I’ve have a channel where the send to the Main LR is disabled, the level is at infinity, and the signal is not sending to our PA. However, when I record the Main LR (or any other Mix Out with the same settings) the input comes through the recording. I’ve have a second input with the same settings that doesn’t have the issue. The direct output for both channels is not patched anywhere.
I’m assuming I’m missing something small. What should I be looking for?
Is there a “Ext In” source set for the buss with the “issue”? It is not uncommon that someone accidentally patches a “Ext In” source without really understanding the use case when it is actually appropriate to use an Ext In source. More often than not, this Ext In patching causes more problems than it solves.
No, I don’t have any inserts patched or Mix Ext In’s patched either. That’s a good idea though. Definitely something for me to watch out for in the future.
Look at the ‘routing’ page for the input channel that is causing the problem. You may have that input channel feeding through a pre-fade output to a group or aux that is fed to the recording?
There is usually a reason for it…
What happens if you mute the input channel itself? Does the problem go away when muted? If so, the input channel must be feeding through some other route.
I assume you mean that the level is at minus infinity…
Dave
On the auxs I have tried to send to my computer to record from (including Main LR), I have the send for the input disabled (‘Off’ instead of 'On" on the Routing page). For that input specifically, I have all the auxs routed to ‘pre-fade’ so I can send to IEM mixes and control levels independently. When I have the level set to minus infinity there, we don’t hear the signal in the IEM mixes, but it does appear in the recording mix and the recording of the Main LR, but not the sound in the room. I’m not using any groups for this particular show, and the input isn’t being fed through the FX sends.
Changing the input from Pre to Post doesn’t seem to make a difference. I actually have the input for the channel that isn’t giving me issues routed as a Post send, and it doesn’t appear in the recording file. but if I mirror the seetings on the problem channel, it’s in the recording.
And yes, I did mean minus infinity. Apologies.
If you only feed a signal into the problematic channel, what do you observe on the input, output and mix channel meters?
How is your output patch configured for what you are recording?
Dave
Input channel: Signal coming through
Mix channels: Signal only coming through on our IEM mixes, not the Main LR or the recording aux
FX channels: No signal observed
The output patch is the Mix Out L and R for either the Main LR or the Recording Aux, sent over Dante to my tracking computer via Dante Virtual Sound Card. I do observe input signal on my computer, even though the Main LR and Recording aux meters show no signal being sent.
Edit: I should also add that the only output signal being sent over Dante is the Main LR. There are no other outputs patched.
Hmm…
It has to be coming from somewhere!
I don’t use Dante, so I assume your issue is with the Dante interface to your PC?
Have you tried a USB stereo recording of your recording AUX just to rule out everything within the SQ?
Dave
Exactly!
The USB recording also showed the signal. However, I went in and unpatched the input from the Tie Lines for both USB and Dante, and the signal is gone. Guess that means I need to do some research into how the Tie Lines work for the SQ series. Never would have thought to even look there, especially considering that the input being sent properly is patched into the Tie Lines and sends a signal over USB, but has no issue on the Dante side, despite being patched like the problematic input was.
Tie lines are direct connections from socket to socket. No other path involved.
The socket can be everything. Local I/O, USB, Dante or S-Link.
But you can patch a socket to multiple destinations.
The dreaded tie lines strike again!
An unwanted (and unexpected) signal is always (in my experience) a routing or patching issue.
Unfortunately (with the many options available to you) you have to hunt through the menu options to find the culprit…
Well done in finding it though!
As per the above post, a tie line (literally) connects an input ‘port’ to an output ‘port’ bypassing ALL of the internal mixer processing.
Unfortunately, the tie lines do not appear on the block diagram (as it would confuse it even more)!
The question is, why was an input tie line patched in the first place?
Dave
Something I’ve come across in the past was an app which expected only a stereo input would deal with multichannel audio devices as follows:
On Windows, installing the SQ USB driver would solve this by presenting 4x stereo WDM devices.
On a Mac, it was down to the app so the most straightforward solution was to unpatch anything that wasn’t needed.
I wonder if this might explain the differences between using the multichannel USB interface (which could include anything, such as tie lines, patched to USB channels 3 to 32) and the Dante interface (if a stereo only device already) in your setup?
Got it! Thank you for the info! Appreciate it!
Go figure! Thank you for all your help troubleshooting!
Just to do some testing, I went in and reset the mixer using the Setup > Mixer Config > Role to ‘Standard,’ and it seems the system automatically patches Tie Lines Local 3-30 to the USB Output and Local 1-31 to the IO Port Output. That is probably the explanation for why they were patched in the first place. Something else to add to my list of checks when I’m setting up my console.
Thanks again for all your help! Really appreciate it!
Got it. I was sending the recording aux to a Mac but not multitracking it, and since Virtual Sound Card doesn’t let me choose which channels to use when I select it as an input on the Mac (unlike a Windows machine), that would definitely explain the issue and why, when I opened up my multitracking software on my other Mac, it immediately showed the issue. Knowing how various platforms handle multichannel audio is absolutely handy to keep in mind for the future.
Thanks for the insight! Really appreciate it!
Every day is a learning day!
Glad you are away now…
Yes, multitracking is fun 
!
We currently multitrack into our SQ from a USB device for training our AV volunteers.
We have done some multitrack recording to a USB device without hassle - but we did sort out all the input and output patching on day 1 (ish) of owning our SQ.
Dave