Additional Matrix on SQ

[Joseph]

Currently SQ supports only 3 Stereo/Mono Matrix. It will be a great help if you can add up another 3 Matrix in future releases.
Please consider this request. When we do in church setup, more Matrix are very much required to send the out to different locations and streaming.

[Joseph]

I can understand, providing additional Matrix is a major change in core architecture. But it is very critical and essential feature.
All competitors are giving this feature (6-8 Matrix) in similar range of mixers.

[Mfk0815]

If it is required you maybe bought the wrong product. One simple rule is still valid „buy a product based on the available features and not based on features which may be build in in the far future“. I don‘t think that this feature will be available for the SQ, at least not for the next few years.
But why nobody thinks about a matrix mixer or a systemcontroller for a fixed installed audio system? That makes much more sense in environments, like churches, where a lot of volunteers, a.k.a persons with less skills for running audio systems, will operate the console. If you use the build in matrix as a replacement for a true system controller you will open the door for a lot of mistakes made by the operators of the console.
Morematrix busses would be fine but imho not for the mentioned use case.

[Brian]

+1

[Mfk0815]

when similar budgeted mixers like X32 is giving 6 matrix,

Don‘t get me wrong, I like the X32 and it has a lot of features I am missing at the SQ. But the X32 has 6 mono Matrix busses. When you want to run stereo matrix busses you also only have three of them.
And even if the Si depre… ah, sorry, expression will hav 100 matrix busses I never would replace an X32 or SQ with that console 😉

[JV]

+1 minimum 6 Matrix are required

[Nicola A&H]

Several posts in this thread have been deleted as they originated from the same IP address and user profiles created within minutes, with no other post activity.
Faking user accounts to add multiple +1s is NOT the best strategy to get your feature requests through.

[JohnOC]

Agreed Nicola – but it would be nice if you or Keith would come back with a response if this is feasible or not.
I.e. if it is locked into the hardware then its probably not possible.

I would find the addition of at least 3 more Matrix channels very very useful – I can think of several applications in our current worship group setup that would benefit from this.

One other feature related to this would be an easier way of adjusting the input levels to the matrix.
Even if some of these could be pulled out to the programmable knobs if not the actual faders (which is probably a request too far).

+1 on the other comments that for its price, the SQ series is a very very well equipped desk.

[KeithJ A&H]

Hi @JohnOC ,

The channel count is fixed by the architecture of the XCVI core, so it is related to hardware, but not in the same way as it might be with ‘old school’ DSP chip arrays.
To increase the number of matrices would require a complete core overhaul though, which is far from trivial and would require a lot of development and testing before we’d have any idea if it might be feasible.
Bear in mind that we spent years developing and working on the core in the first place (and didn’t just chuck in what seemed right at the time), and hopefully you’ll understand that it’s not a question we can provide an answer to at this time.

If there is massive demand (from different individuals!), then we will certainly investigate further, so as with any suggestions here, please do post/upvote/comment as we’ll usually only jump in where something’s definitely not possible and/or where clarification or use cases might help.

On your comment about control – the SQ cannot route Input channels to Matrix (other than Mix Ext In), so I’m not sure what your mean there unless talking about Mixes to Matrices.
In which case, the easiest/quickest method is to select the mix channel you with to send and hold the ‘CH to All Mix’ key to show send levels to Matrices on faders 🙂

Hope this helps!
Keith.

[JohnOC]

Keith thanks for the detailed reply – always appreciate the clarity you bring to the conversation.

For info – I find the matrix channel very useful for
– Fill speakers (where I need to suppress specific group buses that go the MAIN (e.g. Radio mics)
– External house feeds (creche, outside hall) for similar reasons
– EQ for Bass bins avoiding the use of a crossover unit.

Have been able to get by with 3 but would be a real boon as stated to have extra.

That said – its is a superbly configured desk at that price point.
It has very easily swapped over to livestream use in recent times and I see no reason when the congregation returns that it won’t be able to support both use cases simultaneously.

Tx for the tip on the CH to All Mix – that helps and lot and will do the job nicely.

John

[Carl N]

+1 for more matrices!

[Søren Steinmetz]

@Keith

Not sure if my thought here is possible, but I started thinking if it could be possible to make FX send 5-8 switchable into extra Matrixes?

I know it will still be a fairly large change in the code, but that “could” be one way of doing it.

[MarkPAman]

I may be misunderstanding you Søren, apologies if this is the case, but I don’t think we have FX send 5-8 at all? FX sends 1-4 are only available from inputs & groups, not Mixes or L&R.

[KeithJ A&H]

@Søren
– There are no FX Send busses 5-8 on the SQ, and FX sends 1-4 do not have mix processing (like matrices do).

A little more info on the ‘non-triviality’:
There are a number of processing ‘blocks’ (channel processing) and a space to put them all in (the core), if there are no gaps that are the shape of the blocks, space may need to be made plus everything moved around to fit the blocks in.
The next complication for the core would be all the new routing crosspoints required.
Then when all the architecture/core/foundation work is complete, the control side of things would be next, working through all the show/scene compatibility questions across revisions past/present/future.
Finally, GUI and remote control options (MixPad) would all need to be updated and tied in to the changes.

As the foundations of the console would be different, there would be a lot of re-designing of test procedures (as every single unit goes through rigorous testing before shipping) and a large amount of testing/soaking (though we do this with each release anyway).

Still not saying it’s impossible. Just pointing out there is unfortunately no shortcut and that we always want to be working on things that satisfy as many users as possible (which could be this!).
So as with any feature, but especially with one at such low level, we’d just need to know this is at least near the top of the list for the majority of users before we commit any resource to it.

Cheers,
Keith.

[Søren Steinmetz]

Thanks for the deeper explanation, and I stand corrected about the FX…. not quite sure where I had my mind getting that thought, so I will just blame it on Covid-brain then 😉

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