Very low muffled recording straight to Audacity

[gilly]

Hi
I recorded a Stereo track sermon straight onto Audacity (via St1 out connected to PC) but its coming out very low level (less than -60 on the Audacity level meter) and when i play it back its very muffled, can’t hear a thing preacher said…. I raised the level to 30 dB but all it does it make the muffles louder!! It was working fine 2 weeks ago recording direct to Audacity. We backed up onto USB plugged into the qu24 and it comes out fine when edited thru Audacity (increasing volume by 30 dB). Any ideas whats causing this?

[MarkPAman]

Can you check that output?

The only thing I can see labeled St1 is an input……

[DoctorG]

You might try the Alt output for this purpose, if you’re not using it for something else.

[Anonymous]

Alt out and check the physical pot on the mixer surface.

[gilly]

Hi guys
Sorry, I misled ye. We have it connected from PC USB to QU-24 USB-B port, not ST1 or ALT OUT.
It was all working fine 3 weeks ago as per below Audacity setup, but then 2 weeks ago we noticed the meter wasn’t even showing any level when we pressed record in Audacity and the recording came out extremely low and very muffled. I’m thinking perhaps someone inadvertantly changed one of the settings in Audacity ?

How to setup the Computer to record and play from QU-24:

Setup the QU-24 to stream to the Computer (from USB-B)
1. On the QU-24 press the Setup button -> IO Patch -> USB Audio
2. Set channel 1 to LR – L
3. Set channel 2 to LR – R
4. Everything else doesn’t matter as we won’t be using them.

Setup Audacity to record using Windows Direct Sound Driver:
1. Open Audacity
2. Select the input device to Windows Direct Sound
3. In the second dropdown list select QU-24
4. In the third dropdown list select 2 Stereo
5. In the final dropdown list select the sound output device (most likely QU-24)
6. Hit record.

Setup QU-24 to play from the computer:
1. Select the processing tab for ST3
2. Select the Source Button to open the mappings.
3. For ST3 change the input source from “LOCAL” to USB.
4. For the global USB setting change it from QU-Drive to USB B Streaming.

Setup the computer to play to the QU-24:
1. Right click on the sound icon in bottom right hand corner and select “Playback Devices”
2. On Device marked QU-24 right click and select “Select Default Device”
3. The option “Select Default Communication Device” doesn’t really matter as that basically tells communication programs like skype what device to use which doesn’t apply to us.

[DavidCo]

Hi gilly,

This arrangement will record input channel and LR bus processing. How much is going on in the channel and LR processing? There’s a chance your room EQ is set up on LR. I’d move any processing of that kind to a matrix channel and send LR to that matrix.

DC

[Anonymous]

I think the playback would then be playing back channels 29/30 on a QU24
Not relevant to the recording problem, unless you aren’t playing back what you think you are

[gilly]

Hi Dave
For the sermon talk we have a radio head mic connected to input Channel 22 and that is all that is being recorded and streamed to PC during the sermon. We also insert a USB in QU-Drive as backup stereo recording and that records perfectly (apart from having to add about 28-30 dB gain afterwards before exporting from Audacity to mp3)
But as I said, the direct USB streaming was working grand for several weeks and then this happened 2 weeks ago. The fact that it is only registering around -60 on the Audacity level meter indicates the recording level is set so low that all you are hearing is a lopw muffled voice plus noise and when you boost it afterwards it just becomes a louder muffled voice behind a lot of noise ??

[Anonymous]

Have you tried The Pre fader LR output?

[gilly]

How do you mean Bob, for Ch1 and Ch2 in USB Audio??

[Anonymous]

Yes – in the output patch I think you can choose to send the PreFade L&R (although I might be imagining it, that might be a Roland feature)

[gilly]

I will check later this evening on way home from work

[Anonymous]

Page 66 of the manual.

[gilly]

CH/ST/Grp source button
Set this to Insert Sends if you do not want the input
channel and group USB sends to be affected by the
mixer processing (EQ, Comp, Gate, Delay). This sends
the raw Preamp and unprocessed Group signals to the
USB stream and is the typical setting for live recording.

The USB Audio factory reset default patching varies
according to Qu model. All ensure that tracks 17-18 =
LR post-fader for Qu-Drive stereo recording. The
patching can be changed here to suit your
requirements.
Note – Set the USB Audio Patching before using Qu-
Drive or USB streaming.

The following sources can be patched:
X Unassigned
CH Mono channel (Insert or Direct Out)
ST Stereo channel (Insert or Direct Out)
FX Ret FX returns 1-4 pre-fader
Grp Group (Insert or post-fader)
Mix Mix 1-10 post-fader
LR pre Main LR mix – pre-fader
LR post Main LR mix – post-fader
L+R pre Main LR mono sum – pre-fader
MTX Matrix post-fader
PAFL Stereo PAFL monitor

[gilly]

PS
As an aside, i noticed that with this USB streaming setup that when I play back the recording from PC to QU-24 that it is controlled via the ST3 fader, but when I say play i-Tunes from PC to QU-24 it is controlled via ST1 fader. Can they both be on the same fader, ST3 or ST1?

[Author]

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