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Author Topic: New Allen & Heath SQ Series  (Read 167479 times)

Stephen Kirby

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #90 on: November 01, 2017, 05:56:40 PM »

I think my least favorite feature of the SQ is the early-Yamaha-like EQ control scheme - EQ band selection buttons and only one set of knobs.  This is one area where a larger desk like the GLD or DLive has a meaningful ergonomic advantage over the bantam-sized SQ.
Even the Qu has discrete eq encoders.  For me, this is what separated the Qu and Soundcraft boards from the Behringer and older Yamaha stuff.  On my Ex2, two moves get me what I want, even faster than searching out a discrete knob on my old GL.  Disappointing to see A&H go backwards.  Especially since they were the first folks I saw with a complete channel strip.  Varsity boards with large screens use a different UI but get away with it because you can still find stuff quickly on all that real estate.  This is neither fish nor fowl.
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Scott Bolt

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #91 on: November 01, 2017, 07:17:00 PM »

It could be a multi color LED Scott, and that would be fine. Also, I don't know if this board is similar to the Si series in this case, but I see there are output LEDs to the right of the screen. Maybe they follow fader select similar to the Soundcraft products. I just need to know if I'm starting to clip, and if I needed fine increments of output I'll look at the on screen bubble, but no clip = I'm fine.

Yea Bob, I think it is based on the videos I have seen. 

I get it, I just think that the incremental price difference would have been worth it.

As pointed out, having the full meter bridge on-screen is a decent work around.

I also agree with others that going to the Behringer-esque PEQ is also very annoying.  It is my biggest gripe with the X32 family.

Again .... having said all this, getting the DLive processing engine in a sub 3K package is nothing short of amazing.  I have no doubt at all that this mixer is going to sound better than all other mixers in its price range due to this fact.

I think it was the right move for A&H.  Being a design engineer myself, the idea of having a single FPGA code base for your entire product line (assuming that the Qu will eventually die out in favor of the SQ) makes an enormous amount of financial sense.

Where things are headed is that there will be NO difference in sound quality between the high end and low end mixers.  There will only be differences in features and control surface ability.  If you are sitting where I am, this sounds (pun intended) like a pretty good thing :)

Additionally, I have always had a special spot in my heart for A&H.  They just make very solid products.  Loved my MixWiz, and still love my little ZED 10Fx (which I continue to recommend for small mixing chores).

I felt that A&H missed the boat a little on the Qu.  I think the SQ is going to be a winner for them.
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Peter Morris

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #92 on: November 01, 2017, 07:24:08 PM »

Even the Qu has discrete eq encoders.  For me, this is what separated the Qu and Soundcraft boards from the Behringer and older Yamaha stuff.  On my Ex2, two moves get me what I want, even faster than searching out a discrete knob on my old GL.  Disappointing to see A&H go backwards.  Especially since they were the first folks I saw with a complete channel strip.  Varsity boards with large screens use a different UI but get away with it because you can still find stuff quickly on all that real estate.  This is neither fish nor fowl.

I'm not sure this will be an issue - I never use the discrete knobs on the Qu, I always touch the EQ functions (gain,Q, frequency) on the screen and turn the master screen knob.  I find this faster than going to the discrete tone control knobs which are located to the left of the screen.

With the DLive I do use the discrete knobs for each function.  There is more real-estate on the DLive and they have been able to locate the knobs directly below the screen  so I can easily look at the screen and adjust the tone controls. Ergonomically this seems to work.

If you look carefully how they have laid out the knobs and select buttons on the SQ in may work much better than you think - I guess I will find out when mine arrives :-)
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Douglas R. Allen

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #93 on: November 01, 2017, 07:34:23 PM »

That might be annoying. I assume green appears brighter than yellow and still brighter than red... So it might be hard to differentiate "no signal" from "clipping" in a sufficiently well lit place.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

To me red is dark, green a little brighter, then yellow the brightest. But in a normal lighted room to brighter outside I'm not so good... I see things from dark to light.  It is tough.  People talking to me about color is like you trying to tell me what a hamburger taste like if I've never ate one.  If you've never had one you'll just never know.  On the plus side I do see shades better than most. A blonde haired , blue eyed girl doesn't mean much to me and in general I judge people by actions and not so much appearance . Like a bad Monkey song though my vision is just shades of grey.

Sorry for the topic swerve.

Douglas R. Allen
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Peter Morris

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #94 on: November 01, 2017, 07:52:15 PM »

Yea Bob, I think it is based on the videos I have seen. 

I get it, I just think that the incremental price difference would have been worth it.

As pointed out, having the full meter bridge on-screen is a decent work around.

I also agree with others that going to the Behringer-esque PEQ is also very annoying.  It is my biggest gripe with the X32 family.

Again .... having said all this, getting the DLive processing engine in a sub 3K package is nothing short of amazing.  I have no doubt at all that this mixer is going to sound better than all other mixers in its price range due to this fact.

I think it was the right move for A&H.  Being a design engineer myself, the idea of having a single FPGA code base for your entire product line (assuming that the Qu will eventually die out in favor of the SQ) makes an enormous amount of financial sense.

Where things are headed is that there will be NO difference in sound quality between the high end and low end mixers.  There will only be differences in features and control surface ability.  If you are sitting where I am, this sounds (pun intended) like a pretty good thing :)

Additionally, I have always had a special spot in my heart for A&H.  They just make very solid products.  Loved my MixWiz, and still love my little ZED 10Fx (which I continue to recommend for small mixing chores).

I felt that A&H missed the boat a little on the Qu.  I think the SQ is going to be a winner for them.

I was lucky enough to attend a pre-release of the dLive in Thailand some time ago. I got to talk to the factory guys for some time about the design. There was an extreme focus on getting the ergonomics right and minimising the number of moves needed to operate the desk. 

I’m sure this will have carried through to the SQ, but I suspect there is a couple of over-riding constraints such as getting it below a certain market price point and keeping it small enough to be rack mounted and down to a size and weight can be transported as airline baggage ... etc.

I guess we will find out how successful they have been once we actually get to use one in the field.
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Dennis Wiggins

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #95 on: November 01, 2017, 07:56:11 PM »

/quote: A blonde haired , blue eyed girl doesn't mean much to me and in general I judge people by actions :/unquote

... working in a bar is not much different than moonlight.

-Dennis
« Last Edit: November 01, 2017, 07:58:33 PM by Dennis Wiggins »
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Jeremy Young

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #96 on: November 01, 2017, 08:29:32 PM »

The multi-coloured single-LED metering does seem to be an oversight for those with colour-vision-deficiency.  Time will tell just how effective that is in an outdoor environment but at this price point I understand the reasoning.  The board has a very streamlined look to it, and in the process they've eliminated some things that are simply going to polarize folks. 

I understand the need to reduce the footprint and try something new with metering, but I do LOVE the full channel strip metering on my A&H iLive R72 and T112 surfaces.  I also appreciate (especially working on the smaller R72) that they have a peak LED for each fader bank so it draws your attention to that bank quickly if there's an issue on another layer.  It seems this did not make it into the SQ series either, but obviously I'm not expecting iLive features at this price point.

I understand the choice to remove dedicated PEQ encoders, but it's not one that wins me over initially.  I guess hands-on would be required to get a feel for it, but that's my knee-jerk reaction.  It seems that dedicated faders and meters are being traded more and more for touchscreen interfaces as we get further from our analog ancestry.  As long as the GUI is up to the task, that can be a very good thing, or a very bad thing. 
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Rob Spence

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #97 on: November 01, 2017, 09:55:36 PM »

The multi-coloured single-LED metering does seem to be an oversight for those with colour-vision-deficiency.  Time will tell just how effective that is in an outdoor environment but at this price point I understand the reasoning.  The board has a very streamlined look to it, and in the process they've eliminated some things that are simply going to polarize folks. 

I understand the need to reduce the footprint and try something new with metering, but I do LOVE the full channel strip metering on my A&H iLive R72 and T112 surfaces.  I also appreciate (especially working on the smaller R72) that they have a peak LED for each fader bank so it draws your attention to that bank quickly if there's an issue on another layer.  It seems this did not make it into the SQ series either, but obviously I'm not expecting iLive features at this price point.

I understand the choice to remove dedicated PEQ encoders, but it's not one that wins me over initially.  I guess hands-on would be required to get a feel for it, but that's my knee-jerk reaction.  It seems that dedicated faders and meters are being traded more and more for touchscreen interfaces as we get further from our analog ancestry.  As long as the GUI is up to the task, that can be a very good thing, or a very bad thing.

I think the SQ has 2 leds per channel. A peak and the level.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
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Stephen Swaffer

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #98 on: November 01, 2017, 10:52:09 PM »

Our church made the transition to digital 2 years ago with a QU-32.  Transitioning from a 48 channel GL3800 and never having been able to work with a digital board I was nervous about the reduced physical fader count.  Most of our channels are various vocal mics-we don't use a band we do have a mic'd piano and occasionally other instruments.  Our service style is pretty informal and often not really scripted.

The QU-32 made for a near seamless transition.  The discreet EQ knobs make that easy to work with.  A place to lay an iPad allows an extended screen when needed-I can see where it might make sense to let people use their own holder if they need one.

For churches needed a mixer in the 24-32 channel count range, using a variety of volunteers at different times the larger fader count seems better-though perhaps the scribble strips would help with that. 
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Steve Swaffer

Jeremy Young

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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #99 on: November 01, 2017, 11:21:17 PM »

I think the SQ has 2 leds per channel. A peak and the level.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro


True, so it is more than the single LED per channel that I described. 


However, I was referring to a dedicated peak LED at the fader layer selection button that the iLive series has (had) that I find helpful. 


For example, my R72 has two banks of motorized faders (8 + 4 faders respectively) and each bank of faders has access to six layers (hence the 72 in the name).  Next to each of the layer selection buttons is a peak LED.  So if I'm working my vocalists with my 8 Bank-1 faders on Layer-3, and someone knocks a drum mic out of place and the channel starts to peak, the Bank-1 Layer-1 (where I keep drums) peak light would start flashing, so I hit that button to investigate. 


Each channel strip at the selected layer also includes 11 dedicated LEDs (plus peak) to indicate pre-fader, pre-mute level.  Those LED's take up about 2" of real estate x the width of the board.  For a 64x32 DSP mixer, the R72 manages to pack a lot of fast-access into a rack-mountable control surface if you're OK doing things in the touch&turn style.  When I want less screen interaction, the T112 surface gives me near-instant access to everything I need, but also takes up a lot more space on a desk at a little over 3' wide. 


Compared to the GLD-112, the T-112 trades a spot to store your iPad for more encoders in the same space, and does it with a better touchscreen angle.  Just wish the Dante card was with me at FOH like the GLD series, and that the local inputs at the iLive T-series surfaces had preamps like the GLD series, but those are the tradeoffs for having the DSP at the mix-rack (handy for iPad-only gigs). 


Up until Stephen's comment, I never really understood why someone couldn't just place their tablet on the table NEXT TO their console, but it does make sense when used as a screen extension since the viewing angles would be similar when setup that way.


Anyway I digress, this ain't about discontinued A&H products that I'm trying to justify still owning, it's about this new sexy 96kHz SQ that I'm trying to convince myself that I don't need. ;)
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Brown Bear Sound
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Re: New Allen & Heath SQ Series
« Reply #99 on: November 01, 2017, 11:21:17 PM »


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