Windows DAW Control

[AlrodParticipant]

Any update as to when Windows DAW Control will actually be available? The topic has gone silent. What seems to be the problem?

[DavidParticipant]

I thought it came in V1.90 or maybe I miss read what it meant. I am a new user after all!

[AlrodParticipant]

When they introduced the update back in May, it did state “Windows DAW Control” at the beginning of the announcement. If you read further however, it says “Following customer feedback, the DAW Control driver, previously available for Mac only, will soon be released for Windows OS”. So I am wondering what “Soon” means which is why I am asking the question. Windows DAW control functionality was not part of the V1.9 firmware.

[AlrodParticipant]

I am surprised that Allen & Heath is keeping quiet on the subject.

[Wrir Live Sound GuyParticipant]

I put in a ticket and they said engineering had trouble with the midi driver and kernel mode. I told them i am a windows programmer and could i help troubleshoot and begged him for the beta. They said no. He insisted they are working on it…

I have a qu32 in wrir.org and just purchased a qu24 for my own studio because of the announcement. Do i need to return it?

[AlrodParticipant]

Thanks for that update. I am surprised they didn’t take you up on your offer to test. The other odd thing about all this is every once in a while they will have a page pop up that says “Upcoming v1.9 Update”. I don’t understand it. And yes I feel bad for the folks that have recently purchased a QU Series with the belief that it will work in a Windows DAW environment. A&H should have stated “Windows DAW Compatibility Coming Soon”, on the initial splash screen.

QU is a great mixer, but personally I am having a hard time coming to terms with how the whole Windows DAW compatibility announcement was made. A&H should have waited until they had all the kinks worked out and then introduced it in v1.10 or v2.0.

[Wrir Live Sound GuyParticipant]

Yeah one would think a usb to midi device driver shouldnt be a huge deal, when even android can do it over wifi…

[AlrodParticipant]

It would be great if A&H gave us an update on this. It’s odd that they went virtually silent on this. Totally out of character for them.

[KarlParticipant]

I´m interested too when the DAW Control for Windows will be available….

[David HaughtonKeymaster]

Hi all, Windows DAW control is still in development and testing as there has been issues with the way Windows handles the virtual midi ports created and destroyed by each session of A&H DAW control. We hope to have a resolution for this soon. Please bear with us.
Thanks.
Harry.

[AlrodParticipant]

Thanks for the update. Can you be more specific as to when it will be ready? In other words, how soon is “soon”? I have several projects coming up and need to determine if the QU is the right tool / interface to use. The DAWS for these projects are all Pro Tools on the Windows platform. If we are talking days, then I think I will be good. If we are talking weeks, I need to find another mixing interface.

Kind regards,
Al

[KarlParticipant]

Harry, thank´s for your quick answer about the Daw control and why there is a delay for the availabilty.

Greets from Austria,
Karl

[AlrodParticipant]

Ok, so another week goes by and still no clue as to what A&H defines as “Soon”. Perhaps A&H should remove “Windows DAW Control” from your V1.9 Full Ecosystem Upgrade campaign. It is strongly implied that the Windows DAW Control feature exists and it clearly does not.

I was in a Guitar Center store the other day and a customer asked the salesman if the QU could be used as a DAW controller on the Windows platform. The salesman referred to the V1.9 upgrade and said “Yes”. I stepped in and politely told the customer that the functionality does not exist yet.

The salesman was not so kind and said that I was wrong. Then I had him pull up the website. When the V1.9 Full Ecosystem Upgrade page came up the salesman said “See there you go, I told you!, it say right there Windows DAW Control”. Then I asked the salesman to navigate to the DAW Control Driver section. I pointed my finger to the section that read “DAW Control is compatible with Mac only.” The salesman then boldly stated that it was clearly a mistake. Then I asked if I could pull up this forum, he agreed and then I showed him and the customer this thread. Of course at this point the salesman was rendered speechless.

Unfortunately the customer said he was no longer interested in the QU. This made the salesman furious and he tried to put the blame on me. Fortunately the customer stepped in and said he did not appreciate being misled into almost spending $1800. Then he asked for the manager and told him the story. Both the customer and I received apologies and $25 gift cards.

So you see A&H, your advertising is misleading and causing confusion not only with buyers, but with sellers as well. I feel strongly enough about my QU-16 that I tried convincing the the potential customer that he should purchase one (but not from this particular Guitar Center), but he said he felt A&H were falsely advertising the capabilities of the QU series and was going to look elsewhere.

[AndreasModerator]

Honestly: DAW control only emulates the restricted HUI protocol for applications which are not configurable enough.
Using a configurable applications (like Reaper, for example) you already have full integration in both directions on Windows (and Mac) today.
Using the HUI emulation you are able to control faders and mutes, using the native MIDI protocol you’re able to control anything.
I wouldn’t bother waiting for DAW control and just start configuring my DAW (or use BOME’s MidiTranslater, if thats not possible).

[AlrodParticipant]

Let me start by saying; controlling faders and mutes is a big part of why I want this update.

I am a Pro Tools (12.5) user. Reaper, FL, and similar DAWS don’t entice me. I see those as more “MIDI” centric. I am not saying that they are bad, but just not for my style of recording. I have downloaded demo versions, and I do not like the workflow. I also interact with a lot of Pro Tools based studios.

The other issue I have is that all my software investments were made on the Windows platform early on. Although I would like to, switching over to the Mac platform is not a cost effective option for me at this point. At any rate, though I have always respected your posts and opinions, please understand that for me this is also about A&H not delivering. I am not the only one to think that they misled current and potential owners of the QU series into thinking that v1.9 comes with DAW Control.

I will not deny that the QU is an outstanding piece of gear and I am looking forward to the Windows DAW control. Until then, let’s just say that I lost a little respect for A&H in there handling of the “Full Ecosystem Upgrade campaign”. They should have waited until the Windows DAW Control was ready before announcing it and implying that it was ready.

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