Got a card in it? Try formating the card or get the card to read something previously recorded (from a few years ago.) Basically eliminate the possibilty that the storage medium isn't working or working correctly. Post back if you are stil having problems I'll dig mine out from under the desk. LOL I haven't used it in years either.

thanks for the reply Jg...

yeah its got a card in it. the card worked fine a couple of years ago too. it even still had several songs on it that i had recorded then. I copied the files from it onto my computer and then deleted them from the card via the pc. do you think I could have corrupted the card somehow by opting to delete its files by way of pc instead of the multi track.

when i try to record a song, like i said it wont play back, but it is making a file on the card with the name of the song i'm trying to record, just no song.

Re-format the card. Start a new song and try and record.

i had already tried that to no avail. :[

So the card did format? You are sure you are pressing record and play at the same time. If I remember that unit was very sensitive to getting it to start recording correctly. Anyway I'll dig out mine after dinner.

I'd hate for you trouble yourself, but thanks for wanting to help.
i've definetly been deliberate when pressing the play button( correct me if i'm wrong but i think the manual says to first arm the two record buttons and then when you are ready to record, press play, as opposed to pressing them at the same time like the older school ones.
It flashes green when i press it which i think is normal. when i'm checking the mic, I can see the bar jump up and down with my voice, and i can hear it through the headphones, allbeit a little staticy(cheap headphones with dinky wire probly causing static).

I think i'm probly just missing something. one problem is i'm a cheapskate(well broke is probly a better word) and i'm probly due for an upgrade. It worked fine for recording rough ideas though and I'm wanting to try to use it to record the audio for a youtube vid.

what, if anything, are you recording with these days?

I just down loaded the most recent manual I could find and it is the same as mine. My recorder is at most three years old. The most common mistakes my band mates would make is after downloading the card it is best to wipe it completely clean reformating it (which you did.) Then you must create a new song which is a four or five step process, if you have not done this the device has nowhere to store it. You arm the tracks (which you did) but you must hold down the record button while pressing play to get it to actually record even though the record button has been previously depressed to get recording levels. If thiese are not the issues I would suspect the card. Cards are cheap but if you are worried about it bring it into a Radio Shaft (I bought a huge card there for $12.00) explain that you are having problems with it and see if they have a media card that you can use to see if that is in fact the problem. I just can't tell you how many times the proper steps to get a recording were not followed and I heard "This f%$^ing machine didn't record again!!" It wasn't the machine but the nut behind it that was the problem. Good luck.

I am presently pretty heavily invested in recording gear but I am using Presonus Firestudio Project interfaces. The quality jump is pretty extreme from the Fostex and if I never have to scroll through 17 screens 2" wide with crappy lettering again I wil die happy. I still have the thing because it has zero resale value, but if you can't get yours working I'd accept any reasonable offer it even comes with SK8 hard case foam filled indestructable LOL!

By Gump! you're a genius! it was just that I had to hold record and play at the same time. I'm such a numnuts...wasted an entire day cause i couldn't figure that out. THANK YOU! now biggest problem is when I get everything sounding optimal through the headphones(any louder and its distorting) and put the card in my pc, u can barley hear it with the speakers full blast. I'm using the free software audacity to make some edits, and i can't even boost it there because the default volume setting is already maxed out(i'm using vista). i did notice an amplification key under the tools tab, but it's grayed over indicating that it's not included in the free version....any suggestions?

How are they reading for peaks during playback in the deck? If they are low then you could try bouncing them to another track and boost the fader during transfer, this will only work if the peaks are low otherwise they will clip during bouncing and you don't want that. When you say volume do you mean the fader?
I never used Audacity. Is there a normalization command, try that? In Cubase you can highlight the track and boost the gain by dragging with a mouse. You can always go the Audacity forum [[url=http://[/URL]="http://forum.audaci…"]Audacity Forum • Index page[/]="http://forum.audaci…"]Audacity Forum • Index page[/]. Remember to record you always got to push the RED button.

Audacity can normalize. Make your max -12dB as your initial starting point.

Jg, after going back into audacity I saw there was a box that allowed me to boost the sound. not seeing a normalization yet but i'll keep looking. and yes i'm referring to the fader...sorry. when you say try bouncing them to another track and boost the fader during transfer are you saying boost the fader on the the original track or the fader on the new track that they're being bounced to? Jack, where is the normalization thingy on audacity?

hey Jack, i think I figured out the normalization. and I set it to 12 gb which did boost the volume. when I saved it it said that it would save it as an audacity project file and that most other programs wont be able to access it. then it said that if I want to save it in way so that other programs can open it, to choose the export option. do you know what that means?

When I was talking about bouncing the track I meant in the Fostex prior to transferring the file to your PC. In recording parlance what you are boosting is referred to as gain not volume FYI.

;)

Now you can apply an effect to the track. The one you are looking for is GNormal. Use -12 as your initial max.

Sorry to jump in on this thread but can anyone help?

Me and my mate are trying to collaborate on songs by sending each other tacks from our Mr8's. But we can't get the tracks we export and send to each other to play on our mr8's after we have imported them.

We have different firmware versions, could that be an issue?

How do you update the firmware on the mr8? I read something about it being updated using the usb, but not how to actually do it.

We are tearing our hair out and the mr-8's are close to destruction because of our weakness at working out how to solve the issue.

Thanks in advance to any help or advice,

Twig.

That's because the exported files are .wav files I believe and the Fostex does not recognize or use that to store files in the unit itself. If you go here [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.fostexin…"]Software Updates - Music and Project Studios[/]="http://www.fostexin…"]Software Updates - Music and Project Studios[/] you can download >wav manager and it allows you to convert .wav files to files the deck can use. This will not work for MP3s, WMA, CD audio, etc. you must transfer the raw .wav files that were transferred from the Fostex itself.

Thanks for the quick reply jg49I,

I already have the most up to date wavmanager but me and my mate can't get it to work. I've followed everything it says to do in the manual. When I use it to import the raw wav tracks from my friends mr-8 to mine there is no audio on the new song I create for it. All the tracks are named tr01, tr02 etc There's just no audio there (there is audio on the .wav file because I played it through a media player to check).
I have v1.02 software on my mr-8 and my mate has v1.21. Could that be the problem, I don't know how to update the version I have. I had already downloaded a software update from the fostex international website (the one you posted). It's a .mot file but don't know how to install it!
Am I just really dumb!? Or is this just overly complicated so mediocre musicians give up?
Ha ha ha...

http://www.fostexinternational.com/docs/support/MR8HDCD_UPDATE.pdf

These procedures should get you there. Also, the firmware updates look specific to the different versions of MR8. Get the latest one for your machine. When/if you're successful then update your buddies machine to the same one.

I don't really think this is your issue but the newer updates seem to add functionality to the machine.

Thanks ThejackAttack that's magic, it probably isn't the problem but it's somewhere for me to start.
At least it will preoccupy me for a while before I go mental again because I still can’t get it to work.
I will persevere I’m a glutton for punishment. :)

First off if you read the whole thread I have not used this for a few years, even when I did I was mainly using it as a field recorder for practices, songwriting brain storming sessions, etc. I never really tried to do any complex multitracking 3 or 4 channels at most. When I read the literature for the .wav manager it made me doubt whether I recalled correctly that the Fostex exported .wav files perhaps it does not. What file extension are the files you are trying to swap? Are you just moving the tracks from the card to the computer without finalizing them? Are you guys close enough to swap cards one time and see if your machines will read them? That would eliminate that they are storing files differently.

Hey jg,

It's cool I wasn't meaning to give you a hard time if you thought that. You replied to me, so I just figured you knew more about the machine than I did.
We have the same Red Mr-8, with different firmware versions and different flash cards.
My friend has exported one tr01.wav file (track 1) from a song using wavmanager v2.12.
He then emailed it and I imported it using the same version of wavmanager to a new song on my mr-8.
When I transfer it from my laptop to the mr-8 the record button flashes, ones it is finished on the laptop the record light on the mr-8 doesn't stop flashing and I can't stop the usb function.
To stop it and check the file tranfer I need to switch off the mr-8 and unplug it. then when I turn it back on and play back the new song there is no audio.

We live opposite ends of the uk so the card swap is a bit tricky but your write it would be a quick answer to some of the issues.

Thanks again for your help advice and feedback.

Upgrade your firmware. This sounds like a functionality issue.

I did not think you were giving me a hard time at all. You were polite and thanked me for my response. The reason I wrote about my experience level with this device is so that you would know I am by no means an expert on it's use. I would definitely follow Jack's advice and post back if it is not solved.

I'm back again, thanks for the update procedure link TheJackAttack.
I was hopeful until I tried it out. My MR-8 is the flash card version so I couldn't do any of the things on the fostex PDF instructions (for MR-8 HD/CD). I can't find anything online about updating the flash card version, so I have resorted to trying to contact a company linked with Fostex customer support in the UK (might be waiting sometime). Thanks again for all your help everyone, I'll post back if I ever get things sorted or if I have given up and gone all medieval on the MR-8.

TheJackAttack, you totally read my mind.
Office space is totally on my wave length and I was thinking of that scene when I wrote the post.
I wasn't sure that anyone would have got it if i'd said i'd get all Michael Bolton on the MR-8's ass.
Cheers man you've made my day...

I had a better one of a frustrated Marine Comm sgt in Iraq "working" on an HP all in one. Apparently HP eventually ended up replacing it and the video was removed.

Oh yes the pain is finally over.
I gave up on customer support in the end, I might still get a response but i'm not really bother now if I do.

So, i'll give a little low down on the journey to sorting the once Fostex bringer of MR-h8te now wonderful red Fostex MR-gra8t (sorry for the cheese).

I spent a good hour or so trawling the www for anything that might help me. I then stumbled onto link on the homerecording site and found a post about wav manager from someone in 2003. They said they'd only found out about wav manager by looking at the Fostex international and Japanese sites. So I decided that trying the Japanese site might be worth a look, along with a little crash course in the language. It paid off, I found the same software update as my friend and managed to work out how to install it looking at the pictures and getting google to translate the web page.

So if anyone else out there is having problems try this page out for size, Instructions on how to upgrade your Fostex MR-8 (flash card version) and the software file. :

[[url=http://[/URL]="http://translate.go…"]Google Translate[/]="http://translate.go…"]Google Translate[/]

When you connect your MR-8 to your computer by usb, you simply drag the file into your MR-8 folder, exit usb mode and turn the power off. When you turn the power back on make sure you press and hold down the stop button. You will then be asked if you want to version up and you really do.
You'll then need to turn it off and back on again (once it's done it's thing) and then your done.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and help on my painful journey. Now I've got to go and create some sweet sweet music...

Well I'm glad you found a solution, too bad Fostex could give a cr@p. Wonderful support system, out of catalog, not brand new outa luck. Sorry not a fan of Fostex or Tascam. Have you swapped files yet? Hope all this is not in vain.

[[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.oade.com…"]Ordering for Oade Brothers Audio: Tascam HD-P2 HD Upgrade with ground shipping[/]="http://www.oade.com…"]Ordering for Oade Brothers Audio: Tascam HD-P2 HD Upgrade with ground shipping[/]

This is the only Tascam I like.

Yep I can import any mono wav files saved in the tr01, tr02 etc format using wav manager. It works a treat and gave me a big smile when I could see the levels moving up and down. Then with headphones in I could hear audio, What a treat.

Happy days...

I know I'm resurrecting an old thread, but I can't find the answer to my question anywhere on the web and you people seem to know what you're talking about. I have a v1.05 MR-8 and it's been very glitchy. Before, I couldn't hear anything at all, except for some fuzz. The effects buttons made an awful noise, and I couldn't get any sound to come from the microphone. I tried formatting the card, and now I can get sound from the mic, but still can't record or hear any playback. It freezes up every time I hold record and press play.

I figured I would try updating the firmware/software. I downloaded the v1.21 mot file from the Japanese source that twig gave, but when I put it on the MR-8 and started it up while holding the stop button, I got an error message, "Illegal mot data, press enter key!"

I've been looking for other versions of the software to download, but can't find them ANYWHERE. Please, if anyone can help- I NEED YOU!!

Sooo......the folder you downloaded should have been a zipped file. Don't take offense when I ask if you unzipped the folder and saved it onto the MR-8 prior to attempting the upgrade. If the file is not unzipped the MR8 doesn't know what to do.

Back to chasing bears.