USB B streaming audio distortion (Qu-24)

[lrdtgarsas]

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2014) El Capitan (10.11.3) and Qu-24 (1.82)

Conditions (attached audio):
Qu-24 Trim -24 db (increased to 0 db in middle)
VOX on 100 (decreased to about 50 in middle)

USB cable is from FireFace UFX %)

Notes:
Distortion usually starts from 30-60 min from beginning of using USB B streaming audio to Qu-24
and same situation with Ableton 9.5

Attachments:

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[dpdan]

Hi,
your post is somewhat confusing, you did a good job of informing us of the gear you are using but did not explain how you are trying to use the three different pieces of gear.
I realize the RME Fireface is an audio interface for a computer, and it can be connected to the computer with a USB 2.0 connection or Firewire 400 cable.

I do not understand if you are connecting your microphones to the Fireface and then connecting the Fireface to the Qu, or perhaps you are connecting the microphones to the Qu and trying to connect the Qu USB to the Fireface.
Regardless, if you are recording microphones into a Mac with DAW software, and you have a Qu24,….
you should not be using the Fireface at all. You may think that the sound quality of the Fireface mic preamps are better than the ones on the Qu mixer, but I personally doubt that there is any appreciable or even discernable difference. I suggest not using the Fireface and connnect the mics to the Qu and connnect the USB Streaming output of the Qu to the Mac.

The Qu mixers have a sample rate of 48 Khz. and can not be changed.
Make sure that whatever DAW software you are using has the same sample rate of 48,
ideally, the Qu24 should be the master clock,… not the DAW.

Dan

[lrdtgarsas]

No… I’m just using FireFace’s USB cable to connect MacBook Pro to Qu-24 🙂
(I mentioned it to prevent suggestions about bad-quality of this part of connection)
So… MacBook Pro (El Capitan 10.11.3) DAW (Ableton 9.5) which automatically sets 48 kHz sample rate then I choose Qu-24 as Audio output device – USB cable – Qu-24 (USB B port) and… result you can hear on attachment. (So I just want to stream audio from Ableton through USB to Qu-24)

[Andreas]

This again is the streaming buffer over/underrun sound we’ve heared from few other Mac users as well. Maybe there’s some lack of compatibility for high density audio streaming (there’s always all channels transferred, even if you’re only recording a single channel) on a particular hardware series or OSX version.
I guess recording from the Fireface (=less channels) via USB works correctly, right?
Are you recording to the internal drive or something connected externally? Did you try to record using a simpler DAW (like evaluation version of Reaper)?

[lrdtgarsas]

Yes, with FireFace no problem at all (since 2012) but if I want to play audio from MacBook Pro to Qu-24 I need to use DA outputs from UFX to AD inputs on Qu-24 (because Qu-24 have no AES3 or S/PDIF input) for 2016 it’s some kind of anachronism… Another opportunity for me is USB B streaming. I know that recording to USB Flash (!) provides 18 channels without possibility to decrease non-used channels (‘heavy silence’ I say) But I’m talking about USB B streaming and I always thought that in this case there is no audio data transfer except channels that enabled in Channel Routing screen (for example I use only 9 and 10 channels for USB B streaming from MacBook Pro other channels are left as Local) By the way with recording from Qu-24 using USB Flash (18 channels) and from Qu-24 using USB B to DAW there is no problem… These distortions occurs only when I’m using USB B audio streaming from MacBook Pro to Qu-24.

[Andreas]

The Qu does not have digital audio inputs for the simple reason that the Qu is only a clock master and can’t slave to some external data stream. This isn’t an anachronism its to bring the unit to that low price range.
If the issue is during playback only, did you try to increase your streaming buffers?
I hope you don’t have connected the Fireface in parallel to the Qu, then there are two clock masters in your system which may be the cause of that issue as well.

[Cam]

I am having the same issue! I have tried all sorts of settings to try and correct it (within cubase as well as on the windows). I’m using my Qu-16 usb streaming in cubase 8.5 on my PC and I get the same audio distortion after some time in use. I only stream a couple of my stareo channels, not the whole mixer but at times record up to 13 tracks at one time. I keep the other channels local to allow me the opportunity to listen directly from the mixer and not through the computer. What should I be trying to fix this issue?

[Anonymous]

The stream is ALWAYS everything…

If you ignore half the data that’s fine, but the streamed data is always there….

[philt80]

On the PC try changing your video card. For whatever reason, I could not get the distortion/artifacts to stop (and they occurred after about 15 mins then started after about 5). I’ve got a QU-24, PC with AMD based motherboard. I changed the usb cable, reformated windows, got rid of my ssd, went to ever known firmware, even bought new DAWs, in the end it turned out to be the VIDEO CARD. For me, no NVIDIA based card would work, only ATI/AMD. Now at 7ms latency (couldn’t even go less than 2048 samples before) Samplitude complains of a drop asio buffer rarely and I’ve never had the glitches before.
Hope this helps.. good luck.

[philt80]

just read your first post.. hope your mac book doesn’t have a nvidia card. 🙁 May not be the reason, but for me it certainly was.

[I am]

I have a HP Envy with a Intel pci HD controller. I have distortion as well. Any comments?

[lrdtgarsas]

Unfortunately..??? (if VIDEO (!!!) card is the reason for this issue when… I have no comments…) it’s MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2014) with NVIDIA graphic card on board… when all that remains is to try gfxCardStatus program (force switch to Intel Iris Pro graphics) and… PRAY..? :S

[David Haughton]

Hi all, please see message from our product support team below who are looking into this behaviour. We are not even sure this is caused by the gfx card and have had very few reports of this. Also, we have only had a very small number of people actually send in details as requested. Without user input via the proper support channels it is very difficult for us to get to the root cause of this behaviour and resolve any issue.
Thanks.
Harry.

Dear all,

We are keen to learn why some of you are continuing to experience USB streaming noise issues on the Windows platform.

What we would like to do is obtain system reports for those of you who are still having issues to try and more specifically determine where the issues are being introduced. For this we’d recommend a utility like SiSoft Sandra which will produce a full system report of your machine. Please can you email your reports to support@allen-heath.com which will create a support ticket and open up a channel of communication.

Regards
Product support

[lrdtgarsas]

What information should I provide to support if I work only with MacBook Pro..?

[ernie]

Hi all, i want to report my solution to this problem i was also having. let me start with this.. i have always been told that on a pro workstation be it mac or pc you should always use your dedicated interface for recording or playback via your mac or pc.whether it costs €10 or €10,000.. and not to use your onboard soundcard as it would prob be far less superior. i recently recieved a custum build pro audio pc for music creation recording. this was not a cheap pc!! i noticed it came with an onboard soundcard. i have been having this random robotic noise like many on hear for a while now, so i contacted the company who built my pc and told them the issue i was having. to my suprise this is what he said!! MAKE SURE TO MAKE THE ONBOARD SOUNDCARD YOUR DEFAULT SOUND DEVICE!!!! and not the qu32.. since doing this i have not had any noise or issues at all for the last 4 weeks..oviously when i open pro tools or cubase my qu32 autamatically becomes my sound device as i have it setup this way.. i really hope this helps alot of users out there.

[Author]

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