Using Qu Pac or Qu SB For Audio Interface

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This topic contains 5 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by Profile photo of pt. pt. 1 year, 10 months ago.

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  • #100307
    Profile photo of Matthew D
    Matthew D
    Participant

    Hello all! Hope everyone is doing well!

    I was curious to see if anyone has any experience with using either the Qu-Pac or the Qu-SB as an audio interface for a home studio. I’m a big fan of A&H products and have used the SQ7 and Qu-Pac in live situations with great results, but I’m looking to upgrade my interface at home, and nothing on the market comes close to the I/O the these two offer at this price range.

    Thanks!

    #100311
    Profile photo of psikes
    psikes
    Participant

    I use my Qu-PAC with Reaper DAW and I am very pleased with the combination.

    #100312
    Profile photo of Matthew D
    Matthew D
    Participant

    How do you configure the routing?

    #100326
    Profile photo of psikes
    psikes
    Participant

    I am recording via USB directly into the DAW anywhere from 1 to 16 channels at a time. Two more counting Main LR. Reaper is running on an iMac 27 with the latest OS x.

    #107105
    Profile photo of greenblob
    greenblob
    Participant

    I’m also hoping to use a Qu-Pac as an studio interface but have some concerns. How do you control it efficiently from the mixing position? It appears there is no dedicated control software when it’s used as an interface? Are you forced to operate the Qu-Pac rack via the touchscreen & buttons?

    This Qu-Pac was previously utilized as a live venue mixer. Using a dedicated Ipad for the venue to run the official A&H QU-Pad app it was a rock solid FOH solution. Not so sure about its possible new role.

    From my understanding as an audio interface in a studio environment is there no software that controls the Qu-Pac over USB? Seems the only software available for Windows\PC to actually control the thing is unsupported 3rd party software that unfortunately, is also network based. Is there any supported USB software?

    It seems the Qu-Pac isn’t really supported as an “Audio Interface” beyond the basic supplied ASIO communication drivers?

    Hopefully I’m missing something here? Any advice appreciated!

    #107166
    Profile photo of pt.
    pt.
    Participant

    I’ve been using the Qu-Pac a couple of years initially as mixer for all my synths and using the internal fx plus the stereo inputs as fx returns for a lexicon and tc-two.

    Before I had a long string of digital mixers and interfaces; starting out with a (Yamaha) 01V, 03D and then going to Motu interfaces, a Soundcraft SI32 and now the Qu-Pac. What I really love about the Yamaha digital mixers is the possibility of use sysex to dump the mixer scene into the DAW and store it with the project – somehow all modern mixers don’t have this feature anymore.

    For the Qu-Pac I’ve build a control panel in CTRLR (somewhere on this forum) – but it had it’s limitations. Then I used Mixing Station PC (also Mac) – a very nice control panel. It can be used to store and recall scenes. One thing it can’t do is automation.

    So recently I’ve starting to use the Qu-Pac as an audio interface – you can basically use it as a 32 in/out interface.
    – I’ve assigned al the inputs to a group.
    – I’m using Logic and in Logic created “external instruments” for all the connected synths. External instruments in Logic allow you to combine audio and midi in one channel but I wasn’t totally happy with that so I’m using separate midi tracks. This gives more flexibility and control e.g. for equipment that is multi timbral or if I run multiple midi tracks to the same drum computer.
    – The external instrument tracks then act as the audio mixer.
    – The output of the mix is sent to the Qu-Pac to two channels (L/R) setup as USB channel in the Qu. Very important here is that these go to a separate group and to never select it as an input for the Logic mixer or you’ll get some very nasty digital feedback (not nice especially if you’re wearing headphones).
    – By hitting the “bounce” button on the output channel of the mixer in Logic you’re getting the a mixdown of the project.

    I’ve attached a screenshot of a project file that shows what it looks like; on Soundcloud you can hear the result here:
    I’ve been using the Qu-Pac a couple of years initially as mixer for all my synths and using the internal fx plus the stereo inputs as fx returns for a lexicon and tc-two.

    Before I had a long string of digital mixers and interfaces; starting out with a (Yamaha) 01V, 03D and then going to Motu interfaces, a Soundcraft SI32 and now the Qu-Pac. What I really love about the Yamaha digital mixers is the possibility of use sysex to dump the mixer scene into the DAW and store it with the project – somehow all modern mixers don’t have this feature anymore.

    For the Qu-Pac I’ve build a control panel in CTRLR (somewhere on this forum) – but it had it’s limitations. Then I used Mixing Station PC (also Mac) – a very nice control panel. It can be used to store and recall scenes. One thing it can’t do is automation.

    So recently I’ve starting to use the Qu-Pac as an audio interface – you can basically use it as a 32 in/out interface.
    – I’ve assigned al the inputs to a group.
    – I’m using Logic and in Logic created “external instruments” for all the connected synths. External instruments in Logic allow you to combine audio and midi in one channel but I wasn’t totally happy with that so I’m using separate midi tracks. This gives more flexibility and control e.g. for equipment that is multi timbral or if I run multiple midi tracks to the same drum computer.
    – The external instrument tracks then act as the audio mixer.
    – The output of the mix is sent to the Qu-Pac to two channels (L/R) setup as USB channel in the Qu. Very important here is that these go to a separate group and to never select it as an input for the Logic mixer or you’ll get some very nasty digital feedback (not nice especially if you’re wearing headphones).
    – By hitting the “bounce” button on the output channel of the mixer in Logic you’re getting the a mixdown of the project.

    I’ve attached a screenshot of a project file that shows what it looks like; on Soundcloud you can hear the result here:

    So far I’m really happy with this setup; it has total-recall, allows for a lot of flexibility and sounds good to me.

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