Line signal recording

[Sven]

I am trying to record some old reel-to-reel tapes onto my DAW with my QU. Nothing I have tried sofar seems to work. I get an extremely low signal. I have tried to simply plug in the signal in the unbalanced 1/4″ jacks as well as ST2 jacks. Can anyone help me develop a routing strategy for this kind of work. What I want to achieve is to be able to simply record the two signals (preferrably individually on two mono tracks) and be able to set the levels, start recording without having to listen (old band recordings, we were crap…). I am stuck and really frustrated… 🙁

Windows 10
Cubase 10.5
QU-32

//Sven

[Mike C]

At the mixer itself are you getting good levels from the tape playback?

[Brian]

It sounds like an active direct box would help boost the 1/4″ input levels.

[Sven]

Yes, I get proper levels through the mixer. I just don’t seem to be able to get it through to the DAW.

[Sven]

I don’t think that is the issue as I can get the music blasting in my speakers.

[volounteer]

@sven

have you raised the level in the DAW ?

Most have a big headroom on top of the Qu headroom so will sound low.

What DAW do you use?
I always had to process my copies from tape before I played them to remove DC offset and normalize levels and usually compress them too.

[Mike C]

Are you just wanting to make stereo recording of your tapes?
You can assign any mix out to any of the USB multitrack output
tracks.
Using a separate mix out for recording would give you some processing
if needed and level control.

The routing set up for that is in the IO set up menu under the USB tab.

[Sven]

I have now managed to get a signal through two individual channels. I used quite a bit of tweaking in Cubase (gain staging). Maybe that is the problem. The dynamic head room in the QU-32 is enormous for an old analog guy like me. 🙂

However, another problem is that I don’t understand how to route the ST1-2 inputs. Never really have. In the I/O patch menu it indicates that they should be available in channels 33-40 and I don’t get that. If anyone could explain how all that works, I’d be much obliged.

Thanks everyone for ideas and moral support. Routing is a challenge…

[volounteer]

@Sven

Digital is different as you must avoid clipping which is bad for sound quality, whilst in analog you needed to push up levels to saturation to avoid noise on low signals.

Digital has so much SNR and DR there is absolutely no need to get anywhere near close to 0. Hence AH sets their 0 at -18dBFS.
Many DAWs will have extra headroom on top of that. So you must raise the level in the DAW for playback to be heard well.

I found that I need to record in the DAW first. Then I remove DC offset and normalize the signal. For editing and other work I keep that level at -18dBFS. When you have the final mix then normalize to -6dBFS (my choice for CDs) or whatever meets your LUFs or level needs for a streaming service. Then for playback from CD or DAW you just turn the knob on the amplifier on the right to make it louder if you want more SPL level.

Not sure what the issue with ST1-2 is. Or how that relates to your DAW question.

If this is a new question then best to ask it in a new post with a new title not at the end of another discussion.

[Mike C]

However, another problem is that I don’t understand how to route the ST1-2 inputs. Never really have. In the I/O patch menu it indicates that they should be available in channels 33-40 and I don’t get that. If anyone could explain how all that works, I’d be much obliged.

ST 1 & 2 from the mixer are fixed in there input routing just like the mic input channels, ST3 can be the either the QU Drive or the front surface 3.5mm jack.

The faders for the ST channels are the first three on the top layer. All of the channel routing choices for the ST channels are the same and operate the same as any of the mic input channels.

If your using a stage box then you do have some other input routing choices for the ST channels as well as the mic inputs.

[Author]

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