Allen Heath SQ Groups Explained and FX Bussing

[MaParticipant]

I wanted to leave this out there to be searchable. Groups are difficult to sort out when first working with this board, and there’s little to no full explanation on their usesage and their limitations

GROUPS are like Auxs, but Sends on Faders is NOT possible. All channels Sending to a Group are forced to be Post Fader, and can only be Assigned via the Processing Menu, or with the Assign button on the left side of the board while the Group’s Mix button is selected, so the channel sends are On or Off only. This means that the channel levels going to Groups are dependent on the Fader level being sent to the Master LR and cannot be independently adjusted like an Aux.

Groups are useful for creating an FX Bus that needs more processing than the FX 1-4 busses, which currently only have a post FX Eq available. A Group as an FX Bus has no FX Send on Faders like the FX 1-4, but can be Routed to the FX Slot via the Back Panel on any FX Engine. Typically you’d use FX Slots 5-8 for this function. When the FX Slots 5-8 are initiated, FX Returns 5-8 will become available, and these Returns are used to adjust the volume of that FX to the Master LR, or an Aux. This is very useful for creating a Reverb bus that needs some post Verb compression.

Assign the Group to the FX Mix->Return in the FX Engine Back Panel to Send the Group to the FX Unit. Again, use this FX Return to adjust the Volume of the FX. The way I find this ‘Group as FX Bus’ most useful is to leave the Assigned channels On in the Master LR Assignment, while also turning them on in the Group. This way the channel Fader is the “Dry” signal still, and the FX Return Fader is the “Wet” signal.

Groups are also useful for “group” processing where you could Eq or Compress all the Vocals, or Drums, etc, together. I would turn Off the Master LR Assignment when using a Group in this fashion so you don’t have a double fed signal to the Master LR. If you want Parallel processing, simply leave On the Master LR Assignment when sending to a Group, but I find this less ideal because A&H have provided a “parallel” processing function for every group, but you may do it either way.

Feel free to add additional details that help explain different uses that you use for groups.

Hope this helps. Groups are very confusing when starting out with this board and it took me a few days longer than I’d hoped to get it sorted, so hope this saves some new owners some trouble, especially considering there are no videos or written explanations on this topic that describes Groups and their usefulness in full detail. I’ll post a video in the next week or so and add the link to this post for reference.

[SteffenRParticipant]

Groups are per definition routing targets. Simple buses. Routing on or off, that’s it.

One can use groups to combine signals just for having them on one fader, like choir, and you are able to send the combined signals to aux mixes all together.
On events with a lot of headset mics, I often use a group to add another EQ to all headsets to have them not feedback.

[MaParticipant]

Thanks for adding more clarity to this post.

So that headphone group is assigned to the Main LR or is it just sending to the monitors?

[SteffenRParticipant]

So that headphone group is assigned to the Main LR or is it just sending to the monitors?

What you mean with headphone group?

[JephsoundParticipant]

I actually run my effects through a group and insert Waves plugins on the group for alternative effects.
The dry / wet channels or groups really works well.

[WaihekeSoundieParticipant]

@jephsound
Could you expand on what you do with the Groups and FX please? That sounds interesting.

[Author]

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