quality loss of qu-drive recording

[lesouvageParticipant]

I’ve recorded a gypsy orchestra (two violins, one viola, contra bas and cymbal) from Budapest a couple of month ago and today the end mixing was planned. I used the qu-16 and its mixing and sound processing features to mix the recordings on the qu-drive. With the professional speakers the sound was great. The idea was to record the L/R channels. I tried several options to have the L/R channels recorded properly and without loss of quality but all the options I tried resulted in a serious quality decline in terms of depth and dynamics of the music compared to the sound when playing the original recordings on the qu-drive.

I tried to record L/R using Audacity with the back USB connection. Technically it worked OK after some messing around, but the depth and the dynamics where gone at the L/R recording.

I went to the sound equipment rent out and rented a special device (UR-2 stereo rack memory recorder) to record the L/R channels on SD card. First I connected the special device to the outs of the used QCS K-serie speakers. There was still a serious difference in sound. Then I connected the L/R channels of the mixing table directly with the UR-2 stereo rack memory recorder and this also didn’t fix the sound quality problem. The idea was that the recorded L/R channels would (more or less) sound the same as what was to be heard from the speakers while the recording was taken place.

Questions:
– Have I done something basically wrong and is doing end mixing on a QU-16 and recording the L/R channels simply not the way to go?
– Is a significant decline in sound quality when recording the L/R channels inevitable?
– what is a better way to make an end mix of a multi track recording so the depth and dynamics aren’t lost?

Thanks in advance for any pointers, advice and suggestions.

[AndreasModerator]

When recording digitally via USB don’t forget that you need to add gain in your DAW to compensate for the -18dBFs headroom. This is normal but does not affect dynamics or quality etc.
If you record from the same point you feed your speakers, you obviously should get exactly the same sound. Otherwise I’d check cables first.

[[XAP]BobParticipant]

I think you’re missing the key – it needs to be played back through those speakers, in that room, to sound the same.

The dynamics and quality should be identical though…

[MarkPAmanParticipant]

I’m not familiar with that recorder, but some have (usually optional) compression/limiting and HPF built in. Does yours, and is it turned off?

[Author]

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