USB Audio Fail

[Z O L T NParticipant]

I just picked up a new CQ-18T and there is no USB audio from my Mac. I have a Qu-16C so I am familiar with USB routing on Allen and Heath settings. But for some reason the CQ-18T only shows as a USB audio source in MIDI setup but there is not audio no matter which channel I select. By default the main stereo mix coming from my Mac should be channels 23 and 24. Any instrument connected plays through fine but that’s it.

I am running the latest firmware but wondering if I have a faulty unit?

Please advise as this and the lack of documentation is a total fail for such an expensive device.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

Hi Z O L T N

The CQ User Guide is available from the product pages (https://www.allen-heath.com/cq/cq-18t/).

A couple of things to note that may help:
– There are two USB Stream Mode options in CONFIG / USB/SD/BT / USB/SD. Switching these will mean the connected computer will see either a stereo device or a multitrack device. It will also change the internal routing of the CQ. Stereo playback will come in on the dedicated stereo USB channel. Multitrack playback will be more like you describe, where USB channels are routed to the digital input source of individual channels (much like your Qu)
– The current source of each channel is listed in the preamp section of the PROCESSING screen, when using a Complete Channel (not available when a Quick Channel is loaded).

If you’re still having problems though, please contact us using support.allen-heath.com and we can figure this out with you.

Thanks,
Keith.

[Z O L T NParticipant]

Thanks Keith. So if I am understanding you the CQ-18T can only stream audio from my Mac in stereo mode? But cannot stream audio from my Mac, as the master channel, and the other 16 channels?

The specs say 24×22 USB-B interface (48/96kHz)! I did see the manual finally post and reviewed it. There was no reference to setting up the unit as a basic audio interface. Only setup for in/out audio for a DAW.
I did select the dedicated stereo channel in the USB Stream Mode options and no audio. Believe me, I have tried the options you mention above with no success.

On my QU-16 I am using channels 21/22 for the Mac audio (YouTube, Spotify, etc) and have the other channels routed accordingly in Ableton. Works perfectly fine.

I am still baffled that all the marketing video for this product portrayed it as easy setup and go yet I am seeing other people with similar issues.

[SXWParticipant]

Finally, the manual! I already returned mine, though ( I need to work on my patience :-). I got the USB sorted, but I connect to Logic on my Mac over my wifi; it seems on CQ you have to connect to its wifi, so I was having to switch back and forth between access points. I didn’t try Blue Tooth as I thought that was audio only. And yes, I watched every video I could find. I spent a week trying to get a workable setup for myself and ultimately gave up. I’ll GOP read the user guide now that’s it out and see if I was missing something, as I really wanted to make it work for my application. Thanks for all the input (pun intended).

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@Z O L T N

No – it’s either stereo or multitrack but class compliant in both, so with a mac will show up as either a stereo or a multichannel device.

I’ve just set up a CQ-18T exactly as you described and couldn’t get it to go wrong, so please confirm you’re trying something like this:

1. Set CQ USB streaming to Multitrack and it happened to be in 96kHz
2. Checked USB input source (‘Sourced from USB/SD Inputs 19/20’)
3. Connected CQ-18T to mac (physically)
4. Went to Audio MIDI Setup, selected the CQ-18T and clicked ‘configure speakers’ to set system outputs
5. Set a stereo device (as default) with left = 19 and right = 20
6. Set output device as CQ-18T in sound preferences
7. Listened to some terrible music on YouTube, which appeared on the stereo USB channel
8. Opened Ableton
9. Set Core Audio and selected CQ-18T as input/output device
10. Set inputs and outputs to present all available (in mono and stereo) – this is not strictly necessary, but I’m not bothered about seeing everything when routing so always do it.
11. Wrote a killer bass line
12. Set the channel output to Ext and channel 3
13. Switched channel 3 on the CQ to use digital (USB/SD) instead of Analogue
14. Played killer bass line through CQ Ip3 at the same time as listening to terrible music on YouTube

Which is very similar to how the Qu would have been setup, just with different channels.
If you had set everything up as it was for Qu, and something that is admittedly confusing, is that the CQ-18T can playback 22 channels (as we state), but 24 will show up because the interface is the same as the CQ-20B which has an extra stereo channel to play back to (and this doesn’t exist on the 18T). So playing back to channels 21/22 has nowhere to go on an 18T, but you can feed signal to every channel.

Thanks,
Keith.

[Z O L T NParticipant]

@keith – thanks for taking the time to replicate my issue. Even though it took a bit to realize step 2 was only accessed by tapping the Trim icon on the USB channel strip in Processing, I made it to step 5 and have sound (finally). Fourth time (unboxing again) is a charm? And I was returning it today, LOL.

FWIW – I selected Channels 21/20 in Audio MIDI Setup and then played a YouTube video – nothing. But when I went back to the CQ-18T and selected Fader I saw a tiny level showing sound coming in under the ST INPUTS / FX tab. I tapped the USB strip and turned up the gain – voila – sound! A bit puzzled but I realize now I had assumed audio would be on channels 23/24 since the channel assignment section says 23/24 – Main LR and under it Stereo L/R.

And yes, now that you point it out this is the wonky way I control Mac audio on my Qu-16 via ST3. If the CQ-18T manual could state that USB audio from your computer will playback on channels 21/20 that will help many people.

Scene saved!
Thanks again,
Z

[bullmoonParticipant]

took a bit to realize step 2 was only accessed by tapping the Trim icon on the USB channel strip in Processing

You can also do it from the config page and that lets you use Multiselect if you need to set several channels to USB or Analog – and you likely will need to at some point. I find it easier to do it from Config.

[RGParticipant]

Just received the 18T and was able to set up the multitracking with Ableton. Thanks for the info – worked perfectly and your intro video to the unit was great except for the excess slurping of the Java (lol)…RG

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