USB bit noise on mac laptop

Qu Qu Troubleshooting
1

hi, i have had and used the qu-16 since it came out. my mixer came with 1.17 firmware but has been upgraded as time went on to 1.95

i have done hundreds of shows with this setup without issue. i use a macbook with 10.6.8 and digital performer to record 2 to 16 tracks at shows. i have never once had an issue until last night. this macbook is only used to do this. i mix the recording on another machine.

last night i experienced a digital hash noise exactly like the one in this thread https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/qu-16-usb-recording-and-streaming-problem

the only change i have made to the setup is i removed adobe flash from the macbook as it interupted my previous recording with an “install update” window. the recording was unaffected. i dont think that is applicable, but maybe

any help or advice is welcome, thank you

2

hmmm?
I don’t know Digital performer but use Reaper.
I always set latency for recording to maximum for anything live. both PC and Mac.
10,6,8 ? Is that El-capitan?
What year macbook?
And of course you had nothing running in the back ground?
Is that spinning disc?

3

its a 2009. its been trouble free. 10.6.8 is snow leopard. el capitan is 10.11.6 which i have on one of my desktops.

no spinning wheel. everything looked fine.

4

could there be a virus on your pc/mac ?

5

last night i listened to the recording and the sound is not on the recording.

i have the laptop returned to the qu on ST3 and i have a usb stick in the qu drive. maybe this is a problem but it seems localized to the qu headphone out

6

Having a similar issue running the Qu-32 USB to MacBook Pro running Logic Pro X. There is static that appears on the recording that you cannot hear or detect during live sound but on the MacBook every line produces a trace amount of static that makes the recording useless because of the added noise. What is causing this issue?

7

Hi All,

This noise can be caused by various problems with the USB connection to the Qu.
This includes USB host controller drivers, other devices sharing the same USB bus (internally e.g. built-in webcams and WiFi) and things like power management settings or even just a bad cable.
It is of course important to optimise your computer for real time audio streaming (some guidance for both Windows and Mac is here - https://support.allen-heath.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1204).
However, because there are so many variables every system is unique and there isn’t one answer. So if you are having this issue please contact us using support.allen-heath.com with details on your computer, operating system, and setup and we can also look into it with you.

Thanks,
Keith.