[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Or I can do all the playback mixing in my DAW and simply return a stereo mix to the QU.. kind of easier in some ways but means mixing with a mouse in a recording session.
What do others do?

Maybe this is not the best forum for this kind of question though using as a mixer in a recording session is a pretty big use for the QU 16.

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Hi Steffen,
I understand what you are saying. And yes, that was why I had set up this way so I could use the QU to make my monitoring headphone mixes. I recognized the advantage of monitoring in the QU h/w pre-daw (low latency, use of reverb etc for the monitors only, and QU does monitor mixes so well). However I had (wrongly) assumed that for the unique case of punch in recording, I would need to monitor what I am recording during the punch in stage through the DAW. But I don’t actually need to. True. In fact it is prob heaps better that I continue to monitor direct off the input pre-DAW. Duh 🙂
I will try that. Thanks 🙂

Incidentally for the playback monitoring I think I will use Folders tracks (busses) in my DAW to roll up related tracks into “virtual stems” or groups and return those to the DAW .. so I will roll up all Vox into a return on say Ch 9/10, Guitars on 11/12, Drums 13/14 Bass (15/16) so I can create individual monitor mixes using a relative mix of these groups. That sound sensible? I will give that a go tonight.

Many thanks
Andy NZ

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Thanks Dave,
It is USB2 and on the motherboard but it is a pretty low spec laptop.. so yes, guess it could be a laptop (as opposed to driver) issue. I will give it a go with a faster laptop.

Andy

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Perhaps I can ask this another way round– what is the lowest usable latency others are getting out of the windows ASIO driver for QU16? I’m wondering if it is an issue on my windows laptop. 14ms is not really usable for monitoring as you record.

So far I have ended up reverting to Mac- I can get 6.3ms with a 256 buffer on my macbook and mac mini which is good I’d say.

Andy

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Yeh.. I don’t think they are big files yet and I can’t find anything with a corresponding date/time.. There are about 1,700 files on there .. Ah well.

Lesson learned. Take heed folks: if recording direct to QDrive
— Stop your recording and shut down desk before you power down;
— Consider a ups else you will prob lose your recording if you lose power;
— consider streaming to Laptop & DAW if vital. Note you can do both concurrently.

Thanks for your help though guys.
Andy
Waiheke Island NZ

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

I’ve looked on the the disk with a disk recovery scanner and boy there is a lot of old stuff still on there hidden away but I can’t find 18 large files looking like they need a header. I think I may have to chalk this up to experience and move on.
Yep perhaps a UPS OR record via USB to a DAW and laptop: wee bit more hassle but safer I think. Or maybe direct to drive and over the USB simultaneously if it is a really important recording.

Thanks for you help though.
Andy

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Thanks for that advice. Not had any luck so far but will keep trying.

Perhaps a reason I hadn’t considered why streaming over USB for recording is a little safer- a laptop DAW would handle the loss of connection to the desk much more gracefully than it seems a HD does mid write.. (Assuming the loss of power was the issue and that I don’t simply have an (unrelated) HD issue).

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

I carry a disc-man too Dave H 🙂

You based in AKL Davec?
Jansen must have done a good job 🙂 It is where I got my QU 16 anyway.
Andy

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Hi Dave
Thanks man.
Yeh you are right.

I’m running my intermission music from Foobar2000 playlists on my laptop because it is really easy– saves me burning CDS or making sticks up for QU drive and although I can go out of my laptop headphone port into ST3 I would prefer not to because my laptop headphone amp is such poor quality that I can hear the dynamics squished when played back on my PA.

I would much rather address the QU ASIO driver directly from Foobar over USB B. For example RME have made it possible that Foobar can playback on any of the 16 channels of my RME Hammerfall gear when I’m using that .. and by same token I can see all the channels of the QU from my Reaper DAW so why not from Foobar or Windows Media Player? Why only CH1 and CH2 fixed? Make them ST3 and I’d be happy.

Show stopper? Nope. Of course not. Nice to have? Would be I think..
I will add to the Feature Suggestions area.
Thanks

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Yes I would really like some way of changing the default return from Window from CH 1 / CH2.. (to ST 3 say)
would be really cool to stream continuity music from a laptop but Ch 1 / Ch2 are a really strange choice to receive it on.. these channels are likely to be in full show use and I don’t want to be swapping their source and levels just to play my backing tracks..

Andy NZ

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Many thanks Nicola.. very helpful.
Those USB 3.0 extreme USB sticks are reputedly very fast– 170mbit/sec over USB 3.. over USB 2..??
But 64GB would give around 5-6hrs of QU16 multi track record time I believe… prob worth a go then

Thanks Nicola

Andy

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Hi
Hard to know quite what might have happened here..
You can actually record to stereo Qdrive (and multitrack) and stream to USB B simultaneously.. it works..under 1.4 firmware anyway.. A&H don’t promote this feature so whether it works in all cases I don’t know.. but this might not be your problem.

I Q-DRive stereo record records from the mixer LR main mix post fader by default.
If you have a recording with no signal on Stereo Qdrive then either
a) the drive was not working properly– (did you format it first and did the QU recognise and present the drive capacity etc properly (under utils)?) OR
b) it was working but LR was muted or faded out.. (were you sending to a PA with the mixer using the LR main mix ok?)

I suspect that if you are getting a recording via the USB B but it sounds crap then either
a) you have a fault OR
b) you have really bad clipping somewhere- are you familiar with the desk.. did you set the channel trims correctly?

And yes, you can record to another device using Aux outs or the 2Track out which follows the LR mix post fader but I’d be working out what went wrong last time as a priority.

Hard to help without more info. If you describe your set up a bit may be able to advise so more.
Hope you get it sorted
Andy

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Sorry should have read “Note that QU speakers play back on CH1 and CH2 on the QU” (not CH2 and CH2)..

never post without your glasses on..
Anyway– hope helps.
Andy

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

I can see from Windows Media player and from Foobar2000 an option in the respective programs to playback using Speakers: QU-16. I can only see this when my mixer is up and running and USB connected. I can also see this from control panel — same proviso. Prob pays to try with mixer booted up and connected before you open tour playback app.

Note that QU 16 speakers on the PC play back to CH2 and CH2 on the QU (WHY not ST3?? anyway..) — so those channels need to be set to receive from USB-Streaming as opposed to analag or mute else you won’t hear a peep.

Hope helps
Andy

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

Reading the threads this is what I take away- that the 1.4 f/ware did address issues and improved things: some people with issues reported them fixed by 1.4 (perhaps buffering was changed or extended) but that given continuous vibration or perhaps specific modes of vibration, skipping will still occur if the conditions are right: Some users with issues reported them fixed at 1.4 only to find in high noise environments that they did intact still have issues.
Not all users will run in these environments however. Maybe most won’t in fact.

If this (speculation) is the case I’m very curious as to whether:
a) DAWs would suffer the same skips in the same environments- maybe laptops etc have better buffering;
b) Whether solid state drives for direct to disk recording are the answer..

Love my QU but I really think A&H should chip in on this and tell us what they know rather than leaving us to try and figure and test this out without background. It is affecting quite a few people– nothing worse than making a recording to find it is broken for reasons outside your control.

Andy

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