• Versions pre 1.1 have some severe disk handling problems, especially with Jaz disks. Upgrading as soon as possible is highly recommended, especially if you have the Jaz version DPS12.

• Many people, myself included, have reported random glitches when backing up to certain CDR recorders, especially the Yamaha 4416. Akai (and now Yamaha) have a new version of the CD/R firmware to fix this, details on the Compatible Drives page.

• A couple of people have had some serious problems with the V2.0 upgrade. When formatting the external drive, the internal one was also formatted at the same time! Investigations showed that something was seriously wrong with the SCSI/HD side of this particular machine, but the verdict's out as to whether it was a hardware problem or a bug in V2.0

  In recent developments on the mailing list, someone else has reproduced the same symptoms - when installing a new hard drive, all SCSI ID's were reported "REC READY" even though SCSI devices were not present on most of the ID's. Formatting SCSI ID4 (which he believed the hard drive was set to) did indeed format ID0. It turns out the hard drive was actually set to SCSI ID6, the same as the DPS12 itself. The upshot of which is, if your disk status page reports devices to be present when you know they are not, try changing the DPS12's self-ID number, or check that no connected SCSI devices are set to the same ID that the DPS12 is set to.

Anyway, it's advisable and prudent to backup all valuable data before performing an OS upgrade.

• V1.0a would not save mix memory scenes when backing a project up. This is fixed in later versions.
• There is a bug when backing up really large projects (of over 1gig) which can mean that it's impossible to reload the data (the DPS12 reports "time lapse errors" when attempting to reload the project. Akai are apparently aware of this and are working on a fix - as yet I don't know whether this has been incorporated into the recently released 2.11 OS version. In any case, be wary when backing up projects of over 1 gigabyte. For now you may have to split the project into several smaller parts in order to back it up.

• With V2.0, when the display is set to "BAR.BEAT.CLOCK" mode, it doesn't seem to be possible to manually adjust the in and out points, whereas in previous versions you can. This has been fixed in the recent V2.1 release.
• Very occasional reports of glitchy punch-ins/outs had been reported, but this was not common. The 2.1 release has also fixed this once and for all.
• Be suspicious of the "ALIGN" function. It can crash or not work as expected and corrupt audio. I ALWAYS back up everything before doing a full align (the "JOIN" command seems to be more reliable).
• One person reported noise when bouncing via the EXTRA BUS in V1.1. I tried to reproduce the problem with V2.0 and couldn't. In his machine he only heard this noise at a 48KHz sample rate. Akai have tested this and found the problem on all four units they tested - I don't know yet whether this has been fixed in the 2.1 update.
• With V2.0, going into JOG PLAY mode will mute any audio being sent to the aux sends - but it's not unmuted when you exit the jog play mode . To hear the audio being routed to the auxes again, you have to twiddle the aux send master control. This seems to have been fixed in the 2.1 update, thankfully.
• A related bug with the internal FX card means that sometimes the FX return signal disappears. Jogging these controls brings the audio/FX back. I don't know yet if this is the same bug as mentioned above - if so, it may well also have been fixed in the 2.1 update.
• Some displays in some DPS12's are apparently faulty - half of the display dims and flickers or the backlight fails. Apparently Akai had a bad shipment of displays - if you have one of these, get it replaced under warranty.
• In sync mode, there is a minor problem with the DPS time display not matching up to the time display of a connected sequencer (the sync stil works fine, though).
• A couple of people on the list have reported hiss when recording from the digital inputs. From the list, Chris <mesost@hotmail.com> wrote:

"As I told you last week I get a hissnoise when recording from my DAT to the DPS via the optical cable. I've now talked to the AKAI service people and they have now worked out whats wrong with my DPS. All old DPS machines with a serial number beginning with 198... must be upgraded both software wise as hardware wise from version 1.0 - 2.0. But my machine was only upgraded with software (by AKAI!!! Hope they feel ashamed). So I have now sent it back and they will now put in som new condensators that will solve the problem. So if there is anyone else out there with an old DPS12 and version 2.0 who cannot record via the optical input without getting hissnoise, now you know what the problem is."

"Akai's service people in sweden said that some of the older DPS12s with a serialnumber beginning with 198... must be upgraded software and hardware wise to function properly with the os 2.0. The hardware upgrade was an easy procedure of installing two new condensators. I sent mine in on a monday and got it back upgraded on wednesday. Call your nearest Akai service center for more info."

My own DPS12 has a serial number beginning with 198 and I have never noticed a problem in digital recording or backing up through the optical I/O, but if you are having this problem it would probably be worthwhile to contact Akai for an upgrade, although on the list at least one Akai service centre was not aware of any necessary hardware upgrades.

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