Hi
I’m new to this forum. We are replacing our GLD2000 with QU-24 at our church. For recording sermon talks at present we use Mp3Cut software on Windows PC connecting from stereo send of desk to our PC via a converter unit which converts from mini jack to USB. We save the mp3 file on PC and upload to our church website as a Podcast. How can we do this on the QU-24 without using wav files. It seems the QU-24’s in-built recorder creates a wav file onto USB stick or hard drive and then i have to connect the USB stick into PC to copy onto it’s C drive. But the wav file takes up too much space. I’d prefer mp3 as it takes up much less space and quality is more than adequate for sermon podcasts. Will i need to convert from wav to mp3 every time…seems a long drawn out process compared to the way we do it now. Ain’t digital supposed to make things easier not harder?? Any suggestions?
Barry
I guess you’re free to continue recording to your audio application on PC the same way as before. If you have a decent PC you may directly connect it to the USB port of the Qu, omitting the analog interface.
Of course recording stereo WAVs on the QuDrive is is limited to about 4 hours per file, due to the 4GB file limit.
You are not required to use the USB out to record. Just connect your existing recording setup to the 2-track outs of the Qu if you’re happy with the way you’re doing it now. You can continue to record your MP3’s the same as ever. All you need is to repace the mini-jack cable with one which will go from the 2-track outs.
Yes i realise i can continue recording the same way as before but was hoping not to need to use the analogue interface. Andreas i didn’t think you could go direct from desk usb to pc usb. The manual says u need to record onto usb drive first then copy from this to pc??
You can go directly from the USB-B socket on the rear of the console (not the one on top used for Qu-Drive) and send 32 tracks of whatever you want (maybe your main LR, but could be the individual channels the sermon mics are on) to the PC\Mac. You can then use a DAW to capture that incoming stream and save it as an mp3 for uploading. Everything stays digital.
Thanks Cornelius.
Yes i read about the DAW but couldnt quite understand. Is a DAW an actual separate hardware device or some software package you download to PC?
Ok i just found on web that DAW is a recording software package. But i already have Mp3Cut on PC,is this not a DAW
Meant Mp3DirectCut
Audacity is a free multitrack recording package, although it will record in it’s own format, then you can top and tail it before export as MP3.
Not come across the MP3 recorder you mention.
hmm, based on your questions I’ll maybe suggest to keep the additional interface first for sake of simplicity and learning all your new possibilities… 
Of course it is possible to stay in the digital domain for recording and there are two solutions:
- Use the top USB connector and connect some type of USB disk (HDD/SDD/Stick) to record WAV (stereo or 18 tracks). Later copying to PC and conversion to MP3 is required.
- Use the back USB connector and directly record to your PC, maybe still using your Mp3DirectCut.
But for recording digitally some aspects need to be observed:
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The recorded level will seem to be very low, in fact everything has a headroom of 18dB above nominal level, which is normal and intended. Whether you’re recording to QuDrive or directly to PC this needs to be adjusted. Either during recording (rising the send level) or afterwards. Not sure if Mp3DirectCut is able to rise volume that much.
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When recording to PC (using the back USB connector) you do need a decent PC to handle the 24+24 channels which are always transferred, even if you’re only interested in recording a pair of it. If you observe a high CPU load just by plugging the Qu into your PC, it simply is not powerful enough.
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A DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) is a “better” recording system allowing plenty of manipulation afterwards, uses multichannel recording like ASIO or CoreAudio (on Mac) and focuses on low latency.
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Mp3DirectCut is somewhat a microDAW, only recording and plaback of one stereo stream with some editing functionality. I guess it uses standard Windows drivers, which are the first two sent from the Qu (1 and 2). Consequently these have to be correctly assigned on your Qu to send whatever you want to record (probably LR Pre or some MIX)
I fully understand you prefer a simple workflow, but if you would ask me, I’d recommend to record on a stick (leaving the PC at home) and later transfer, edit, cut and encode the recorded WAV to your target format. Of course this takes some minutes but you have much more control.
I’d agree - stick with the current solution whilst you learn the desk, then “upgrade” to the Qu-Drive if/when you feel the need.
Is it just me or is everyone making this too complicated?
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Connect QU to PC via USB
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Set up QU routing to send L/R mix (or whatever you want to record) to USB channels 1 + 2
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In MP3DirectCut select QU USB channels 1 + 2 as the input
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Start MP3DirectCut recording when you’re ready
Or am I missing something?
Thats basically my second sentence in the first post. But it requires a decent PC handling that many audio streams (theyre transferred between the Qu and the host even only two are actually recorded) and needs a decent punch in gain afterwards to compensate for the headroom.
Thanks Andreas for your detailed reply. And also thanks to the others for your input.
Andreas you wrote:
– Use the top USB connector and connect some type of USB disk (HDD/SDD/Stick) to record WAV (stereo or 18 tracks). Later copying to PC and conversion to MP3 is required.
What is involved in copying the WAV files to PC and converting to MP3. What conversion tool would you recommend.
I’m probably not the right person to ask for “free” or “simple to use” software. Even for such stuff I’d still use my “big” DAW to have any freedom in editing (cutting edges, removing parts, add compressors/FX, tune EQ etc.). So hopefully someone else will chime in and provide more ideas and tools…
I guess Audacity could work for you, but I never used it.
VLC player can convert to MP3 but does not allow modification of volume.
My good old CoolEdit is called Audition for a decade and now part of the Adobe Creative Cloud…
Anyway, to convert a simple stereo recording this is total overkill, and I’m wondering why MP3DirectCut can not simply import a WAV and save it as MP3 (it can’t, just tested). It contains everything else you need including volume adjustment.
Rising the recorded volume inside the mixer is rather easy, using a matrix output comes into mind. Just feed your MTX from LR (either pre or post), add gain from the matrix’ compressor section and setup QuDrive (Chn 17+18) to record from MTX.
The compressor also may take care of transients to avoid clipping in the output, but tuning the right parameters may take some time and need some testing. For that reason I personally would record with headroom and adjust gain (and compressor) afterwards in some audio editor (=DAW).
I would recommend audacity, there is a normalise function that will pull the gain up, and it’s easy to top and tail the recording before exporting as MP3.
Our church office have got the hang of it, and they’re not the most technical bunch
Bob why wouldnt Mp3DirectCut work ok instead of Audacity. Thats the way it is now on our GL2000. Connect from USB-B output directly into PC that has Mp3DirectCut on it.
Can’t see why A & H have to complicate things by having 24 tracks being sent when just recording 1 or 1 pair of stereo channels
Gilly, your last question was about recording WAV on the desk and converting it to MP3 later. Since Mp3DirectCut does not support importing WAV you’ll need another tool for this purpose.
You’re still free to record directly to PC from the USB connector on the back. Since Mp3DirectCut operates on windows drives it only sees two channels, everything is as before, just without the audio interface.
Its not about complicating things, its about the Qu offering more options and ways to accomplish your task, its up to you to pick the most comfortable. Well, that latter may be the complicated part…
Mp3directcut will work exactly has it has done, analogue feed to the pc.
I don’t know if it had normalisation routines, but the “apparent level” sent over the USB interfaces is relatively low, allowing for dynamic levels (which are then compressed out of most modern music)
If you retain an analogue feed (a valid option) then you can do exactly as before.
If you use the USB B streaming then 24 channels of audio are transferred, because you just hooked up a 24 channel sound card. You can then choose to record only one of these if you like - but the level will be ~18dB under what you might have expected, so you’re going to want to boost it.
If you use QDrive then you can easily grab a stereo recording, but you’ll need to convert it to MP3, and probably normalise the volume (same ~18dB drop from what you might expect)
With 24bit was files that 18dB drop doesn’t impact s/n, it does mean that the guitar/drum solo doesn’t clip.
Hi guys.
We just got the Qu-24 installed in the church on Thursday and i tried some recordings yesterday. I downloaded the QU-Driver software onto PC. Connecting the Alt out jack output (set at level 7 on desk) into the existing jack to USB converter (which connects to PC USB) everything works as before using Mp3DirectCut. I then tried connecting from desk USB-B directly into PC USB and again using Mp3DC,and as you said above the recording level is so low i can hardly hear a thing. I now have to figure how to raise the send level from desk. Will try that later.