Allan & Heath CQ-18T (recording is extremely low using USB)

[mtnaw160]

I Purchased this new CQ-18T, and I used it during live events and recorded the using USB HD. it recorded the live events music, but it’s extremely low sound. I am not sure what I did wrong that the sound is so low. I used Audacity software to fix the issue, but it took a lot of my time. Any suggestion what I need to do to fix this issue?

[KeithJ A&H]

Hi @mtnaw160

This is almost certainly normal and related to the difference in metering on the CQ and the dBFS metering used by software.
There’s more information in the following article – https://support.allen-heath.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4403616287889-General-Levels-and-Metering-in-A-H-Digital-Consoles

If this doesn’t explain it though, please contact us through support.allen-heath.com and we’ll look into it with you.

Thanks,
Keith.

[turvak]

I have this issue also. Recording to USB as stereo and it sounds great playing back through the CQ with levels at 0 maximum and gain all set correctly.

Take it to the PC and it literally sounds like its 10% volume. Unusable.

If I boost the faders then its too loud in CQ live and USB playback.

So what’s to way to use this?

[SQuser]

On the PC, you also need to achieve the correct gain and remove your practically unused headroom:
To do this, you need to edit your already recorded files and normalize their levels so that their peaks not exceed the maximum possible level, if possible.

For future recordings, you need to ensure that a higher level is present at the desired recording output during live operation.
Your inputs/outputs may not yet be correctly leveled.
You may be able to reduce the input of your PA to achieve a higher level at the LR output.
You may be able to use another stereo mix specifically for the recording and increase all levels there accordingly.
You can also find relevant information at the end of the article linked by Keith.

[Author]

Posts