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[Dan Richardson]

Am I doing something wrong when I format? I'm stumped.

You're not doing anything wrong. A&H's USB drivers are terrible. The old Sandisk Extreme 3.0 was reliable. They don't make it any more, and the 3.1 replacement doesn't work at all.

I've given up on USB multitracking from my A&H boards altogether. Recording to a laptop is just better in so many ways. Reliability, named files, choose which tracks are being recorded, files are already in your DAW with no importing, etc etc.

[Scott Gaines]

You're not doing anything wrong. A&H's USB drivers are terrible. The old Sandisk Extreme 3.0 was reliable. They don't make it any more, and the 3.1 replacement doesn't work at all.

I've given up on USB multitracking from my A&H boards altogether. Recording to a laptop is just better in so many ways. Reliability, named files, choose which tracks are being recorded, files are already in your DAW with no importing, etc etc.

You shouldn't give up on multitrack recording with your QU. The flash drive model I suggested a few posts up works flawlessly

[Wayne Smith2]

This thread and the wildly divergent results sited is bizarre.
Maybe it's time to ask why at the the source..
https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/qu-drive-compatible-usb-device-database

[Lyle Williams]

The problem is well understood.  The Qu has little (no?) ability to buffer data being written.  If the receiving media says "stop, wait a moment" then the Qu has no place to hold the data.

The behaviour of the Qu is entirely predictable.  The behaviour of the USB thumbdrives varies wildly.

[Tim Hite]

Here's a handy reference:

https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/calculating-hard-disk-space-required-for-digital-audio-recording/

Appx 3hrs per channel per Gb of storage at 44.1 WAV.

[Dan Richardson]

The problem is well understood.  The Qu has little (no?) ability to buffer data being written.  If the receiving media says "stop, wait a moment" then the Qu has no place to hold the data.

The behaviour of the Qu is entirely predictable.  The behaviour of the USB thumbdrives varies wildly.

Exactly. The only drives I have found to work had tested write speeds above 100 MB/s. My JoeCo recorder could reliably record 24 channels of 24 bit 44k to a USB drive with a write speed of 5 MB/s. Hence my contention that A&H's drivers are terrible.

The JoeCo also had a visible buffer display that could show you if you were getting into trouble. In the event of a power drop, it would recover lost files on bootup. That was a well written recorder.

[Dan Richardson]

This thread and the wildly divergent results sited is bizarre.
Maybe it's time to ask why at the the source..
https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/qu-drive-compatible-usb-device-database

That database lists contradictory results, includes many drives with names that are too incomplete to identify the specific drive, and is largely unverified.

[Wayne Smith2]

The problem is well understood.  The Qu has little (no?) ability to buffer data being written.  If the receiving media says "stop, wait a moment" then the Qu has no place to hold the data.

The behaviour of the Qu is entirely predictable.  The behaviour of the USB thumbdrives varies wildly.

Haven't searched yet but I'd be interested if this is improved in the SQ series?
Thanks

[Lyle Williams]

I'm sure that it got fixed in the SQ!

I think A&H probably implemented the Qu USB recording interface within the real-time portions of the mixer's circuitry, relying on the buffering present in rotating-media drives necessary to cope with HDD head movements.  A design choice that probably seemed pragmatic, effective and efficient at the time, but it hasn't worked out due to user behaviour.

Users expect that they can plug in any dang USB thumbdrive.  The fact that the manual says dont do this is ignored by users.  The result is dissatisfaction with the amount of time trying to get something working that was never meant to work in the first place.

[Dan Richardson]

I'm sure that it got fixed in the SQ!

Absolutely not.

[ProSoundWeb Community]