Problems with XENYX Q1202USB *Very Urgent

[DavidFattore]

Hi Guys,

I purchased a Q1202USB Mixer for my recording Studio and I seem to be having an issue with the right channel.

I have two Audio Technica AT2020 Condenser Mics plugged into the first two XLR mic inputs and with both being panned to the left channels and right channels respectively.


The problem is there's no signal coming from the Right Channel at all, even though I'm recording with an ASIO audio driver within my DAW.

The left channel works fine, but I'm wondering if I put both mics on the left channel whether it will be unbalanced in the final recording.

Any help on this would be very much appreciated as it's quite urgent, we're scheduled to record in a month.

[KenMitchell]

David Fattore;151816 wrote:
Hi Guys,

I purchased a Q1202USB Mixer for my recording Studio and I seem to be having an issue with the right channel.

I have two Audio Technica AT2020 Condenser Mics plugged into the first two XLR mic inputs and with both being panned to the left channels and right channels respectively.


The problem is there's no signal coming from the Right Channel at all, even though I'm recording with an ASIO audio driver within my DAW.

The left channel works fine, but I'm wondering if I put both mics on the left channel whether it will be unbalanced in the final recording.

Any help on this would be very much appreciated as it's quite urgent, we're scheduled to record in a month.

Hi David,

Welcome to the forums. I'm assuming you've done all the basics like swapping mics, cables, channels, etc and the problem stays with the right channel? Are you hearing the right channel while monitoring at the headphones jack on the mixer?

What DAW are you using? You mentioned ASIO so I know you're on Windows. What version?

Hang in there,
Ken

[DavidFattore]

Ken Mitchell;151837 wrote:
Hi David,

Welcome to the forums. I'm assuming you've done all the basics like swapping mics, cables, channels, etc and the problem stays with the right channel? Are you hearing the right channel while monitoring at the headphones jack on the mixer?

What DAW are you using? You mentioned ASIO so I know you're on Windows. What version?

Hang in there,
Ken

Hi Ken,

Thanks sincerely for the welcome and for the reply.

In answer to your question,... yes, that was the first thing I tried, due to me freaking out that one of my mics wasn't working. So I've swapped the mics around with the XLR inputs, I've also swapped the XLR cables between the mics, the problem still persists.

Both microphones are working so silver lining there!

I can hear one channel using the headphones that I have plugged into the mixer (I have two sets of headphones plugged in simultaneously using a Behringer HA400 Compact 4 Channel Stereo Headphone Amplifier) however I think that's the left channel.


The DAW I'm using is Mixcraft 7, there may be better DAW's out there but it hasn't let me down yet and I've had it for a few years now. I also have FL Studio 12 Producers Edition, but I mainly use that for my video game music composing.


Haha I'm using Windows 10 Home, interestingly though the ASIO4ALL driver, which supposedly comes with the Q1202USB Mixer doesn't work for me, in that it doesn't pick up any signal at all from either microphone, where as I'm currently using FL Studio ASIO, the driver that was pre packaged with FL Studio 12 and that's the driver that yields the signal from the left channel and not the right.

Cheers mate, will do... Eagerly awaiting your reply, thanks again!

[KenMitchell]

David Fattore;151923 wrote:
Hi Ken,

Thanks sincerely for the welcome and for the reply.

In answer to your question,... yes, that was the first thing I tried, due to me freaking out that one of my mics wasn't working. So I've swapped the mics around with the XLR inputs, I've also swapped the XLR cables between the mics, the problem still persists.

Both microphones are working so silver lining there!

I can hear one channel using the headphones that I have plugged into the mixer (I have two sets of headphones plugged in simultaneously using a Behringer HA400 Compact 4 Channel Stereo Headphone Amplifier) however I think that's the left channel.


The DAW I'm using is Mixcraft 7, there may be better DAW's out there but it hasn't let me down yet and I've had it for a few years now. I also have FL Studio 12 Producers Edition, but I mainly use that for my video game music composing.


Haha I'm using Windows 10 Home, interestingly though the ASIO4ALL driver, which supposedly comes with the Q1202USB Mixer doesn't work for me, in that it doesn't pick up any signal at all from either microphone, where as I'm currently using FL Studio ASIO, the driver that was pre packaged with FL Studio 12 and that's the driver that yields the signal from the left channel and not the right.

Cheers mate, will do... Eagerly awaiting your reply, thanks again!

Hi David,

If I understand you correctly you can only hear one channel in your headphones that are attached directly to the mixer? If that's the case we need to start there.

One tool that I've found invaluable for setup and troubleshooting is an audio tone generator. I use an app on my iPhone called "Audio Tool" by Performance Audio. There are many for both iPhone and Android phones. You take the 3.5mm out of the phone (or lightning to 3.5mm), split that into 2x 6.5mm Left and Right channels, and plug those into the inputs you want to test. By only plugging in one side of the splitter you'll easily be able to tell if that's the channel you are hearing at the output.

Based on what you want to do we need to make sure you are hearing the tone for channel 1 in your left ear and the tone for channel 2 in your right ear. Once we've got that sorted out we can move on to the DAW.

Here's a link to the splitter I'm using: http://hosatech.com/product/cmp-150/


Hope this helps,
Ken

[MarkFarrell]

Hi David, Something to try if you haven't already, is to operate/function the two buttons that are for the 'USB/2-Track' selection a few times. I have an older Behringer mixer that had a problem with switches not making up connections reliably from what may have been contamination on the contacts. I don't have a lot of confidence this may 'fix' your issue, but it's easy to try.

Kind of on the Ken's idea of injecting a tone, if per chance you may have a 1/4" patch cord or instrument cable laying around, plug it into a 'LINE IN' and touch the other end of the tip of the cable plug with your finger tip (you'll get hum) and turn the PAN knob left and right.
Good luck.........

[DavidFattore]

Thanks to both Ken and Mark for excellent ideas, very much appreciated.

After trying both, in relation to the headphones, I can know hear audio in both ears, so both tracks presumably although one track is more pronounced than the other, a minor problem, something I'll fix later.

The more pressing problem is the fact that both microphones, while they work, they only pick up my voice on the whenever I pan their channels to the left. If I pan either of them to the right, I get nothing, no signal from the microphones (gently tapping on the mic itself to test) and no audio being recorded.

I'm hoping its not a fault with the mixer.

As for Mark's suggestion, I tried plugging a guitar cable into the line in of mic one and I'm not sure I heard a hum when I tapped the other end with my fingernail....

Sounding suspiciously more and more like a problem with the mixer...

[MarkFarrell]

David Fattore;151998 wrote:


As for Mark's suggestion, I tried plugging a guitar cable into the line in of mic one and I'm not sure I heard a hum when I tapped the other end with my fingernail....

Sounding suspiciously more and more like a problem with the mixer...

Touch the guitar cable tip with the fleshy part of your finger, hold it there, and not tap. Your body acts like an antenna that will pick up stray noise in the room from power outlets and cords. Touching the cord transfers what your body picks up and sends it to the mixer. You may have to turn up the gain and level faders to hear the hum.
Does the VU meter show any signal level when the pan is set to right and speaking into or tapping on the mic?

[KenMitchell]

Hi David,

Is there anyway you can take a hi-res picture of the top of your mixer so we can see the knob positions? I'm just fishing at this point but I hate to declare a hardware problem before exhausting everything else.

Ken

[DavidFattore]

Apologies Mark, I should have made myself a bit clearer, I did in fact touch the cable with my finger rather than my nail, holding there for a number of seconds, because you're right normally when I'd plug a microphone or guitar into an amplifier it would give off a hum when the metal part of the jack comes into contact with the amp's line in input.

Same or similar premise here.
Unfortunately even with the volume and the gain amped up to max I didn't hear a hum, which has me worried.


Ken, I agree mate, I don't even want to consider the possibility of it being a hardware malfunction at this stage. On that note I have taken a few images, hopefully you can work your magic and figure out the issue.

I can say for certain that in that current configuration, when I speak into each microphone, the LED lights, light up in the main section and 'Comp' LEDs light up for their respective microphones.

I just can't seem to record anything when I pan either microphone to the right (R), which has me stumped. Odds are knowing my luck it will be something silly I've overlooked!

Cheers fellas thanks again.

[KenMitchell]

David Fattore;152070 wrote:
Apologies Mark, I should have made myself a bit clearer, I did in fact touch the cable with my finger rather than my nail, holding there for a number of seconds, because you're right normally when I'd plug a microphone or guitar into an amplifier it would give off a hum when the metal part of the jack comes into contact with the amp's line in input.

Same or similar premise here.
Unfortunately even with the volume and the gain amped up to max I didn't hear a hum, which has me worried.


Ken, I agree mate, I don't even want to consider the possibility of it being a hardware malfunction at this stage. On that note I have taken a few images, hopefully you can work your magic and figure out the issue.

I can say for certain that in that current configuration, when I speak into each microphone, the LED lights, light up in the main section and 'Comp' LEDs light up for their respective microphones.

I just can't seem to record anything when I pan either microphone to the right (R), which has me stumped. Odds are knowing my luck it will be something silly I've overlooked!

Cheers fellas thanks again.

Hi David,

I don't see anything immediately obvious but there is one part of the setup that isn't needed for this testing. Can you remove the cable going to the HA400 and plug a pair of headphones directly into the board? I'm not sure of the routing inside the mixer but an ill-fitting TRS cable could short the right channel to ground. Tip=Left, Ring=Right, and Sleeve=Ground.

Let us know if that changes anything?

Ken