Hi all, hoping you can help. We recorded multitrack via the Qu-drive for the first time last Saturday night using a Seagate 500GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive 2.5" HDD Backup Plus (which is one of the hard drives that’s on the approved list) and the tracks went to the HDD but on playback there is a LOT of skipping, the best I can describe it would be to say it sounds like a very cracked vinyl record. I’ve been through the forums here and saw that others have experienced similar problems, and that some guys reported that updating the firmware to 1.2 fixed it for them. We’re running 1.3, and experiencing this problem.
Interesting to note; I observed that the ‘skipping’ only occurs while the band are playing. Between songs, when it’s only the singer talking to the crowd there is no skipping at all.
I had printed the recommendations from this link and took it to the show and we followed the instructions. But we still had this problem.
Some say that with Firmware V1.4 this problem is solved… i think it is a problem of the HDD-Firmware! Check for updates on you HDD Firmware and update this, as well update the Qu to the newest Firmware V1.4!
Best is as well after all firmware updating to format the HDD again with the Qu-16!
I’ve successfully recorded a few shows now, one was three hours long. The only time I’ve had skipping was when I hurriedly formatted the drive then quickly hit record. Fortunately I decided to stop and check it after a few minutes and found it had skipping. I tried again and it was fine. It got me wondering if I’d hit record too soon. Perhaps it was still contemplating the format.
Thanks Prodigio, I saw in another thread that you were having LOTS of problems with this issue. Did the firmware upgrade to 1.4 alone solve your problem or are there other things also?
do not place your hard drive on or near the stage floor or subwoofers.
Tapping feet on the stage and thumping kick and bass will surely cause the drive to skip too.
dpdan that did cross my mind as to a possible reason for the skipping only occuring while the band was actually playing and NOT while the singer was talking between songs. I really wish one of the Allen & Heath guys would chime in here because I’d like to know if the issue (which evidently has been widely experienced by many users) was specifically addressed in the latest version of the firmware.
An incredible news with my firmware version 1.4 O.O
Today I tried to record with one of my hard drives certificates (Western Digital My Passport) but I have the problem again with cuts and skipping … oh my god!
While with one of the generic non-certified hard drives (Seagate 7200 RPM) I had no problems…
Next week I’ll try the other my certified hard disks…
Prodigio, I’m interested if it’s more likely vibration causing the problem, would your hard drive have been receiving any vibration during the recording? It would be fair to assume vibration from loud music would affect data being written to a hard drive. And like I said previously, skipping only occurred on my recording while the band was actually playing and NOT while the singer was talking between songs. Which to me suggests that vibration could be a cause. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s had more experience with this.
I play back my recording now…
Yes, it seems that there are no jumps when the band is not playing …
I must say that when I use the Wester Digital Hard disks (which has a very short usb cable) I have to keep the hard drive a bit 'hovering in the rack …
while the last time, when I used the Seagate 7200 with a longer cable, I managed to keep it in the rack rests on the entire surface … what do you think?
Maybe I should try installing the Western Digital hard disks in a dedicated drawer and do a further test …
Trying to reverse the disks in their drawers not solve the problem, the same Seagate today has skip and cut problems… at this point I do not know what else to say or do: (
My disk sits under the QU… on the foam lining of the flight case. I guess the foam could help to protect the disk from vibration. Also the QU is not directly in front of any speakers or the drum kit etc (so I guess it’s not subject to high vibration). So far, I’ve only recorded one gig… and it worked perfectly. Over two hours of audio - and no jumps or skips.
…Then to completely eliminate any mechanical cut and skip risk, should be able to use solid state disks, but AllenAndHeath says it is inadvisable…
The question is: “how to permanently solve these problems”? O.o
Prodigio, my hard drive is on a very short cable also and when we recorded it at in the case with the desk. For the next gig I will make up a foam padded box which will reduce vibration on the hard drive. But my next gig isn’t for some time. Are you able to try something like that in the meantime to see if it works for both of us?
Sorry to hear that Prodigio:(
FYI I recorded onto a Sandisk 16gb USB3 stick yesterday, only eight channels and short recordings but it worked with no problems.
I’ll try more channels later this week just to see - nothing “mission critical” just in case.
Multitrack recording to USB memory stick is not certified procedure and is not recommended as a textbook… At this point I do not know what it is pià official certificate rather than not…
I resign myself and sell my QU-16… I can not work this way.
