Qu-24 electrical noises during streaming

[garyh]

But don’t AMD based motherboards use Nvidia usb chip sets?

[garyh]

I guess I should have said, don’t AMD based motherboards use non-intel usb chipsets?

[jakethepeg]

Can someone give information on how to disable the USB 3.0 controller? I tried to, but the disable option is grayed out..

[TrioAndreas]

Hi!
Unfortunatelly, I have the same problem with that noise on USB-B streaming. I tested 3 PC With Intel motherboard, one with USB3.0 and two with USB2.0, Win10-64, Win7-64, latest drivers, Qu16 firmware, and the result was the same: noise is always present. So, I guess that there is always problem with Intel chipset, no metter if it is USB3.0 or USB 2.0. I attach the sample of this noise (on 3sec and 53sec). I guess you all have the same problem?
Could the Nvidia Chipset for USB resolve this problem?
Damijan

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[TrioAndreas]

https://soundcloud.com/damijan-srdo/crackles-3sec-53sec-ah-qu16

[Frank]

Hi Anonymous,

thanks for your two solutions:

So the two options to possibly fix the issue:
1. Disable XHCI in the BIOS if able to
2. Disable the USB 3.0 Root Hub in Device Manager for Windows.

1. solution is not possible with my laptop bios…
2. solution is able to do, but after doing this, I have NO USB-ports anymore. So I cannot use the mouse and especially can not use the USB-dongle for the Cubase-DAW. They are completely disabled. Than again it is not possible to playback something from the DAW, where I get this incredible electrical noise.

And I agree with you! It is not only a problem of INTEL! Both, A&H an INTEL should correspond to solve it, because the driver of A&H sets on the INTEL-driver. When INTEL driver changes, A&H should also have a look to adjust on the changed parameters, because there are a lot of INTEL-PC’s on this world but only “some” A&H-QU-mixers. And I fear the dinosaur INTEL will be stronger and not be willed to change… But perhaps A&H could change his ASIO-driver? I dont know enough about this but I really hope for a solution, because the USB-Connection for DAW recording and playback was one of the reasons for buying th mixer…

[Frank]

And again: Is anybody able to NAME a working laptop, so I could try to buy one? With my Lenovo Ideapad it seems not to be possible… Tried to stop virusengine, WLAN, other backgroundprocesses, tried older A&H-driver, maked all INTEL-updates, nothing works… SOMETIMES it starts to distort, then I can change the driver-settings a little bit and it works again for some time, then distorsion starts again… It is no difference if I play from DAW Cubase or from Windows-VLC-Player!

And does anybody know, if other A&H-mixers have the same problem or only QU-series?

[Frank]

Or perhaps it is the only solution to try an Apple Macbook Pro for over 2000.-€ :-(, or are there the same problems?
I think, I will give up, because nobody seems to be able to find a solution for every laptop and nobody can tell us, which are working… so I will do recordings on USB-Drive, this works, and copy this to the DAW later and remix on my desktop-pc at home…

[Studiodawg]

Frank, I quit trying to find a way to record via USB to laptop and will simply employ the Qu Drive and then copy those tracks to my DAW PC to mix. I’m saving my pennies to get a reliable USB interface for direct to DAW recording. In defense of the Qu-16, it does allow for wide open sounding recordings due to the inherent headroom.

[Giga]

Apologies Frank, I meant to tell you which laptops work for me.

2 Lenovo’s actually, a T61 and a T410. If you need more details just ask and I’ll try to find what you need. I may need some help cause my computerskills are nothing to write home about I’m afraid.

Giga

[Frank]

Hi Giga… I could find a Lenovo T410 used for buying… and you are nearly shure, that this will work with USB-B-Recording from A&H to Cubase Elements 9.5? I would really invest some hundred Euros more for a working solution. Which Windows do you use? 7 or 10? Home or Pro? How many RAM do you have installed? 4 or 8 GB? Which processor? i5 or i7? Which harddisk? And is it possible to install a SSD perhaps instead of “normal” SATA harddisk?

[Crosan007]

Hi All,

I’m encountering the same issue on a machine running Linux Mint 18.2 / Sonya (Kernel version 4.8.0-53-generic).

I’m using GStreamer to capture my QU-32’s USB-B streaming interface with the following command:

gst-launch-1.0 alsasrc name=audiosrc device=hw:CARD=QU32,DEV=0 ! \
        audio/x-raw,channels=32,layout=interleaved,rate=48000 ! \
        deinterleave name=d \
        interleave name=i  \
        d.src_0 ! queue ! audioconvert  ! i.sink_0 \
        d.src_1 ! queue ! audioconvert  ! i.sink_1 \
        i. ! \
        audio/x-raw,format=S16LE,channels=2,layout=interleaved,rate=48000 ! \
        autoaudiosink 

I get the same exact types of noises that others have shared.

I jotted down time stamps as the noises occur, and it appears that approximately 7 seconds of “distortion” occurs ever 1 minute 11 seconds. This timing is extremely reliable, and persists across reboots, number of channels streamed.

Additionally, I tested playback of audio using a similar command, and discovered that the same issue occurs with playback (this does require setting one or more channels to use the USB-Preamp)

gst-launch-1.0 audiotestsrc ! \
        alsasink device=hw:CARD=QU32,DEV=0

Additionally, I’ve tried “disabling” xHCI in my UEFU with no success.
I’m using an Intel i7 4790-K CPU with 16 GB RAM and a 256 GB solid state.

My intent of using USB streaming is for live web streaming of our events using a software based video mixer. Currently I’m using unbalanced 3.5mm into the computer’s native sound card as a fall back, not my desired mode of capture.

I sent a tweet to A&H support, who have basically written me off since I’m using Linux (half expected that response), but it appears this issue transcends operating systems and is actually a hardware bug: https://twitter.com/allen_heath/status/953564268158488576

The related threads I’ve found reference the same thing:

• https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/qu-32-usb-b-streaming-produce-robotic-noise
• https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/random-electrical-noises-during-playback-studio-use
• https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/interferance-on-usb3-connection
• https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/specification-updates/7-series-chipset-pch-spec-update.pdf (Page 15, Errata 1)
• https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/qu-16-usb-recording-and-streaming-problem

At this point, since my intent is live streaming, I’m considering using an intermediate (non-Intel) USB capture device, and leveraging GStreamer’s TCP streaming capability to shuffle my tracks off to the mixer over Ethernet. I’ll report back if I have success with that.

[Giga]

Unfortunately I’m only sure it works with Studio One 2.

It’s a 64bit W7 pro I7 @ 2,67 Ghz with 8 Gigs of RAM. It has a Samsung 840 EVO SSD.

The T61 is older and less equipped but works great too.

Good luck !

Giga

[Anonymous]

What do you expect A&H to do? Intel USB3 chips can’t support proper USB2 behaviour.

It’s like demanding that shell makes your Saab fly because Saab made some jets in the past and shell petrol is what you’ve used…

Intel messed up their chipset… A&H software can’t do magic. An ECU mapping change won’t get 1000 horsepower from a three cylinder 400cc engine.

[Frank]

Hi Giga, thanks for aour explanation. It is the same, what I could buy. only no SSD, but I could sell this on top, if normal HDD will not work… and of course, I didn’t mean USB-B-Recording, I mean USB-B-playback! This is the problem with this distorsions… the playback, not the recording! I don’t believe, that there is a difference between Cubase an d others, because I get it also with easy VLC-player… so I will buy this laptop and take it ONLY for AUDIO-subjects…

Thanks for Your help! It’s a pitty, that neither INTEL nor A&H are able (A&H, because INTEL-driver-problem) oder willing (INTEL) to solve it…

[Author]

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