Best CQ effects for Rock Vocals

[Gaz]

My CQ20B just arrived. Getting familiar and setting it up for its first band rehearsal. Been experimenting with the different effects algorithms at home.

Was using a competitors similar 18 channel stagebox mixer for a few years… The setup which I settled on for vocals was..

FX1 – Exciter (inserted into vocal strip). This really helped to cut through in muddy locations
FX2 – Vox Reverb (bus effect)
FX3 – Vox Short delay (50ms) as a doubler / thickener (bus effect)
FX4 – Vox Long tap delay (spacial / drama effect) mapped to 2 soft keys for tap tempo and on/off.

It seems to me that the intended combo-effect for vocal in the CQ is the echo verb. I don’t like the reduced user feedback/control on this effect when using the soft keys.

(i) The tap tempo soft key doesn’t flash (which is crucial)
(ii) It seems odd in how it sets the delay time. The tap on the effect unit itself seems to be half of what happens when using the soft key.
(iii) When tapping the time it also seems to jump around a lot too. I think other devices take an average time of the last 4-6 taps.. this seems to just compare the last tap with the previous one.
(iv) It isn’t possible to switch off just the delay with a soft key (as far as I could see)

Considering the above I abandoned the echo verb for my vocals.

The setup I think I have settled on is as follows:

FX1 – Double Tracker (inserted on lead Vox channel strip) I chose to insert so that the thickened vocals is fed into the bus effects (I think this is the case from routing POV).
FX2 – Easy Verb (bus effect). Send the lead vocals and some of the long delay to this verb to set it back in the mix
FX3 – Tap Delay. This is the one I use a the spacial/drama effect. Very happy with how the soft keys work with this effect. The tap tempo gives good control of the intended time parameter, the flashing feedback on the button is great. I also really like the high and low cut switches. I used to use an EQ on the effect return on my old mixer, but quite like having a simple switch. The cut-in frequencies seem something similar to what I would manually do with the EQ. The resultant effect is very pleasing… will need to see if it still provokes feedback on a live stage but sounds about right to my ear at home.

There is no exciter on the CQ so will have to see how well the lead vocals cut through. Can probably compensate with EQ in the Vox channel.

Would be very happy to hear other user experiences, opinions and suggestions to experiment with.

Cheers guys and gals.

[Mr. Fabulous]

Thanks for posting about this topic. I’ve got the CQ-18. I started off with just using the easy verb till I got the hang of things. I’m now doing this:

Fx-1 Echo Verb on vocal channels. This is to get some echo/slap delay and some light ambiance on the vocal channels. I haven’t tried use the tap delay on this since I’m using the echo. I just leave the level down on the delay.

Fx-2 Easy Verb. Other reverb flavors for instruments or vox when desired.

Fx-3 Stereo Delay for the spacial/drama effect when needed. I need to experiment with the tap delay more.

Fx-4 Space Verb – To bring the whole mix together.

I’ve also been experimenting with using the doubletracker or echo with the easy verb as an alternative to the echo verb and that works well too. I’m not sure I can tell what the FX assist buttons really do, and the descriptions are pretty vague. Pre-delay on the reverbs might be nice. Maybe FX EQ too or perhaps at least high/low pass. All in all, very musical effects and very easy to get good sounds. Very happy with this mixer.

[BobbyDazzler59]

Coincidence that you discuss effects shortly before I rais an effect query wich is more about chaining. I want to set FX1 with a chorus, then using the send to, send it to FX2 direct not LR out and chain it before the echo verb or similar. Tried the FX sends to FX2 page and the ourputs page sends to button on the right but no signal result in FX2 from FX1. 2hat am I missing? Keith, can you help. The manual hints this can be done with FX channels but after 2 mins of fiddling I get nothing so far. I have checked the jndividual fX channel out to LR and that works.

[BobbyDazzler59]

Hmmm….further investigation shows that…..output from the first FX in a supposed chain, needs its LR output up, then it sends a signalnto the next effect in the supposed chain. Not what I expected. I was hoping for the effect chain similar to a DAW like my Logic Pro where you can stack FX in multiples, but I just want to apply chorus or even the double tracker and send that processed signal thru the reverb and out to LR, I dont want a mixed mash of both orig FX and the revb, just a fully processed signal chain A to B to LR.

[KeithJ A&H]

@BobbyDazzler59

I’m afraid it’s not possible to stack or chain FX units in the CQ as it doesn’t have the same complexity of routing available as our more powerful mixers (Qu and higher).
In the larger ranges, you can switch assignments on/off to different mixes, and set sends to be pre or post fader for all.
With CQ, the FX sends are always on and set post fader (which I’d suggest is 95% of use cases).

However, you can insert FX units directly into a channel in the CQ, then send this on to a shared FX unit.
Inserting is the most common way the modulation FX are used in fact, so in your case you’d have the chorus or double tracker in the channel and then use a shared reverb.

Thinking outside the box (literally!) although it’s a bit of a hack, you could also insert an FX on a channel, then send to an output, insert another FX unit on the output channel and then (physically) loop the output back into a spare input channel to send to LR.

Cheers,
Keith.

[BobbyDazzler59]

@KeithJ A&H . Thanks Keith. Just exploring all possibilities and how various functions and controls interact as well as creating various ideas and workarounds with what we have available. I was just assuming that each effect channel having a Send to or from level control, it would effectively chain to another effect before going to main LR, bit as you say, this wont work post fade as it will and does need the LR fader up to output the signal to the send to channel as well etc.

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