Keith,
Whilst Rob has your ear let me interject a bit and agree with Rob’s sentiments (and really the general community) that the SQ feels unfinished.
First, let me preface that the SQ is a good board right now for many/most users & seems to have great future potential.
Also, I think a definition of ‘finished’ vs ‘unfinished’ might be in order to help provide a basis for this discussion.
Finished = having all features discussed/available at product launch & subsequent statements; AS WELL AS normal features that other consoles from A&H have.
Unfinished = functional, but lacking said features.
(I think definitions are typically the crux of the difference in opinions)
Lastly, I think all of the veterans in the community & mixing world understand (to an extent, not as intimately as you do) the timetables, marketing, profit margin, development/testing effort, pressure to perform/excel, difficulties, etc. in regards to being a manufacture.
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To help give a gauge on why we (the community) think the board might be lacking/unfinished, I present the following points. I’ll give the item that is missing, and a small blurb about where it comes from to provide a basis for our desire as it seems ‘simple’ (in reality nothing in manufacturing/software/hardware is simple/easy as testing is needed & development time and sometimes it’s just not doable with the hardware resources/topography).
Note: limited to A&H statements or available on other similarly priced/marketed console(s) (NOT features from more expensive consoles or ).
Legend:
x) firmware version – feature missing – blurb about why users/we have issues with the lack of this feature
1) V1.2 – MBC/DeEsser – Stated at announcement
2) V1.1 – Factory Presets weren’t included – hurt the less experienced user & resalers reputation was hurt.
3) V1.2 – Ducker – standard on QU now.
4) V1.2 – Expansion cards not done – can’t create full ecosystem until this is done.
5) V1.2 – Expansion plugins not done – many desire/want the advanced features DEEP processing enables at the SQ lower pricepoint. Good job with Tube pre-amp to pride something from the get-go.
6) V1.2 – DAW implementation isn’t done – all the recorders expect/need this
7) V1.2 – PAFL via mix out & routable – all the recorders expect/need this
8) V1.2 – Show file saving – I think most thought this meant you could recall shows (with their 300 scenes) directly from the board. NOT a USB Flash Drive.
9) V1.2 – Offline Editor – stated at announcement.
10) V1.2 – SQ-APP – missing features now standard on QU. (FX/tap, routing, etc)
11) V1.2 – Spectrum Analyser – Expected on any newer board these days.
12) V1.2 – Scene by scene safes
13) V1.2 – PW protected logins for different users
So here’s some of the larger items I’m aware of.
Most of these are from the FB announcement & the technical datasheet.
I think that SQ is well on its way to fulfilling some/all of these items, but it isn’t there yet and to say the board is feature complete or finished seems disingenuous.
All the best,
Nathan
P.S.
I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY LOVE** that you guys, Keith, Nicola, Alex, etc. contribute, listen, learn, improve. It’s what has made me fall in love with A&H more so than other companies (we do what we want and don’t care about you). I’ll say I was a bit afraid with QU’s stagnation, but I get moving on to bigger/better/different things.
At the end of all this, and having been in software development myself (hint source code plz, I’ll develop the features I want 😛 haha). Please don’t feel like I’m/we’re harping, mad, trying to frustrate, bother, dehumanize, etc. you or the developers. We (I) mean well, and hope you can improve your processes. Because I absolutely get it and the pressure of customers/clients and how annoying we (I) can be! 🙂
