a P2 remote while in chase mode.

• Backup to exabyte tape is now functional if the exabyte is blank. Previously blank exabytes tapes would fail to locate properly.

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6

V2.03.00 GX8500 Firmware 23/05/00

New Features

• If the ERASE button is pressed with an unformatted disk loaded, you are automatically taken to the Format menu, to make a choice of disk formats.

Bug Fixes

• When locating to cue points via the PREVIOUS and NEXT buttons, the correct cue point is now displayed.

• 4.5GB Hard drives now report the correct time remaining and can be used as a primary drive.

• Punch outs are now repaired automatically when the STOP button is pressed if necessary. This situation arises when overdubbing at high data rates to MO disks. The replay data may not be available at the punch out point.

• Parallel inputs are now decoded with a higher priority so they can reliably used to trigger punch in and out points.

• The machine correctly parks at the beginning of the disk when using the FREV or REV PLAY buttons and the timecode decrements to zero.

• The number of tracks that can be recorded at sample rates higher than 48000Hz to a MO disk is now restricted to 6.

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7

V2.02.00 GX8500 Firmware 8/05/00

New Features

• The backup function of the GX8500 now supports tape drives. Exabyte, AIT and DLT tape drives are all supported. The detection of tape drive is automatic, simply select the source and destination SCSI ID’s and proceed as for a disk to disk copy.

• Support for the internal DSD processing card. The DSD processing card decimates the DSD data down to PCM to provide headphone monitoring. It also provides an anti-click cross fade when pressing play or stop.

Bug Fixes

• Selecting analogue mode from DSD now correctly reselects internal PCM clocks.

• Selecting dual and quad wire mode switches the number of available tracks on a blank disk, and locks out impossible track combinations.

• 176400 and 192000 sample rates are now stored correctly in the disk directory

• Single, dual and quad wire status is stored in the disk directory and is recalled if the disk sample rate is 176000 or 192000 and the machine IO configuration is single wire.

• DSD mode is now stored in the disk directory. The GX8500 is configured for PCM or DSD operation when reading a disk. It is not possible to switch between DSD and PCM modes when a non blank disk is loaded.

• 48/96 mode is functional again.

• The machine no longer freezes when switching from DSD to PCM mode with no disk loaded.

• Rehearse and auto-punch are functional again.

• Modified sample rates are now stored in the disk directory and recalled when logging a non-blank disk. Modified sample rates also stored correctly in presets.

• All pull-up, pull-down sample rates and timecode rates are handled correctly in chase release mode.

• 44.056kHz word clock is synchronised when locking to 29.97Hz video.

• Channel polarities are now correct for AES IO when locking to external word clock.

• The internal timecode generator is now correctly synchronised to the derived clock, when locking to external clocks, and the timecode generator is on master mode.

• The REHEARSE button can now be pressed from the front panel to set in and out points.

• The machine now drops into record at the correct timecode when the display is showing a locate memory, or a locate timecode.

• The end of disk marker is correct when cloning DSD disks.

• You can now locate to cue points correctly, using the LOCATE button.

• The monitoring distortion on the direct outputs during punch in and punch out has been removed.

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8

V2.01.00 GX8500 Firmware 20/03/00

New Features

• When locating to a timecode using the locate memories or the LOCATE button, you can press the PLAY button directly, to start playback from the selected timecode. Previously you had to press the green ENTER button first. The green ENTER button is still available when it is desired to park the machine at the required timecode.

• The operation of backup has been changed slightly. The span and unspan headings have been merged into the clone heading. The backup utility now automatically decides whether to span or unspan disks, when cloning.

• The ‘Exp Disk’ menu heading has been replaced by a new heading, which allows you to select which drive ID will be used as an expansion disk. Operation of the SCSI menu heading is outlined in the following extract from the new operations manual;

SCSI

The internal SCSI2 bus is brought out to a 50 way centronics connector at the rear of the unit to allow support for multiple SCSI storage devices.

Termination The SCSI bus is terminated at the onboard SCSI controller and should also be terminated at the last SCSI device on the bus. The DIP switches at the rear of the unit are functional only if an internal MO drive is fitted. Use the DIP switches to terminate the MO drive if no external drive is connected. If no internal MO drive is fitted, and if no external drives are connected, attach an external terminator to the rear panel SCSI connector.

Device Configuration and Modes The GX8500 can support one MO drive and one fixed hard drive mounted internally. Externally you can mount any combination of removable hard drives or MO drives. In addition, a DVD ram drive can be connected as a backup device. The ability to back up to tape-based SCSI devices (DLT, AIT or exabyte) will follow shortly. Any connected device can be used for one of three purposes;

1. Primary recording/playback device. The CurDisk menu heading is used to select this device.

2. Insurance device. The InsDisk menu heading selects this device, which adds a level of redundancy to the recording process.

3. Expansion device. The ExpDisk menu heading selects this device which effectively increases the record capacity of a given format by recording seamlessly from the primary recording device to the expansion device and back.

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Current Drive Use the CurDisk menu heading to select the drive to start recording to, or playback from. The display shows all drives currently connected to the SCSI bus. Each character position on the lower display represents one possible SCSI ID. ID 0 is the leftmost character, ID 7 is the rightmost character. If a drive is available for selection, its ID will be displayed in the relevant position. The currently active drive is shown as a flashing character. The initiator ID is represented by the character ‘I’. Normally the initiator has an ID of 7; in this case the character ‘I’ will appear in the rightmost character of the lower display. Select any available drive for recording or playback by using the VALUE buttons to position the cursor over the required device. Press the green ENTER button to confirm the selection. Scanning the SCSI buss If there is a SCSI drive connected to the bus but it is not shown on the display, press both VALUE buttons simultaneously to rescan the SCSI bus. If the device still doesn’t appear, check the cabling to the device, and that it is powered up.

You can only change active drives only when the recorder is stopped

Insurance Drive An available SCSI device can be allocated as an insurance drive subject to some basic rules. The insurance drive can be used to guarantee that data is recorded to a MO disk regardless of the incoming data rate. When recording to MO disk, the data rate to the disk can fall below that required for a variety of reasons. If this happens without an insurance drive, a data error can result which means that the internal RAM buffer of the GX8500 has overflowed and data has been lost. With an insurance drive, data is temporarily redirected until the MO disk recovers. When the STOP button is pressed after recording, data is automatically copied from the insurance drive to the MO disk, and the message ‘Emptying Disk’ is displayed, with a countdown. Under normal circumstances the recovery process should only take a second or two. However, when recording at very high data rates such as 6/24/96kHz, and towards the end of the disk, the recovery process may take 10 or 20 seconds. If no data has been recorded to the insurance drive, no recovery message is displayed. The recovery process is suspended if a transport control button is pressed. You can even press RECORD before the recovery is complete. Recovery will continue the next time the STOP button is pressed. Note that the disk can not be ejected until the recovery process is complete.

P SCSI q $

P CurDisk

- - 2 - - - - I

P SCSI q $

P InsDisk

- - 2 - - - - I

10

Expansion Disk Record capacity can be effectively increased, by combining two SCSI devices as if they were one larger drive. Use the ExpDisk menu heading to select the device to be combined with the main recording drive. Use the VALUE buttons to position the cursor over the required device ID, and press the green ENTER button to select the device. The selected expansion device ID will flash. The message ‘In Use‘ will be displayed if the drive is already assigned to another function. You can deselect the expansion disk by pressing the green ENTER button a second time.

The expansion disk must be formatted to have the same number of bytes per sector as the Current Disk. This usually means that the expansion drive must be the same or hold the same media as the current drive.

If an available SCSI device is allocated as an expansion disk, the recording process works as follows;

1. Start recording as normal. When the recording reaches the end of the current disk, recording will proceed seamlessly onto the next disk. The GX8500 will update the directory of the next drive to match the sample rate, timecode rate and number of tracks of the current drive and continue recording.

2. If the record mode is non linear, recording will commence on the next disk/drive in sequence when the FAT of the current disk/drive is full. The currently open project will be written to the next disk/drive and recording will continue as normal. Note that only the last disk/drive in sequence holds the entire project data.

3. For MO drives, pressing the EJECT button will eject the disk that isn't being used for playback or record, or if the machine is in stop the GX8500 will eject the currently selected disk.

Providing no insurance drive has been allocated (see next section), the switching process will repeat indefinitely as long as there is a disk or drive available.

If the disks are Genex formatted, then no projects are built and it is essential to correctly label the disks in sequence. The playback side of the Genex multi drive operation is dumb in the sense that it doesn't prompt you for the next disk in sequence. If the incorrect disk is loaded then playback simply continues with the wrong audio!

Can I Insure an Expansion Disk? You can insure a continuous recording of up to 2 sides in length. If an insurance drive is allocated, recording will stop automatically once the end of the second disk side has been reached. If no insurance drive is allocated, recording can continue as long as media is available to record to. If the STOP button is pressed before the end of the second disk side, recording can continue and be insured for another 2 sides, providing that media is available.

P SCSI q $

P ExpDisk

- - 2 - - - - I

11

DSP/Initiator SCSI ID This menu displays the SCSI ID of the initiator (the DSP control board). Select SCSI > DSPSCSI from the setup menu. Use the VALUE buttons to select a different SCSI ID if required, or if the existing initiator ID conflicts with another initiator on the bus. Don’t forget to confirm the selection with the green ENTER button.

Bug Fixes

• The channel status of the digital AES mixer output now echoes the channel status for the direct output channels 1+2.

• It is no longer possible for the incorrect sample rate, bits in setting or number of record tracks to be stored on disk after a recording.

• Individual tracks are no longer locked out after they have been muted during playback.

• The time remaining is now correct for all track combinations when recording on 36GB disks.

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P SCSI p $

P DSPSCSI

ID = 7

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V2.00.08 GX8500 Firmware 25/02/00

Important Note This release of software includes and requires FPGARev 43.49.71 to function correctly. After downloading, verify this number in the DIAGNOSTICS menu.

New Features Several new menu headings and values have been added;

• The SCSI | DRVSCSI heading has been replaced with SCSI | InsDisk. A secondary SCSI device can be selected to provide backup or security for the main recording device. Normally this insurance drive would be a hard drive mounted below the MO drive inside the GX8500, but any external device can be used. The only limitation in your choice is that the bytes/sector of the insurance drive cannot be greater than the bytes/sector on the primary recording medium. So you can use a hard drive or an MO disk to insure an MO disk, but you cannot use an MO disk to insure a hard drive.

• Once the insurance drive is selected, any data that cannot be written to the MO drive for any reason is redirected to the insurance drive. When STOP is pressed after making a recording, any data that was written to the insurance drive will be automatically copied to the MO drive, and the message “Emptying Cache” will be displayed while this happens. The emptying cache process can be turned on and off by repeated pressing of the STOP button. You can also interrupt the process by playing or recording and the emptying will continue where it left off at the next stop.

• Note that the data error led on the front panel flashes momentarily when the insurance drive is being accessed during recording. Under normal circumstances, the “Emptying Cache” message will never be displayed, but when using very high data rates, such as 6/24/96k directly onto an MO disk, you may see the message for several seconds. If data is still in the cache when the EJECT button is pressed, the eject operation will be delayed until the cache is emptied. To disable the insurance drive, go to the CurDisk heading and log the drive that was assigned as the insurance drive. The ID in the InsDisk heading will stop flashing and the insurance drive will be inoperable.

• The SCSI | Sadie heading has been replaced with SCSI | Exp Disk. This heading enables or disables the expansion disk option. With expansion disk turned on, and a second (or third if using an insurance drive) drive logged, recording will progress seamlessly from one disk to the next without interruption. If Exp Disk is turned off recording stops at the end of the current disk, regardless of how many devices are logged. It is not possible to choose the expansion disk ID directly. If more than 2 devices exist, the device with the lowest SCSI ID, that is not the current device or the insurance device, will be chosen.

• The RECORD | Trk Arm, RECORD | Profile, and RECORD | Partitn menu headings have been removed.

• The message ‘Reading Disk’ now appears whenever the GX8500 is accessing the disk and is not available for operation.

• A sine level of -14dBFS has been added to the DIAGNOSTICS | SINE GEN | LEVEL heading.

• Levels of –12dB and –14dB have been added to the DISPLAY | FinePPM heading, so that the list of available sine gen levels match the list of available FinePPM values.

13

• A Monitor heading has been added to the RECORD menu, with available values of PRE and POST. When PRE is selected, the output monitoring is tapped off prior to the cross fade, resulting in a 2 sample delay when monitoring the input. When post is selected, monitoring is after the cross fade, and the in to out delay is 776 samples.

• The Sync | Flywh’l heading has two new values, 4 secs and infinite. The infinite setting means that the GX8500 will ignore all subsequent timecodes after initial lock and will have to be stopped manually.

Bug Fixes

• Chase Release now works correctly if the original recording was made on the GX8500 by going into record prior to the external timecode starting.

• DSD mode now works correctly in 8 channel mode. Previous attempts to record 8 channels of DSD resulted in data errors.

• DSD mode no longer has to be reselected when loading a new disk or on power up.

• The mixer pan centre levels have been adjusted. A mixer pan centre value of 0dB results in a centre gain of 0dB.

• The recording time for a 6/24/96kHz recording onto a 5.2GB MO disk has been reduced to 16:00 minutes.

• The DIAGNOSE | TC Stat heading has been renamed TC Freq to more accurately represent its function. A bug has been fixed which occasionally caused TC Freq to produce an erroneous reading.

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14

V2.00.07 GX8500 Firmware 10/02/00

Bug Fixes

• Emergency release to fix a recording problem found in append mode, and at sample rates of 48k or less. Data could become corrupted during recording.

• Auto punch can now be enabled in chase mode.

• The ‘bits in’ status is now correctly reported to the GXR48.

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V2.00.06 24/01/00

New Features

• An ‘Are you sure’ prompt has been added to the disk formatting procedure.

•

Bug Fixes

• The Parameter buttons are now reversed when accessing the setup menu. Now the down arrow takes you to a lower menu level, and the up arrow takes you back to the top level.

• The introduction of the disk expansion software in 2.00.04 caused Genex+ recordings to permanently display a ‘Can’t Locate’ message. This has now been corrected.

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V2.00.05 17/01/00

New Features�

• When accessing the setup menu on the master machine in multi-machine mode, slave machines automatically echo the master machine display. You can now tell immediately if all machines in the stack are setup correctly.

•

Bug Fixes

• The timecode generator now counts at the correct rate in DSD mode.

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15

V2.00.04 10/01/00

New Features

• Expansion Disks now work for the Genex disk format. If two drives are logged, recording will continue seamlessly from one disk to another indefinitely. The EJECT button ejects the disk not being accessed if in play or record, and the currently logged disk in stop.

•

Bug Fixes

• In multi-machine mode, you no longer get a link error on the slave machines, when pressing the +/-10 SEC buttons on the GXR48 remote.

• There is now no audio playback when scrubbing or shuttling on blank disk.

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16

V2.00.03 12/12/99 Bug Fixes • In multi-machine mode, you no longer get link errors on the slave machine when using the

PLAY button to drop out of record and when changing from fast spool to normal play speed. • If, on power up, the GX8500 detects a hard drive only, previous software versions could fail to

log the drive due to the extended spin up time of hard drives compared to MO drives. This problem has been solved.

• When locating on high sample rate recordings made on the GX8000, the 8500 would multiply

the locate distance by two. Playback was only possible through half of the disk. • PPMs are now zeroed when switching the number of tracks on a blank disk or between pre-

recorded disks. Previously PPM meters could ‘stick’ if they were no longer being processed. • A problem has been solved where track 1 could be muted, either temporarily or permanently,

on playback if no recorded data existed on track 8. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- V2.00.02 New Features • Under the AUDIO main heading, it is now possible to allow modification of the output channel

status block. The channel status block can be switched between professional and consumer formats. In consumer format, the copy prohibit bit can be turned on or off.

Bug Fixes • Problems with the RS422 control port have been solved. These include commands for

spooling at high rates and transport flags being set correctly in the status block. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

V2.00.01 Bug Fixes • DSD I/O now functional. • Mixer output now clips when overloading instead of modulating. • Locating to a cue or a timecode while already playing no longer mutes the audio output. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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V2.00.00 30/11/99 New Features • 18 and 22 bit depths have been added to the menu for Record and Playback. The GX8500

now supports SDIF2 and DSD audio formats. DSD is supported in two configurations, raw data and SDIF3 (SDIF3 adds a modulation to the bitstream). Use the AUDIO|GLOBAL|I/O Fmt heading to select the required format. Only one of AES, SDIF2 or DSD can be active at a time.

• The PPM scale can be expanded for calibration purposes. To expand the scale, use the

DISPLAY|FinePPM menu heading. The scale can be centred around -16, -18, -20, or -22 dBFS and has a range of +/-1dB. The centre segment will illuminate permanently for each channel when the input does not match the reference, and will flash when the input does not match the reference. The remaining PPM segments are used to indicate how close the signal is to the reference. To restore the PPM scale to normal, select the Normal value.

• The mixer centre pan depth can be adjusted in 0.5dB steps from 0dB to -6dB. • You can now backup from a larger disk to a number of smaller disks and vice versa. The

GX8500 will span the information across the disks and number them in sequence. The individual disks resulting from the backup are playable either individually or as a sequence.

• The signal present indicators at the base of the PPM display are now active for AES inputs. • A -16dBFS level has been added to the internal sine wave generator. Bug Fixes • Headphone output cleaned up. • Routing mixer outputs to input channels corrected. • Scrub and spool allowed for less than 24 bit, bit depths. • Occasional clicks when changing direction in scrub and shuttle fixed. • Support for GX8000 96k recordings fixed. • Quad wire input fixed. • AES messaging outputs are driven to professional status, and bits in and sample rate are

picked up and transmitted. Future revisions will allow manipulation of the data. • The mixer display now correctly shows channel 1 when the mixer button is first pressed. • The backup time remaining counter is more accurate. • The Rehearse button is now disabled while in Record. • In Genex format, audio can no longer be recovered from a blank disk by spooling / scrubbing. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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V1.00.17 17/08/99

New Features • A new heading ‘PPM OVER’ has been added to the ‘DISPLAY’ sub menu to allow automatic

clearing of the overload LED’s. Available settings are 2 seconds, 4 seconds or permanently on (cleared by pressing the CLEAR PEAK HOLD button). The existing ‘PPM OVER’ heading, which controls the number of samples before the Over LED turns on, has been changed to ‘OvrTrig’ (Over Trigger).

• Data errors during record are logged with a note point, so that the exact time of the error can

be reviewed later.

Bug Fixes • Currently stored presets can become invalid if new software changes the menu structure.

This can cause unpredictable behaviour when the preset is recalled, either on power up or manually. This is the case with V1.00.17, which has added a new menu heading. Presets now have a creation revision number, which is checked on power up. If the creation number is different from the current software revision the presets are reconstructed. Currently, all data is lost and all presets are loaded with the same default data. Future revisions will contain a processing function to maintain current preset data and make the preset compatible with future software revisions. Note, to save your presets before installing the software, save them to disk as projects and recall them after installing the software.

• The backup process has been speeded up considerably. Backing up 8/24/48kHz data is now

faster than real time. • Fixed fault where no audio is output after going through ‘play-stop-reverse play-stop-reverse

play’ sequence • Fixed fault where pressing ‘eject’ while logged to a hard drive clears the currently open project

in memory. Pressing EJECT now displays the message “Eject Disabled” and no other action is taken.

• Fixed fault where Project commands New, Save, Delete and Rename are still actioned in

memory even if the disk/drive is write protected. • Fixed fault where, if a preset has previously been renamed, the correct recalled preset name

is not displayed on power up. • Fixed fault where, during backup, the following four conditions can cause erratic or

unpredictable results; Destination disk unformatted, Source disk unformatted, Different disk/file formats on the source and destination disks, Destination write protected. The occurrence of any of these four conditions now generates an appropriate warning message and returns to the drive selection phase of the backup procedure.

• Fixed fault where the output audio becomes slipped against timecode as you cycle through

play-stop-play-stop. The output audio is now synchronised to output timecode regardless of the sequence of transport controls.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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V1.00.16 06/08/99

Bug Fixes • In multi-machine mode, the timecode rate set on the master recorder is automatically sent to

the slave. • Fixed fault where Chase release mode does not re-enable chase when the incoming

timecode stops or disappears for longer than the ‘flywheel gap’ set in the ‘Sync’ menu. Note that only the chase ‘release’ mode is functional in this revision. The Chase ‘follow’ mode will follow shortly.

• Fixed fault where chase does not work for 29.97 timecode rate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- V1.00.15 27/07/99

Bug Fixes • Fixed fault where the audio output is periodically corrupted with no disk loaded. The project

memory space was being cleared every time ‘no disk’ was detected which corrupted the audio output. Project space is now cleared only once when ejecting a disk.

• Fixed fault where the mixer output could become permanently corrupted by plugging and

unplugging the mixer input. A signal present detector has been added to the mixer input to correct the problem.

• Fixed fault where the Reference Cue menu heading could become corrupted and display ‘

SDIF2’ or ‘ AES’. The heading now correctly displays ‘Take’, ‘F/S’, ‘note’ or ‘end’. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- V1.00.14 19/07/99

New Features • A timecode clone mode called ‘region’ has been added to the backup menu. The new feature

uses the IN and OUT points to select a timecode region to copy. Using this feature it is possible to clone between different size disks or drives. Please note that any material on the destination drive will be erased during the process of cloning

• Multi machine operation is now implemented as described in the manual. It is not necessary

to feed timecode into the slave machines during record as record timecode is automatically sent from the master to the slaves via the RS232 link cable.

Bug Fixes • Fixed fault where it was not possible to record continuously beyond an 8.5GB range.

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• Fixed fault where under certain circumstances, switching between single and dual wire mode does not select the correct clock speed. Now, selecting single wire mode selects an 88.2kHz or 96kHz clock speed depending on the current clock setting and selecting dual wire selects a 44.1kHz or 48kHz clock speed depending on the current clock setting.

• Fixed fault where the number of tracks in the RECORD menu can be changed if a GENEX

formatted non-blank disk is loaded. Now, the message “Disk Not Blank” is displayed if a change to the number of tracks is attempted and the number of tracks is unchanged.

• Fixed fault where one channel of the digital mixer output is corrupted and noisy. Both

channels now perform correctly. • Fixed fault where the video rate detector incorrectly detects 25 frame video signals as 29.97

frame video and does not lock. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.00.11 to Version 1.00.13 inclusive were internal / beta releases. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- V1.00.10 GX8500 30/06/99

Bug Fixes • Fixed fault where the ‘time remaining’ display on an 18GB hard disk is incorrect due to the

overflow of an internal calculation. This overflow could also affect actual recording times onto disk. The fault affects linear record modes only (insert and assemble). Time remaining is now correctly reported in linear and non linear record modes for disk capacities up to and including 18GB.

• Fixed fault where erasing a disk in linear ‘Genex’ mode creates a new directory and turns on

the blank disk LED, but the previously recorded audio can still be accessed. The problem resulted from the fact that ‘Genex’ formatted disks formatted in a GX8000 use a slightly different header than ‘Genex’ formatted disks formatted in a GX8500. Please note, however, that a new version of GX8000 firmware is required to play back the GX8500 ‘Genex’ disks. This version is expected to be V4.01.10 and will be released shortly.

• Fixed fault where Chase sync to timecode does not operate properly if the external timecode

moves before the current chase point and there is a variable sync timing of +/- 200 samples error. Chase sync to timecode is now correct to within +/- 3 samples.

• Fixed fault where a timing change to the one of the FPGA’ s in V1.00.09 changed the phase

relationship between input and output data. Input and output data are now synchronous regardless of the locking source.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- V1.00.09 18/06/99

Bug Fix • Fixed fault where crosstalk occurred between channels on playback with certain types of

signal. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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V1.00.08 07/06/99

New Features • The save project prompt has been replaced with an autosave. Whenever a new project is

opened or the disk is ejected, the currently open project is saved to disk first. The display shows the name of the project being saved.

• Two new sample rates have been added; ‘44.1/88.2’ and ‘48/96’. The new rates allow locking

to external 44.1 and 48.0kHz word clocks from legacy equipment while generating 88.2 and 96kHz sample rates internally.

Bug Fixes • Fixed fault where ‘projects’ created after switching from Genex to Genex+ formats, without

turning the machine off and on, are corrupted. • Fixed fault where Cue Points not stored to disk correctly in linear or non linear record modes.

Operation includes delete and renumber from the +/-buttons and adjusting cue point timecodes using the jog wheel. Renumbering renumbers only cues of the same type.

• Fixed fault where the number of tracks is not read from a Genex formatted disk if the disk is

loaded after power up or after a non linear disk. • Fixed fault where punching in and out using the track arm buttons in non linear mode did not

put the track into record properly. • Fixed fault where the time remaining display does not work correctly in linear or non linear

modes. Time remaining now correctly reports and updates when bits in, sample rate, or tracks is set from the menu. In non linear mode the time remaining is not known until tracks are punched into record. In this mode, the time remaining calculation will assume 8 tracks are going to be recorded until more information is available. As tracks are punched in and out the time remaining jumps to reflect the new record rate.

• Fixed fault where the audio channels are misaligned after fast forward and fast reverse

operations. • Fixed fault where, in non linear mode, pressing ‘eject’ in play or record results in a ‘save

project prompt’ appearing and audio is corrupted while the project is saved to disk. • Fixed fault where pressing the +/- 10 second buttons advances by 10 seconds and puts the

unit into play regardless of the current playback state. Now, the unit locates and stops if the current state is stop, and locates and plays if the current state is play.

• Fixed fault where pressing the +/- buttons in locate mode has no effect. Now, pressing the +/-

buttons in locate mode starts a ‘relative’ locate, indicated by an ‘ r’ in the rightmost character of the display. Pressing a numeric button first starts an ‘absolute’ locate as previously.

• Fixed fault where ‘Over’ LED’s fail to light on detection of overs. • Fixed fault where half the number of channels selected are recorded in linear dual wire mode. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Version 1.00.03 to Version 1.00.07 inclusive were internal / beta releases. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- V1.00.02 17/05/99

Bug Fixes • The ‘Dual’ and ‘Quad’ wire AES interfaces now work correctly. Please note there is still a

problem with scrubbing while dual wire is selected as the I/O format. • The process of logging external drives has been improved. The first drive found on power up

becomes the master drive and the next drive found becomes the slave. Usually, the internal drive will be the master and an external device will be the slave. The bug that prevented switching between master and slave drives has been fixed.

• Varispeed is locked out for 88.2 and 96kHz clock rates. • Jog and shuttle are locked out for 20 and 16 bit audio files.

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