[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@memecode –

The headphone/listen/PFL bus on all ZED mixers is mono and is for checking signals ‘pre-fade’ before adding them to the mix.
Then as you say, with no PFL switches engaged, the headphone output is fed by the stereo main mix instead.

You can see this and all the internal routing in the block diagram here – https://www.allen-heath.com/media/ZEDi-8-Technical-Datasheet.pdf#page=3&zoom=150,-178,761

Thanks,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@jamesremuscat –

Thanks for working with us on this and for updating the post for anybody else who may run into something similar.
We’ll be looking into it further and although it won’t cause an issue in the majority of cases, it obviously has in yours and will be noted as a bug.

Cheers,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

Hi all,

Being able to insert scenes is a very reasonable suggestion, but while it’s not possible, an easy workaround when working with lots of scenes is to simply leave a few blank scene slots between each scene you store.
The ‘Scene Recall Go’ with ‘Auto Increment’ enabled just ignores these empty slots and we have also implemented Copy/Paste/Reset for scenes allowing you to shuffle things around pretty quickly.

‘Aux follow pan’ has also been suggested before and would understandably be very useful during mixing, if mainly for setup however, you can use the Copy/Paste keys with the blue Mix keys to quickly copy and paste all the routing from one mix to another, then from here you would just need to adjust levels (which is arguably faster).
If you are hard panning, you can also hold the Reset key whilst turning the Pan control to ‘jump’ between L/Centre/R.

Thanks,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@nemydom

RME do achieve very low latency in their USB interfaces, so I imagine you would be closer to the PCIe setup than the DVS setup.
As you mentioned in the other message that you might not be using Dante for any other connections (at this time?) though and seem to be looking more for the lowest possible latency – you might also want to look into the Waves or MADI option cards too.

Thanks,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@nemydom

It’s not possible to provide a single figure for latency due to it being highly dependent on your specific setup (e.g. computer and host/processing you might be running signal through) and settings (e.g. buffer sizes).
Relatively though, the latency you would experience with a Dante card and Dante Virtual Soundcard (DVS) would be similar to that which you’d get using the built-in USB-B interface.
This is because although the Dante card/network can run at very low latency, DVS adds quite a bit.
Hence why users like Dylan Mitrovich ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEq_B5Vhw4I and https://www.facebook.com/AllenHeathofficial/videos/486799352333242 ) are using Dante PCIe cards which will allow for a far lower latency than running DVS with your computer’s network card.

The main benefits of using Dante compared to USB-B (without a low latency Dante interface to your computer) are:

• Connection to other Dante enabled equipment
• Sending and receiving audio over long distances
• Higher channel count – The Dante card is 64×64 compared to USB-B which is 32×32, though note that when running at 96kHz, DVS channel count is 32×32.

To answer the extra question you sent to us separately (for anybody else who may be wondering).

“Also would it be realistic to connect sq to two computers at the same time, one over usb and the other one via dante vsc? Asking as with the recent AKAI mpc update I want to be able to use SQ as a class complient interface with my MPC and record via dante vsc to my pc at the same time.”

Yes, you can indeed use the USB-B interface (which is class compliant) and Dante at the same time. You can even use Tie Lines to patch between the two of them without using up any input/output processing channels. 🙂

Thanks!
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

Hi David,

As @RS says, definitely check the ME-500 guide for info on receiving channels – https://www.allen-heath.com/media/ME-500-User-Guide-AP11137_1-1.pdf#page=12&zoom=auto,-274,552
Also see the I/O Patching section of the SQ reference guide for info on sending channels – https://www.allen-heath.com/media/SQ_ReferenceGuide_V1_5_0.pdf#page=18&zoom=auto,-361,577

For what you want to do here, you can assign the drum input channels to either a Group or Aux mix and then patch the output of this mix to the ME output sockets.
I’d suggest using a pre-fade Aux, as you can then tailor the mix for those monitoring without affecting the LR or any other mix, so:

1. Choose a spare Aux and name it ‘Drums’
2. Go to ‘Setup > Mixer Config > Mix Stereo’ and make your ‘Drums’ Stereo (because you’re not going to use up any extra channels and it might be preferred, so why not? 🙂 )
3. Select this Aux with the blue mix keys so the faders are showing send levels to it
4. Hold the ‘Reset’ key and press the mix key to clear all send levels
5. Go to the ‘Routing’ screen
6. Select the master fader (currently the ‘Drums’ Aux mix channel)
7. Touch the ‘Aux Snd’ at the top of the channel
8. Choose where in the input channel the signal will be sent from (for example, those monitoring may not want to hear the compression you’re applying on the input channels for the main mix, so choose ‘Post PEQ’)
9. Touch ‘All Off’ to unassign all channels from the Aux
10. Touch ‘All Pre’ to ensure all sends are pre-fade (ignoring the main LR mix send levels)
11. Hold the ‘Assign’ key and press the Sel keys on all the drum input channels so they illuminate (so you are only assigning the drum channels to the ‘Drums’ Aux, and there is no chance of accidentally pushing up a fader and sending something like bass to it when mixing later 😉 )
12. Create your stereo mix using the faders and panning (you can PAFL the master channel to check)
13. Go to the ‘I/O > Outputs > Mix Out’ screen and select ‘ME’ at the top
14. Patch your ‘Drums’ mix to an odd/even pair of ME channels e.g. 1&2

Done 🙂

Cheers,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@mmoneib

It’s impossible to say for sure without looking at the unit, but as mentioned, it would be perfectly normal for there to be a tiny amount of noise.
I am surprised there is audible noise with all gains, faders and headphone level turned completely down, to test this properly you would need to scope the headphone output, though as long as you have a reliable reference source to calibrate to, you will be able to get a good idea of whether it’s within spec using an interface.
The ‘slight bleed’ you talk about is called crosstalk, for which there is also a figure in the user guide specifications linked to above.

All units are fully tested (including for noise) before being shipped, so it’s very unlikely that there is an issue with a brand new unit. However, as Luke suggested in the conversation you were having with us via facebook, if you do still have concerns, please contact your dealer.

Thanks,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@volounteer –

There is no processing that would cause crackling noises, though to rule out anything software/setting related please store the show using a USB drive and then send us the whole show folder using https://support.allen-heath.com (and let us know the scene that was in use at the time along with a description of the setup).

The only thing I can think of that would cause some sort of crackling noise from the Qu would be if either there were a reverb on the mic and the predelay was being adjusted or if the input channel delay were being adjusted. Both of these would be messing with a delay line (like a tap off from a buffer) and so you could create stuttery ‘jumps’ in the signal which might be perceived as crackles. However, these are setup functions rather than something you would adjust whilst mixing (especially in the middle of someone talking!) and I wouldn’t say they sound like a crisp/chip packet either.

More likely would be a problem with a microphone, cable or speaker/driver.

Thanks,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

Hi @earthscum

I’m running an i7 with no issues, so although both those computers are i7’s, there must be some other commonality which is causing them to not play nice with the Qu’s USB interface.
If you haven’t done so already, please contact us about this using https://support.allen-heath.com so we can try to determine what in your system is causing the issue.

Thanks,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@mmoneib

Some noise is inherent in analogue circuitry and with the pretty powerful headphone amp in the XONE:92, it’s completely normal to be able to hear the broadband circuit noise (especially if listening to every channel at once!) and even boost the output to the point you can hear crosstalk.

As you’ve quoted some figures, I’ll presume you have some means to measure, so you could check against the specs in the user guide here – https://www.allen-heath.com/media/1623.pdf#page=34&zoom=auto,-274,816
That should let you know whether there’s anything to be concerned about.

Cheers!
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@eskilinswe

This could be explained by either a double patch or a Mix External In if you mean input sockets 1 and 2 rather than channels 1 and 2.
The difference in nomenclature being that input sockets are any of the analogue or digital inputs you have access to (e.g. the XLR input sockets 1 and 2 on your SQ-5) and input channels are the 48 input processing channels which exist in the mixing core.
Input sockets can be freely patched to any of the Input Channels, Mix External Inputs, Insert Returns or Output Sockets (using Tie Lines) and can also be patched multiple times.
If you wanted to for example, you could patch input socket 1 to every single input channel at the same time!

So the first place I’d recommend checking would be either the Mix Ext In of the LR channel in the processing screen or the ‘I/O > Inputs > Mix Ext In’ screen.
Then go through all the input channels to see if the same input sockets which are patched to channels 1 and 2 are also patched to any other channels.

Cheers,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

Hi all,

There are some great ideas here and really well explained reasons for wanting certain things (and not others).
We have read and made notes from most of the posts (Ooo, that rhymes!) and will continue to check back to this thread which is incredibly useful to us if and when we do work on an SQ in this form factor.
I just wanted to jump in after Hugh’s post though, as it made me realise that some of you guys might be expecting us to pop up at some point and confirm this is happening or for it to perhaps appear within a few months.
So to try and be clear, we’re always working on new products, some may take say, a year or so and others much longer, but with very few exceptions we will never confirm or deny what we are working on until it’s released.
I realise this is super frustrating as we live in continually faster paced and more informed world, but there have been many times where product or firmware releases get pulled at the 11th hour for all kinds of reasons, so we’d rather stick to announcing things when they’re ready or 100% confirmed wherever possible.

I really hope this doesn’t dissuade anybody from continuing to post their thoughts on this topic!

Cheers,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

Hi @vanceg

Yep! The SQ scribble strips do indeed pick up and display names through the MCU and HUI protocol when used with the A&H MIDI Control app (https://www.allen-heath.com/midi-control/).
With MCU, there are also two options for translation, with the only difference being whether the SQ shows the first or second row of text as the MCU has two rows and some DAW’s display names on the top and others on the bottom…

Cheers,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@soundguy –
Thanks for the images, there are two ways to understand what you see as the issue though –

‘Ip1’ refers to input channel 1, which is one of the 48 input channels in the core of the mixer rather than local input socket 1. Once you rename one of the input channels, you will see Ip[x] appear in the naming section to help keep track of things.

If instead you have patched USB input socket 1 to Input channel 1 before the first picture of the processing screen, and are still seeing the preamp controls, then I’m stumped! I cannot reproduce that behaviour here, so please could you send us a copy of your show folder using https://support.allen-heath.com (and then clicking ‘Submit a Request’) so we can look into this.

Thanks,
Keith.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

There is a fairly detailed description of all the functions in the dLive reference guide here – https://www.allen-heath.com/media/dLive-Firmware-Reference-Guide-V1.8.pdf#page=112&zoom=auto,-274,810
The only difference between the dLive version and the SQ version is the GUI (with bands split across two tabs at the bottom).

Cheers,
Keith.

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