LCR panning

[Rich]

Most of my work is designing AV systems for school auditoriums. As a longtime fan of AH mixers I started specifying their analogue mixers when they first introduced true LCR panning. I’ve been hoping for more universal support of this in the AH digital mixers especially the SQ series since it is at a good price point for the kind of projects I work on. Unfortunately unless there are enough others requesting this, AH feels the lack of demand does not warrant the effort to update the firmware to include this feature. For dramatic and musical theatre it is the best way to easily localize characters and FX. Since other manufacturers (brand B and P for instance) have this feature I don’t think it would be that difficult for the AH designers to include this on future updates. Hopefully others out there agree and will make their voices heard.

[SteffenR]

not only other brands have that feature… dLive and Avantis have it as well 😉

[Rich]

Very true but at a price point much greater than the other brands and the SQ.

[KevinC]

Recently I have had to design a few LCR systems in school auditoriums as well, as much as we love the AH ecosystem (usability/routing/etc.) plus the price point for schools, the SQ series would be the best solution… except… there is no LCR. With the GLD being phased out, the only option for an LCR console from AH is out of the price point for a decent amount of our clients. I am requesting this firmware update as it would be an amazing feature to make an already great console even greater!

[ioTon]

SQ is a 36 Bus concept
some user wish to have more matrices
and the center will also need a new bus.

We’ll see I’ve A&H is willing the addition and the FPGA has the space for this reorder…

But +1 -> would be nice to have in some situations!

[Brian]

I think it would be great if this was added as an option. After all, more options/flexibility is always good.

That being said, I don’t think this feature will ever make it into the SQ lineup. You have to understand that A&H has decided to make the SQ buss architecture fixed. This means the number of aux, groups, matrix, outputs, etc are all fixed and cannot be changed by the user. This is different from the variable architecture of the Avantis and DLive where the user can assign the available busses to any combination of these things until they run out of busses.

So in order to add a center channel to the SQ, it would likely require a buss being reassigned from another function (aux, group, matrix, etc) and given how limited these are already, I don’t think it would be beneficial. In fact, if adding the center channel would in fact reduce one of these other items, I personally would not want that feature added. Of course if they can add it without taking away from an existing buss, or if they made it optional somehow (making the buss configuration user defined for example), then it would be a welcome addition.

That’s just my opinion…….

[SteffenR]

there could be a possible solution for both sides…
reduce the mix count by one,
make the first aux mix a mono one for subwoofer use only (as with the iLive LCR+M) and add the other now available mono bus to the main…

just providing a new role for LCR and additional subwoofer operation

if that makes sense…

[MarkPAman]

I’d certainly find uses for that, and would be happy with (the optional) sacrificing a mix for it.
But, would people then want the groups to be LCR too?

[RS]

make the first aux mix a mono one for subwoofer use only

but who wants a sub on a aux these days? 🙀👎

[volounteer]

who wants a sub at all especially for a school auditorium
who even needs LCR for such an application as a school

[Søren Steinmetz]

LCR is a very strong thing when you mix musicals, as you can have all music in LR and primary/solo vocals in C, giving a better vocal “presense” and a subtle nodge for the vocal into the stage. (better vocal placement)

For me the option to change a mix into C would be welcome.

Then as Mark mentions, what about the groups… should they then be LCR as well or merely have a routing into the LCR master, not to look at the matrix busses then.

[volounteer]

mixing I could see
but school auditoriums are live
my experience is I am lucky to make out mono clearly in every auditorium I have been in ,
let alone try to to hear anything in stereo

[MarkPAman]

Well I guess we’re all different!

[Søren Steinmetz]

Musicals are live as well, and when you have a venue where you might need to take Haas effect into account, LCR panning is a very useful tool.

[volounteer]

yes and the theatres that produce them probably have much better sound systems than most schools or churches or similar places
and when I went to broadway theatres, while rating them plenty good enough, I would not say any of them were really great.

what makes the sound better for one seat may make it worse for another
so again for recording and mixing for a CD LCR could be useful for sure.
I just cant see it in the use case of the OP.

[Author]

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