Screen frozen during SQ-Drive playback

Here’s the full scenario:

Loaded and playing a multitrack that was recorded pre-v1.5

Multitracks played fine (obviously at 96k)

About 30 minutes in, all audio stopped and the screen became frozen.

Buttons would respond but the screen would stay on its page.

Layers worked, faders worked, couldn’t test audio due to USB-B being used.

What was loaded:
FX 1 smr
FX 2 smr
FX 3 adt
FX 4 BB delay
FX 5 DynEQ4 (inserted to channel 12)
FX 6 DynEQ4 (inserted to channel 13)
FX 7 DynEQ4 (inserted to channel 14)
FX 8 MultiBD3 (inserted onto mains)

Soft buttons 1-6 mute groups
Soft buttons 7-8 delay L-R

Multitrack files coming off a Samsung T5 500GB (been very reliable)

No networking plugged in

Waves card fitted into console

Internal as clock source

No DCA’s assigned

Console set to 8 AUX 4 Group

Mains set to no outputs

Matrix 1 fed from mains to outputs 11/12

Many “compressor pack 1” used all over each channel, along with 4 busses

I have a video of it but forum doesn’t allow that to be attached.

I was the first one pointing this bug up on the Users forum on FB, but being a quite new user of the SQ5 (less than a week), I thought it was related to my ignorance about the machine.
Experienced the same exact bug using hard drives, not with USB stick though (at list the one I have here, though). The machine still works but the screen remain frozen, hence unusable and I have to terminate operations force quitting it.

Hi Both,

Please go to support.allen-heath.com to start a support ticket. If you could also include your show folder, along with the above details, we can then recreate your setup and test it on our system.

Thanks!
Alex

Just happened again to me.

Audio continued passing this time, just full screen lockup and on a different show file.

Only option is a full console restart to regain control, pretty big issue, hopefully this can get ironed out quick.

I’d love to but the support page won’t recognise my login details. I hope someone else could do that and we could get this issue resolved soon.
Thanks!

Emanuele

Hi @lamacchiacosta,

As you’re having difficulty with the support site, please email the information to support@allen-heath.com.
Although it’s much easier to add all the information using the support site directly, an email will get through to us.
We would like to understand what’s going on here asap too of course, and this information will help.

Thanks,
Keith.

Hi all,

Thank you to those of you who contacted us with details about this bug.

It does look scary, but only affects the output (display) of the touchscreen.
The audio, surface control and remote apps (SQ-MixPad and SQ4You) will all continue to function correctly.
The touchscreen still even works for touch.

We have now managed to reproduce it, and are currently working to get a fix out to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for bearing with us on this one!
Keith.

I always appreciate when a member of some big corporation accept that a certain situation represent a bug and not a user fault!

Hats off!

Good morning,
I have the problem while i use multi track recording

Same issue happend to me yesterday, but with recording a live session. Is there any information, when the update will be available approx?

Additional question:
Is there a possibility to power off the console via the SQ Mixapp? I had to do a cold reboot of the console. So it would be nice, if this possibility would exist (at least for Admin).

BR
Chris

The same issue happened to us 2 times in 2 days. We were recording multitrack, the screen froze. Audio still went through, had to hard reset and the audio files are corrupted.

@Mr_Nofreeze - There is no way to remotely power down the SQ at the moment, though the same team that would work on adding that as a feature are currently working on the bug. It is not possible to say when an update will be ready, as it fully depends on the development/testing process. Rest assured that it will be out as soon as possible though and if you are a registered user, you will receive an email as soon as it is.

@VojtechBasta - Sorry to hear this. The issue is related to use of SQ-Drive and RTA on PEQ at the same time, so removing either of these from the equation will prevent the freeze from occurring until an update. Regarding the corrupt audio files, there may be recoverable data there and it’s just that the files did not finalised. You could try the process outlined here for Qu ( https://support.allen-heath.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1126 ) though might need to tweak the settings to suit SQ. The differences might be the sample rate that you were recording at and although it should also work with a 44 byte offset, if it doesn’t, just change this to 512 bytes which is what the SQ uses.

Thanks,
Keith.

Dear @KeithJ A&H,

thanks a lot for this information. I will look forward to the update.
Just one question: By registered user you mean, that I have registered the console at A&H?

BR
Chris

@Mr_Nofreeze ,

Exactly - if you’ve registered on the site (www.allen-heath.com/register), or activated the free Tube Stage Add-on and ticked to allow us to contact you on either.

Thanks,
Keith.

Thanks!

  • It’s helpful to know what triggers the bug
  • I was able to retrieve the recordings with 512 offset bad 96000Hz through Audacity.

Hi!
Same Problem on my side last week 10 min after the begening of my show while recording multi pistes 18 track at 48K , just before the show i’ve turn the RTA on ??..my be this was the trigger of the prob . all faders / soft / was still working but nothing else in the screen everythings was frozen no more control . after the show i’ve shot down by the on /off switch and everything was back to normal . little bit spooky

Hi everyone!
The same thing happened to me yesterday during a live situation, recording multitrack 9 channels on our sq5. Does anyone know if the sq7 has the same issue? And the situation is connected to the use of the sq-drive, otherwise it doesn’t happen?

Thanks,
Zega

Hi @Zega and all,

To collate and clarify the important bits of info from previous posts:

  • The issue is related to use of SQ-Drive and RTA on PEQ at the same time
  • The screen image freezes, but the audio, mixing core and all control continues to function. i.e. you can use all physical controls and remote apps (and even the touchscreen).
  • Removing either SQ-Drive or RTA on PEQ from the equation will prevent the freeze from occurring
  • If you have 'corrupted'/non-finalised recordings, please try the steps here - https://support.allen-heath.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/recover-corrupt-sq-drive-recording
  • We have confirmed and replicated the issue, it can occur on any SQ model and we are currently working on an update which we will get out as soon as we can

As you will know, we spend a lot of time on testing to avoid things like this. Occasionally bugs get through, but they don’t usually present themselves in such a scary way!
Thank you for your patience with this.
Keith.

I also encounter the SQ5 screen display frozen problem when I doing live multitrack recording recently.
I was so lucky that I still can managed to stop the recording by memorizing the location of the stop button on the display panel.

May I suggest adding the record playback stop option in the SQ Mixpad App so that we can control it.

You can put it on a soft key