Thanks! If a couple of people do this we’ll soon know whether this behavior is common or specific to my unit. Mine is now running at my workplace to rule out environmental issues at my home studio.
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Couple more tests, also at another location.
Still at my home studio:
#14 same conditions B5 REC PLAY except for I didn’t press play, so it’s sitting idle but the rec input level monitor is still moving due to internal noise
12h NO FREEZE
I now moved it to my workspace. Different building in different part of town.
#15 B5 REC PLAY (with running sequencer)
FREEZE anywhere between 5 and 24 hours, I was away
So it did freeze at another location than my home.
It’s hot here. Outside 30+C. Inside around 25C I guess. Though that’s not any hotter than many clubs I’ve seen.
Elektron, can you chime in?
I purchased a unit from Guitar Center a few months back. It froze in the first twenty minutes of use. Only connection was stereo audio output.
I realllly loved the unit, but I’m waiting for some sort of official resolution or statement to re-purchase. I want to use it live, so the freeze is a total dealbreaker.
I would expect Elektron to chime in, seeing that this thread is 300+ posts all about this issue.
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Did you contact support? I did and they re on it. Of course I’m sending them my freeze reports directly too. I don’t think they ever respond to such things in the forums so don’t hold your breath.
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The slowdown bug is known and reported. It seems to have something to do with sample management and browsing. After exiting those menus the machine will eventually catch back up and be fine again. I documented and reported it at the beginning of the closed beta and had the behavior confirmed but was told they weren’t sure how long it would take for it to be fixed. At least they know.
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That s cool and i hope it gets debugged soon but this thread is about the freezes.
Depending on the severity of the slowdown it can feel like the same thing. If anything hopefully this can help people narrow down exactly which issue they’re experiencing.
I must say I’m getting disappointed by the lack of response to this. Here’s the first repeatable scenario in this long standing issue and only one fellow elektronaut is willing to give it a go. Is that because people think I’m talking out of my ass? That it’s particular to my unit? That Elektron should fix it on their own? That it doesn’t concern their knob twiddling freezes?
About that last point. I’ve had 3 freezing units, in both knob twiddling and recorder page situations. One apparent overlap between both cases is that the display gets redrawn both while turning knobs and while the recorder page is open. My presumption is that if Elektron finds the cause for one of those 2 freeze cases it will also solve the other. So even if you had only freezes while turning knobs it is useful to do the recorder page test. The more test data we can send to Elektron the bigger the chances they will be able to track it down and solve it.
My boiling it down to the conditions given in my test scenario is based on 16 test runs with different conditions of which 10 froze and 6 didn’t. The given conditions are the common factors for all freezes, though not all tests with these conditions have frozen (1 time it hadn’t frozen after 9 hours).
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Btw, it s also useful to test it if you haven t experienced any freezes.
If I ever get my unit back from the retailer I will do the test dtr.
They are telling me it is running fine but they haven’t actually tested under normal operating conditions, by twiddling the knobs. They are saying there is no fault.
I really should have videoed the fault occurring before sending it back!
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I cannot ever imagine why you’d want to ever setup the machine to function in this way. this seems like an edge case and not at all related to the normal use case freezes anyone experiences. Leave your machine on for 12 hours without any audio plugged in and it freezes… great it’s repeatable but still… that will NEVER happen at a gig so that’s probably why that test isn’t getting much traction.
Perhaps but perhaps not. Find the cause of this and you might have the cause of all freezes.
Also, the first few of these freezes happened within minutes.
And lastly, any modern device like this should run 24/7 without a hitch.
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Second run last night, no freeze 
I cant seem to find any common pattern other than its definately better without usb plugged in.
And BTW @astricii all of my gear is often left on and sometimes looping for more than 12hrs, and i have been doing that for about 15 years, and yes all machines just keep going in a infinate loop ( with the exception of my blofeld which is buggy as hell ). Never gig, just really long jams, i know others who do enjoy weekend long sessions as well.
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I also got some issues with freezing, they seemed to have been related to a file system failure of my +drive. I am not sure though. I got the device two month ago, it was sent back once and I am still only testing, since every time I want to let go and produce something it starts to misbehave. Like crash, lag or just not do, what it should.
Got also tons of videos with bugs etc., so most of the issues is actually recorded.
Well, I got some sound packs as a present at least for my troubles so far - for my not properly working device. Could be funny.
I will run your 12h test and report back soon.
@ [astricii]
Tests are like models - they do not have to replicate a real life scenario at all. They should be effectively and reliably reproducing a bug or error. From there you can try to change parameters (as dtr wrote) to systematically exclude potential causes or narrow down one ore more possible causes.
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I understand your point. But I don’t want to Beta test this unit and have the hassle of shuffling units to hope it gets better. Anyway, I find it totally legit to get rid of the AR and move on to something else which actually works and I don’t have to be afraid it locks up randomly… Just my 3 cents…
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That’s a valid position. On my end I really love what I’m getting out of the AR and I want it to be stable so I can rely on it for live work. I don’t have anything else on the radar that I would like to replace it with, except for the mk1.
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Same here…
Most new units will freeze nowadays, it isn’t anymore highend machines like MD and MnM! And if you never had a freeze, you are not using your machine for long hours, delve deeper… In my experience with DN that could help for your AR is just to forget about the presets (that project) and reload a new blank project!
I think it has something to do with newer firmware not responding well to presets build on older firmware!
My DN had totally different ENV setting on blank patterns within the presetproject that made it horrible clicking, loading a new project I suddenly had much better adsr settings and the thing did not click anymore.
On that presetproject I had a lot of freezes, loading a blank new project i had less frequently freezes!
Oh and another TIP is when you need to upgrade firmware, first load a new blank project and then start to update the machine!
Anyway it shouldn’t be freezing, especially for the price of an ARmk2, and that’s why I stop buying new machines from Elektron. Threads enough of freezing with other machines also!
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raises hand!
No freezes here and constant use, hitting the parameter lock limit, etc.
Where are you getting your data?
Sounds anecdotal.
Yea, it’s the nature of troubleshooting.
Conversely, there’s no need for threads titled “everything is working great!”
If this were the case, sound packs would be all but bricking machines.
I’ve searched but can’t find any threads about “freezes after installing sound pack”
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