QU-32 and Pro Tools Workflow

[NebontsParticipant]

Hello everybody,

I’m working on a new rehearsal studio that uses a QU 32 as a console. Besides the rehearsals we also do some recordings and I’m having problems setting up a proper workflow for this demand.

The Setup-
LR is used to feed the P.A in the rehearsal room; Mix 1 and 2 are used to the ground monitors. Mix 3 is a subwoofer send and MIX 7-8 are used for the monitors in the control room.
The QU-32 is connected to a mac via USB and then I use it as a DAW control.

The Questions-

1) I setup the gain structure from the microphones using as reference the console, so I set it to 0dB on QU 32, and because of the dB x dBFS conversion it modulates around -18, -20 on pro tools which is very low but It has a nice headroom. In order to monitor the recording, I create and Stereo aux in Pro-Tools and route then to two free channels on QU.

So, the thing is after the recording is done, what is the best way to raise the levels of the tracks? I use normalize but Im not quite sure about the % that I should Use.

And after that, when Im going to mix the tracks, how do I set the levels on my monitor, because after this processes the tracks gets really loud. The method Im using is setting the gain on the two channels used for monitoring -18dB. Is that right? Do I have a good volume reference mixing like this?

2) The ProTools Im using is very simple, don’t have any plugin other than the default ones, so I wanna use the QU compressors, FX and GATE which I like a lot, is there anyway I can do that?

It would be nice to have a good and conclusive debate around this since its a very common doubt around here. Later I will post this on the QU Tutorials so that it is easier to get the knowledge.

[[XAP]BobParticipant]

2) You can choose the ‘direct out’ point. Can’t tell you which page in he manual at the moment, but it’s in there, and now you have a search term 😉

1) you can normalise it to whatever you want in post production. I’d do whatever processing I needed then normalise the output to 0dBFS in order to cut the bit depth.
Is there a need to normalise before mastering?

[MarkPAmanParticipant]

2) Page 38 🙂

[[XAP]BobParticipant]

Thanks – I was on a plane at the time 😉 (pre taxi-ing)

[NebontsParticipant]

Its because I don’t master properly yet, I use a limiter and a little EQ, I know its far for perfect but it is what I have. I talked to another engineer and he told me the “normalizing”in pro tools affects the sound quality, and said that a better option was using a gain plug-in, can you give me a light on that?

[NebontsParticipant]

Thanks a lot for the info guys

[[XAP]BobParticipant]

I’m going to point you to one of my favourite videos on the subject:
https://wiki.xiph.org/Videos/Digital_Show_and_Tell

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