PNY Elite-X Fit 64GB – Good. Recorded 4 hours (38GB!) of multitrack with no errors.
I’ll be picking up a couple for myself, thanks for testing. I do like their small size.
An addendum to my testing of the Transcend JetFlash 710 64 and PNY Elite-X Fit 64 above:
As mentioned, the Transcend threw many errors on the Qu-Pac in multitrack recording. On a Mac, I tested the drive’s speed. Turns out it’s actually a USB 2.0, not 3.1 as labeled on the package (from amazon). It self-reports to the Mac’s System Info that it’s rated speed is actually 480 Mb/s (aka USB 2.0). (For comparison, the PNY Elite-X Fit 64 is rated 5 Gb/s, aka USB 3.0) I also ran speed benchmarks on both drives, and the PNY was 5-8 times faster, as a USB2 vs. USB3 comparison would be. The Transcend is clearly falsely (or even fraudulently) labeled as a USB 3.1 drive, when it’s actually a USB 2.0.
It’s seems that in the world of USB flash drives, you can never be sure what you’re getting. It would be interesting if other users tested their working and non-working drives.
Does this list of devices also apply to DLive consoles? (S7000 specifically). It says it’s for Qu mixers but is listed in the DLive forums (?).
Nevermind, I see they’re supposed to be compatible… Btw, for anyone else looking, these are the only ones that are still readily available out of the “tested by Allen & Heath” USBs. The others are mostly discontinued (or 5400 speed hard drives). It would be nice if some SSDs, maybe OWC and Samsung, were tested or current model large Samsung USBs (much smaller now and 256gb or larger).
Sandisk Extreme 16GB
Sandisk Extreme 32GB
Transcend Jetflash 810 32gb
Transcend JetFlash 710S 32gb
@BizBach, unfortunately, even the drive models that have been “tested by Allen & Heath” have proven to not work reliably for all users.
Allen and Heath continue to ignore this thread, and in my many hours on the phone with their tech support staff they’ve been unable to resolve this problem. The bottom line is, you might get lucky with a given USB drive, or you might not; there is no way to know except to try it, and even if you do try it, another drive of the exact same make and model might not work.
I have to believe they know WHAT the CAUSE of the problem is even if they cant fix it.
Why they wont just be upfront and tell us is frustrating.
And makes us waste time trying to find solutions by trial and error.
I suspect that is is because they ‘followed’ the standard instead of 100.00000% CONFORMING to it.
Dont need to know if that was just very bad engineering or if it was bad management cutting corners to save a pence per device.
supposed to be does not make it so.
Maybe the odds were very high back when but now your chances of finding a usb memory stick that works is fat slim and none.
Your best bet is to find an old usb2 somewhere and use that.
Still no issues with the Kingston Data Travelers, just set up a new QU24 last
week and a Data Traveler G4 worked fine in it.
Just by chance I tried a Transcend Jet Flash for recording at a video shoot a couple
weeks ago and it formatted and worked fine in my QU16.
My client handed it to me and I said I’ll give it a try, it worked fine for both of the video shoots.
Transcend Jetflash
NO issues for YOU.
Does not mean it works for anyone else.
Maybe it is whatever changed in the Qu as ours is newer.
But for sure changes in usb memory and other things they do to them do cause problems for most folks.
NO issues for YOU. Does not mean it works for anyone else.Maybe it is whatever changed in the Qu as ours is newer.
But for sure changes in usb memory and other things they do to them do cause problems for most folks.
How do you know yours is newer?
During the all the time you have complained about yours I have been setting up new QU’s in systems.
I have installed new out of the box QU mixers in the past two months, one them just last week and a new SQ mixer that all happily accepted the Kingston Data Travelers.
I’m going to get a couple of the Trancends I found to work, I like them because they do not stick up very far from the mixer surface.
For what it’s worth I just did a firmware update on what I know to be one of the first runs of a QU16 and they worked in that as well.
Because we had just acuired it long after your fix was supposed to be working everywhere.
For sure, ours is different, as are our usb memory sticks.
The problem is finding a compatible pair to back up the machine.
Hi folks,
Please read the article “About Pen Drive Issues” in my blog ABOUT PEN DRIVE ISSUES – LIXO Sonido & Discos where you will know about my experience with a curious 3.1 flash drive show in this message. Thanks for your support
Thanks for sharing.
Brilliant to hear and YES
M88 on vocals with QU series sound fantastic!
And Reaper has always worked exceptionally well for me with QU series!
The Transcend sticks work (one of the few A&H approved ones that’s still commonly available). BUUUUUT, they only work if you keep clearing them off. After they get somewhat full, and I don’t mean 90%, but maybe even 50-70%, they start skipping like a CD, repeating bits of audio, skipping over bits of audio, etc.
Commonly available where ?
AH actually approved it??
Or did it just show up on a list that someone says that it worked for them?
Hello, can someone please just give me the make and model of a usb drive that records multi-track reliably. I’ve tried several on the list without success including SanDisk and Transcend, and I suspect Amazon are getting tired of my endless returns! Thank you.
@masher_uk
MikeC seems to have the best possible chance for success with his preferred drive.
Search for his answer here.
He did say this in 89226
Put one your fresh Data Travlers in the QU Drive, while in the format menu, give the mixer a few seconds to look at the drive.
Disregard the warnings and proceed to hit the format button and hit yes to proceed, after it formats give it 30 seconds or so and it will verify the drive and say OK on the screen. Your good to go then.
Do pull the drive out the first second you see a warning pop up!!
IF you try to format a drive and the progress bar never moves at all after a few minutes, (give it chance) then that drive is not going to format, pull it out and move on.
content removed – does not contribute to the thread
Thanks to Volounteer for your response. OK so I’ve been experimenting with various drives and here in a nutshell are my findings/conclusions:
-
Most USB thumb drives are OK for recording stereo but useless for multitrack. The only one that records with zero errors is a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller II. Obviously, this low capacity (6 minutes) makes it completely impractical for recording say a gig or rehearsal session. Even much newer, higher capacity USB 3.1 drives, such as the 64GB Kingston Jetflash 710 and 128GB Kingston Data Traveller IV failed to record error free and some, like the 64GB SanDisk Extreme Go, even failed to be recognised by the Qu-SB.
-
However, multitrack recording success has been achieved with an old 500 GB USB2.0 LaCie Desktop Hard Disk (LaCie Desktop Hard Disk 500GB USB2.0 - 7200RPM - 8MB : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories). This reports an 8 hour capacity and I obtained a continuous 5 hour multitrack recording with zero errors. And yes, I did listen back to all 5 hours.
So in conclusion, thumb drives are a waste of time for multitrack. The difference with desktop devices must be that their internal cache memory facilitates management of the high data throughput. They’re bulky and often require their own mains supply. If anyone can recommend a modern, compact unit that preferably doesn’t require a separate power supply then I’m all ears…
So in conclusion, thumb drives are a waste of time for multitrack. The difference with desktop devices must be that their internal cache memory facilitates management of the high data throughput. They’re bulky and often require their own mains supply. If anyone can recommend a modern, compact unit that preferably doesn’t require a separate power supply then I’m all ears…
A friend of mine has a 200 gig (I’ll get the model form him) thumb drive/external drive that works for all of him multitrack recordings.
It does not need any external power with a short cable it plugs directly into the USB Q Drive jack.
The Sans Disc Extreme 3 USB drive worked great for multitrack…until Sans Disc changed the hardware in the drive. I was lucky and got a couple of the origianls.
@masher_uk
Things keep changing. What used to work may now fail.
My experience is that OLD usb2 devices work fine.
Most NEW ones are not recognized and cannot be used at all.
I do not know of any units that do not nee a separate power supply. But there may be some out there somewhere.
I can understand not recording well.
But I am still befuddled as to why there are so many that are not even recognized so you could try to format them.
Thanks, I look forward to receiving the details…