Been working on making better use of the SQ Drive for virtual sound check, and setting in-ear levels for musicians during rehearsal/sound check (We record loudest/biggest part of song where everyone is doing something. Change the inputs to USB using an I/O Library setting. Play back the recording on a loop and let the band set their levels using the SQ4You app.
The issue I’m having, however, is the playback levels are quite a bit higher than the actual source. So they can set their levels, but when we switch back to the original sources, they need to turn everything up.
Is this a common issue? Did I miss a step along the way? I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the board and gain staging, etc., but I’m certainly capable of missing really simple things.
You have two modes of monitoring - RMS and Peak. Is it possible that the two different configurations are being used under cerain circumstances (depending on your desk and source configuration)?
Hmm. Great question. I’m definitely exposing my ignorance here…but I’ve always thought RMS and Peak were just different visual monitoring options. Would they affect the overall level of audio coming through?
I’ve also just decided to do some further testing to see if using tie lines instead of direct outs to USB makes a difference (even though all direct outs are set to Post Preamp - highest level of direct out). Is that likely to make a difference?
I did a search on the board for USB levels and found a few people complaining about low levels, and some complaining about clipping…
Keith posted a good response regarding the differences between dB, dBu and dBFS units (which is also what I was thinking about, but inadvertantly confused RMS and Peak).
How are you doing the recording?
The way we multitrack is to use the channel strip direct outs (taken from the post preamp point) and patch those to the USB ports. There is a direct out trim control where you can reduce the level to the USB port for recording.
Can I suggest doing a quick search yourself and see if anything is relevant to your situation.
I did a search prior to posting and only saw instances of recordings being too quiet (like you mentioned), but definitely didn’t go deep enough into the linked articles (and other links inside the linked articles). Doing a bit of that now and I feel like we’ll get somewhere!
We record the same way you described. I’ve never noticed the direct out trim control…which also means I’ve probably never adjusted it. Maybe I need to do a recording and take note of the metering while in the live setting and measure the difference in levels between the two.
Currently doing a deep dive…feel like I’m way over my head.
Have it set up to record via tie lines this week. It’s not a quick setup as none of the tie lines are labelled anything other than “IO Port 15,” but we’ll see how it goes.
When I said “highest level” - I meant the direct out was set to go Post Preamp - the earliest (or highest in my mind) spot in the channel strip that you can send it out, not the actual level of the trim.
That pretty much shows you what you can (and can’t) legitimately do with the desk. There is the odd error on it though! They have been fixed recenty, so go for a SQ 1.6 download directly from A&H to be sure to get the latest.
I think tie lines don’t have the trim, so you may be shooting yourself in the foot!
Don’t worry, it took me a while to get ours sorted!
Talked to support and it turns out it was the trim setting on each channel. Ugh. Because we’re using an SQ7 for front of house and an SQ5 on the stage for monitors and additional inputs…the SQ5 controls the preamp for anything plugged in on stage, and on those channels only gives the SQ7 the option for TRIM control. Turns out some of our audio techs were boosting the trim for some reason. This led to the out of control high levels.
Thanks for your honest reply – others might simply have stopped responding.
In a special situation like yours, where the preamps from another console are being used, it would of course have been helpful to mention this.
It’s nice that you and we now know the cause.
In my opinion, using tie lines should have solved your problem, as the subsequent trim controls would have had no effect on the recording, thus ensuring correct levels.
Where is my mistake in thinking?
In my opinion, using tie lines should have solved your problem, as the subsequent trim controls would have had no effect on the recording, thus ensuring correct levels. Where is my mistake in thinking?
It wasn’t affecting the recording as much as the playback (best I can tell). Maybe it’s that the trim boost gets recorded and then added again when playing back the track through the same channel. Either way…I’ve reset all the trim settings back to 0.0 and it seems to have cleared it all up.
Right - but that could actually only happen when recording via direct outs.
But I meant your recording via tie lines, where there are no trims in the recording signal path.
And I don’t quite understand that yet, because normally you need the trims as “gain” for level adjustment at the FOH.
