FX not coming through in AUX mix ?

[RikerParticipant]

Hello.

SQ-6 Owner. I am sending a vocal channel (on S-Link socket AB168) to FX 1 (verb) but only hear the reverb coming out of the Main speakers? I am not hearing that reverb in the AUX MIX where that vocal channel is at unity. I hear the vocals loud and clear in my headphones (AUX Mix goes to Headphone amp) but dry as a bone.

I have verified that FX1 Send and FX1 Return faders are at Unity, on Main LR Mix and everywhere else I can think of. It’s probably a routing thing ? but I just can’t see it, looking at every menu, no love. Using the FX on my SQ-6 always confuses me, should be straight forward, but every time I’m spending so much time trying to figure FX issues.

Thank you

[SQuserParticipant]

> … FX1 Return faders are at Unity … everywhere else I can think of.
So you are sure that it is really also the FX return of your desired AUX mix?

And the Assign ist also not Off?
(See picture an the manual at page 42)

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[RikerParticipant]

Hi SQUser, thank you for your reply. Yes I have verified that the screen, from page 42 and your attached picture, does indeed show it is enabled.

With AUX 1 Selected, then Routing I see a “blank” pink box in the FX Send section (bottom box) on the first “bar” 1 ? The blank box is actually at Unity / zero, but being blank means no signal or routing right ? Now, the box just above: MIX Send, does have a solid green bar at unity and if I adjust the Fader of FX1Rtn that green box moves with my fader moves. I am looking at AUX 1 faders for both FX1Snd and FX1Rtn and both physical faders are up to unity.

Now, if I Select FX 1 button, under Routing, the FX Send box at the bottom does show a solid Pink bar as I move the fader of the vocal channel. So it looks like the vocal channel is Sending it’s signal into FX1 properly.

sorry if I’m not explaining myself as clearly as I could.

[RikerParticipant]

After some more digging, I might have found the issue.

this trips me up every single time.

The Vocal channel, or any channel for that matter, was DOWN to Zero on the MAIN L/R BUS. Because I was ONLY using the AUX for headphones and a tracking session, and I was NOT using my Main L/R Speakers while tracking, I never brought up the Fader on the Main L/R Bus. Once I did that, AND brought up the FXRtn on the AUX channel.. low and behold.. REVERB.

When I do Live Sound, that’s not an issue since the channel faders are all very close to Unity on the Main L/R bus for for FOH and I get Reverb on FOH AND I get reverb on AUX (wedges or In Ears)

But when I use my SQ-6 to track a band in my studio, I don’t use my Main speakers so the Main L/R bus is muted during tracking. I only Un Mute when we listen back to the recordings, but the microphones are all down to Zero on the Main L/R mix since I don’t need them for playback, or for recording.

I don’t think I still FULLY understand the FX routing but maybe through “luck” I ended up moving the fader up on Main L/R and the Return on the AUX and I got reverb in the headphones which is what I wanted to get.

[SQuserParticipant]

> With AUX 1 Selected, then Routing I see a “blank” pink box in the FX Send section (bottom box) on the first “bar” 1 ?
If you see there a “blank” pink box, the FX is NOT assigned!
You should see there a pink bar!
Scroll the Routing screen to the right to FX and you will see, that the Assign is Off.

> I never brought up the Fader on the Main L/R Bus.
> Once I did that, AND brought up the FXRtn on the AUX channel.. low and behold.. REVERB
I find it difficult to empathize with your way of working.
Effects are usually always post fader – so the channel fader as well as its FX fader must be open if you want the FX to get anywhere.
And of course the FX return fader must also be open in the desired mix.

[RikerParticipant]

“I find it difficult to empathize with your way of working.
Effects are usually always post fader – so the channel fader as well as its FX fader must be open if you want the FX to get anywhere.
And of course the FX return fader must also be open in the desired mix.”

I find it difficult to understand that sentence. If you did not like my question, you didn’t have to reply to it. 😉
It’s not “my way of working”. I thought, incorrectly, that having the channel Fader AT UNITY on the AUX MIX would have “fed” the FX, but it does not, it is the MAIN L/R Bus fader that must be up for FX to work in AUX, along with Sends and Returns of course.

In any case, Thank you for your input

[SQuserParticipant]

Sorry if my expression wasn’t the right one – unfortunately my English isn’t that good so I’m using also “help”.
In any case, I didn’t want to offend you.

> If you did not like my question …
It wasn’t about your question, but perhaps about the confusion surrounding it:
If you write that you see an empty pink box instead of a bar on your FX, then the FX can’t work because it hasn’t been assigned.
But later you write that the FX worked when the channel fader was opened.
That was a contradiction for me.

> … you didn’t have to reply to it
I just wanted to help because no one else did.

> It’s not “my way of working”
But it could have been, because I don’t know what kind of project you want to realize.
If you don’t want the channel fader to play a role in the Aux FX, you could also set the FX send to Pre-fader.
It’s just that this is rather unusual with FX – but it’s not impossible to do it either.

FX in the monitor can also lead to the following problem:
If you use the typical ‘Monitor = Pre Fader’ and ‘FX = Post Fader’, the ratio between dry and wet in the Aux mix changes (usually unintentionally) depending on the channel fader.

[RikerParticipant]

Thank you for the clarification, it can be a challenge to understand someone’s intentions or feelings on the internet ! Easy to forget that English is not everyone’s primary language.

I use my SQ-6 primarily as a Studio Interface for tracking with the occasional Live gig, at least it’s been that way for a couple of years now. I like the large I/O count of the SQ-6 so I can track / record many instruments and output mixes to many headphones for musicians. I have an AB168 stage box which gives me an additional 16 in and 8 outs.

I have a “one room” studio so when I track musicians with instruments and vocal microphones I mute or turn down the master fader so that the SQ-6 does not output sound to my studio monitors during that process. That is why the channel faders were down to zero on the main mix bus, because I did not want any sound to come out of my monitors and into the microphones in the room. Now, I could have just Muted the Main L/R bus while keeping the channel faders are Unity, but did not do it that way.

So, with the musicians (which included myself in my last session) each having their own Headphone Mix through AUX outputs on SQ-6 they hear the balance they want ie: bass, drums, vocals, guitar etc..

The issue was that the lead vocalist asked me for some Reverb on his vocals, in his headphones. So I was trying to send FX unit 1 (Reverb) to his vocal channel on his AUX and that did not work, even though the FX1 Send and FX1 Rtn Fader was UP on his AUX mix, there was no reverb.

Yesterday as I was trying to figure this out I happen to notice the Vocal channel fader on the MAIN mix was down, once I turned it up, reverb was there.

What confused me is that he could hear his dry vocals loud and clear in his AUX mix / headphones EVEN though his vocal channel was at Zero on Main Mix, but no reverb. To get reverb I had to raise his vocal channel on Main Mix, then it worked.

So it looks like the FX mix is getting it’s source signal from the Main Mix only, not from the AUX. It sounds reasonable that it works this way, but what I did not get was Why dry vocals in Aux mix worked with Main fader down, but not FX ? that is what I did not understand.

I do get your point about Pre Fader and Post Fader, very good point and I guess that’s why I can still hear the reverb even when I pull down the source channel ie: vocal channel and I see where this could be a problem.

Thank you again for your help and advice, I really do appreciate it and glad we sorted things out, all good my friend.
Cheers

[SQuserParticipant]

Thanks for the friendly clarifying words. 🙂

As I wrote, you can set any Mix or FX fader to Pre or Post!
In the first case, the position of the channel fader does not matter because the signal is already picked up before it.
In the second case it does because the signal depends on the position of the channel fader.
And since, as I wrote, monitors are mostly set to Pre-fader, you will hear the signal on the Aux even when the channel fader is closed – but not the FX, as the FX send is Post-fader.
In your case it would certainly be better to switch all monitor mixes Post-fader. Then the balance between dry and wet always remains the same when you leveling with the channel faders.

[RikerParticipant]

ok yes that makes sense now, it explains why I could hear the Dry vocals and not the FX. I will switch monitor mix to Post Fader as you suggest and try that out this afternoon.

Thanks again ! really appreciate it ! 🙂

[Author]

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