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Author Topic: New Allen & Heath SQ Series  (Read 167452 times)

Rob Spence

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #50 on: October 27, 2017, 11:48:07 AM »

Do you really need to split every input?  What problems are you trying to solve?  I've never understood this workflow.  Do your mains sound radically different than your IEMs?  In every case I can think of, the problems that I'm solving are on the input channel, and my changes are beneficial for both mains and monitors.  Also, if you do split every channel, do you really do sound check twice?  It seems to me that what would happen in practice is most of the time would be spent on the house mix, and most of the split channels left at 0, which seems a worse situation than not splitting.

The A&H boards allow monitors to be pre dynamics, which solves the only reason I've ever had to split channels, other than once in a blue moon where a vocalist requests changes to their EQ for their wedges, which can be easily done by splitting that one channel.

Agreed. When I split for monitors, it is usually only vocals so if needed I can eq as needed or add verb to mons but not House.


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Trevor Jalla

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #51 on: October 27, 2017, 12:42:14 PM »

TJ, Rob

During FOH soundcheck, monitor guy mixes ears or the band do it themselves on device. Also, earpieces can have very different EQ biases - some musicians might run your standard SE215s, the lead singer might have some 12-driver CIEMs. Each voiced probably quite different from FOH tuning. Channel settings may or may not work. 100% separation saves alot of time and confusion, keeps the band happy and the process smoother.

I'm also a musician who uses IEMs onstage so I'm sympathetic / biased towards performer comfort. 48 channel cap detracts from the "Ultimate IEM Console" angle that A&H are shooting for, IMO. I'd say dLive gets that title.

Splitting for wedges is entirely different. I only split vox and maybe acoustic guitar. Keys get pre-dynamic pickoff.
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TJ (Tom) Cornish

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #52 on: October 27, 2017, 01:10:34 PM »

TJ, Rob

During FOH soundcheck, monitor guy mixes ears or the band do it themselves on device. Also, earpieces can have very different EQ biases - some musicians might run your standard SE215s, the lead singer might have some 12-driver CIEMs. Each voiced probably quite different from FOH tuning. Channel settings may or may not work. 100% separation saves alot of time and confusion, keeps the band happy and the process smoother.

I'm also a musician who uses IEMs onstage so I'm sympathetic / biased towards performer comfort. 48 channel cap detracts from the "Ultimate IEM Console" angle that A&H are shooting for, IMO. I'd say dLive gets that title.

Splitting for wedges is entirely different. I only split vox and maybe acoustic guitar. Keys get pre-dynamic pickoff.
How do your bandmates decide who gets to EQ stuff for their particular in-ear model?  They all share the monitor layer I presume, so you're just moving the problem from mains vs monitors to between different monitor models, which to your point may sound as different from each other as from FOH. 

I would handle IEM differences with PEQ on the send, not in individual channels.  As I don't keep a set of every model of in-ear bud, I'm not sure how I would even know what changes to make from FOH anyway.

I can see your method working if you always have the same band that is very competent, but otherwise I can't see that workflow being practical for the band-du-jour work that I do, which is for what it's worth is 85% IEMs, so I'm not unfamiliar.
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Nathan Riddle

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #53 on: October 27, 2017, 01:27:20 PM »

More info:

Its about the same size & weight as QU24 too.

SQu-6 (w x d x h) (638mm/25.1" x 515mm/20.3" x 198mm/7.8") 29.4lb
Qu-24 (w x d x h) (632mm/24.9" x 496mm/19.5" x 186mm/7.3") 31.0lb

Looks like they just slightly changed the chassis. Probably because the QU manufacturing process could be re-used.

I think its funny how the "Qu" is in the model name. Making the 'S' seem like "super Qu." Then the marketing team said no, lets name it SQ haha.

---

Things I'm somewhat curious about.

-Gain tracking.

-Linking consoles. [Do we gain access to all 48 input channels using both boards or does linking boards require the usage of a DX (giACE) card and using

-If consoles are linked and one has the ACE card for remote stage rack, can we still use Waves/Dante card in FOH mixer for processing?

-Why can't we split the St-Mixes up (simple software change, use the 'pan' feature per channel monitor the 'send' per mix) [press mix1/2 button twice to switch between mixing mix1 or mix 2].

-The IO is 64x64...why are we limited to 36 (32???) busses?

48ch + 16FX (8st) = 64 inputs

12 st mix (24mono) + LR + 3 st Mtx = 32, where are the other 32 (or 4 if 36 busses is correct)? [maybe this has since been revised?]

-When running mixed 48kHz & 96kHz inputs how does the console handle latency? rise to 1.4ms when ANY 48kHz input is detected?

-when and what are we getting for the channel specific inserts (pre-amp models? compressor models? etc?) [Is that like GLD's multiple compressor models for every channel?]

-Is it really 8 stereo FX? I only see 4 FX buttons...

---

This seems to replace Qu series in a lot of ways, unless the price point of QU goes down I don't see anyone buying Qu.

This also has plenty of features from GLD. I know there's been plenty of 'talk' but from my perspective, besides the buss architecture being fixed (which could easily be fixed in software) I don't see how it is much/if any different than GLD and in some ways is better. (multi-track, app support, etc)

I'm curious what this new software update for GLD will be. Mainly since GLD seems to have been forgotten... Hopefully they will release apps for phones like Qu-You which will make GLD competitive again...
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Trevor Jalla

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #54 on: October 27, 2017, 01:40:27 PM »

How do your bandmates decide who gets to EQ stuff for their particular in-ear model?  They all share the monitor layer I presume, so you're just moving the problem from mains vs monitors to between different monitor models, which to your point may sound as different from each other as from FOH. 

I would handle IEM differences with PEQ on the send, not in individual channels.  As I don't keep a set of every model of in-ear bud, I'm not sure how I would even know what changes to make from FOH anyway.

I can see your method working if you always have the same band that is very competent, but otherwise I can't see that workflow being practical for the band-du-jour work that I do, which is for what it's worth is 85% IEMs, so I'm not unfamiliar.

Each performer gets priority on their voice/instrument. Its not like the keys player gets a say on his/her preferred kick drum sound - the drummer does. Every one gets to sound good to themselves.

When I supply my own earbuds (AT IM70) I have PEQ curve preset to bring them back to relative flatness, but even for other earpiece models a dedicated channel strip goes a long way.

I supply and operate for a bunch of working bands, but indeed I am lucky - they are all extremely competent.
 
This is getting away from the SQ topic. Heck, maybe my IEM workflow is overbaked, and maybe the SQ is indeed the ultimate IEM console. Between my G3 EW300s and wired packs, I could use up all 12 of the SQs stereo mixes. I don't always need more than 8 or 9 (6pc cover band plus 3x horns for example) but I have often wished for more than the 6 of my Soundcraft. Should I then be content with 48 channels, and treat it as *not being a compromise? Perhaps, but I'm not sure just yet.
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brian maddox

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #55 on: October 27, 2017, 01:50:05 PM »

Each performer gets priority on their voice/instrument. Its not like the keys player gets a say on his/her preferred kick drum sound - the drummer does. Every one gets to sound good to themselves.

...

This seems a perfectly reasonable way to approach things...

I will say this is one place where the SAC approach is kinda amazing since every performer gets essentially their own console.  Of course, with great power comes great responsibility.  :)
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Branimir Bozak

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #56 on: October 27, 2017, 05:14:31 PM »

Hm, everybody is talking about channel count...

Back in the analog days, we used to do monitors with 40 channel MH2's or 48 channel M7CL's, sure, you had to skip sometimes hats or overheads, but those were the days of wedges, and not in ears... If I was to mix a band with 40 inputs and 8 to 10 performers in stereo in-ears these days - I would charge that a lot and rent out a proper desk, not this hatchback friendly sized console.

I know, I don't own a rental company, I'm a touring FOH sound tech, and tour with my own console. The only thing I care is the sound, summing and overall quality of the console - if it will die or not, and if the eq's and comps work good, that's the basic starting point for me.

Personally, I think the Digico S series (S21/S31) is far superior to anything it this low cost class. It's 96kHz, sounds stellar, great definition, sound, summing, eq is good, compressor is good, etc. I'm not going into details about how I dislike the touchscreen and the fact the buttons are almost useless most the time...

With Allen & Heath going for this compact format with 96kHz, I'm interested in it.
The QU series had a major flaw - you could not duplicate the channel, so you could not have lead vox for FOH and an another channel gain sharing the lead vox for monitors - that put me off.
I use the Si Expression, and while it's practical - it's nowhere near the sound quality of the Digico S, and not to mention the Vi1, which is around 10k Euros and is also not in the same ballpark as the Digico S series soundwise.

Different things for different people.
If the SQ-6 is road worthy and can sound better than the M32 and alike, I'm totally interested! The local inputs are enough to flow my boat at the moment!
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Steve Litcher

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #57 on: October 27, 2017, 11:57:16 PM »

I had a chance to touch/feel/play around with the SQ-5 today at the Full Compass 40th Anniversary party. There was an A&H booth there, and tucked in the corner was a brand new SQ-5.

It was running beta software, but from what I got to see of it, it looks and feels quite solid. They had a dLive C1500 sitting next to it.

The faders on the SQ-5 are *niiiiice* - really solid, really smooth. They apparently have two rails instead of the single rail found on most other lower-priced boards.

I wasn't able to hear anything from it, but the workflow seems intuitive. The display was sharp, and the dLive-like LED lights are really nice.

There were tons of people there, so I only had a few minutes with it. Not enough to learn much, but it looks quite solid. It'll be interesting to hear it, and to see how the non-beta software behaves.

Not sure if this'll work or not... I snapped a quick phone photo:



If it doesn't work, it's on our Facebook feed @608soundandlight

Mark Amber

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #58 on: October 29, 2017, 06:36:22 PM »

So, the SQ-6 is a QU-24 but with scribble scrips, built-in lights and optional Dante?  Cool!  Sure looks sleek.

I realize there are more differences (I've read all published pdf's front to back) but the scribble strip thing and lack of expansion card slot on the QU series always kept me away from considering them.  Not that I need this either at the moment...

I'm not sure I'm Dante-savvy enough to understand how a 64x64 Dante card is fully usable in a 48x36 mixer, but at least it's more than 32 (or 16) that other brands are offering at this price bracket. 

Perhaps A&H will pull something similar to Soundcraft (with their SI Impact) and allow more processing channels by way of a software update in a couple years.  A guy could hope...
48 input desk plus extra channels directly to Dante (crowd mics, effect returns, LR live mix) and plug in processing at least I can do that on my GLD.

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brian maddox

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #59 on: October 29, 2017, 09:35:23 PM »

....

I'm not sure I'm Dante-savvy enough to understand how a 64x64 Dante card is fully usable in a 48x36 mixer, but at least it's more than 32 (or 16) that other brands are offering at this price bracket. 



Think Waves plugins on insert points and you can see how 64x64 I/O can get chewed up pretty quickly.  Dugan Automix on all 32 of those desktop mics. No problem. Plus 32 channels of ISO record via Dante Virtual Soundcard.

In truth the Audinate chip provides for 64x64 and A&H uses this Dante card for all their consoles, so it just makes sense to use the same card for this desk.  But I could chew up that whole card on a show with this desk very easily.  I do it all the time on a QL5 Which has about the same I/O count as this desk.
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brian maddox
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #59 on: October 29, 2017, 09:35:23 PM »


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