I know this is an old thread, but the recent firmware that came out last month still doesn’t fix this issue.
The first time I used an SQ-7 and this happened to me, in the middle of a show, I thought the wireless microphone that I had 200 feet away had somehow gone offline. Put me in a bit of a panic.
Even though I know it’s a problem now, it’s still a problem that makes the board lose some of its functionality.
The lack of metering when the AMM is engaged makes it impossible to know at a glance if the microphone is functioning (power switches on wireless bodypacks…), and the lack of PFL when the AMM is engaged makes it impossible to EQ the lavs on presenters before they go onstage. The current workaround is to turn off the AMM when the mics are offstage, but that often invites feedback if the AMM isn’t engaged before the mics go live.
My use case for this is live mixing of things like panel discussions where there are multiple presenters on lavalier microphones. Typical workflow is that the presenters are mic’d up offstage, and EQ is done via PFL (no onstage soundcheck). Wireless systems are usually in play, and power/mute on the bodypacks aren’t guaranteed to be disabled. The AMM is used to increase gain before feedback (that extra 6dB going from 4 open mics to 1 open mic can make a big difference) and help manage the transition between lavs and lectern mics if both are in use.
Our SQ-5 was initially bought for small stream and broadcast jobs with too many inputs for the MixPre that I would use for the really small productions.
Not being able to use PFL and not being able to see signal present on the channel meter LEDs makes the AMM rather useless for that kind of productions. Hence I’m back to the X32 rack for those productions for now…
Yes definitely a +1! This is such a great board, but there are common features that need some rethinking on their implementation because they make the board somewhat unprofessional to work with. Here is another feature with a similar uncommon implementation I am still hoping on and trying to push in the suggestions to hopefully have this solved one day: https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/ducking-sidechain-source-follow-mute-key-feature
Even if the input fader is turned down with AMM enabled in SQ, it is still possible to use the PFL button to check the input with headphones by changing the setting.
The default setting for SQ is “Post Delay”; try changing it to “Post PEQ” or something similar.
This is very useful when you want to check many wireless microphones with headphones.
However, this is a workaround and does not solve the fundamental problem.
Yes, changing the PFL source from “post delay” to “post PEQ” is a workaround. I’m also using soft keys to assign individual channels to the AMM – however you are limited to a total of 8 inputs on the SQ5 (as there are only 8 assignable soft keys).
I still would expect the AMM to work more as a DCA control instead of introducing yet another gain stage in front of the faders.
At the very least the tap off point for the AMM ‘insert’ path should default to the (widely accepted as most useful) post fader point.
Obviously it would be great to be able to pick said tap off point, but surely a relatively simple firmware hack e.g. modify the hardcoded AMM signal path should be a possibility? Is there some DSP architecture problem I’m missing there? Or perhaps a legal one..?
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