Can a QU Console Playback or Support MP3 Music Tracks?

[jaykaypro]

Can a Qu (Qu-16, Qu-24, Qu-32) mixing desk console support or playback MP3 tracks / tracks / music
via it’s Qu-Drive platform using a flash drive / Flash Stick or HDD / Hard Disc Drive?

The disappointing answer is – NO, not yet, maybe Allen & Heath might come to the party?
At this stage it only supports .wav formatted file formats 🙁

I have read some forums on this site & many forum people who take the time to reply seem to think
it’s OK that A&H QU Digital Mixing desks don’t need to have MP3 playback support or functionality,
but I am used to mixing Live, & many gigs we have done in the past have had the need for MP3 Flashdrive
use, as many other digital desks in the industry support MP3’s play-back via flash-drive.
It is far better to have a flash stick, than a Laptop/PC/iPod/MP3 player on the table.

Sure you need to have a formatted QuDrive Stick on hand, but far easier to dump MP3 files in the Playback
folder than to have a bulky electronic device on the mixing table, I would prefer to just see a digital QU24
mixer on the table with a memory stick in the QU-Drive slot, far neater & simpler 🙂

So my question, is WHY, Allen & Heath, is there no MP3 playback functionality on a QU16, QU24 &/or QU32 mixer?

Then for all those who have taken the time to read thus far, I created a new Topic, as I could not find topics
searching in the search bar for this problem, so I have created this page & hopefully optimised it well enough
to be found, as other forum topics with the same issue or question is not found in the search bar 🙂

I also found it hard to post this topic initially, as A&H Community forum did not make posting a topic easy to do either 🙂

So go read my other postings in my Profile Page on “How to create your own Topic in the Allen & Heath Community Forum Pages / Groups”

[Anonymous]

Probably licensing.

The ST3 input is pretty good for such inputs, and many flash players are basically a USB stick.

One other possible solution that is used by a variety of people is to use an airport express with AirPlay to play from a WiFi connected Mac or iOS device.
Personally – I tuck an iPod under the mixer

[Andreas]

Yes, the Qu can not playback MP3. Reason may be that it reserves too much DSP power just to have MP3 playback. Maybe its because of technology licensing. Maybe its too complicated or even impossible to implement the MP3 algorithms on the Qu DSPs. Maybe its because the next request would be to have a better player interface to quickly navigate through tousands of MP3 files. Maybe because the next request would be to blend playback between MP3 files. Maybe next request would be to have two USB ports, one for MP3 playback another for QuDrive recording…

My QuDrive port is constantly occupied for multitrack backup recording and I have my MP3 jukebox connected via AirPlay. Never missed MP3 playback on the desk, really.

…adding a new topic to a forum is simple as it can be: Fill in the Topic field at the bottom, write Text, press Submit…

[Anonymous]

Finding the field isn’t necessarily obvious when most forums have a “new topic” link at to top of each forum.

[jaykaypro]

Will look into Airport Express & Airplay, thanx Bob. I guess one will have to get used to no MP3 playback feature & adopt other methods for audio playing of tracks 🙂

I do agree that the ST3 is a cool & practical substitute. I just wished MP3 was available, especially when my first gig on my new QU Mixer had my client come to me with a flash stick & wanted MP3 tracks to be played 🙂

I hear you Andreas, Maybe a Coffee Maker plug-in would be great too 🙂
I never once gave it thought to Licensing issues? As my other digital desks just had MP3 Audio support built in,
so I took it for granted.

I initially struggled to find a way & means to post, as I was not in the sub Topic field,
& could not see the form for submissions as the main pages did not have the forms on them,
neither is there any submission/posting link in any of the drop down Tabs in A&H Community pages 🙂
hence why I thought it should be a little more easier to find it, but let’s not fuss too much,
thanx to my two helpers who pointed me in the right direction.

And after posting my questions, I was able to find my listing immediately as I made sure all my keywords were properly Tagged in the posting field, & this will hopefully help others find this post & have their question answered, as other postings are not that well optimised in the search field 🙂

Thanx guys for your input, look forward to picking your brains soon with other trivial QU topics etc.

Kind regards, Jay Kay.

[glparke]

Gld80 can do mp3 playback so I don’t know if that is a licensing thing or not on the QU, or do you have to license per device?

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

[cornelius78]

AFAIK it’s an initial license fee paid by the manufacturer for using the codec + additional costs per device sold (all of which A&H would have to pass on to the consumer, making the product(s) less economically competitive.) No idea how much the fees actually are though. IIRC it was only the first few batches of GLDs that supported mp3, subsequent batches didn’t. One of the other justifications I see from multiple manufacturers who don’t support mp3 is that if people don’t know that what they’re listening to is in fact 128kbps of lossy compression they might think that the desk doesn’t sound good.

[Anonymous]

People giving you media on the day should be told to ‘bring it to me last week’

[Showtime]

Only the first moedels of de gld can play mp3.

I haven bought a denon dn-501c and mounted it under the console.

Digital consoles has becom much cheaper, we also want that a console of 2000 euro can do the same als a console of 7500 euro.

I mis common sense in the feature request, if you want more than pay more.

[Russ]

I am one of the ones using an Airport Express router. Just tied an 1/8″ M/M stereo cable from the output of the router to the ST3 in. Works great for setting the EQ from out front as well as having in between set music. Not the cheapest way to do it but it works like a champ.

[Reveal]

Hi.

I use a A&H QU16 for live music, but before and after the show I Leave music playing for the PC, but I would like to pass it directly from a flash drive. I have already tried converting the files to WAV and are recognized by the sound table. The problem is that they don’t give sound, and when they give it’s just “noise/roar.”
Does anyone know any software to convert correctly or know how can I convert mp3 to pass in QU16?

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Wav files have to be of the appropriate format.
Or grab a cheap smartphone and plug it into ST3.

[bostjanlaba]

I’m amazed. I just bought QU-16 and it cannot play mp3 via USB port? I was sure it’s possible, I wanted to use it for backing tracks etc. No luck?

So is this on the to-do list for future firmware updates?

Thanks

Bostjan

[MarkPAman]

You can play WAV files. Lossy mp3 files would be a “downgrade” not an upgrade I think?

😀

[bostjanlaba]

Well, since most of songs i wanna play are in mmp3 it mostly means doing conversion all the time. Lossy mp3 for playback is not such an issue…for me at least.

[Author]

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