sound quality of Mackie dl32r vs QU series

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This topic contains 65 replies, has 18 voices, and was last updated by Profile photo of dpdan dpdan 7 years, 2 months ago.

Viewing 15 posts - 31 through 45 (of 66 total)
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  • #47926
    Profile photo of Mr.DOS
    Mr.DOS
    Participant

    [XAP]Bob
    As far as your statement “I’d like to see “break file now” functionality,” I use the DL32R, and it takes about 2s to stop & restart the recording. I like how the DL automatically increments the recording name (_2, _3, etc.).
    The only time this has bit me is when the band takes less time than I expect between songs, and I miss the first 500ms or so of the next song 🙂

    #47938
    Profile photo of [XAP]Bob
    [XAP]Bob
    Participant

    Yes – that’s why the “don’t break it at all” system works OK – but it’s a pain if your band segues from one song to the next…

    #48009
    Profile photo of john
    john
    Participant

    I pulled the trigger and got the Qu-Pac! It arrived last night. While I’ve been mixing and playing in bands for 30 years, this is my first move into the digital mixing world. Thanks to everyone who helped me sort through my questions on this board. I do have a couple more now that I’ve had a chance to turn on the qu-pac and dig in a bit:

    (1)For about half our gigs, we have used a second main mix for the sides — with my old board, it would sum the mains L/R to a mono mix that I controlled with a separate volume knob. Would someone tell me how I can achieve the same/similar thing with the qu-pac (though I assume I can make it a second stereo mix). I assume I run the mains L/R on the qu-pac to one of the XLR mix outs (stereo or mono) — I’m just not sure “how”… Maybe when I get the qu-pad app up and running it’ll seem more intuitive….

    (2)is there a list somewhere of what functions on the qu-pad app are not in sync with the qu-pac itself? My understanding is that when I turn off the qu-pad and then turn it on next time, everything will be exactly how I left it. I just don’t want any surprises if I make a bunch of changes on the App and then they don’t get saved to the qu-pac….

    (3) I had a heck of a time getting the rack ears screwed in. The screws really didn’t feel like they fit well. Is this normal?

    (4) I’d like to use two of the outs on the AB168 (yup I got that too!) for a stereo mix. Would someone please explain how I set up the Qu-pac so that I am using some of the AB168 outputs rather than only the ones on the back of the qu-pac?

    By the way, it is shocking to me how much “stuff” is packed into that tiny little digital mixing box…

    Thanks!!

    #48010
    Profile photo of [XAP]Bob
    [XAP]Bob
    Participant

    Nothing is ever saved on the app….

    #48012
    Profile photo of dpdan
    dpdan
    Participant

    John,
    Bob is correct, the scenes are stored in the mixer, not the App. One reason is so that you can load scenes even if you forgot to bring your iPad to the gig. As you move and change things on the app, those changes are reflected inside the QuPac mixer. The App is just a remote control for the mixer. It does not process audio.

    If you make one change to a fader or twenty seven changes to EQ, monitor mix levels, pan settings, effects…. all of those cause the QuPac to change according to the app’s instructions via Wi-Fi. If you then drop the iPad and it explodes and green smoke spews out of it, nothing will change from that point on. If you power down the QuPac, and turn it on a year later, it will come back on with the same exact settings it had when you dropped your iPad.

    So, does the QuPac automatically save our changes in the loaded scene as we mix throughout the show? No,
    but it does remember the changes if we shut it down without saving a new scene or Over-Writing the loaded scene.
    If we make changes that we like, then Over-Write the scene we have loaded, those changes will be recalled in the future.

    Here is an example of what could happen…
    we get to a new job and turn everything on and we can’t figure out why things are not sounding correct, so we make a bunch of changes then we realize,, OH CRAP!!! I just made a bunch of changes to the wrong scene!

    No problem, load the scene you want. The changes that you inadvertantly made to the scene that was loaded are discarded when you load a different scene, provided you never used the “Overwrite Scene?” option.

    I hope this isn’t confusing but it is just like most software on Mac and Windows computers.
    If you load a project in Microsoft Word that you worked on and saved yesterday, when you make changes and then quit that project/file, the app should prompt you, “do you want to save or quit without saving?” Something like that.

    The QuPac is similar except that if you make changes to a loaded scene, it won’t prompt you to save the scene when you load a different scene.

    #48013
    Profile photo of john
    john
    Participant

    Ok. That is very helpful! Thanks much! If you have time, any thoughts on how I accomplish (1) and (4) would be greatly appreciated.

    #48014
    Profile photo of Andreas
    Andreas
    Moderator

    (1) doesn’t the Qu-Pac have a matrix feed which would serve this? It also should have a delay to compensate the distance…
    (4a) read the manual, section 10.14, IO-Patch setup, dSnake Out… 😉
    (4b) go to Setup->IO-Patch->dSnake and assign whatever you want to send to your remoute outputs, including the Matrix feed from (1)

    #48035
    Profile photo of john
    john
    Participant

    so unfortunately I still can’t get the qu=pac to do what I want. I’d like to send the mains L/R to one of the Mix outputs. Every other option seems like it doesn’t get me to an XLR output or it requires separately mixing to a mix bus to “try” to match what is happening in the mains. I want it to be the same all the way round, with the only difference being separate volume control over the Mix out. Any help would be appreciated.

    #48036
    Profile photo of [XAP]Bob
    [XAP]Bob
    Participant

    Use a matrix, not a mix…

    Or the AltOuts?

    #48037
    Profile photo of Andreas
    Andreas
    Moderator

    From what I see from the Qu-Pac Block-Diagram is, that the Qu-Pac does not have local Matrix Outputs, but since you’re also asking for dSnake routing I thought its ok to have the matrix routed to stage via dSnake.
    If you need the duplicated outputs locally then AltOuts may be an option, take care about the dedicated AltOut volume knob.
    If you don’t need groups for other purposes, you may mix to Group1-2 instead of LR and send that stereo group to some stereo mix and LR.
    You can not send LR back to some mix, only to a matrix (remote output via dSnake).

    #48038
    Profile photo of [XAP]Bob
    [XAP]Bob
    Participant

    Hmm,

    Just to go back to the original question:…
    https://churchtecharts.org/home/2015/5/6/choosing-a-new-audio-console-pt-1

    #48039
    Profile photo of john
    john
    Participant

    Alt outs are 1/4 inch only, and I was hoping for XLRs. I really wanted it locally b/c the AB168will be far from the power amps… I do use all groups too… might be out of luck…

    #48040
    Profile photo of cornelius78
    cornelius78
    Participant

    John, if you have a spare stereo mix (eg mix9-10,) you could route your channels there post fader at unity essentially making it another stereo subgroup, with local XLR outs. This could be awkward with groups though. You also have to make sure you pan everything properly, copy any processing across from LR each time you make changes, and keep an eye on levels. If LR and mix9-10 could both be controlled by a single DCA master that would solve the level problem, not sure if they can on Qu. I know they can on GLD.

    A potentially better solution would require you to have a spare stereo mix (eg mix9-10) and a spare stereo input channel/a spare pair of mono input channels. If you do, you could set up the alt-out to get LR post fader (do so at unity,) route the alt-out back to a spare stereo input, stereo input to mix9-10, mix9-10 XLR outs to amps. That way you get the LR processing, the correct panning, all the groups routed to LR, the correct level control (LR master affects both LR and your separate mix, and the separate mix level can be controlled independently by the mix9-10 master). If you ran y-splits out of LR, one to feed mains and the other to feed back in to the spare stereo channel you can bypass the alt-outs completely. The downside to this approach is that you have a bit more latency (a couple of ms) for the separate mix because of the extra DA-AD conversions. If the separate mix is for a delay stack though you just work the extra latency into your delay calculations and dial in the delay on mix9-10 accordingly.

    #48042
    Profile photo of Andreas
    Andreas
    Moderator

    …maybe it would be a simple firmware addition to make a pair of stereo mix outs switchable between mix and matrix on the Qu-Pac…

    #48047
    Profile photo of mervaka
    mervaka
    Participant

    Alt outs while on 1/4″ jacks are still balanced on TRS. Why not make up some short leads that convert to male XLR, or swap the XLRs on the existing leads for jacks?

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