Control Mics Channels from Ableton or other DAW through Midi\Daw Control

[lxnsmvParticipant]

Hello. Is it possible to control the state of channels on the SQ-7 mixer using DAW? I’m looking to mute\unmute microphones (lp-1 etc) from my Ableton using automation. This is necessary for the conduct of our performances in the theater. I tried using DAW\MIDI control, but it doesn’t give me control over the mic channels. I would like to associate a microphone channel with a channel in Ableton so that I can control its volume and state in the program itself or using automations.

[ioTonParticipant]

Hi Ixnsmv,

For shure you can control the Mute of your channels 1-48 of the SQ via Midi.

But it’s actually not possible to control any processing or preAmp parameters.

But mute, level, assignment, pan, scene recall and some other stuff can be midi controled.

Do you know the documentation?
https://www.allen-heath.com/media/SQ-MIDI-Protocol-Issue3.pdf

Greetings,
dd

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[Simon CParticipant]

Hello, sorry to bring this thread back..

I’m trying to control channels mute with Live Professor but the documentation isn’t clear for me to understand. I can choose PC, CC and note on ,parameter and value but it doesnt fit with the documentation wich shows a hexadecimal counting of… ? i dont know what it is

[VíctorParticipant]

Hi there
I did it on reaper following the documentation.
Tip If you want to know wich is the midi ..
Take a midi track select the same midi channel that you have selected on your sq Press rec on your daw push the mute channel an unmute press stop on your daw .
If you see now the track you must have de midi message

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@simon C –

We use hex values throughout the documentation for clarity, these might be displayed in decimal in different programs, but they all just relate to binary values under the hood.
e.g. E (HEX) = 14 (DEC) = 1110 (BIN)
More examples here – https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/hex-dec-bin-converter.html

Each of the parameters you can control in the SQ have a parameter ‘address’ assigned to them, these are all shown in the tables at the end of the MIDI protocol document (so you don’t have to try and work them out). They consist of two values, MSB (MB) and LSB (LB).
You can then either send an absolute value to this parameter ‘address’, or a relative value.
With mutes you have the option to send a ‘toggle’ message, so the same message just toggles the mute state.

The easiest way to get going with it is probably to take one of the example messages and then change the values so you understand which part of the message does what.
The mute on message for channel 7, with the SQ set to MIDI channel 1 is:
B0 63 00 B0 62 06 B0 06 00 B0 26 01
This can be split into 4 messages each starting with a ‘B0’ which is just saying ‘talk to MIDI channel 1’.
The 63 and 62 identify the MSB and LSB, which in this case are 00 and 06, saying ‘do something to input channel 7’.
The 06 and 26 are related to the type of message, in this case ‘do something absolute to the mute’.
And finally the 01 at the end is to say ‘turn the mute ON’.

So you could take this and change the 01 at the end to a 00 and it would turn the mute OFF. Or you could change the 00 and 06 and change it to 00 and 2C to instead control SQ input channel 45…

As far as the connection to the SQ, for any of these NRPN messages, you should use the ‘MIDI Thru’ option in the A&H MIDI Control app, then send the whole message in one go.

HOWEVER-
NRPN’s are a little tricky to work with in some applications.
This is why we created the CC Translator option in the MIDI Control app – info on setup and use here – https://www.allen-heath.com/media/AH-MIDI-Control-V2.00-Help.pdf
If you select this, you can instead use a track in Ableton to send note on/off messages to control mutes (much easier 🙂 ).
Just set to CC Translation before opening Ableton, then set the MIDI output from a channel to the ‘Inputs’ virtual MIDI port (to control SQ input channels), and finally sequence notes to control the mutes.
Input channel 1 = -C2 (I believe).

If you need further help, you can always contact us using https://support.allen-heath.com too

Cheers,
Keith.

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