[Dilettant]

Shouldn’t this be possible by using scene recall filters?

Just untested:

Choose a Softkey. Let’s say, Softkey 1.

Patch I/O to your Mapping “A”. Save a Scene “X”.
Change Patching to Mapping “B”.
Set Soft Button 1 to “Recall Scene” with Scene “X”.
Save a Second Scene “Y”.

Go to the Scene Manager and edit the Recall Filters of both Scenes. In Page “Input/FX” set the Button “Patch” in the “Inputs”to “Allow”. In Page “Other” set the Button “Softkeys” to “Allow”. Set all other Buttons in all the Pages to “Block”.

Load Scene “X” and set Soft Button 1 to “Recall Scene” with Scene “Y”. Store the Scene “X” again (for such things i personally always have “store current scene” on a softkey).

From now on you should be able to just toggle between your two I/O Patch Setups by pressing Softkey 1. Of course, it would be a little easier to maintain if you map each Setup to a different softkey. Then you need more than one softkey but you do not have to store other softkey changes in all the Scenes.

I personally use magnetic photo paper to add some descriptions near such buttons on the desk surface, works well for me. In future Hardware Versions, some LED Scribbles near softkeys would be nice, but that cannot be done by software 😉

[Dilettant]

I have an AR2412 and an AB168 running on an SQ6. So the Boxes run at 48 kHz, the Desk (and it inputs) on 96kHz. I record 32 Channels with 48kHz on SQ Drive. No Problem due to sampling rates so far.

Of course, you get the longer latencies and less bandwidth of the 48 kHz Inputs, but if that is no Problem for you (the bandwidth limitation shouldn’t be one if you have human ears, maybe if you are a dog) it will work fine.

[Dilettant]

“Are there things you’d like to see new that an update might address or are you looking for “good faith” from A&H that they will continue to support this product?”

Of course, there are such things. The Feature Request Forum has many good ideas, from simple usability enhancements (example: “Talkback-like Behaviour” for Mix Buttons) to real extensions (example: more Matrix Busses).

It is unlikely we will see bigger extensions. At least, Firmware Upgrades cannot break Hardware Limits and A&H will likely not want to risk breaking well working things by adding complex Features or making structural Changes. Those Requests may be considered as a User Wish List for future Products/Models but not for the existing Hardware.

But there have been smaller Extensions which are very usable – example: DCA Spill – and if A&H sees an easy Way for such a thing they may do it because it makes customers more content and content customers are the best Marketing Option that exists.

Also, Bug Fixes and Adaptions to new Hardware Components may still be needed in some cases, so I’m sure we will see that as long as there is at least one Production Line for SQ Consoles.

[Dilettant]

The SQ Engine is a great Package in its price Segment.

First of all, there are all really needed features for a live or recording Console, it works really stable and mainly does what such a device is intended for. There are Concurrenting Products that have even flaws on this level.

The SQ has also some really important things “done right” in Design which many competitors have not. For example things that are important for me: Channel Delays _after_ the Aux sends – stage monitor signals normally should not be delayed since they are for musicians to control their timing -, On Board Multitrack Recording Capabilities without need of cabling a Notebook or other complex device, the best remote control App in this price Segment capable of controlling the whole console, plenty of connectivity and Stage Box Options, reasonable MIDI Control, and many other nice things like a fairly working enlightenment which can be really usable in dark theaters.

There are also some outstanding more special features which are not needed by all SQ users (for example, I do not need them), but are a unique selling point in the price segment, like the 96 kHz Engine with phase coherent processing that allows an outstanding sound quality even in edging cases and very low latencies. There are users that need such things and those do still not have much choices in the Market if they also need more than 32 Inputs, have less than 6000€ Budget for the Console and a Stage Box and want to do Multitracking.

Of Course, there are some minor flaws even in the SQ Design, too:

For Live Mixing a Limit of 3 Matrix Mixes is a little low, the pickyness of SQ Drive on USB Storage Devices is still an offense but cannot be easily fixed due to Hardware design decisions (whole USB Stack implemented on FPGA due to the Discussion in the Forum), it is impossible to cascade Busses or route them back to inputs (which would break phase coherency and may leads to a latency hell but nevertheless sometimes may be a wanted option). There could be a little more Scribbles with a little more characters and a bit more Colors, but that’s complaining on a high level – as ist is, it’s far away from unusable.

In the past, there were many Firmware Bugs to be fixed, too. But some Months after the first SQ Release many of them have been fixed and the number of relevant Problems has gone down significantly. And A&H still sells the consoles and i think it will support it and deliver Bugfixes for at least some more years.

Nevertheless, the overall Pakage is still one of the best you can get for that amount of money. This is simply a professional, stable and affordable Mixing Console for a wide range of Tasks with good usability. The Number of Channels and Busses is capable even for not-so-small Gigs like low End Musical or Theater Productions or a field Recording Session with a mid-range Brass Band or a smaller symphonic Orchestra. If you need more Inputs, more Busses or more Flexibility, you will have to pay more money – With dLive and Avantis A&H has (more expensive) Options for such customers, too.

In Fact, I do not see many SQ Users that really consider a need of replacing it with a Product in the same Price Range at the Moment. Most replacements are due to need of a bigger System (which tend to buying dLive or Avantis). And new-Buyers tend to be content of what they get. I saw some Replacements of Soundcraft Si Consoles by SQs, the main arguments for that were the better remote Control App and Usability. The Si can deliver more Inputs (up to 80) but the control surface of A&H seems to be much easier to learn and the 48 Channels of the SQ are more than enough for most smaller music halls, theaters or music schools.

So SQ is still a good Competitor in the Market. Of Course, A&H surely already works on a future successor (or maybe if the Solo gets lower pricing after some time it could be an alternative Option for some SQ Buyers) but at the moment this Console can still be a Cash Cow and it would be really a dumb move to offend fresh Buyers by cutting off firmware upgrades. Some Feature Improvements would be appreciated, but only if they don’t break things. I would say, we surely will see some more Firmware Upgrades since A&H is still interested in earning money by selling many SQ Mixers.

Maybe in some future days we will see a bigger successor with a similar concept on a more powerful FPGA Core and including a general purpose embedded Computer Board for functionality outside the Audio Core. Some things could be easier implemented that way, for example the USB Protocol Stack, many Automation Features, File Handling, MIDI Processing and Routing, many parts of the Controlling surface, a sophisticated integrated Audio Player, some IP audio Streaming Functionalities and similar things. But it takes years to develop such a thing and there is no need to go to market with it for A&H as long as the existing SQ is a solid part of the leading Market Edge in its Price Segment and generating Cash.

[Dilettant]

Hmm indeed this is a deep change in architecture. If that is really considered, I would go further:

We already have a lot of Flexibility in the Mix Busses: Mono or Stereo, Group or Aux/Main (Indeed i see no big difference between Main and Aux Busses?).

It would be really great if we could simply have any Bus switchable between Group, Aux and Matrix Mode. So People who don’t need Matrix Mixes at all could have thee more Groups or Aux Mixes. And People who need more Matrix Busses can sacrifice Aux or Group busses for that.

Another step further: make the FX Units assignable into any (Group?) Bus. THen the FX Sends can be use as general Busses as well. Should make things even easier since there is no more need to deal with different bus types.

At the End that would be a simplification: just 48 Inputs and 40 Bus Channels organized in Busses (Instead of 4 FX Sends, 12 Aux, 3 Matrix and one Main Bus which can all be stereo or mono), nothing else.

Maybe it could even be possible to configure between Input and Bus Channels (so you could even configure the Desk to have 12 Mono Input Channels, 9 7.1 Busses and 4 Mono Busses).

Any Bus could be configured:

– by Number of Channels (Mono, Stereo LR, Stereo MS, LMR, Quadro, 5.1, 7.1, whatever you need) – more Channels per Bus means less possible Busses of course.

– as a Group Bus, getting Signals from Inputs, may have (more than one?) FX Inserts and can be routed to any Mix Bus or Output Socket.

– as a Mix Bus, getting Signals from Inputs or Group Busses and can be routed to any Matrix Bus or Output Socket

– as a Matrix Bus, getting Signals from Mix Busses and routed to any Output

On the surface, it should be simply possible to assign any Bus to any of the Mix (including Main) Buttons.

It should be possible to guarantee Phase Coherency between Group Outputs, between Mix Outputs and between Matrix Outputs.

On Output Sockets of Mix and Group Busses there could be a Switchable Delay to compensate the different Latencies from Matrix to Mix, from Mix to Group and from Matrix to Group.

So the User has Choice: Minimum Latency but phase shifts between the Output variants or phase coherency but more latency on group and mix outputs.

As a next Consequence, the Number of even available Channels could be scalable by exchanging the FPGA Core Hardware by a bigger one with similar functionality.

Maybe I developed some concept which results in a dLive here, but that could be a possible way to go (although it will be _much_ effort but it would at least not break basic Concepts of the SQ Consoles like Phase Coherency).

[Dilettant]

Would also suggest to use the scenes Feature for that.

I personally often have live Gigs with 2-5 acting Groups on stage. So I simply set up
a small Collection of Scenes:

– one Scene “Reset” – that’s always the first scene I load. All Channels muted, all Faders at Zero, all FX bypass. Kind of “Mute all”, but not exactly since I can easily draw up single faders to make single Signals audible which is a good basis for line Checks and such things.

– one Scene “Moderation” – all muted except the speakers’ Microphone, route Speaker even to the farer stage monitors so anyone can hear what is said. EQ and (low) Reverb Settings for best-understandable Talking. Maybe also some stereo Player on St Input is not strictly muted here so background or fill-in Audio can be playbacked to Moderation if needed (I assign the level of that to one of the soft rotaries then). Also there could be more than one “Mod” Mic Channel
and all of them assigned to the AMM so some small “stage discussion” or multi-Person-Moderation can be handled by this, too.

– one Scene “Playback” – play some decent Background Music. Just one Line-In from some Playback device open to the front line, all Mics and other Inputs muted. To use when there is a longe Break on Stage. Playback Device can be the USB Stick (if there are “fitting” WAV-files on it), some MP3-Player or simply a Tablet or Smartphone. I have a Bluetooth Receiver attached to St0 for that but you can also attach the line inputs at the Mixer Desk to some player or assign any other Inputs.

– one “Action” Scene for each acting Group. Of course, that could be one for each played Set, too. I setup these when doing the Sound Checks/Rehearsals if possible,
based on Riders for the Group or reasonable Defaults.

Then I assign the “Recall Scene x” Function for each of these Scenes to some Soft Buttons and “Store last” to another one. So when making changes at the Sound Check I simply press “Store last” to save changes to the Scene (don’t forget to switch to the right scene at begin of each sound check, of course).

Later at the live Gig, I simply switch with a single Button between Pause, Moderation and the Action Groups. Of course, if a Group needs more than one Scene, it is possible to assign “next Scene” to a Soft Button, and bring the Scenes into the right Order, too. So in an ideal case, I do not have to touch any faders or settings live in the Gig at all – it’s even no Problem to handle that from the tablet App while acting on stage or sitting in the Audience away from the FoH desk.

Each Scene includes much more than reasonable Defaults – it can change Routing, Gain, assigned FX, Monitor Mixes, Button Assignments and so on. Of Course, I also have a “Panic” Mute Group which mutes anything combined with a recall safe and an assignment to the same Soft button in any Scene.

One Feature I am missing are LCD Strips on the Soft Buttos to give them descriptions. I solved that for me by a) making Button assignents as static as possible and b) printing nice Labels on magnetic Photo Paper Strips which can be cut with any scissors and easily be applied on the desk and Satagebox surfaces (which are made from steel so magnetic labels work fine there).

Oh BTW, I would appreciate to have a possibility to “scribble” the Soft Buttons in the Tablet App so I can see their scene assignment even in the compacter view modes. But that is not really a Problem.

[Dilettant]

Not a perfect solution, but luckily the Mixer Surface is (and the surfaces of all the Stageboxes are as well) made of Steel.
So you can just use some magnetic foto papers, like this (dunno if the forum admin accepts that link to Amazon):

Just print the labels you need, cut and place them on the Mixer surface beside your buttons. You
can exchange that at any time fast and without damage. If you have several Sets of Labels, you
can stack “one on top of the other” as well.

[Dilettant]

You can add Soft keys to the fader banks and trigger them there in Mixpad.

[Dilettant]

Untested since I have no such card, but might that be already possible using the “Tag Lines” Feature?

[Dilettant]

Just a Hint: pushing faders a little while holding “reset” key will exactly move them to unity / -infinity (depending on pushing direction). That’s a very handy feature, just try it. Maybe this reduces your need for a display value a little bit.

Of Course, you can also get (and enter) the actual Fader dB Values on the touchscreen or with the SQ Mixpad App.

[Dilettant]

Don’t think this is a Mixing desk feature (besides you may have messed up the routing of the drum he

If possible don’t route the base drum to vocal’s monitor wedges. If vocals really need that, in-ear monitoring would be an option.

Choose not too responsive vocal mics with good directivity patterns for the use case. Place and direct them so they catch up vocals, not speakers (monitor, front line speakers, back line speakers, whatever) playing back drum signals. beware of spherical capsules on small headset mics – maybe some cardioid pattern is a better choice here. In Studios, sometimes some mobile plexi glass plates can help with such things, live this maybe optical disturbing.
Beware of reflections of the kick sound on hard walls or windows Sometimes you just need to change some Speaker direction a little or plase some damping thing a little before a reflecting Wall or Window glass (_before_, not _on_ the reflecting plane – you cannot damp anything there).

lookout for decroupling of structure-transmitted noise. Place Vocal Mic Stands, foot machine and drum speakers on rubber mats or bass decouplers or fly that speakers so they don’t kick the floor directly. Massive stone or concrete floor helps here, too..

Use a steep high pass filter on vocals to lower grip sonic and subsonic parts from the bass drum and eq your vocals poperly. Maybe a little fast ducking of the drum by the vocals can help but thats difficile to adjust. and may sound “pumpy”.

And finally: IMHO you will almost _never_ get perfectly decoupled mic tracks when recording/picking up live on stage. That is nearly impossible but doesn’t really matter anyway, just mix your tracks and use ears most of the time you can get a reasonable sound anyway. All that Mictracks can bring in is part of the music/show anyway, so there is nothing wrong using it. Just watch out for big damage like feedback and get all the music to all the listeners (but not too loud, that is another old mistake giving problems over problems).

[Dilettant]

I agree that this wouuld be handy.

Helped myself on the issue by creating magnetic label strips which can be changed very fast. I use simple magnetic Inkjet Photo Paper for that, works fairly well and you can simply stack the stripes on the front plate of the stagebox or any other steel/iron plate. Same thing works on SQ6 Mixer surface, too.

[Dilettant]

The Level LEDs on the Console Desk should show high load by alternating colors, if Signal is in another Layer that will be shown the same way, too. There is some Description in the Manual.

However, I definitely would appreciate to have an additional “Input” Metering Point on ADC post gain.

Those LED give no really precise Idea of how much headroom there is on the Input and any later metering point may be influenced by processing. Especially for self-mixing live situations where you often have to “guess” some gain levels because there was no way or time to get a max level reference signal out of the attached Instrument or Microphone this could be helpful.

I would also like to disable any peak hold timeout so I can check headroom on my recording after the take when working alone. While the take a musician wants to focus on the music, not on the mixing desk ;). A simple manual reset (by channel _and_ global, please!) is absolutely ok. I know most DAW can do that but when using the record to USB feature you simply have no DAW in use.

A maximum clipped frame count Display (per channel) would be luxury – it shows if clipping was just a small “accident” or if there was forgotten some PAD or a really badly adjusted Gain Control. When you are in a hurry, that may help setting priorities.

[Dilettant]

According to desertcart, I would pay 3680$US for a QU16 delivered to CR. That’s about double the amount Thomann charges (before duty).

Importing a single product may need a lot of paper work. Someone has to do that and he will want to be payed for it. There may be heavy customs duties on that, too.

So, costs of several hundred $ for importing a single product basing on WTO Rules are not so completely unusual. And someone wants to earn money with that, too. It gets cheaper when you ex/import within some treaty agreement, for example between EU Countries or between NAFTA Cointries and so on.

Much of the paper war is the same if you import one or 10000 pieces even if the products differ a little (same duty class or such things). So a dealer who imports more frequently may be able to make a cheaper offer. But at the end of the day you cite nothing unrealistic.

BTW forget about freight costs. They nearly don’t matter at all for such things.

I just checked a few weeks ago: a 25 TEU (Twenty-Foot-Container-Unit) can be shipped from Singapore to Rotterdam harbour to harbour (which is some of the longest overseas delivery ranges on the planet) within 3-4 Weeks for about 4000$.

Such a Container can contain up to 25 tons of Goods, that is the payload of a Standard big 44t Truck in the EU (US Trucks may have a little more payload, don’t know). A _lot_ of Mixers do fit in there. So per Mixer, that part of the costs nearly won’t matter at all. In Germany, transport from Hamburg Port to Munich does cost several times more than from Singapore to Hamburg Port.

[Dilettant]

I tried formatting with fat, fat32, vfat and different allocation sizes. Does _not_ help here.

[Author]

Posts