Help with basics of QU-16

[siftmusic]

Hello and first-off, my apologies if this is not the place for this type of post. I am not new to recording or the basics of using a mixer and / or DAW. But, I am completely new to the QU-16 and am hoping I can find someone who might be willing to spend and hour or two lending a hand.

I “inherited” the mixer / recorder when my music partner passed away from cancer last November. This was totally unexpected – he was only diagnosed a few weeks before, and how equipment works was not front-of-mind. We had a number of tracks that he was in the process of mixing at the time.

My schedule stays completely booked, so it’s been difficult to find big blocks of time to watch tutorials and read manuals, and get fully up-to-speed on the board. I have figured out how to get into scenes that he had saved, and do some basic routing, but some simple things still are beyond my grasp (I can get audio out of the mains, but still can’t figure out how to get the headphone output going).

Because of my limited time, I am hoping that I can compensate someone for some “training” on the board. This can be done via Zoom, etc. – I am fine to point a camera over the board and go through that way. I’m hoping that it wouldn’t take too long for me to understand enough to complete the tracks that we started. Once I do that, I intend to cease that project (it’s been going for 20+ years), but will still use the board for recording of other projects.

If interested, you can hear a track that we recorded on the board, and see some live footage of my friend and myself at the last show we did (2/29/2020):

If you aren’t interested in this sort of arrangement, but know someone else who may be, please feel free to let me know. I really just want to find a way to expedite being able to get the tracks completed, so I can release them. In five months I’ve made little progress, so hoping to accelerate that with some help from more experienced people than I.

Thanks for your time reading this, and again, if this is the wrong place to post this, just let me know.

[volounteer]

If you ask specific questions people will help you.
Otherwise you may get lucky and get a PM from someone who will tutor you on zoom.

Also if you know what you need to learn then there are plenty of tutorials on utoob. Could be faster than waiting for responses on a forum.
And when all else fails read the fine manual. The signal flow and block diagram are very helpful reference to guide you.

It would help us to help you if we knew exactly what you are doing. And what you need help with.

If you have tracks on a DAW and are mixing them then you do not need the Qu16. Use the DAW.

If you need to record tracks more tracks then ask specifically about what that problem is.
What do you need scenes and routing for?
Scenes are good for saving time by recalling settings you want to use again.
If you could sign in then go to scenes tab and select the scene you want.
Or save a new scene after you create it.

As to routing, what do you want to route to where? It depends but is not that hard.

As to outputs: Plug in the headphones select what you want to hear and turn up the volume knob.
If that fails then tell us what else you were doing that might stop you from hearing.
Usually it would be as simple as pushing PAFL, or using the faders on another level.

Sorry for your loss. But he was lucky not to linger.
My brother in law got the diagnosis of stage 3 but suffered for 8 more months.
I want to go immediately not stay around in pain and be dependent on others for care.

[siftmusic]

Thank you for taking the time to respond. Coming from the computer world, I completely understand the idea of asking specific questions to get specific answers. The reason I am being general is because I don’t know what I don’t know, and my time is limited. So, hoping that someone may be willing to put in some face-to-face time to walk be through things – even if digital.

I will take a look at some of the things you mentioned an then post a more detailed response. Sometimes, it is weeks between having a couple hours to spend on the board, so it often feels like I am starting at square one every time I get back to it. That has been one of my challenges.

As to the loss, I also agree that given the situation when they discovered it, it went pretty quickly. I am also much more grateful for the time we had creating together than I am sad for the loss.

I have always been more songwriter than engineer – he was the engineer. My goal now is to just be able to get to a low-level competence with the equipment so that I can get the tracks out that we’d been working on.

Thank you, again, for your response, and I will follow up as soon as I get back to the board for a bit.

[volounteer]

Again, tell us the big picture and ask general questions to get general help.
Tell us the details of what you did and the problem you then have and get more specific help.

One problem about online help may be the time zones. Many users here are in UK and EU or farther away from US
and we have 3 main zones plus AK and Hi that are farther from the east coast.

As I noted there are videos on things like routing.
At least look at them then you will understand the answers better if you ask or do get zoom help.

What I did was write down a detailed step by step process for using the board at our church.
Then I do not worry about my memory. If I forget I look at the notes and quickly see what I need to do.
After a while you wont need the notes but can feel ‘safer’ by just by having them.

As to loss, my wife died almost 3 years ago. I try to stay busy doing things that she would have liked to see me do.
Perhaps you should consider focusing on finishing up the mixing of the tracks you two worked together on and learn the Qu more slowly.

If you know the DAW that should be easy to do. If you have to learn the DAW too then definitely put off learning the Qu for now.

[siftmusic]

Thanks, again, and sorry to hear of your wife. I grew up poor and death has seemed a constant in my life, for better and worse. Happiness is always tempered by sorrow, but it’s also given me – what I believe, and others may disagree with – balance in my outlook and views. Particularly as I get older.

Again, once I get back on the board, I’ll give some more detail in what I need to accomplish with it. I know the DAW reasonably well, but the engineering side was not my strength. So, I’m learning on all fronts the last few months.

I start a new job Monday, so that was a bit of the prompt for posting here. Again, coming from the computer / development side of the world, I have a decent sense of what to expect on these types of boards.

If someone has the time to lend a hand tutoring, I wanted to put the ask out. If not, I’ll find the time over the coming months.

I do appreciate the replies and your time, particularly if you are in the UK. I know it’s getting late over there. My wife’s family is in the UK, Italy, and Spain, so used to the different time zones.

[coffee_king]

I know you don’t want to hear this but I literally read the manual from start to finish when I got mine.
Any spare few minutes I’d read a bit more (Even on the toilet).
Sure I didn’t understand a load of it, but you will feel like you know a bit more about it.
It’s very daunting I know. I wish you the best of luck with your QU-16.

[Anonymous]

Yup I agree Coffee_King
I spent 3 months side by side putting the QU right next to the GSR24 and did the comparison thing duplicating the qu to what the analogue did.
Its a mind shift specially for an older dud like myself.

As volounteer said: One question at a time

[Mike C]

I’ve found (for me at least) learning any new piece of equipment I’ll
do a quick skim through the manual, fire up the equipment and start working
with it getting a feel for it, then after I come up with questions
I’ll go back to the manual or a forum group to see what I was doing wrong.

I actually set up training on installed systems that way, the initial training
goes over the general system operation and set up, followed later
by another training session after the users have had some hands on time and
developed questions.

[Author]

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