Digital noise when streaming audio via USB-B.

[KeithJ A&H]

Hi All,

Some of you may be aware of compatibility issues with Qu’s USB-B interface and certain computers.
These cause a digital noise when streaming that appears intermittently and can be described as ‘digital distortion’, ‘static’, ‘robotic’ or like a ‘bitcrusher’ effect.
It does not relate to an issue with the desk itself, but can render some systems unusable.

We have been working to try and find a solution for quite a while, and unfortunately have had little success.
To try and help things along, we need to narrow things down further, so we’ve created the following form:
goo.gl/forms/XHdM9zUVJU3Eni1y2

If you have had this issue with your setup, we would really appreciate you taking a few minutes to submit some info.
(Please note that information is submitted anonymously, so we are unable to reply)
You can, of course, contact us using support.allen-heath.com to get personal support, an/or send through more information such as examples or detailed system specs.

Thank you in advance, and apologies to those of you who are experiencing this.

Keith.

[Ermep01]

Hi,

Thank you for reconizing this problem. Just filled out the form for you.
Let me know if we can be more to assistance.

[KeithJ A&H]

Thanks Ermep01!

[Smokehead]

Hi,
thanks for paying attention to this problem. Filled out the form and asked other people who have told they have this problem too. I hope it will help you to find a solution!

I’ve filled the form twice because i experienced these distortions on two systems while testing. It’s even appearing on Linux (Ubuntu/Arch) with JACK.

Many thanks and much success!

Best regards,

Smokehead

[Made2Create]

I filled out the survey and directed others toward this page. I also may have found a solution with LatencyMon My system reported CPU Throttling as enabled. I followed the steps outlined in this guide here: https://isboxer.com/wiki/HOWTO:Disable_CPU_Throttling_in_Windows and I have not had any issues for a 3 hour session of active recording and playback. I am keeping my fingers crossed for now. Can anyone else try the steps and confirm whether it made a difference?

[Frank]

I reportet this link https://isboxer.com/wiki/HOWTO:Disable_CPU_Throttling_in_Windows in the german forum https://www.musiker-board.de/threads/userthread-allen-heath-qu-serie.527946/page-39#post-8566608. There are until now several posts about this problem in german language…

[Smokehead]

Hi,

i’ve tested disabling CPU-Throttling which was recommended by Made2Create. I couldn’t fix the problem but the behaviour changed. Before doing this i got this error every few minutes for 7-8 sec. each. Now after i disabled throttling it occures almost every 25-30 seconds for 1-2 sec. each.

Best regards,
Smokehead

[Frank]

Another person in the german forum testet it also and could find the same: Shorter periods, but more frequent!

[whatsoup]

Thanks for acknowledging this. Happens to me on all buffer settings.
I’ve submitted a form, but I’m posting here to give others my observations.

I can trigger the problem more often by moving the (USB) mouse. Changing the polling rate of the mouse to 125hz doesn’t help much.

The problem still happens when I don’t move the mouse, just less often.

What I have noticed, if I don’t touch anything on the computer, the problem still happens, but will eventually go away, even on low buffer settings.

I will be trying many more things tonight and report any success

Mixer: SQ-5 with latest ASIO driver
Windows 10 ultimate 64bit
Motherboard: Asus X99-A, using a USB2 port with brand new USB2 cable
CPU: Intel 5820K

[Made2Create]

Hi again,

Just wanted to follow up on my previous post(and email). It sounds like the suggested fix did not work for everyone, but changed the issue or at least improved it a bit. Further testing on my system showed that I was still getting the issue as well, but not nearly as often as before and it seems like it is usable and reliable enough for a pro recording session. I would advise everyone to download the LatencyMon Tool I linked in the previous email (Direct Download – LatencyMon) as this will give you direct info on what is causing the issue for your system.

When you run the test you will see some processes that start moving into the red – these are the processes causing the issue (in my case ex. ndis.sys – Network Driver). You should google each process causing the issue and find out how to disable it.

In my case it was The Wifi-Card which I was able to disable due to me being plugged in via LAN. I also disabled Intel Speed-Step in BIOS. BIOS also has some power saving options on my Sytem which I was able to tweak in order to improve the issue.

LatencyMon will give you all the info you need to fix it for you. I am not aware of an equivelant program for Mac.

Thanks,
Collin

[whatsoup]

I resolved my latencymon warnings but it’s still happening 🙁

[Smokehead]

I checked again with and without enabled network/wifi cards and other available hardware options on different PC-Systems and couldn’t get any improvement. Two out of my three systems have this issue. Sadly, the only working one can’t be used for recording/mixing purposes.

Are there any news about this issue? Did the technicians find the source of the problem? Any other suggestions for help?

Best regards,

Smokehead

[Frank]

I “solved” (“workaround”) by buying an used Lenovo Thinkpad TP410 at eBay, Intel i7, 8 Gb Ram, installed a 500 Gb SSD, clean Win 7 installation, Cubase Elements 9. No problems with this machine. It has only USB 2.0 ports… Before I had a brandnew Lenovo Ideapad 16 Gb Ram, Win 10, also SSD, i5 core for over 1000€… terrible!!!!

[KeithJ A&H]

Hi Smokehead,

There is currently work going on based on the information that’s been kindly sent in to us.
Nothing to report back yet I’m afraid.

Thanks,
Keith.

[junior]

I’m having a big problem with SQ6 recording. I use the reaper program to make my recordings with a Macbook and when I record using SQ as an audio card, after about thirty minutes of recording the audio starts a very strange noise that can not hear anything, just an unstoppable noise , I came to think that the problem was on the Mac, but as I also have the console QU SB I decided to do a test and put to record two tracks on the reaper using the same Mac and incredible as it seems I recorded but of 4 consecutive hours and no problem appeared . Then I decided to do another test now recording with an external HD by the SQ driver and the problem appeared again. Is any of you having the same problem?

[Author]

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