MIDI music recording on Qu mixers?

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  • #62701
    Profile photo of Loose StringsLoose Strings
    Participant

    The only MIDI spec I care about is being able to record a MIDI music sequence. Sadly the Qu series does not seem to have this ability:

    MIDI music recording on Qu mixers?

    MIDI sequence recording seems like a feature that might appeal to a lot of bands that use MIDI capable instruments. I wonder how difficult it would be to implement MIDI sequence capture to a channel?

    (Perhaps this post belongs in the feature request section – not quite sure which is the most appropriate location.)

    #62703
    Profile photo of AndreasAndreas
    Moderator

    Indeed, this is more a feature request, so I’ve moved it here.
    I totally understand that request, but do not expect this to ever happen for several reasons:
    First of all the Qu does not have any MIDI socket, where you may plug in a keyboard.
    If you think about to support plugging a USB-to-MIDI interface into the QuDrive Host Port, you no longer have the QuDrive to record anything (and, no, a hub does not work here).
    While this still may work with the Qu next to your MIDI source, what about FOH applications? You’d need some dSnake box to feed MIDI to the Qu (or at least tell the Qu to support native MIDI over IP, which would be another interesting request).
    Finally, if the Qu has recorded the MIDI track on QuDrive, what happens when playing back that session? One could expect that MIDI is sent out along the audio streams, which requires at least a rudimentary MIDI sequencer inside the box.
    I’d go for a real DAW if I’d need to record MIDI live.

    #62704
    Profile photo of MbirameMbirame
    Participant

    My thought is that most of the bands that want to both record midi and audio with the QU series stuff are also using a computer and record the MIDI there. I saw in your thread that you are wanting to exclusively an ipad solution. Having been frustrated with editing capabilities of Cubasis myself, I would personally try and find a cheaper laptop and run something like what you mentioned-Cubase Artist. You could probably find a reliable solution for less than the cost of a new ipad. Good luck!

    #62705
    Profile photo of Loose StringsLoose Strings
    Participant

    Not to beat up on Cubasis too much, but what did you find frustrating about it?

    I’ve been pretty happy with Auria Pro DAW for post-processing despite its occasional bugs and infrequent crashes. I bought Cubasis because it was on sale at $25 through April 10. Cubasis appears to have better Audiobus 3 support and it’s on a rapid development path. Each DAW has its pros & cons. I don’t see any downside with trying Bluetooth MIDI to my iPad and see how it works, other than the cost of a Yamaha UD-BT01 bluetooth-MIDI transmitter.

    I generally like the Qu-Pac user interface; recording with it to my Sandisk Extreme USB stick has been 100% reliable. Too bad that I have to choose between recording our band’s audio on the Qu-Pac versus recording audio + MIDI with a complicated and potentially unreliable DAW.

    At worst, we could put a MIDI processor between the keyboard and the Qu-Pac and just record analogue audio from it into the Qu-Pac. That would limit post-processing opportunities a lot, but it would put our keyboardist more in the driver’s seat for his live sound.

    #62706
    Profile photo of Loose StringsLoose Strings
    Participant

    BTW, the Qu-Pac is a pretty amazing value when one considers the quality of preamps inside. We get a full, rich sound from our passive pickups and A-T cardioid mics with only a pair of Radial Pro2 DIs between the pickups and the Qu-Pac. That’s a lot of digital gain from mega-ohm piezo pickups without much distortion. The Qu-Pac PEQ compensates (as well as can be hoped) for sound spectrum problems associated with using piezo pickups on violins, viola, cello; blending mics also helps bring ambience while flattening the spectrum. The final mix is luxurious and deep.

    We’re pretty satisfied overall with the Qu-Pac, just trying to achieve the next level of mastery. MIDI recording is what is missing for us, but maybe we can solve it.

    #62707
    Profile photo of MbirameMbirame
    Participant

    Not to beat up on Cubasis too much, but what did you find frustrating about it?

    To be honest I haven’t tried it in at least a year. I consider myself fairly proficient with Cubase Pro and the limitations and workflow on an ipad were killers for me. I’m sure you have way more experience that I do with it. We use Ableton for live gigs anyway, so I always have my laptop at gigs. I use Cubase in the studio.

    Funny you mention the Radials. We also use piezos and for over 20 years I have sworn by only using tube guitar amps with my piezo because that was the only way to get good tone. Just a couple weeks ago I picked up the Radial PZ Deluxe and it blew my mind at how good it sounds right into the QU mixer. I just ordered 7 more for the rest of the band.

    Too bad that I have to choose between recording our band’s audio on the Qu-Pac versus recording audio + MIDI with a complicated and potentially unreliable DAW.

    The way I would do it: The QU mixer is completely seperate from the DAW. You would still multitrack record all audio on the USB drive. You could just also have a midi out of the keyboard going into a DAW and recording that midi feed. In fact-maybe there is a way to just directly record MIDI from the keyboard into your ipad and then sync it all up later? I don’t know how tight your clock would be though. For us, the click is also coming off of the DAW so we can live record all the tracks coming out of our DAW (including MIDI) and then also multitrack the live audio off the board and then combine them post.

    #62734
    Profile photo of Loose StringsLoose Strings
    Participant

    I played with Cubasis a little this morning. My first impressions were that it’s not as sophisticated as Auria Pro. Hardly any plug-ins exist at the Cubasis Store – just two $4 packages of basic reverbs, delays, tremolo, auto-wah, etc. Nothing like the breadth of plug-ins, sampled sounds, etc., available to Auria Pro.

    Cubasis fared no better than Auria Pro with 48 KHz audio. This may not be a Cubasis shortcoming but an Audiobus issue, or maybe just software compatability growing pains. The warning I received when I tried to create a 48 KHz project in Cubasis was: “Audiobus requires a samplerate of 44.1 kHz. Crackling will occur at other sample rates.” In fact, I didn’t hear any crackling of Animoog sounds over Audiobus MIDI, but Cubasis’ built-in instrument presets crackled badly when I switched back out of Audiobus. Hard to know where to point the finger on this.

    First impressions may not be final impressions. I can’t grumble too much about Cubasis for $25, however Auria Pro is a steal at $50.

    #62735
    Profile photo of Loose StringsLoose Strings
    Participant

    We tried running our stringed instrument pickups through my M-Audio DMP3 preamp but the sound quality was better (and no possibility of ground loops) via the Radial ProD2 DIs. Radial Tonebone PZ Deluxe looks like an amazing piece of gear for music pros…. but probably overkill for our youth group.

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