QU-Pad requests!

Forums Forums Qu Forums Qu feature suggestions QU-Pad requests!

This topic contains 55 replies, has 21 voices, and was last updated by Profile photo of Onemoarcherry Onemoarcherry 6 years, 1 month ago.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 56 total)
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  • #36997
    Profile photo of dickiefunk
    dickiefunk
    Participant

    Hi,

    I’ve had a QU-16 for a couple of months and recently bought an iPad Mini Retina to be able to mix FOH wireless. So far it’s been surprisingly good apart from the parametric eq controls and some missing features. I have downloaded the following digital mixer apps for comparison :-

    Behringer X32-Mix
    Soundcraft ViSi Remote
    Presonus StudioLive Remote AI
    Mackie Master Fader
    Midas Mixtender 2

    I’ve also downloaded the GLD Remote for another comparison.
    Generally the controls on the QU-Pad work pretty well apart from the PEQ. I find when making adjustments to the various parameters the controls are very fiddly and awkward to use!? I also noticed this with the GLD Remote app. I find the controls on the Behringer, Presonus and Mackie far superior. I like having knobs or sliders for controlling the EQ and fine tuning. The controls work ok for adjusting gain and frequency but the Q control is very hit or miss and half the time the frequency or gain ends up changing instead of the Q!! It would be fantastic to have the same dedicated sliders like the ones for controlling the Channel, Compressor, Gate and Pan parameters in the QU and GLD app’s. It would also be nice to be able to change the colours of the channels and EQ bands as in the GLD app.
    Below are some requests I’d love to see appear in the QU-Pad app. I’ve marked which I believe are essential but recognise this is personal opinion!

    Feature Requests

    1/ Full controls of all FX and parameters (essential)
    2/ Load and Save Scenes and Shows (essential)
    3/ Sliders to control each parameter of the PEQ! (essential)
    4/ Have a Meters tab underneath the CH, Gate, PEQ and Compressor tabs to be able to view all I/O meters. I love the way the I/O meters are displayed at the top of the Behringer X32-Mix app and would be great to be able to choose to view these! (essential)
    5/ SoftKeys (essential)
    6/ Signal Generator (essential)
    7/ When iPad is rotated to portrait view the complete channel strip showing full Channel, Gate, PEQ and Compressor to be displayed on one page like the Presonus StudioLive Remote app.
    8/ To be able to draw a quick rough eq curve in the GEQ by dragging finger across the bands.
    9/ Talkback
    10/ QU-Drive controls

    I feel some of these controls are pretty essential whilst a few would be nice luxury’s. I’m really hoping some of these will be added in future revisions of the QU-Pad app? After spending some time with all these different apps the Behringer X32-Mix seems to be far more comprehensive and some of the features are easier to use. Also, the Presonus app is very good (apart from the SL range not having digitally controllable gain).
    I am loving the QU16 mixer and think it is a fantastic product with an extremely well laid out control surface and the feature set is excellent!!

    #37000
    Profile photo of GR-PDX
    GR-PDX
    Participant

    Good ideas!

    I, too, find that the PEQ adjustments are just not usable trying to take advantage of the pinch and touch aspects of a iPad. Just doesn’t work.

    All the other ideas…good stuff.

    #37002
    Profile photo of dickiefunk
    dickiefunk
    Participant

    Yeah I feel the QU-Pad app is not up to the standard of the QU16 desk. Kinda lets it down a little. I find the QU-Pad lacks the features of some of the other brands and one of the more important features has pretty poor controllability (EQ).
    In my opinion Allen & Heath need to catch up with Behringer and Presonus regarding their mixer apps. Even the Mackie and Soundcraft apps have better controls.
    Really hoping Allen & Heath update the QU-Pad app with a much more controllable EQ and some of these features I feel are pretty essential. I realize there are workarounds for some of these on occasions but there are times when I really need these controls on the iPad.
    .

    #37004
    Profile photo of GR-PDX
    GR-PDX
    Participant

    Improving the iPad’s EQ control is arguably really important: if you think about it, THE most likely use case for using the iPad instead of the board is wandering around the room adjusting levels and, yes, EQ.

    So add to the problem the fact that in this scenario the user is likely to be holding the unit in their hand, not on a stable platform, it makes it even more difficult to really use the gestures to control it.

    One thought: they must have realized there was a problem precisely controlling faders at some point, and made it such that as long as the fader is selected, the user can move their touch point a bit off to the side, and the farther away they are the more precise the control is because large movements result in increasingly smaller changes. If they were to use the same design paradigm for the PEQ, it might work well. But it would have to be clear which band is selected (color map its curve against the text below), and so forth.

    Or they could combine that with increasing the size of the text-based parameters below and THEN manipulate using gestures. E.g. Select Q on second band, then swipe anywhere ,up to broaden, down to narrow. Or, possibly better, select the column for the desired frequency and you can maintain the mapping between horizontal=Q/vertical=gain/grab the dot=frequency.

    I have a lot of other ideas for this…I am a User Interface Designer/Usability Researcher by profession. You know how to reach me, A&H.

    #37008
    Profile photo of dickiefunk
    dickiefunk
    Participant

    I’ve found I can control the Q by keeping my fingers away from the band dots but there are times when these can be pretty close together making it too easy to select a different band by accident!

    #37225
    Profile photo of dickiefunk
    dickiefunk
    Participant

    Can anyone from Allen & Heath comment on these requests for the QU Pad app?

    #37298
    Profile photo of Biggsounds
    Biggsounds
    Participant

    Geez guys, I’ve been using the iLive iPad app (and more recently the Qu app) for years and don’t find the eq difficult to use… absolutely some of the feature suggestions are useful, but unlike us iLive users you didn’t pay $100 for remote access – remember they don’t make money on your iPad app so development at the moment will no doubt be focused on the hardware & console software updates, early days guys, the app will no doubt improve as they have time to work on it!

    #37299
    Profile photo of GR-PDX
    GR-PDX
    Participant

    Biggsounds,

    Good for you! Glad you don’t have any complaints. Please don’t poo-poo those of us with fingers thicker than pencils who do. Also, don’t discount that some of us did purchase this unit partly on the basis that we would be able to easily change these types of parameters remotely using an iPad. As stated earlier, the Behringer iPad app is easier to use in terms of pinch and move gestures.

    #37761
    Profile photo of Millsey
    Millsey
    Participant

    Biggsounds. The PEQ is a little difficult to use. And I personally would be prepared to pay for an app, the fact that it is ‘free’ does not mean that suggestions for improvement are not valid. The topic title is ‘Qpad Requests’. A&H released it free sorry your’s wasn’t .

    #37888
    Profile photo of GR-PDX
    GR-PDX
    Participant

    It feels to me like there might have been some incremental improvement in the pinch capability for PEQ on the iPad app. It seems to respond a bit better…or maybe I’m hallucinating.

    But it is still too easy to inadvertently pick a different band’s main control while pinching or spreading. I would really like to be able to just pick the band based on one of the four band columns underneath, and have the app lock to that band until I switch it via the same mechanism. That would go a long way toward improving the ease of use.

    And/or make the controls (Q, freq, etc) themselves in each column interactive, like the controls for gate and compressor are. Might be problematic with screen real estate to do that, but it might make for better fine-tuning because of the way iOS works with the control proximity: select the control, and if you maintain touch with the screen but move away in the 90 degree axis, you get finer control over the parameter. That works well in other areas.

    And as has been mentioned before, using color to match the column to the dot and even curve background would help quite a bit, too.

    The RTA still doesn’t have useful vertical resolution (it needs its own screen), and no scale either.

    #38272
    Profile photo of dickiefunk
    dickiefunk
    Participant

    Thanks for the adding the Meters page. This is working out to be fine. I’m still really missing the lack of having full control of the FX engines and parameters. Also, whilst I’m finding it a little easier to tweak the PEQ I still find myself annoyingly accidentally selecting different bands whilst trying to adjust the Q when the bands are close together. This is using an iPad mini. I’m also still missing not having soft keys but the other options I mentioned in my original post would be more of a luxury for my requirements. So to summarize, I would still like to see :-

    1/ Full control of FX engines and parameters
    2/ Soft Keys
    3/ Better control of PEQ parameters

    All of the other companies (Behringer, QSC, SM Pro Audio, Soundcraft, Presonus & Mackie) have controls for their fx engines on their iPad apps and better control of their PEQ. I’d love to see Allen & Heath sort these areas that are currently lacking as the QU range are such good mixers. Also, the general navigation of the QuPad is extremely clear and easy so I guess it’s going to be a fine balance between making the app bloated and clumsy.

    #38279
    Profile photo of mervaka
    mervaka
    Participant

    I hear you on the FX parameter front.

    However, I beg to differ on some of those companies offering better control of PEQ. The A&H one I’ve not found to be a problem (admittedly I don’t run an iPad mini, but that seems like a stupid idea anyway), whereas *some* of the competitors (who shall remain nameless) have either some admittedly new ideas, but should be considered failed, or are just outright plain awful in execution.

    #38282
    Profile photo of dickiefunk
    dickiefunk
    Participant

    Well firstly, I don’t think it is a stupid idea to use the ipad mini. All of the features of the QuPad app work beautifully apart from the PEQ which is far easier to fine tune and control on the X32, Studiolive, DL1608 and Soundcraft Si apps. However, some of their other controls I’m not as fond of.
    We will definitely have to agree to disagree on this!

    #38288
    Profile photo of robbocurry
    robbocurry
    Participant

    In addition to items mentioned above I’d suggest:
    1: Double tap eq screen to zoom for finer control.
    2: iPad and desk to mimic each other when a channel is selected. (Just to clarify – “mimic” channel selection. I was working on a channel on the iPad and came back to the desk to finish what I was doing but a different channel was selected on the desk. I was tweaking for a while before I realised I was on a different channel. Maybe just a noob mistake!!)
    3: ability to control qu-drive from iPad. (Previously mentioned, apologies if so)

    Great work so far A&H!

    #46253
    Profile photo of dickiefunk
    dickiefunk
    Participant

    I have to say I have been extremely impressed with all the feature’s that have been added to the QU16 and QU-PAD over the past year or so. My wish list was :-

    Feature Requests

    1/ Full controls of all FX and parameters (essential)
    2/ Load and Save Scenes and Shows (essential)
    3/ Sliders to control each parameter of the PEQ! (essential)
    4/ Have a Meters tab underneath the CH, Gate, PEQ and Compressor tabs to be able to view all I/O meters. I love the way the I/O meters are displayed at the top of the Behringer X32-Mix app and would be great to be able to choose to view these! (essential)
    5/ SoftKeys (essential)
    6/ Signal Generator (essential)
    7/ When iPad is rotated to portrait view the complete channel strip showing full Channel, Gate, PEQ and Compressor to be displayed on one page like the Presonus StudioLive Remote app.
    8/ To be able to draw a quick rough eq curve in the GEQ by dragging finger across the bands.
    9/ Talkback
    10/ QU-Drive controls

    As you can see a lot of these important features have been added and obviously I was not alone in wanting these capabilities on the iPad! I have to say I don’t feel anything is essentially missing but would still be great to have :-

    1/ The ability to assign soft key functions from the iPad
    2/ Channel linking from iPad
    3/ Individual channel colour customisation

    Would also be great to have some of the features on my original list ( Signal Generator from iPad, talkback and to be able to draw a freehand eq curve in the GEQ). However, the QU-PAD has become so much more useable with the 1.7 update.

    Great work Allen & Heath!

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