[lesouvageParticipant]

The SanDisk Extreme USB3 sticks work fine. I have 3 32 Gb and one 64 Gb and I have never run into a problem again after starting to use this USB sticks, not even the time that I had lots of different recordings on one stick.

[lesouvageParticipant]

There was a shure beta 98h clipped on the violin and a Sennheiser E614 on a stand above the violin.

The tapping on the violin is not really the problem. It is the weird violin sound at the very beginning that I can’t figure out where it comes from and what it is.

[lesouvageParticipant]

I also asked a question about AMM on the forum: https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/the-new-automatic-microphone-mixing-feature.

Yesterday evening I used AMM with 4 SM58 mics and 1 Røde M3 mic with the default settings and it worked perfectly. Tonight I will use it again and I will keep you informed on my experiences with this feature.

The word “affordable” is very depending on the budget available but this firmware update for free with an AMM feature for 16 mics is the alternative for a € 2.500,- investment in Shure SCM410 or Shure SCM810 units.

[lesouvageParticipant]

I had the AMM on and running tonight on 5 mics and I think it works perfectly. It was an evening with debate and a documentary on screen and discussion afterwards and I kept the mics open the whole time as a test and there was literally not a moment with a problem or feedback or a reason to adjust the sound. It was a small venue with around 35 attendees with 2 x-act sound projects speakers ( a Dutch high-end brand of active speakers). The software developers really did a good job which opens a complete new market for my sound servcices. Tonight it was a voluntary job but tomorrow I have a real gig at a debate evening. I’m full of confidence 🙂

[lesouvageParticipant]

Harry, thanks for the effort of testing and investing time.

Erik

[lesouvageParticipant]

Lou, that makes sense although I remain curious about how it works with the use of the signal generator. With all the mics open picking up ambience sound it feels like there is a lot of ambience sound coming out of the speakers. I will use the feature tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and I will share my experiences.

[lesouvageParticipant]

I tested it too. When none of the mics are used all the mics stay open which can be annoying. You can change this by using the signal generator of the QU-16/24/32 and connect the mix choosen for the signal with a channel that you add to the AMM mics. With a proper volume of the mix and gain of the channel used (so all the other mix turn off) and the fader of the channel on R/L completely down the other mics are turned of by the AMM feature as long as they are not used.

[lesouvageParticipant]

UPDATE: I tried it out again today and it seems to work fine. I must have made a stupid mistake yesterday. Using the signal generator and connect the mix with the signal with a channel that is part of the AMM at a proper combination of volume of the mix/gain of the channel used (where it just turn of the other mics) seems to work fine.

[XAP]Bob, I tried connecting mix1 with channel 6 after turning on the signal generator and assign mix1 to it but it seems that I run into a problem. When I connect mix1 to channel6 their is a noise on channel 6 if I completely open the gain to the max but this sounds stays the same whatever I do. When I choose pink noise or white noise, and raise and lower de gain level of the signal generator and even when I mute the signal generator it doesn’t make any difference. The sound on channel 6 does what it is expected to do, turning down the AMM mics as long as they are not used, but I don’t understand why the signal generator doesn’t seem to work as expected.

I read the signal generator part in the manual, checked if Talkback was turned on and even changed the XLR cable used. Am I missing something or could something be broken with the signal generator? Thanks in advance.

[lesouvageParticipant]

Just an extra question: is it possible to route pink noise generated by the Qu-16 into a channel (in my case channel 6) so I don’t need to connect an iPhone to the mixing table.

[lesouvageParticipant]

Tonight I received a phonecall with a request to do the sound at a debating evening coming week. A good reason to test the AMM feature. I connected 5 mics and enabled the AMM feature on this channels. It seems to work all fine, when I used one of the mics I saw the level meters on the touch screen of the other channels going completely down. The devision of the total gain available between two channels wasn’t really visible but I assume that it will work OK. I tested it at my living room so I couldn’t pump up the volume to much.

But when none of the microphones is in use the touchscreen shows a gain volume on all the channels indicating that all the microphones will pick up ambience sound. Is this by purpose and what is the idea behind it? To me it feels more logical to have all the gains down when none of the microphones are in use.

A workaround to get all the gains of the microphones down is to add an extra channel with pink noise (or whatever constant sound) from my iPhone, enable the AMM feature on this extra channel and push the fader for L/R of this channel completely down. I gained this channel on a level that was just enough to get the AMM feature to work so the gains of all the mics were 0 as long as the mics were not used. This is working great. My question is if this workaround does make any sense or is it a solution for a non existing problem. Thanks in advance.

[lesouvageParticipant]

I recognise the challenge and my way of coping with it is to promise the band a multi track recording. I have some reference material that gives me room to explain that it will only result in good recordings if the band plays according to the (my) rules. All instruments micced, amps at the side and not to loud, amps micced, adjusting to the sound are made through the mixing table and not by turning on the volume of the guitar and/or amp of the guitar. I don’t always make it a succes but most of the time this approach, although not completely honest, will at least helps me to get the role I need to do the sound properly. The questions “do you want good sound in the venue (for you the church)” sometimes does miracles. I did the sound for a heavy metal band lately and I was very pleased that my gear survived 🙂 (although the sound was terrible and far above 100 dB) Loud back lines and drum kits are killing the overall sound in a not that big venue.

[lesouvageParticipant]

[XAP]Bob, a real engineer, or what I tink you mean by ” a real engineer “, is on the top of the “sound men pyramid”. I really think that i’m normally doing a pretty good job and the Qu-16 and the high end speakers and amps are helping me a lot. Like any other (sound) (hum)man I’m making mistakes and this was one of them. Being a real sound engineer has a lot to do with basic attitude and taking the extra mile (we have the same phrase in Dutch but then it is an extra step) to deliver the best sound possible.

[lesouvageParticipant]

Dick Rees, thanks for posting. I made a kind of stupid mistake by assigning channels to the DCA using the app on my iPad, and leaving the faders down. Just tested it at home and, what seems to be pretty obvious, with channels assigned to a DCA and the faders down, there is no sound. 🙁 Problem solved and lesson learned.

It was a small bar where I do the sound on a regular basis with a small stage that is a no go area for the handful of costumers at the bar. I’m not leaving my gear at all venues where I offer my services.

[lesouvageParticipant]

I update to firmware 1.7 and find out that ducking a channel is an new feature. Is is obvious that this effect is very useful to decrease the volume of the music at the moment a speaker starts to talk.

Are there any other scenarios, especially when mixing music, where ducking is a very useful tool. I search the internet but haven’t find any other use yet.

[lesouvageParticipant]

I think it makes sense to record a dry signal. You can add everything needed afterwards when processing and mixing but you can not remove what was part of the recording. Today the first recording I made with my Qu-16 was on local radio. It was mixed and master mixed by a professional with real good demo quality as the result (sorry, a bit of topic but what I want to say is, that the recording feature is awesome)

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