LPF, clock, more detailed comp meter, and more…

[JaredParticipant]

The company I work for has recently invested an SQ-7, SQ-5, and a GX4816. We do a lot of small to mid size shows and festivals as well as lots of corporate. I’d first like to say that I adore the sound, routing & I/O capabilities, and desk workflow. There are, however, many things about SQ that have made it very difficult transitioning from other consoles. They are as follows:

– Lack of a LPF (and HPF) console-wide: This is honestly one of my biggest pet peeves. I use these quite a bit, especially on dense guitar and synth mixes and even talking heads at corporate events. It’s been very frustrating in many scenarios since I’m so used to having them. I get by with a poor man’s version, using the high band PEQ gained all the way down at 20k and adjusting the Q, but it is a pain and is not the same at all. I know this is a common complaint here that has been addressed, but I wanted to keep it in the forefront of attention as it is very important. Also tagging on here that not having any filters on mixes is very tough when I am not in a situation where I have external system processing.

– Clock: I didn’t think I would ever miss having a clock on a console. The reality is that it does make a difference when you are trying to stage manage and run monitors or keeping up with a run of show in corporate. It’s really annoying to have to divert attention to your phone to look at the time while staying focused on what’s going on.

– More detailed comp meter: Having the GR meter marked more frequently than every 10dB would be helpful. I do always use my ears, but it would help to see when better detail doing small amounts of reduction. It would also make the predictive features of the comp being bypassed more useful. It would even be okay to just have more detail up to 10dB.

– CH TO ALL MIX button: I love this feature, but it would be nice to be able to set this as a latching or momentary.

– Matrices: Only having 3 Matrices, regardless of them being stereo or mono, is difficult in some corporate situations.

I love SQ and I only want to see it get better. I hope some of these issues get addressed, because currently it’s been causing myself, other engineers in the company, and some of our freelance engineers some grief.

Thanks to everyone at A&H for taking the time to read our feedback and working hard to create great products.

Cheers!

[Author]

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