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[Robert Piascik]

This.  Well within budget and comes with a bunch of other added benefits as well, including taking the burden of monitor mixing off of the FOH engineer.

^^^^^  I always pay attention to what ^^^ this ^^^ guy has to say

[Max Hall]

Allen and Heath have good mixers, their digital mixers especially.

The QU-32 would be my suggestion. Or if 32 inputs is too many, the QU-24.    Not only does it have 4 buses, because of the digital mixer functionality, You can group multiple inputs so they are linked together. (basically More busses but they just don't call it that). It also has recallable scenes with the motorised faders. So you can set the level for different situations Ie.  1) General Service   2)  Scene for where other mics etc.. are used.   Up to 100 recallable scenes.
Mixer also has 24 mix outputs.  Plus a fully coordinated recording feature.

Plus the Profactory Mic Presets.    This allows the settings recommended by top brands like Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, and Shure.    Giving the best possible sound settings.

http://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/qu-32/

Another advantage is the Allen and Heath D-Snake connection. Perfect for if you want the mixer away from the front of house where most/if not all inputs are going to be?

http://www.allen-heath.com/series/qu-audio-racks/

Upto 32 or 24 xlr inputs depending on mixer and amp/speakers/monitoring xlr returns, all sent down either a official d-snake cable or work the same down a cat 5 ethernet cable. No delay or quality loss.

So the mixer could be at rear with wirless mics or whatever the inputs might be and stage box at front with lectern mics. With outputs being at both front and rear.

Max

[Corey Scogin]

Allen and Heath have good mixers, their digital mixers especially.

The QU-32 would be my suggestion. Or if 32 inputs is too many, the QU-24.    Not only does it have 4 buses...

Most of the features you mention are common to nearly all digital mixers.
Direct-to-USB-drive recording is the primary feature that sets the Qu apart from the rest (in my opinion) and the personal monitor systems, while expensive, are by far the best I've found and work with the higher-end A&H consoles.

One of us should create a Pro/Con matrix for the $2k-$10k consoles as a reference for every time someone asks about which one is "best".

[Max Hall]

Most of the features you mention are common to nearly all digital mixers.
Direct-to-USB-drive recording is the primary feature that sets the Qu apart from the rest (in my opinion) and the personal monitor systems, while expensive, are by far the best I've found and work with the higher-end A&H consoles.

One of us should create a Pro/Con matrix for the $2k-$10k consoles as a reference for every time someone asks about which one is "best".

The USB direct recording is very good. The larger A&H QU mixers have DAW Integration so you can stream recorded or pre mix tracks from windows/mac.   Don't really know if this comes in handy but always useful to have! 

Haha, saves explaining everything time and time again. Just a collection of all the discussions and final conclusions!!

[Corey Scogin]

The larger A&H QU mixers have DAW Integration so you can stream recorded or pre mix tracks from windows/mac.   

All of the Qu mixers, not just the larger ones, can function as a computer audio interface providing recording and playback options.

[Mark Amber]

Number of outputs is one of the things that differentiates price points of digital mixers.  You might be able to cobble together an X32 system that could get you more than 16 channels; I'm not sure where the limit is there.

You probably need to find a way to increase your budget a bit.  The Allen & Heath GLD range would probably be a good direction to look to start, but it will cost somewhat more than $5k, and a fully-expanded GLD system still maxes out at about 24 outputs, I believe, although some "cheating" is possible there (USB recording, Dante card option, AES and S/PDIF outputs, etc).

Allen&Heath are running a promotion on the GLD for the rest of the month where they give you one of the purple expanded. If you buy a GLD 80 and two ab168 today that will give you 8+8+4+4 XLR output (4 of those on the console itself) and all this for around 6k plus shipping and tax and Ethernet cable cost. And the GLD is just a killer system. I have one myself and aside from slightly lacking build quality (when compared with a CL5 or something! Certainly better than an X32) it is the best console out there. So intuitive at first and super deep after you get in to it.


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[richard_cooper]

One of us should create a Pro/Con matrix for the $2k-$10k consoles as a reference for every time someone asks about which one is "best".

I started one a while back, as it's a question I'm asked not infrequently. It was a surprisingly difficult and time consuming task to search out specifics. It was also more difficult than I'd anticipated to come up with ways of listing features to compare, due to the different way they are implemented between products. What I came up with is fine for my use as quick reference, but would need explaining and/or organising  better than I have done for others.

What it did do, however, was to reinforce the importance of working out what you need (+would be handy, +dream list) the console to do BEFORE setting a budget in stone. It became apparent that all of a manufacturers lowest cost console ranges would skip some feature or other (with the possible exception of the X32). several times the answer to the "which console question for £x" has turned out to be "none of the ones in budget".

[Aisle 6]

I started one a while back, as it's a question I'm asked not infrequently. It was a surprisingly difficult and time consuming task to search out specifics. It was also more difficult than I'd anticipated to come up with ways of listing features to compare, due to the different way they are implemented between products. What I came up with is fine for my use as quick reference, but would need explaining and/or organising  better than I have done for others.

What it did do, however, was to reinforce the importance of working out what you need (+would be handy, +dream list) the console to do BEFORE setting a budget in stone. It became apparent that all of a manufacturers lowest cost console ranges would skip some feature or other (with the possible exception of the X32). several times the answer to the "which console question for £x" has turned out to be "none of the ones in budget".

That would definitely be a huge task. The subtle variances and trade off's in the budget range are very difficult do define in a simple spread sheet. The deeper you go, the harder it becomes. You would start to get into the widely varying scene management equation and even down to the operating system... 3rd party or proprietary. It is endless.

Having said that, the vast majority of users in the low end of the market are very simple users, not delving too deeply.

[eric lenasbunt]

Id consider the x32/m32 family and put them all on p16 mixers. Then drive the Iems from the mixers. Just Freed up 8 outputs and made your job easier (not) mixing monitors.

But if you do need more I/O than what the x32 can offer the GLD is your next best bet, without spending another $5-10k

[brian maddox]

^^^^^  I always pay attention to what ^^^ this ^^^ guy has to say

Well shucks....  I have fans...  😀

[ProSoundWeb Community]