Punch In Recording Set up with QU 16

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Hey all,
Bit of a noobie question but what is the best set up for punch in recording with QU16?
My scenario is recording with a band using QU16 –> Headphone amps for monitoring and –> Reaper to record.

One approach it is to set up mixes for each player’s headphone and split the mixer so that CHs 1-8 take a LOCAL recording input (and send to headphone mixes) and CHs 9-16 take USB input from DAW playback also mixed to the headphones. I can send from the Direct out pre-effects but the players can still hear some verb and eq etc in their headphones. Generally the channels dedicated to playing back DAW output are muted unless the band wants to hear what has been recorded or overdub / punch in. This approach means I can also easily re-apply QU effects to the playback of each instrument (well if I have less than 8 of them).. Its flexible- and I can tailor a nice playback mix using the QU rather than DAW..but its a bit complex.

What is the normal way of doing this? How do big studios approach this? Many thanks

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Or I can do all the playback mixing in my DAW and simply return a stereo mix to the QU.. kind of easier in some ways but means mixing with a mouse in a recording session.
What do others do?

Maybe this is not the best forum for this kind of question though using as a mixer in a recording session is a pretty big use for the QU 16.

[dpdanParticipant]

I have been providing live sound concerts and studio recording for yikes,,, almost forty years and If I were you, I would keep it as simple and straghtforward as possible.
I would use the Qu16 as the audio interface for computer that Reaper is running on.
Use Reaper to record the individual audio channels from the Qu (USB Streaming) and then for playback, send a stereo mix from Reaper back to the Qu for headphones (or monitor speakers) for playback during punching in and listening back.

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Yeh- thanks for replying @dpdan. I figure this is the best way too.

Unless the latency is really low I guess I will give the artists headphone mixes from the QU with some effects while they are recording as this is no-latency but on playback I will send to a stereo mix from Reaper. This does mean that if I want to this stereo mix to sound a bit good then I will need to add some basic effects / eq on the Reaper channels as well but that should be ok. Yeh?

[dpdanParticipant]

precisely! 🙂

I was not sure about exact latency with Reaper sending a stereo mix back to the Qu via USB and just don’t know how much phasey issues there could be.
I’ll tell you what,,, I am up now in St. Louis Missouri and it is 2:15 am and I am importing a ton 1080p HD video from a video project that I just finished shooting Sunday evening (technically, last night) and I am going to hook up my Qu24 to my Mac running Digital Performer to check out the latency if any… should be the same results as Reaper unless yoiu are using Windows then that’s a different comparison.

When we discuss latency, you already know by your previous post that it is goiong to be essential that the output of Reaper be muted for any mics it is recording,… the musicians should only hear their instruments/mics from the Qu live.

My concern is how tight the punched parts will sync after the musician is finsihed with a punch, based on the fact that the reference mix from Reaper is coming back into the Qu via USB and not analoge, I just don’t know …. but we will shortly 🙂

I’ll check it out and post back here shortly.
Dan

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Thanks 🙂 Very interested to hear your conclusions. I will have a play around tomorrow eve as well. Many thanks.
Andy

[dpdanParticipant]

Hi Andy,
I just finished a test, and of course if forget to turn down, or mute Reaper’s “mix” output to the Qu, or mute the two Qu inputs (stereo) from Reaper your musicians will say “that echo is back“then you will respond with…. yea yea sorry 🙂

Perfect sync no issues.

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Thanks Dan. It works well– there is no way to fine tune the block size to get the latency down in OSX eh? In ASIO with my RME kit I can get the latency down pretty low to around 2.5ms on output. Anyone know what the latency is when using the QU with OSX and Core audio?

[dpdanParticipant]

I don’t know

[Anonymous]

As far as im aware you adjust the block size within Reaper preferences

[Author]

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