Mastering in the Box

[Lee7Participant]

Hi all,

This may have been answered in another blog, so please excuse me for potentially asking the same question again.

Is is possible to playback from the HDD all 12 tracks I recorded last night at our gig, mix it using the onboard FX etc and record it back on to the HDD or a laptop via the USB port on the rear. Then the mixed file could be then normalised on the PC and burned to disc etc?

I prefer to physically move faders etc than use a mouse, plus I like the inbuilt reverbs.

Cheers
Lee

[dpdanParticipant]

Hi Lee,
you can do just what you described, but the hard drive connected to the Qu-Drive USB port “playing” your multi-track recording
can not record and play simultaneously. You can accomplish what you want to do by playing the multi-track recording from the hard drive connected to the (Qu-Drive) USB port on the top of the console, and recording the console’s channels of your choice to a laptop computer connected to the USB connector on the rear of the console running the DAW of your choice.

[Lee7Participant]

Thanks for your answer.

But can I use the QU-16’s compressors, Gate’s, EQ and Vocal FX and just send the post mix to Reaper just to finish off and normalise instead of having to use Reaper’s VST’s etc?

Lee

[cornelius78Participant]

+1 dpdan. The tracks coming from the qu-drive hdd will be hitting the console just after the ADC stage: before the desk’s processing has kicked in. You can then use the Qu’s own processing and fx on these channels and create a stereo mix. The (Qu-processed) mix can then be sent to a computer running a DAW via the USB-B socket on the rear of the console for further processing. LR post-fader will come into the DAW on tracks 17-18, if you leave things set up in the default manner. P36 and P51 of the v1.4 manual explain the patching requirements.

[Lee7Participant]

Good man Cornelius, I just think I can probably achieve better results with our type of music than via my DAW. I do prefer good old fashioned faders and knobs than a mouse and right click!!! 🙂

Will take a look at the updated manual as mine is the first edition.

Thanks
Lee

[Anonymous]

Hi
I understand this is full duplex
You can easily play back from QU drive and mix into a Laptop
I successfully have played from a memory stick in the QU drive 12 channels from a live band.(1 song!) Recorded that into a laptop using Reaper software and my own Windows Reaper DAW controlled template (24 tracks) I made up. That’s 16 track plus 3 sets of stereo tracks & 2 for FOH masters [although Reaper see’s every track as a stereo track unless manipulated to do otherwise]
Perfect!
Then played the Reaper template back into the QU16 USB streaming in and RE-captured that back onto the freshly formatted memory stick.
Used the internal reverbs.
So what you are asking for must be able to be done.
I have not yet worked out separate [record] reverb channel as yet into Reaper.
I doubt if this could be done?
However you could capture room mic’s so long as you deselect them from your Left and Right main mix
Maybe assign them into ST1
In fact if you assigned your reverbs to a stereo mix out you could bring those back into ST2 as well?
And then you could record them to separate tracks in Reaper.
Now there’s a thought!
If you want a QU16 24track windows Reaper template with faders mapped via midi, let me know.
Faders work flawlessly..[from QU to PC] PFL, channel select, mute PFL all work ITB perfectly… 4 soft-keys are mapped to PFL & MUTE all=clear and start from beginning and Play-Pause
However no channel strip lights on the desk in DAW mode.
I’m sure A&H would be working on this…
The great thing is you can easily flick between lower strip, DAW strip & upper strip whilst it is all playing back from Reaper.
Rave rave.. end of story. :+}
I’ll post the template somewhere?
All of the midi mapping hard work is done.
Cheers
dave NZ

[Lee7Participant]

Hi Dave,

All sounds very interesting, could you email me that Reaper template?

I will send you my email addy via PM.

Cheers
Lee

[abzurd1Participant]

You can easily to what you’re asking. Just use the 2 track out. It doesn’t even have to be a fancy setup. Below was my first show with the mixer and first attempt at mixing from within the mixer back into my macbook using an insert cable (Y cable) that has 1/4″ connections to the 2 track out and 1/8″ input into the laptop. All processing done from within the mixer.

Vehicle cover

[Lee7Participant]

@abzurd,

Sounds good, is that a full live band or a backing track?

I was trying out mixing & mastering from within with the desk last week, but until I get myself either some studio monitors or proper cans for mixing it is a bit of a waste of effort at the moment.

But all sounds promising from what I have heard.

Lee

[HawkParticipant]

I was thinking about the same thing. The multi-track recording is great, but copy files and mix on computer and then bounce is a lot of back and forth. Now I wish there are two Qu-drive ports?

[Lee7Participant]

@Hawk,

Best way to record and save is to mix & master within the QU-16 and/or take a signal from either the 2 TRK or L&R outputs to a PC/Mac or other good quality recording device. You could use audacity and save the incoming mix from the QU-16 as your master file, all you need to do is normalise it and then burn to CD or upload to whichever medium you use.

Pretty straightforward.

[Author]

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