I’m running a pair of reverbs via ST 1 & 2 to Auxes 5 - 8. I have no trouble getting the FX to sound on any Local/Analog signal. But I can’t figure out the routing to get the outboard FX on any of the USB signals coming from my DAW.
The most I’ve been able to manage is getting the signal out of the DAW through the SQ and into the reverb unit. I can see it getting healthy signal. But I have yet to figure out how to get the return to show up.
Can anyone tell me how to get this routing to work?
Nope. That’s not working. Auxes 5 - 8 are totally dark on C Layer.
Here’s the current routing.
MPX-1 > ST1 (in) STA (out) goes back into the MPX-1. That completes the loop into the SQ6.
DAW Out shows up on SQ Faders 27/28.
The Aux 5/6 busses on channels 27/28 are going, via local socket, to ST1, which I THOUGHT would get me to the MPX-1. After that, I’m lost.
I can see healthy signal getting to the faders, the Aux busses, into the MPX-1 and ST1. But I can’t find any routing, so far, that brings the output of the MPX-1.
I’m not having any problem routing the signal to the FX plugins. They work as expected and the routing is pretty straight forward. But I only have the 4 plugins that come standard. I would like to find a way to use the other 4 slots for my hardware FX. How do I patch that in?
I’m sorry. I don’t think it happens often that I’m completely stumped, but this time I’m totally lost again, completely unable to grasp what you could possibly mean.
But maybe I’m the only one, and someone else understands it perfectly and can offer a solution.
Otherwise, it would be great if someone could rephrase this request so that it’s perhaps clearer what the OP might be trying to do.
I don’t understand what’s confusing. The SQ-6 ships with 4 FX plugins. You have to buy the other 4 plugins after the fact for a total of 8 onboard FX.
I already have outboard FX that I would like to patch into those 4 open spots. If this were an analog desk, there would be Aux Bus I/O on the back to plug in your outboard gear. IE: Aux 1 feeds a stereo reverb. You plug in that reverb. Now, when you want your vocal track to have reverb, you route that vocal to Aux 1. Now your vocal has reverb.
On the SQ, I can route my onboard plugin FX to various tracks. But I’m looking for a way to route those tracks to outboard hardware FX. Same goal just one is hardware, not plugins.
I agree with SQUser - this is totally puzzling and I also don’t understand your problem.
SQ has 8 FX engines and you can load any of the available plugins into any of the available engines - just press the “LIB” button after selecting any of the FX slots 1-8.
The first 4 engines 1-4 have dedicated sends/returns and mix buttons (like an aux mix) while fx 5-8 do not. Touch the “back panel” button to see how you can use them.
Regarding what you wrote about patching outboard FX gear it seems to me you might have confused send and return - you really should describe in detail what you want to achieve and how you want to connect things.
For example, any of the ST sockets are INPUTS. What you wrote so far suggests that you want to send a signal via an ST socket?
You cannot send a signal there - you want to connect your external FX devices’ OUTPUT to an ST socket.. (think of “stereo return” to stay in your analog console analogy).
I now remember a question of yours that ultimately received 70 replies, and I’m not even sure if everything was finally resolved.
Sorry, but you really should familiarize yourself with how your SQ works and its capabilities.
Besides the Reference Guide, there are countless tutorials online, for beginners as well as advanced users.
But now I understand that you haven’t quite grasped the FX functionality yet.
However, as I see, @hltom has already thankfully described it somewhat.
In any case, you can fully utilize the 8 internal FX engines with many of the included or even some purchased FX, and you can also connect and use an additional 8 or more external FX.
But what did all this have to do with USB and a DAW?
I was, and still am, completely confused, but thankfully not the only one.
I think the fact that the singer’s audio is coming from a DAW is what is confusing you. In reality it doesn’t change the FX routing at all. What does change is that the source of the singer’s channel will be whatever DAW channel is coming into the board. I have to assume it is one of the USB inputs (but it could be another digital source like a Dante card, etc).
Let’s assume the singer’s channel in the SQ is channel 10 on the console and the source of the singer’s audio is coming from the DAW into the SQ on USB input 1. This means in the preamp section for channel 10 (the singer’s channel) you want to set your source audio as USB input 1.
Now you have two choices when it comes to routing the singer’s audio into the FX racks. You can use an insert - meaning that the audio from channel 10 is sent to/from the FX racking using the channel’s insert point. Or you can use a FX buss where you can send the audio from multiple channels into a buss and then send the combined buss audio to the FX rack and back. If this is how you want to set it up, just send the audio from channel 10 to the FX buss (along with any other channels that you want to send to the same FX rack). There are several different ways you can adjust the send levels of channel 10 going out to the appropriate FX buss. Which method works best for you just depends on your personal workflow. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to do it.
If you are unsure of the different ways to adjust this send level, then you probably should reference the “SQ Firmware Reference Guide” which is the technical “how to” manual for the console. It can be downloaded here: https://www.allen-heath.com/hardware/sq/sq-5/resources/
