SQ4U Needs an Update!!!

[DudeParticipant]

The church I’m at has about 10 of us onstage, and it’s a small church, but a couple of us are pros with pretty specific requirements. We have 2 drummers, and I require a very different mix for each. We just made the change to the SQ, and we are using the SQ4U software to mix our in-ears. Unfortunately, the software DOES NOT allow us to store snapshots of our headphone mixes. So, I’ve sent several emails to Cust Srvc asking for A&H to address this – they told me it couldn’t be done but that I should request it here under Feature Suggestions.

They also told me that the “remedy” was for our Tech to save the snapshot on SQ. So, let me address that. I need a snapshot for each drummer. That’s 2. If each person onstage does the same, the number of snapshots is closer to 100! And anyone that changes their mix will lose that change unless the FOH Tech re-saves the changed mix. This is NOT a remedy.

We are a small church. I was at a big church where we had 3 bands! Can I tell you that we would NEVER have considered an SQ for this problem alone?

Ok, if A&H wants to solve this – let the SQ4U software store snapshots. They’ve told me the software cannot do that because it grabs the info from the board – not the other way around. But it seems to me to be a simple fix – after the software loads, it PUSHES the snapshot to the board. This allows us musicians to control our own destinies and not be at the mercy of our FOH Techs – who are usually volunteers and managing way too much already.

Last addition – I need to be able to instantly mute a click track. How about adding 4 assignable mute buttons?

Thanks!

[SteffenRParticipant]

this will not happen

the scenes on the console can override any possible snapshot on the SQ4U
but scene access from SQ4U is not a good idea, since it is a personal monitoring app

I recommend to save a scene for a starting point and updating this scene with every show

the scene management is then subject to the FOH guy

otherwise it could be a good idea to add a ME-1 or a ME-500 to the setup
since this is a mixer for one monitor mix it can store a mix inside independent from the console
and could easily replace a drummers headphone amp

[JpratchettParticipant]

Agree with Steffan. If you need this much control and scene recall ability then you need to upgrade to an ME-1/500.

Another non AH option is mixing station. This will allow way more control inc mutes etc and allow you to trigger scenes from the desk.

However ME is the best way to go.

[Mfk0815Participant]

As far as I understand @Dude the app should not store a scene at all. Only the mix of the selected mixbus (levels, pans) should be stored. That‘s not impossible for me and would be very helpful and less expensive.

[DudeParticipant]

If a SCENE is meant to mean a snapshot of the entire board – NO! THE SQ4U SHOULD NEVER HAVE THAT KIND OF POWER! It’s a personal monitor mixer! It has no reason whatsoever to store the entire board’s info, nor should it ever seize control away from FOH! You completely read something into my post! Mfk0815 got it right – a SNAPSHOT, as I’m calling it ONLY stores the settings for the Aux bus that particular SQ4U is controlling! If my SQ4U is controlling Aux 3, and I have 24 inputs I’m controlling, it is only those 32 mix levels and nothing else – including any other Aux mix.

I have no idea what other gadgets Steffen is suggesting we buy, but they are completely unnecessary. The SQ possesses all the power needed to accomplish this. I spent several years using an Aviom – they were expensive and I cannot ask our little church to add such a level of cost. Worse, they were clunky and non-portable. A tablet or phone will accomplish the same job (minus panning) and be much more convenient. It just needs to be able to recall my personal mix settings.

[volounteerParticipant]

@Dude

You and the drummers need to get real.
Scenes are not a snapshot of everything. But they do cover most of the settings.
And what you want is not reasonable the way you want it.

If you are going to be primadonnas and demand ‘specific’ mixes for your IEM then listen to SteffenR and do what he said.

We have a mid sized church and only need 4 mixes for monitoring.
No matter how many are on stage that works well.
We tweak a monitor on request but rarely need to do that with our normal performances.

Cant see how you would need 100 snapshots with ten onstage.
Your previous big church would more likely used a different mixer anyway.

[Mfk0815Participant]

@Dude
Maybe you send a feature request to David Schumann at dev-core.org (the developer of MixingStation). He is not bound to company strategies and is able to add such functionality.

[ozdocParticipant]

Dude.
You have two fussy drummers. Just store two scenes on the SQ mixer, one for each drummer.
The other muso’s can adjust their mix quickly in rehearsal (aka soundcheck) – then sound engineer saves the scene for the upcoming service. Pretty simples. If the musicians are varying dramatically then I’d suggest they are either too fussy or need more training.
I think we forget how it was like prior to IEM’s using wedges. They were happy days though.
The other option is a fixed device for the drums such as a ME-1. Store every drummers mixes, no one else gets hurt.
But you can’t be having 10 individual musicians saving their own auxillary sends via SQ4U repetitively overriding the sound tech’s scenes.

[JuzzyQLDParticipant]

Yeah… don’t be primadonnas

[STEPHANVSParticipant]

What @Dude means is a client (SQ4U) feature that can save/store the selected Aux’s faders/pans position on the client phone/tablet, then with a recall it (SQ4U) sends the stored fader/pan position update to the mixer for the specific Aux. Definitely not as expensive as a ME-*…

[AsherNParticipant]

I can see that. I only have 5 monitors But if one of my musicians changes their settings and forget to ask me to change the scene, they lose it. I can see SQ4You storing that particular AUX settings and overriding the board for that aux, and only that aux.

[CanadianParticipant]

I agree with @Dude here. The SQ4YOU app acts as a remote control. It takes the settings on the console and allows users to adjust the values remotely. There is no reason the app couldn’t store settings in the app that includes channel selections and levels. Apart from the fact this would cost A&H more software development it could be possible for the user to open the app week after week and load a saved preset file that then pushes that information to the mix channel on the board. It would need to account for patching channels or other variances but its possible.

We use the app because it saves time and cables on stage compared to pulling out personal mixers. It’s one of the greatest features available with the SQ console. We would even pay for better features in the app like this and screen lock control!

[SteffenRParticipant]

Really?
let a musician controlled app change your patch?
What a nightmare if I think about it…

[Rectify.mediaParticipant]

I would like to address what I think is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the scenes on the SQ can bring to this problem. A scene on this mixer can capture every setting on the entire console. By properly using filters one scene can recall the setting for all 10 IEM mixes at one time, and not change anything else.

Do a run-through of your set at rehearsal, and have the FOH operator grab a scene at the end of every song. Have them filter for just the in-ear mixes that need to change. This can be accomplished easily with five scenes, even for all 10 people. As you said, ” The SQ possesses all the power needed to accomplish this.” No app update is needed.

You can even trigger these scenes from a small MIDI controller on stage or Ableton if you are using it for playback.

If this still doesn’t meet your needs I would suggest the addition of a monitor board on stage, and a dedicated volunteer to manage all that you are asking. To my knowledge, no manufacturer, has what you are asking for from an app, you would have to look to a third party to accomplish this.

[KarstenParticipant]

I’d like to revisit this topic. I just learned that our musicians at church can not fully and individually control their IEM mixes all by themselves.
What IS possible: As FOH engineer I set the channel assignments for all IEM aux mixes as by my default scenario and tell the musicians “learn to work with that” AND “please don’t change the channel assignments, otherwise everything gets messed up for the next team”. Consequence: No individual mixing setup per musician possible.
Each Sunday of a month we have different worship teams playing. So it is not like a dedicated sound board for a certain band (settings can stay put) or like a rental scenario were the sound engenieer is setting up rented grear for a certain event and for the next event everything has to be setup differently anyway.
No, we have changing setup demands which are repetitive. It would be nice to recall setups which had already been established.
Now to the meat of the problem:
Scenes are not the solution to everything. Some use them to recall settings between different songs, we use them only to recall different functions onto the SoftRotary knobs. For this to work we heavily use the scene recall filter.
Using scenes for recalling IEM aux mix assignments would have the following disadvantages:
1. During rehearsals during week (sound engineer not necessarily present) musicians would need to get taught how to operate the sound board to recall scenes.
2. Musicians would need to be aware of correct settings for the scene recall filter. That’s a nightmare scenario for me!
3. Still, a scene would only make sense (be handleable) to be saved per music team (all IEM mixes saved within one scene). That is impractical if musicians have swapped places on stage, and thereby also swapped used aux outputs (yes, things can be swapped at the patch field also, but that would cause other complications). It would be rather handy to recall settings as per individual aux mix and to have that done by the musicians themselves without need to change settings at the sound board or the need of help from FOH engineer.
So I join the club in asking please make it possible that musicians can push whatever individual assignments and levels they have stored within their SQ4You app onto the sound board (only for their selected channel).
This functionality would be very much appreciated!

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