Questions before I buy a QU16

[coffee_kingParticipant]

Hi all
So, before I think about buying a QU16 I have a couple of questions.
1. Does it have presets for all of the effects?
So lets say I want to use a Gate on a vocal is there a “Main vocal Gate preset” that I can select and then tweek?

2. With regards to monitor mixes using iPad/iPods can my band members mix their own monitor mix WITHOUT adjusting the main front of house mix?

Many thanks.

[cornelius78Participant]

1. There are several fx presets that you can adjust to taste, and save for recall later. Here are a few, with samples. I don’t a have Qu in front of me ATM, according to that website the Qu does have a gated verb, and looking at the GLD (from which the Qu series gets a lot of its FX,) that gated verb does have a preset for a vocal. NB this is a preset for one of the FX engines, not a preset for dynamics processing on a channel. The Qu doesn’t have factory built-in presets dynamics/eq processing like the Presonus SL series does. It’s not hard to dial in a gate though… and once you’ve done so, you can save what you’ve just dialed in as your own preset and recall it (with or without eq and compressor settings) whenever you want. You can copy and paste it between channels too.

2. ATM there’s no lockout for remote mixing: the app has access to everything, so you just have to trust your band to adjust their own monitors sensibly and not ruin someone else’s mix. Be aware that the Qu is limited to one ipad connection at a time though (and AFAIK there’s no ipod/iphone app, it’s just for ipad.)

HTH.

[coffee_kingParticipant]

Thanks for you response.

1. OK cheers. I wonder why there are no presets though? Idve thought that would be pretty easy to give away for free with it and make it much more user friendly for less experienced sound engineers.

2. Only 1 iPad connection and no iPhone app? Hmm that will be tough then as I really wanted my band to each have control over their own mixes (locked out to not be able to mess with front of house) from their OWN iPad/iPhones. I’m not about to buy the daft little controllers for them all.

Also, I assume there are 7 personal monitor mixes on this this unit?

[coffee_kingParticipant]

Also does this have a Gate?
All I can see is the Gated Verb on this page https://www.allen-heath.com/qu-fx-processing/
?

[coffee_kingParticipant]

Also does this have a Gate?
All I can see is the Gated Verb on this page https://www.allen-heath.com/qu-fx-processing/
?

Just seen the knob for that now 🙂

[cornelius78Participant]

1. I think it’s because normally the processing you’d use would be different for each singer/instrument/type of mic/mic placement/stage/song/engineer etc. There is no one-size-fits-all. Given these variables that would affect which settings sound best, I’m honestly surprised that Presonus included presets in theirs. I’ve never met anyone who just sticks with the presets though, they’re always tweaked to take into account those differences I mentioned earlier. Also, I think the Qu was made as a digital upgrade from the analogue Mixwiz. People coming over from analogue are used to not having presets and dialing everything in manually anyway. Meh. I’m sure A&H have much more justification than I do. Just to be clear, there IS a library on the Qu for channel/output processing, it’s just empty. You have to fill it yourself with YOUR presets that suit YOUR band, YOUR mics, YOUR songs etc. There is a separate library for FX presets, and this does have some factory entries in it. You can also add your own FX presets here too. There is a “user libraries” section here with the forums that people have uploaded some of their presets to. They could be downloaded onto a USB stick on put on a Qu and used.

2. I’m a fan of the daft little controllers (much more so than I am to monitor mixing from an ipad,) but to each his own. It’s down to what best suits your application. There is a thread in the feature requests section re multiple ipad support, like on the ilive/gld/many other digital mixes, that you could add your voice to. If you do get the Qu, buy it on the assumption that it doesn’t and won’t have multiple ipad support. If it’s later implemented, you feel like you’ve got a bonus. If it’s never implemented, you won’t feel like you’ve been misled.

3. The Qu16 has 10 mixes+LR. Mix1-4 are mono. Mix5-10 are locked as 3x stereo (so you could have a total of 7 separate mixes, but whoever you’ve got plugged in to 1-4 will have to deal with a mono signal. That’s probably fine if they’re using floor wedges, but if they’re on ears you’d better check that their IEM system can take a mono signal and make it a dual-mono, or you’ll have to get a few y-split cables.)

4. It does have a gate. Each input channel has gain/trim, polarity invert, insert point, sweepable HPF, GATE, 4-band PEQ, compressor (that can be dialed up to act like a limiter,) line delay and obviously a fader. The mono channels also have a pan control. Be aware that the stereo channels are (ATM) fixed L&R. Each output channel (mix) has an insert point, 4 band PEQ, 28-band GEQ, and compressor that can be dialed up to act like a limiter, line delay, and fader control.

In addition to all this processing on the inputs and outputs, you also have 4x FX engines, each with its own dedicated stereo return. The FX engines can operate the FX on the page I previously linked. A gated reverb as an FX engine is different to a gate (dynamics processor) on an input channel. The FX engine’s dedicated returns have a 4-band peq on them. The fx engines can be configured in a combination of “send-return”s using dedicated send mixes, “channel-returns,” or inserts on input channels or output mixes. Be aware that although there are 4 FX engines, the Qu16 only has 2 dedicated FX sends to feed them. The other 2 engines have to be configured in a combination of inserts, fed from channel-returns, or fed from mix1-10 (although that could be awkward if you’ve already used mix1-10 for monitors.)

It’s important to get your head around the differences between the channel/output processing and the FX engines. Even though both the processing and FX contain the words “gate,” and “delay,” they operate separately and differently.

[mamericaParticipant]

Do yourself a favor. Download and read the instruction manual that comes with the mixer.
You can find it here: https://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/qu-16/#tab4

We all have to start somewhere. This is will answer a lot of your questions.

[Author]

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