Topic: Multitrack recording skipping | Allen & Heath Digital Community

Multitrack recording skipping

Tagged: dropouts, Qu-Drive, skips

This topic contains 119 replies, has 30 voices, and was last updated by [XAP]Bob 8 years, 2 months ago.

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2014/04/16 at 3:32 pm #39127

prodigio
Participant

…Then to completely eliminate any mechanical cut and skip risk, should be able to use solid state disks, but AllenAndHeath says it is inadvisable…
The question is: “how to permanently solve these problems”? O.o

2014/04/17 at 4:46 am #39133

Thunzie
Participant

Prodigio, my hard drive is on a very short cable also and when we recorded it at in the case with the desk. For the next gig I will make up a foam padded box which will reduce vibration on the hard drive. But my next gig isn’t for some time. Are you able to try something like that in the meantime to see if it works for both of us?

2014/04/17 at 1:41 pm #39138

prodigio
Participant

I’m sorry Thunzie but I have decided to sell the mixer because I’m having too many problems.
I have no more time to lose.

2014/04/17 at 3:34 pm #39145

robbocurry
Participant

Sorry to hear that Prodigio:(
FYI I recorded onto a Sandisk 16gb USB3 stick yesterday, only eight channels and short recordings but it worked with no problems.
I’ll try more channels later this week just to see – nothing “mission critical” just in case.

2014/04/17 at 4:32 pm #39148

prodigio
Participant

Multitrack recording to USB memory stick is not certified procedure and is not recommended as a textbook… At this point I do not know what it is pià official certificate rather than not…
I resign myself and sell my QU-16… I can not work this way.

2014/04/17 at 5:07 pm #39149

GCumbee
Participant

I have been recording to hard drives for 20 yrs studio location on stage you name it. I have never had skipping problems. Drives should be a ton better these days. I have trouble believing that is the problem.

2014/04/17 at 6:31 pm #39150

prodigio
Participant

I have no words to spend on this topic, I was disappointed then decline any invitation to perform other tests. I only know that it does not work properly. I sell the mixer. Stop.

2014/04/18 at 12:17 am #39160

WaihekeSoundie
Participant

Totally understand that the QU should do what it says on the can and for many HDD recording may be THE big feature and totally frustrating.. but I for one will simply record to a laptop until it is sorted. Not ideal but let’s face it I’m setting up a bit of gear anyway 🙂

That said– does this skipping / drop out happen when USB B streaming as opposed to QDRive capture? Has anybody actually experienced this over USB B?

Andy

2014/04/19 at 9:37 pm #39188

Eddy_current
Participant

Did my first gig with the QU-16 last night, It is a great desk, however… I was going to record it on my WD passport 500 gb drive, I have used this drive before to record a rehearsal with another band and it worked very well , no issues at all. I recorded the sound check and the drive started well but then started skipping and jumping on playback. I then remembered this thread and wrapped the drive in some foam and cloth and decided to record the gig anyway, played back today and everything is good no skipping or jumping. So in conclusion the skipping I was experienceing was down to sound level and vibration affecting the hard drive.

Dave

2014/04/20 at 4:15 pm #39203

MartinW
Participant

I’ve used the qu16 with presonus studio one on a mac to record – no problems so far.
So for me USB streaming has been perfect.

2014/04/20 at 4:35 pm #39205

DMAudio
Participant

Vibration on a HDD will not cause skipping issues, that’s simply not how they work. It’s not like vinyl. Only way this could possibly happen is if the drive is of such poor design that excessive vibrations cause write failures, at which point the music is stored in the buffer and doesn’t skip. There would have to be so many write failures to overflow the buffer and cause bad data to be written, which is when you’d hear the skips.

Modern hard drives these days, you’ve have to be bouncing it off a table to cause read/write problems like that.

This is what leads me to believe that the issue that’s plaguing most people is with the Q-drive interface. Either it has tragically small buffers, or just doesn’t have the transfer rates to deal with the amount of data it’s receiving. Think of it this way….you record to the HDD on your laptop via a DAW – no issues. But with the Q-Drive, they recommend NOT starting and stopping recording, and clearing the drive after each session!

There’s definitely an inherent issue there I feel…

2014/04/20 at 7:35 pm #39207

Eddy_current
Participant

I can only report what I have experienced, and as I say isolating the Hard drive mechanically and acoustically cured my skipping issues on the night. Several years ago I had a similar issue with a Sony HD HDD camcorder that would blue screen if operated in high acoustic noise area’s, that was put down to acoustic vibration of the hard drive, switching to the memory stick in the same camcorder cured the symptoms. And yes ANY mechanical device can be affected by vibration.

Dave

2014/04/21 at 8:48 am #39213

Thunzie
Participant

LOL oh man…. we’re getting some fantastic first hand feedback here but it still seems inconclusive. Eddy_current, it seems from your experience that vibration definitely can be an issue. And then DMAudio shoots that theory down in flames based on his knowledge of such things, but he hasn’t proven anything with these problems we’re experiencing through his own practical tests. Personally, I really need to get my bands next show recorded to use the audio for promo stuff so I can’t take any more chances. So, I’m gonna go the laptop with a DAW route which everyone in this thread who says they’ve done it that way has found faultless. I don’t want to take this thread off track but I’d like to ask those who have used a DAW, you’re just using the same USB output and sending multitracks over the USB, right? I ask because in my previous experience Firewire was recommended over USB for multitrack recording, and Firewire with the Qu16 isn’t an option….so far as I know anyway.

2014/04/21 at 9:12 am #39214

MartinW
Participant

Correct, USB port on the back of the QU16 straight into my MacBook, I have recorded a total of about 4 hours of 16 tracks

2014/04/21 at 2:40 pm #39226

robbocurry
Participant

Over the years I’ve experienced skipping on numerous occasions from CD, MD and HDD during playback if exposed to just the “right” frequency or harmonic. It seems entirely plausible that writing to an HDD could suffer similarly from vibration. There are a lot of variables to consider before writing this theory off completely IMHO.

Take a look at this:
https://blogs.oracle.com/brendan/entry/unusual_disk_latency
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