qu-16 - Low signal on DAW when recording

Hello all,

I’m new to the Qu-16 and I got everything working with a band featuring keyboard, guitar, drums, trumpet, trombone and flute.

but when I record/listen on the headphones on the qu-16, the sound is very quiet so I have to put up the headphone volume all the way up and in the DAW (Logic), I have to put heaps of gain on the recorded tracks.

When I hit select of each channel, I have turned up the gain to a point where it nearly clips (put I make sure it doesn’t) and the signal is very alive within the screen. The PAFL button sometimes makes the channel louder.

Hopefully thats plenty of information. Thanks

Are you new to digital mixers? If so, you have to get used to reading the meters and interpreting the actual levels you will see in post and “on tape” - use the single screen that shows all the channels at once to get a feel for it. Take some time to mess with the preamp gains, see how close to the peak light you can get, like turn it up till you get a red light then go back down 6 to 12 dB…

I use the headphone volume on the Qu around 12 oclock, it is robust and loud there!

Are you recording live shows or only in studio? full band or track by track?

With 24 bit audio you have lots of room to record not too hot…

Also try working with it with all faders around zero and use the pres to mix so the actual record level is close to a good mix, just to get a feel for it. Hope you have a band that will play live for you long enough so you can get the feel.

See my post in this thread: https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/usb-streaming-low-level

Thanks for the responses. Makes a lot more sense now!