Recording level

[gilly]

Hi
Question. Is the recording output level, that is routed from Main LR to Audacity (or any DAW) on PC via Qu-24 USB-B to PC USB, post gain and fader or pre gain and fader?
And is the dB level entering Audacity from USB-B to USB the same level as from Qu Drive USB stick to PC? From the connection diagram in Qu-24 manual it seems that USB-B and Qu Drive are at the same level!

[Anonymous]

Depends what you have selected to route to them.

Check the full manual – you can route from many places in the audio chain.

The USB-B and Qu-Drive channels are identical – and are 24bit, with the nominal 0dB at -18dBFS. So yes, they sound quiet and no this isn’t an issue.

[Gordon]

This is discussed on page 75 of the manual. Concerning the Main LR (Master strip) source, you can choose either “LR Pre” or “LR Post”.

As a side note, there is no Gain control in the Main LR strip; only a Fader.

[gilly]

Thanks guys.

Yes Gordon I realise theres no gain control on LR, what I meant was pre/post gain plus fader on the channel for the radio mic (e.g. ch 21) and pre/post LR fader. Because the levels on our church sermon podcasts vary somewhat from week to week depending on who’s on sound. 2 weeks ago it was quite a lot lower than other weeks so I can only assume that the ch 21 gain and/or fader was set lower and/or the main LR fader was lower as all of these controls are in the audio path feeding the internal recorder and thus resulting in a lower level going into Audacity.

If I select LR Pre fader would i get a more consistent podcast level? I don’t suppose you can also bypass the channel (ch 21) so that only ch 21 gain control effects the recording level.
I know you can do some process editing in Audacity afterwards to raise the recorded volume to a decent professional level with max peak under the 0 dB clipping level (using Hard Limiter and Amplify effects) but we have a macro that just raises the recorded level by 30 dB using the + level control in Audacity ‘Audio Track’ tab (to the left of the audio track sound level graphs, below the Mute and Solo buttons). To create a macro that could do all the process editing steps to reduce background noise, hard limit, amplify etc might prove a bit tricjy.

[MarkPAman]

See page 52 of the manual. You can set it to record only channel 21. If you make your direct outs pre-fade (follow fader OFF) page 38, you should get what you want.

[gilly]

Thanks Mark
OK so I set Ch 21 to Pre-fade (via Select Ch 21>Routing>Turn ‘Follow fader’ to off) and select Ch 21 as recording source (via Setup>Output Patch>USB Audio>Select Ch 17 in Qu-Drive Stereo Box and scroll to select Ch 21, and again select Ch 18 and scroll to select Ch 21). Yes ? But then if Ch 21 (where the speaker’s headset radio mic is connected to) is Pre-fade that would mean I can only adjust it’s level via the Gain control when speaker is speaking, this wouldn’t be desirable ?

Btw the Direct Out Source has 5 options: Post PreAmp, Post Insert, Post PEQ, Post Comp, Post Delay. If I select one, e.g. Post PEQ, does that mean the other 4 will be Pre .. ?

[DavidCo]

gilly,

All will become clear with the block diagram, they’re simply picking points along a signal chain.

DC

[MarkPAman]

You said:
“I don’t suppose you can also bypass the channel (ch 21) so that only ch 21 gain control effects the recording level.”

You could set the recording routing to follow fader though.

[gilly]

I guess what would be ideal is to have the radio mic channel routed pre-fader to the Qu-Drive/USB-B but remain post-fader to main LR so fader can be adjusted normally during sermon. I guess from above this isn’t possible. I guess i will just have to rely on manually editing in Audacity before exporting to mp3 and uploading as podcast.
Btw I’ve read that iTunes has a better mp3 encoder than Audacity. Anyone agree with this?

[MarkPAman]

Exactly what you want is available. Record the mic with “follow fader” turned off, and use the fader for the live service.

[gilly]

Mark im sorry im not at desk at moment and no access to manual, so how do i set ch 21 to pre-fade just for recording (while set to post-fade for LR)

[MarkPAman]

You can download the manual here. Click “Documents” Second one.

[gilly]

Page 38 in the manual (Channel Direct Output settings) says: “USB audio sends – These can be sourced from the Channel Inserts (default) or from the Direct Outputs.Live recording = Insert Sends”.
I don’t fully understand what Channel Insert and Direct Out are in relation to recording source, as I see from Page 52 (Patch the Source to be recorded) that you can select ‘Insert Sends’ or ‘Direct Outs’ for CH/ST source. Can someone please explain what this means, in plain English not manual speak ….

[gilly]

Ok ive read up some about this and so the Insert Send (to effects) taken from the channel signal path after the pre-amp (gain) but before the EQ and fader. But on the Qu-24 can the Direct Output (feeding the Qu Drive & Usb streaming) be taken either before EQ, after EQ but before fader or after fader?

[gilly]

Mark
Last night I experimented with hand held radio mic on channel 23(one of 4 channels 21-24 we use for sermon talks).
I selected Ch 23 and turned ‘Follow Fader’ to off on global Direct Out settings, so as to set the radio mic channel (and all other channels since it’s a global setting) to pre-fade on output to USB audio.
I then went into Setup/Output Patch/USB Audio screen and changed the Stereo Recording channels 1 and 2 input source from LR-L & LR-R to Ch 23 & Ch 23(as our Audacity DAW is set up to look at the first two channels 1 and 2 rather than the usual Ch 17 and 18 for Stereo Recording) and selected ‘Direct Out’ as the CH/ST/Grp input source.
And I made a small sample recording on Ch 23 and moved fader up and down, and on playback the level remained the same irrespective of Ch 23 fader level, but the fader level did change the output to the house – which is what I wanted.
All good so far. But since we have 4 channels (Ch 21-24) that we use for radio mics for sermons, having the USB audio stereo recording source as just Ch 23 won’t work.
I am wondering is there a way to route Ch 21-24 to a Mix, e.g. Mix 5/6, and then select Mix 5/6 as the input source to channels 1 & 2 in USB Audio, would that work ?

[Author]

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