Thanks for those comments Dick, whilst I agree entirely with the point you make, I’m not convinced it applies to this situation. To clarify - I’m experiencing a “fault like” condition with the mixer in terms of it’s ability to replay WAV files in the manner that the manufacturer says it should. As a result I’m looking for a) a statement of known fault condition (if I’m not alone with this problem) b) a solution (tell me which thumb drive to use and which DAW and which settings to use and I’ll do that) and c) an explanation of why the “fault” occurs (I may or may not be able to understand the explanation, but start by giving me the benefit of the doubt rather than assuming it’s beyond me to understand).
So rather than me asking A&H to make my third party software work with their mixer, I’m asking them to tell me how to create a WAV file that will replay successfully. Which DAW would they like me to use, which USB stick should I use. There’s a list of tried and tested USB sticks that should work with QU drive, but what about a list of software that will create a successfully repayable WAV file?
I think that makes this different to the point you have made. I’m trying to get the mixer to do something that the user manual says it should do. If there are conditions required to how the mixer can do those things, it should be stated in the manual, or we should be subsequently informed. A statement, a solution or an explanation - one of those things is required IMHO.
Hmmm… I did mention that I had Soundscape and Cubase DAWs, but it may be that I didn’t do enough testing with the Cubase DAW before posting here. I just now tried a number of mix-down exports from Cubase from a 24/48 project to the four sample rate/bit depth combinations with and without audio and I couldn’t get the resulting files to fault on QU-drive replay using three different model thumb drives! Cubase allows a few choices for WAV file export including adding or excluding the Broadcast Wave Chunk, inserting or not the iXML chunk and also or not to use the Wave extensible format. I tried WAV with and without the BWF chunk and it made no difference to replay - as I say I couldn’t get it to fault at this stage. Soundscape only allows BWF file export, so I can’t tweak anything there (other than bit/sample) The solution may be looming for me with the use of Cubase, but it’s a bit annoying with a “lifetime” of work in the Soundscape DAW. I shall continue to test. This doesn’t change the fact that there’s something going on with compatibility out there as others have reported that needs to be understood and made known widely - maybe Andreas will uncover it in the files I have posted?
Matt…
Have you filed a trouble ticket with A&H Support?
I’d stick with 48kHz. In the rare situation I’ve used QuDrive for playback I never had any issue that way. I really doubt that the trouble its caused by the application, since even simple “undecorated” WAV files produced with the plain old CoolEdit do fail at 44.1kHz.
Dick, I’m assuming that A&H people keep an eye on this forum and so I was expecting someone to pop up with the cause and solution for me fairly quickly when I started this thread. I had been surprised that I couldn’t find any reference to the issue when I searched the forum for it. It’s still surprising to me - maybe very few people have a use for the USB replay facility? It’s very useful to me and I’m going to keep on using it regardless, but I’d really prefer it to work without “fault”. I’m interested to know what experiences others have had. I’ll just see where we end up with this thread and then contact support directly if required.
I still prefer some external player for background music for several reasons. First of all its better accessible and normally comes with playlist support. Second there is no need to convert playbacks into WAV. But, at least for me, the major reason to not go that way is that my QuDrive is used for backup-recording (primary recording goes to DAW).
Andreas, what I seem to have now is a DAW that produces incompatible files and a DAW that doesn’t. That’s what it looks like today. Each time I create test files, I make up the four possible combinations - 44.1/16, 44.1/24, 48/16 and 48/24. As I read in the manual, those four combinations should work. For reasons that I don’t understand the BWF files that I create from my Soundscape DAW are incompatible with QU-drive. When I loop-play the four files, splats occur in the same place each time. When I try the same four files copied onto different thumb-drives I get splats in different places from drive to drive, but always in the same place on each drive as it loops. The same four types of file (in WAV or BWF format), when created in Cubase and played back on the same thumb drives (as of today) are playing back without fault - none whatsoever. That has to be of interest to us particularly if we assume that there’s nothing wrong with my Soundscape DAW. BTW these same files, play back fine in other software players without hiccup or splats. Don’t forget that another QU-24 in the shop I bought from replicated the same fault when I took my mixer in for comparative testing and splats occurred on my unit and there’s with WAV files the guys in the shop supplied as well.
My solutions so far include - continue to create play-back WAV files with a three minute silent tail, so that I never (at a gig) get to the end of a file (I’d always be on to the next file in less than three minutes), or create files from my Cubase DAW, which currently seem to playback without fault. They’re both not my first preference, but I can work with that if required. Trouble is, at this stage, we haven’t uncovered anything that might point conclusively to the cause. If others in the future find they are experiencing this fault, no one will be able to help them unless we identify the cause.
Have you (and you might have done I haven’t spotted them) uploaded your sample files?
We can run through our desks and see if we get anything - and A&H could grab them and see if there is anything interesting in the data…
[XAP]Bob, I’ve got a few files, some of which cause splats here -
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tbhar2r0j1dno6i/AADhCkRnd0uJsE18wnzqzR06a?dl=0
If you could put them on a “repeat all” loop and note which files splat at the end, that would be of interest.
Andreas, as you mention playback support, I note that my QU-drive doesn’t support basic alpha numeric file ordering. It seems to conform to “date created” order instead. Adding a “01” numeric to the front of a WAV file name doesn’t cause it to rearrange to numeric order and Alphabetical order is ignored too. When the band has decided on the set list, I have to go re-export the WAV files from the DAW in the order that we want to play them on the night in order to be able to go next, next, next… again, is that normal function?
Matt…
The first step to take in such situations is to file a support ticket. Anything short of that is literally urinating in a wind storm.
I guess display order is taken from physical order of the FAT directory. If you start with an empty folder, then the files should be displayed in order of copying. If you delete some files, new files may be added to new slots at the end of the directory or re-use space of deleted entries. Totally depends on OS and available space in terms of “long filenames”. Or: Totally out of user control.
There are tools around which are able to re-arrange files within the physical directory structure (I don’t post links since I can’t guarantee that those tools I found are free from malware etc.).
Dick
“literally” ??
Matt Fog
MattFog
I had a look at a couple of the files you posted to see if I could note anything odd in the structure of the wav file. There seems to be a lot of “rubbish” in there, and I’m not sure if it’s really rubbish in your file or additional detritus it’s picked up in its route from your web-site etc.
Could you therefore please email me directly a couple of “good” & “bad” files as attachments at alanglloyd@btinternet.com and I’ll have a look at them.
WAV files are (of course) a RIFF file format with a standard simple structure at the beginning, and info stuff added at the end.
I was really expert on them some years ago - I’ll try & wake up the “little grey cells” .
AlanG
I’ve created a further 8 BWF files of about 5-6 sec duration each, of the four different bit/sample combinations from my Soundscape DAW. Mixer consisted of a single stereo input which was muted - should be no audio. On this particular occasion all the 48k files were fine on replay via QU drive and all the 44k files went splat - see how you go.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pjw6qe11kr11ske/AABQ4Gim5pS_Kj-wwUN88WPIa?dl=0
I’ve sent a couple of those files to your email as you requested, Alan.
oops