HI all, I recorded some multitracks from the gig last night on my CQ18, and lo and behold, this morning, all the files are zero bytes on the SD card!
Is this because I cut the power without stopping the recording process?
Is there a way to recover the mutlt tracks?
Thanks
That actually seems logical to me, because the writing process is aborted and not finished.
But you could try the following procedure.
Yes. The files are no real files, actually.
I get that it doesn’t append/finish the files properly if the process is aborted - but I can’t imagine that it simply stores all the data in RAM or somewhere besides the SD card until the final moments - there’s just too much audio, many GBs, CQ has to be writing to the SD card continuously throughout the show. So it’s gotta exist somewhere on the SD card…
I’ll give that procedure a go when i’m at my office in front of a Windows machine! thx
I think someone from A&H explained to me that this is what the Shutdown button is for on the home screen. If you’re recording tracks, you need to use that button so it can finalize the tracks before you turn off the power button.
No, you don’t have to use the shutdown button to finalise file writes. Stopping the recording before powering off will do that - but not instantly. To the original Q, this is not specific to this device, file allocation tables are written progessively by most devices along with the data being laid down. When interupted they don’t finalise and the record is ‘corrupt’ and appears as no file written. There will be data, but it may be incomplete and or not recoverable depending on header info. Want to test this on a PC try turing it off mid file copy and you’ll have the same result. Some file recovery software may help, but no garuntees.
“…from A&H directly - you can absolutely just turn your CQ off without doing the shutdown process with no ill effect. The shutdown is just there to finalise any read-write processes to USB/SD. So, if you’re not recording, you can just switch off.”
Suggest you re-read my post and the A&H quote provided if you think you’re calling out something thats wrong.
Ok, I re-read it. What I said stands, and I’m not calling out anything that’s wrong. I’m simply quoting what A&H described as the purpose for the shutdown button. If someone is recording tracks and they are not being saved when they just power off the system without first hitting the Shutdown button, try hitting Shutdown first and see if that solves the problem.
The data is on the SD card but the file headers etc. are missing. Follow the instructions that SQ User has linked to (carefully) and you’ll be OK.
All right, i can confirm that the procedure SQ linked to above works just fine! (and as i suspected, the data WAS on the SD card, just abandoned.)
I wish I’d known about this last year for another show whose recordings I lost (and trashed lol).
Thanks all!
That’s the way the mixer works, unfortunately. This is your friend.
Well in this case it was my fault, I cut power and forgot to stop the recording process first!
But still, cool little UPS. I wonder if something like that would help with momentary power surges (as in, the band’s equipment pulling too much from the mains and potentially tripping a breaker.)
We run many gigs with the whole PA, lights, and backline from a single 120V outlet and power strip. I’ve never done the math, but I’m kind of surprised we’ve never tripped a breaker TBH
IMHO, if i’t’s just your CQ in the UPS, then something like that exact unit would definitely help with momentary power surges. But if you’ve also got some rack gear and/or wireless receivers, then maybe a higher-capacity UPS might give more piece of mind. Best!
Yeh — I use it for the CQ18t and for my MainStage rig.
If we lose power at a venue, it’s easy to turn amps and lights back on with a switch, but my Mac mini takes a minute to reboot.
So that, plus the CQ18T’s dumping of any recording on loss of power made the UPS a necessity.
Perhaps one more note:
If you’re currently experiencing this problem with unfinished recordings, you shouldn’t start new recordings on this SD card/USB drive in the hope of being able to restore the old, corrupted ones later.
Since the data areas containing the corrupted recordings are unknown to the system, they will most likely be reused during a new recording, and then the old ones will be irretrievably lost.
Therefore, you would need to remove your SD card/USB drive and use a different medium.
Good point, it’s could just overwrite those pages on the SD card, since there’s no ending indicator.
In this case, I’ve already rescued the data thanks to the link you gave, and formatted the card for next time. 
I have a feature req in for this - I invite you to upvote it. Auto-save of recorded tracks to SD
I upvoted, but suspect this might not be possible. The CQ would have to detect the instant external power disappears, and its internal supplies (ie, capacitors) would have to hold their charge long enough for the CQ to write some kind of ending to the files on the SD card. This probably has to happen in tens of milliseconds or less. Further, SD cards manage their own reads/writes, and don’t always cooperate well when they’re in the middle of some of their self-management; they like to work on their own timelines.
^^^ THIS.^^^
This “auto-save” feature already exists. When you hit STOP to end the recording, the files are properly named, finished, & written to the storage media with no further intervention from you. You don’t have to manually take an extra step to “Save…” or “Save as…”
Consider: If you’re in the middle of recording multiple tracks to your favorite DAW, and suddenly the power is cut to your entire rig (computer, audio interfaces, control surfaces, outboard gear, etc.), does ProTools/Logic/Reaper/Cubase automatically save the files for each & every one of your tracks with proper file names, extensions, etc.? Nope. You’ll probably end up with a huge handful of odd looking “temp” files (with no icons) that you’re going to have to figure out what’s what and try somehow to recover manually (IF they are even visible - they may be hidden or buried in some obscure system folder-depending on your OS and DAW). MAYBE one of those DAWS may offer to help recover your last session files once power is restored & you boot your computer back up. Maybe.
Happy Friday!