SQ w/MEs & Cascaded DX168s

[ScottParticipant]

Two questions;

1. How can I link stereo group outs to show up as a single key on the MEs? On dLive you can link the channels in the I/O page. I don’t see any similar option for SQ.

2. When running a pair of DX-168s cascaded, I am only seeing 8 outputs, instead of the expected 16. I see all 32 inputs, but only 8 outputs.

This is an odd setup that I was asked to run, where the primary sLink port has 2 DX-168s cascaded, and an optional sLink card is installed which is connected to an AB-168 with MEs attached to the AB-168’s expansion port.

[ScottParticipant]

I figured out issue #2, the patch bay skipped 8 outputs, so the second DX unit started at 17.

[ScottParticipant]

I wanted to update on issue #1, after doing some testing with an ME-500. The stereo groups will show up on a single key as long as they are patched to an odd/even pair of outputs on the ME side in the I/O page. The manual says that this is how stereo channels, work, but makes no mention of stereo mixes (group, aux, matrix). The stereo mixes work in the exact same way as the stereo channels.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

Hi @scott

The ME-500 works in the same way as auto assign mode on the ME-1, which can require some thinking to get everything laid out nicely.
Some notes that will hopefully help:

• The ME-500 will pick up channels in order of the sockets you have patched to from the desk and skip any unpatched channels.
• The ‘stereoness’ of a channel is applied automatically by the SQ, so a direct out from a stereo input channel or stereo output channel will tell the ME that it’s a stereo signal.
• If a stereo channel is then sent to an odd/even pair, it will be assigned to the next available key.
• You can have mono, mono, mono, stereo channels being sent to the first 4 ME keys – you just need to patch these to 1,2,3 then 5/6 (i.e. leave a gap for ME output socket #4)

Regarding the DX patching:
With dSnake you can only have a maximum of 2 units on a port, there are 3 models and only two of these can be expanded from, so it makes sense for the sockets to arrange themselves sequentially.
With DX/GX however, you can have many many expanders connected and they are all dealt with as ‘blocks’. In the case of the DX168’s then, you have a 16×16 block, hence the 8 channel gap because there are only 8 outputs. If you switched one of the DX168’s for a DX164W, you wouldn’t need to change any patching but would just see 4 outputs, then a gap of 12.
This also makes sense when you think about the DX Hub and the DX012 expander. If we didn’t do things in ‘blocks’ then everything can get very messy very quickly!
More info on DX/GX systems here – https://www.allen-heath.com/media/DX-GX-System-Guide-ISS_5.pdf

Cheers!
Keith.

[ScottParticipant]

Thank you Keith. Generally all of my work with MEs is on dLive, Avantis, and GLD. This was my first time using MEs with SQ. I still have yet to use them with Qu, but I am guessing it works similarly to SQ. I will have a play one of these days with Qu and MEs in case I get asked to do that down the road. 😀

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