A&H QU32

[genel]

I see that you've added support for the Behringer X32. We just acquired an A&H QU32. Any chance of adding support for that board too?

[Mike Daniell]

From what I can see, the QU32 uses MIDI for external communication. Is that correct?

[Boswell]

We have a QU32 and use MIDI sent from SCS to control it

[genel]

Hi Boswell,

I'm impressed, can you provide a hint regarding the configuration you're using? I have no problem sending audio, but can't seem to get midi to work.

Much Thanks,


Gene

[genel]

Just knowing it was doable gave me the incentive to actually get it to work. If you have a QU-32 you need this document http://www.allen-heath.com/media/Qu-MID ... -V1.82.pdf The A&H windows driver does include a midi channel recognized by SCS. So, to get SCS to Mute a channel. Say 12, you first look at the document and discover that channel 12 is really channel 35h. I set everything to use MIDI Ch 4 for the QU. To change the Mute, SCS needs to be configured to send two MIDI commands first a Note on and then a note off. Be sure the note is the same, the velocity on the Note On command controls whether it is a Mute On or Mute Off I used 7F for Mute On and 01 for Mute off.

Some notes.

The first character of the MIDI command listed in the A&H doc is the SCS message type
The CH in the A&H is not the Fader Channel, but the A&H CH number in that Doc.
Be careful with the Hex/Decimal parameters.

It would be nice if SCS was aware of the A&H protocol Particularly when a channel number needs to be carried through a number of MIDI commands.

[Boswell]

For SCS to control the QU32, Note Off commands are ignored, you just need to send from SCS a note ON with a velocity of >=40(hex) to turn the mute On, to turn the mute OFF then send from SCS a note ON command with a velocity of between 01 & 3F.
Input Fader 12 is Hex value 2B

[genel]

I have the qu32 working, I'm using 10 audio channels, and controlling the mutes on 15 mics. Unfortunately opening night for "Oliver" is next week and all is not peaches and cream. SCS is sending all the music, sound effects, projections, and controlling the microphone mutes. About an hour into the show rehearsal all music numbers both orchestra recordings, and scene change recordings (which use different amps/channels) start buzzing while playing the WAV files. Once it starts it effects all WAV files. However, exiting and restarting SCS cures it, for another hour or so. You can never tell for sure when it will start buzzing but it seems to be after an hour, and not a particular WAV file. I've tried switching files to MP3 and back to WAV, I've deleted and reinserted the cues, I've deleted all the level changes in the cues, and tried it without the projections. I'm thinking of deleting the MIDI commands next, but this first happened on the first rehearsal before any MIDI cues were added so I'm rather dubious about that being the issue.

This is the fourth show using the QU-32 and it has happened on every one. But usually it only effected the intermission music, and I've been treating it like a buzzing speaker, and just stopping the music early. This is the first big musical.

I've been using SCS for years with never a problem, but last Nov, we added the QU-32, and converted the Lenova laptop for SCS to Windows 10 at the same time, so this could be either an SBS, QU-32 usb driver, or Windows 10 issue.

[Boswell]

Make sure you have selected the ' ASIO using Bass' as the driver in the SCS audio devices

[Eric Snodgrass]

Are you using the Qu-32 as the soundcard for the laptop and streaming the audio out of SCS using the USB-B port into the Qu? This buzzing sound you say happens consistently after about an hour sounds to me like it could be a wordclock issue. The Qu series of mixers are wordclock masters and work at 48k. They cannot be slaved to another wordclock master or have their sample rates changed. I'm wondering if there could be a discrepancy of settings between the laptop and the Qu.
You check to see what firmware is running on the Qu. The latest firmware version is 1.9.
You should also check the Qu Forums for this issue, as there are threads concerning robotic noises produced when streaming audio into a Qu console using the USB-B port. Try looking at http://community.allen-heath.com/forums ... otic-noise to see if this is the same as your issue. There are also a few other threads concerning this topic on the Qu forums.

[genel]

Yes, am running through the USB port using the QU driver. 8 channels of audio, plus MIDI controls. On Sat I installed the latest QU-32 USB driver on the laptop, and upgraded the SCS software to latest version. I spent all afternoon going through the cues and was unsuccessful at replicated the buzzing. Of course you know what happened, Start of second act at dress rehearsal last night, buzzing was back. Reset SCS and it was clear. The buzzing actually started during last track of intermission music. But I didn't notice it as I was distracted with other issues. Tech running the board noticed it. I point this out because that was an MP3 track, when most other music is WAV. I'll check in the QU forum. Current plan is just to restart during curtain announcements, and at end of intermission. This will mess up projections but right now there doesn't seem to be a solution.

[genel]

Current run of Oliver is finished. Buzzing occurred twice during performance. Once at end of first Act which was very annoying, and again a couple of days later in middle of the act. The second time I was fortunate in that there was some straight dialog giving me time to restart SCS.

This is an extremely annoying problem. As there doesn't seem to be a way to recreate the problem, other than going through the entire show in real time. I've only been able to recreate it once, and it took two hours. Of course I forgot to get diagnostic dump that time, and during a show there is no way.

I did contact A&H. A&H claims that since resetting the SCS app cures the problem it isn't a problem with their USB driver.

[Mike Daniell]

Current run of Oliver is finished. Buzzing occurred twice during performance. Once at end of first Act which was very annoying, and again a couple of days later in middle of the act. The second time I was fortunate in that there was some straight dialog giving me time to restart SCS.

This is an extremely annoying problem. As there doesn't seem to be a way to recreate the problem, other than going through the entire show in real time. I've only been able to recreate it once, and it took two hours. Of course I forgot to get diagnostic dump that time, and during a show there is no way.

I did contact A&H. A&H claims that since resetting the SCS app cures the problem it isn't a problem with their USB driver.

I can understand your frustration - it would annoy me as well. However, although A&H disclaim responsibility it's too simplistic to just say it's not a problem with their driver. When SCS is restarted, driver interfaces are re-initialized so there are many audio layers affected, which could flow through to their driver.

A diagnostic file created at the time of the buzzing is unlikely to reveal anything that would explain the buzzing, but if you just start SCS on that machine and configuration, and then create a diagnostic file and email it to me then I'll see if I can find any relevant settings. Let me know which cue was playing when the buzzing first occurred. But I doubt that SCS or the BASS audio library is directly the cause of the buzzing.

[Boswell]

We've been using a Qu32 for 2 yrs now for all sorts of shows/plays. SCS sends 8 channels of Audio ( 4 stereo pairs) to the Qu32 via the USB with no problems as you describe.
SCS is running on a stripped down (all bloatware and redundant programs uninstalled) dedicated Win7 computer with a SSD drive, no internet or anti virus. it does have a WAP so we can remotely control SCS for setup.

[genel]

After numerous trials with versions versions of SCS sent by Mike, it seemed more than likely to be a QU32 issue. I installed the latest Windows update, reinstalled the latest SCS test version from Mike, and uninstalled and installed the prior version 1.20 of the ASIO driver from A&H.

I have been unable to recreate the buzzing so far!!!!!