Insert effects on Qu-32

[SoupKitchen]

Hello fellow musicians, I hope you are all well and rockin’

the other day I had someone come in for a recording session and said person was insistent on using an Insert-effect he brought with him for it.
In my time doing digital recording and since getting my Qu-32 for the studio I had not needed to use one of the classic insert effects. A quick Cmd+F through the manual didn’t help too much so I just winged it and tried what I would have done with my old board:

1) Jump into channel processing and set it to the kind of greyed out Insert-option (where the ducker / insert-selector is) (As an aside, I have never seen this button “active”. What magic does one have to do for it to become active?)
2) Plug the effect into the jack above the XLR

And well and behold, the effect was indeed added to it but it was surprisingly dry, felt maybe like 70/30, whereas plugged into an anlog testing-board the effect was much wetter.

My question now is: What would the correct way have been specifically for Insert-effects (not effect loops)?

Thanks in advance and have an awesome day

[Dick Rees]

What was the outboard unit? What stage of the recording process were you in? Tracking, mix-down???

So far not enough information…

[SoupKitchen]

Hey Dick,
we were tracking (as I thought is indicated by “recording session” (sorry, English is not my first language)) and dont remember what the outboard unit was and I dont think it matters here, that was just the anecdote of how I got the much more general question of “How do I correctly use a typical Insert effect (like an external compressor or whatnot) on the Qu-Series?”. So far if I have used an outboard unit on the Qu it was via a send/return, I’m just interested on how do do the Insert-thing.

[Dick Rees]

OK…

1. There are no “send/return” insert jacks on A&H digital consoles. The 1/4″ jack above the XLR is a line level input and does not send out any signal.

2. The “insert” icon on the screen is for return routing of the onboard FX of the Qu, nothing else.

3. It is not standard practice to apply any dynamic processing or FX during tracking as you cannot remove as/if needed during mix-down. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is to record the tracks “dry” and use any required dynamic processing, EQ and FX to the “pure” tracks later.

I think your English is fine. If you have a problem it would seem to be inexperience.

Good luck. Keep your tracking clean…

[SoupKitchen]

Hey Dick,
no need to throw shade at me. As I wrote in the original post “he insisted”. Against my recommendation that was, as I of course usually record a dry signal and effect it later. And as I wrote “I’ve never had to use it’ because people are usually convincable to not record an impure signal. He wasn’t and I’m not gonna argue with him when he insists and as long as he pays, he shall get what he wants. In the end it didn’t even matter for that session because it turned out he was woefully underprepared and he isn’t scheduled for another two weeks. If I have misinterpreted your tone then please ignore the “shade”-thing.

Anyway thanks for the information. I knew the jacks are simply marked as input but my old boards, from when I was still doing analog recording, all had the function to plug an Insert effect for live stuff so I thought “what the hell, let’s just try” and was surprised when at least some effect was added to the signal, dry as it may have been.
I don’t have the wiring diagram in my head and I don’t know what software magic A&H may have sprinkled in there, that’s what got me to ask here.

So to summarize:
On the Qu’s there is no intended way to do Insert effects. I don’t do live stuff, but even for that it would be a Send/Return FX loop or onboard effects.

[Dick Rees]

If the “artist” insists, I’d grab one of my analog mixers, run the mic into it, use the channel insert and then feed the sub-mixer signal to the 32. But…

I’d also split the signal from the mic into both boards so I’d have a clean track as well as the “designer” track.

Luckily, I’ve been doing this since before the advent of digital consoles and still have lots of good analog gear laying around.

I’d be concerned about the possibility of damage to your console if you continue to use both channel inputs. The user info says not to use both and warns of signal degradation and the possibility of damage.

Good luck.

[garyh]

What I would do is feed the FX unit from a mix or group output and feed its output back to another channel input so you can record the raw track and FX separately. This way you make the artist happy and have more control during mixdown.

[SoupKitchen]

Hello Dick and garyh,

thank you both for your input.
@Dick Thanks for mentioning that the board may be a little frail when it comes to using both inputs. I will keep that in mind.
I didn’t keep too much analog equipment. I still have the big ol’ SoundCraft (put into storage) and a small 8 channel board for submixes and such, the adat… Oh and the 7,5 ips master tape machine because it looks rad in the rack 🙂

@both Yes, I will do something like that when (and if) he comes back. Thanks again and have a nice weekend

[volounteer]

you said
I knew the jacks are simply marked as input but my old boards, from when I was still doing analog recording, all had the function to plug an Insert effect for live stuff so I thought “what the hell, let’s just try” and was surprised when at least some effect was added to the signal, dry as it may have been.
I don’t have the wiring diagram in my head and I don’t know what software magic A&H may have sprinkled in there, that’s what got me to ask here.
So to summarize:
On the Qu’s there is no intended way to do Insert effects. I don’t do live stuff, but even for that it would be a Send/Return FX loop or onboard effects.

reply
The board I was used to had a jack that used a special Y cable. It sent the input out the cable that went to an fx device.
The device then connected to the other half of the cable to return the wet signal where it continued down the channel strip.

You cannot do that with the qu32. What you can do is pick up to 4 FX from their library and insert that as if it had been outboard like in previous devices. I think it has 4 compressors with many options on each. Plus a library of other FX.
You can use up to 4 of them in the Qu at a time.

If none of the library of fx is suitable then go to plan B:
like the other guy said use the other analog board patch in the fx with send/return , and bring that output into the QU.

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