Surround sound with SQ or Avantis

[tablatomParticipant]

Hi there,
i have a SQ6.
Going to do some surround sound gigs.

The speaker layout will be
ROOM: rear LR, mid LR, fOH,
STAGE: 7 mono monitors (and maybe 1 x LR for surround for the musicians. But thats an option at this stage.)
So thats 4 (probably 3) stereo mixes and 7 mono.
With a GX48/16 stage box i guess i have enough I/O.
Any reason the SQ6 can’t handle this set up well? I love the SQ and would rather not have to learn an Avantis if the SQ is up to the job which i think it is.
I don’t think Avantis has any special surround abilities?
Thanks.

[jyradelixParticipant]

I would think that if the SQ has enough I/O for you then you can use it. I don’t believe that the Avantis has any surround specific functionality like dLive does. That being said, the Avantis does have directly addressable matrixes, meaning you can send channels to a matrix rather than having to send to a mix bus first.

Regardless, I wouldn’t be afraid of learning the Avantis. Most of what you know about the SQ will apply to the Avantis as well. I have both and find moving between relatively seamless, though I have been in the A&H ecosystem since the iLive days, so it’s kinda second nature to me at this point. With respect to SQ to Avantis, it’s just more of everything (2 inserts vs 1 per channel, more mix busses, etc). The biggest change will be moving from the dedicated mix select buttons on the right of the SQ to the mix button on the Avantis (and dLive). Depending on how you lay out your layers it could require switching before selecting your mix bus. Not a big deal, but one thing to remember.

[tablatomParticipant]

Thanks very much jyradelix.
The theatre holds 2000 and has a Dolby Atmos Surround Sound System installed.
Maybe i need to go on a DLive course and hire one for the show.
What does DLive do with Surround that Avantis/SQ doesnt?

But i don’t think so, as the surround mixing will be quite simple being the delay of 1 vocal going and some pre recorded drones.
I can imagine Sq’s or Avantis’s Matrices doing a good job at that?

[BrianParticipant]

What does DLive do with Surround that Avantis/SQ doesnt?

Panning. DLive offers a true LCR mode with easy panning and divergence controls as well as an on-screen surround panning widget displayed in the Routing screen (when in 5.1 mode). This is obviously important because you need an easy way to pan inputs in 5.1 just like you normally would pan inputs in stereo. The DLive is the only current A&H console that offers this option.

You can “make it work” on other consoles by changing the send levels of an input to the various outputs, but that is clearly not an optimal way to handle it because it means you’ll likely have to change the send level of a particular input on several different busses to get the same effect. For example, if you want to move an input from the rear right to the rear left, you would have to increase the send level on the rear left buss and decrease it on the rear right buss too.

[SteffenRParticipant]

What does DLive do with Surround that Avantis/SQ doesnt?

It has a surround bus setup available, at least for the master bus.
If this is activated, every channel has a surround panner.

OTH, the dLive isn’t a great surround desk at all.
Just panning mono signals around doesn’t make a good surround experience.
There is more to consider. Simulated rooms should be distributed on all channels, buses should have the same architecture available as the master.
So at least some (2-4) surround capable FX buses should be available.

[tablatomParticipant]

Thanks guys. All of the sources to be sent in this gig to the surround speakers will be stereo.
That is delay returns and a stereo drone track.
So i think with an aux or matrix send to the surround speakers would do fine, as i won’t be panning during the gig,
just fading in and out these sources. Not a lot of fader movement with these sources.

[watercuiParticipant]

Nice

[msteelParticipant]

One other thing to note about surround mains in dLive, is that the maximum configuration is 5.1. One of our rooms has a system that is (essentially) 7.1, and so in addition to a 5.1 main bus we also need another stereo mix bus to feed the rears.

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