Recording Q Drive question

[debzdoodleParticipant]

I have always recorded through my QU mixers which assign stereo L & R to tracks 17 and 18.
This past weekend, we had a rehearsal through the SQ6 and at the last minute, we decided to record the session so I connected a flash drive, formatted and hit record without thinking.
When I downloaded the files, I realized that channel 1 and 2 which I had set up as 2 vocal tracks did not record due to the main USB L & R being assigned to track 1 and 2.
I am having difficulty working out how I can change this to allow the vocal tracks to stay in channel 1 and 2 (track 1 & 2).
Everything else on the board is assignable and I have been able to easily use the board without having to refer to the manual very much but this – I can’t figure out.
I need to re -assign the main L & R stereo Q Drive tracks to somewhere else OR re assign the vocal tracks.
Can someone guide me on this?

Also, I got quite a bit of digital noise in random places on the recording which has rarely ever happened on my QU.

Thank you

[debzdoodleParticipant]

I just did a dry run trying out different settings. I have worked out how to assign channel 1 and 2 to track 1 and 2 and so on by using IP direct out I/O patching but I’d also like stereo L and R to record but cannot work out how to do that.

[BobParticipant]

Would you be able to bring a laptop and record from the USB-B connector on the rear? You would then have 32 tracks available.

[debzdoodleParticipant]

I could do that but it’s not worth the extra effort for rehearsal. I was just hoping for an easy and quick way to do it. Thank you for the suggestion though.

[Søren SteinmetzParticipant]

1: just patch Main to say USB 15+16, just like they were to 1+2 in the standard setup.

2: Make sure you record to a stick or better USB SSD harddrive, to allow for fast enough write speed.
I have seen a lot of USB sticks claim to be 100MB/s+, but that was only the read speed as the write was 10-12MB/s. (some even slower)

[PiersParticipant]

Hi, hopefully this might help.

You can create and store your own custom I/O patching, selecting the ‘Library’ button when you’re on the I/O screen itself. This is really useful, since you can quickly switch between recording / playback at a live session. I have one I’ve just named ‘16tk Multi’ as an example.
This is great if you only need the maximum of the 16 channels. I would also recommend using a decent SSD.

The SQ can’t record stereo files & multitrack at the same time to an external drive, so you have to choose which you want prior to recording. You can easily assign the USB to 15/16 though, (as was mentioned before) if you just want to grab a stereo mix from the mixer and not worry about a multitrack.
There is also the option of using a stereo recorder from the alt outputs at the rear. This way you could multitrack and record at the same time.

You mentioned having problems with the recorded files you had? If you haven’t already, you may well want to check the firmware on your mixer and make sure it’s all up to date. If you were trying to multitrack to a USB stick though, that could also be causing errors. Again, I would recommend an external SSD.

Lastly, you may want to read this. It’ll explain things a lot better than I probably just did!

Hope this helps 👍

https://support.allen-heath.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1183/338/understanding-sq-usb-recording-and-playback

[SwellParticipant]

@piers thanks for sharing the “library advice” for IO patching. It seems so obvious now that you pointed that out. I was just about to go down the road of setting up separate scenes for “virtual playback” vs “Live inputs” utilizing the scene filters. The library option seems like that might be easier option.

[debzdoodleParticipant]

Thank you

[debzdoodleParticipant]

Thank you – I will read the article you suggest.

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