SQ USB Multitrack playback much louder than when recording

SQ SQ General Discussions
1

Hi!

I noticed something weird lately: We record our worship services via Tie Lines from local input to SQ Drive Multitrack and directly onto an USB SSD. When I change the I/O Patch so that SQ Drive Multitrack playback lands on the original Channel strips instead of the local inputs, the output volume suddenly is much louder, I need to reduce main LR level probably even 6-9db before I arrive in the loudness range I had when recording it.

This is with 1.6.0? Firmware, I think I didn’t have this issue with 1.5.x, but I’m not sure.

The USB inputs are all trimmed to 0db, so it’s not that I’d have cranked them up like that…

Does anyone else notice something like that?

2

I think this question has already been asked and answered on this forum.

Dave

3

Could you please first double-check whether you actually used tie lines or whether someone switched to dir-outs at some point because it was more advantageous.

4

I did a search before starting this thread - “sq drive multitrack playback volume” but didn’t find any threads relevant to playback volume. Can you help me with better search terms?

5

I’m probably the only person here that ever intentionally changed the I/O patch :grin:

We’re using the direct outs “post HPF” as sends for ME-1, so using them for USB recording wouldn’t be good. Also the USB MTK recordings show “L1..24” as their track designations - when using direct outs it should be the channel name, shouldn’t it?

I’ll take a look at MTK recording and playback via DAW and/or recording with SQ Drive and Playback with DAW or something. But it also might be a general issue with USB input, since I have to turn down stereo playback from our computer a lot, too…

If no one else is having the issue, I’ll live with it, just thought it to be weird. I expected the USB recording to reproduce what was happening at recording time, so I could do virtual sound checks etc. (of course those would only be rough because the “crowd” is missing in the room, but anyway…)

6

In your original post, you wrote “we,” so I replied using “someone” instead of “you.” )
It really wouldn’t be the first time someone on a team has changed a setting, causing a problem that others can’t explain.

Secondly, please check if all the channel trim controls for the channels you’re using are set to 0 dB, and if not, what the reason is.

7

Search for “SQ Drive - Levels Higher Than Source”.

The problem was the Trim settings…

There is another thread related to level indications.

Dave

8

I checked trim settings for all channels but it was 0.0 on all but those two where it actually needs to be higher because I’m using ST2 for the (weak-ish) line output of a Steinberg UR 242… I’ll still need to take a closer look at patching, because both my tie lines and input patch library probably don’t take into account yet that I moved the Pads (via said UR242) to ST2 instead of two mic inputs because we needed those elsewhere (Click and Queue via DI-Box needs a Mic preamp…).

But apart from that I’ll have to devise some kind of objective test - like playing back something at a known level, recording that via SQ Drive and checking whether the SQ Drive playback is actually louder (higher levels) or if something else changed. If I can reproduce it with a single source, it’ll be much easier to debug than trying to do that with something as dynamic as a worship service recording…

I’ll report back when I find out more. I hoped that it was a know issue… I’ll also check whether it’s something about having USB connected to a PC at the same time - grasping at straws.