Help me decide if the Qu-5 fits my Church mixer needs

Qu Qu General Discussions
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Hi folks, first post so my apology for not being around a bit before posting this question.

Thumbnail sketch of my situation: I’m the audio engineer at my local church, and have been for about 20 years. I’ve used originally an analog Mackie 20 channel mixer, most recently a Soundcraft Ui16 rack mixer. The Ui16 was killed literally with a lightning strike at the Church property recently. The surge came through the Comcast Internet cable taking out the router, mixer, security camera NVR, etc. So I’ve been shopping on Sweetwater to get a replacement mixer.

I had the Soundcraft Ui16 for about 10 years, and it did reasonably well. I had the mixer doing quite a bit just due to all the demands necessary to the several audio sources. Obviously, FOH to the Sanctuary speakers as the main mix to 2 flown Peavey 15” speakers only. We have a foyer, a Hearing, Nursery room, piano monitor, finally Stereo Livestream. All these were full Aux mixes separate from FOH mix. The channel strip gain and physical XLR input was shared with all mixes.

The Soundcraft Ui16 had per channel on every mix a pre or post fade button. Prefade was run on all channels, and this made every Aux channel all mixes fully separate.

Except the Livestream mix, all other aux mixes were just a direct output of the aux to the source. Livestream comes out of an aux pair into a Presonus Studio 68c USB interface connected to the sound room Mac Mini M2 computer. This audio goes into the Mac via the USB. I use Studio One 7 Pro to process the Livestream audio, with the 2 bus (Master) sends audio back to the 68c again via its USB connection. Here the audio splits to a Blackmagic ATEM Mini Pro camera switcher to add audio into the video for streaming. The other half of the split returns to the mixer as 2 line/mic inputs.

I have 10 mics going to the mixer.

I’ve recently tried a Presonus StudioLive iii 16R rack mixer, and now a Behringer X32 Rack. Neither can duplicate what the Soundcraft Ui16 did with my setup. Surprising but true.

I’m discussing with my pastor about swapping the Behringer X32 Rack with the Allen and Heath Qu-5, the reason for my question here.

This isn’t a question reflecting the quality of Allen and Heath, because I recognize it’s rated high. Simply can you folks help me decide if the Qu-5 would be a better replacement for what the simple Soundcraft Ui16 did? I cannot get those other 2 attempts with the 16R or X32 Rack to work at all.

Thanks for any information and thoughts on this to help. I need to get a replacement mixer ASAP. The Qu-5 price of $2K is my cap BTW.

PS just a stereo LR to the 68c>DAW and then return will be just fine.

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I don’t know why the other two mixers can’t do what you need.
What exactly is not working as you expect it?

The new QU-series is a very simple system with some straight forward workflows, but can handle some advanced tasks too.
I didn’t identify a feature that is needed for your church what is not present in the QU.

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When I looked at purchasing a replacement for our dying Yamaha LS9-32 at our Church I was looking at the SQ series. I downloaded the offline editor and tried to configure the desk. I then had something tangible to run past other people for comments. It took me three attempts, but I managed a first cut. We then got a demo unit in for the day.

Our issue was not the number of inputs, but the number of outputs for different areas that we feed where each has unique audio characteristics.

Does the QU have an equivalent offline tool?

Just a thought…

Dave

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For some reason the X32 rack isn’t doing it. The Presonus StudioLive iii 16R couldn’t do any of this either.

I thought I might have set up the routing wrong, so I did factory reset Monday with the X32 Rack. Basic FOH mix worked, with me only editing the scribble strip names and colors, compression and input gains. Wednesday service…no 2 bus output to the FOH speakers. Outboard dbx afs2 on, amp on, no signal from the mixer with incoming mic signals and unmuted channels.

I did check for channels being selected to output to LR which it was, seemingly by default.

The user manual also shows how to supposedly use USB to go into Studio One via the Mackie HUI protocol. No option for it on my mixer display itself, not the iPhone app.

I’ve quickly approached being done with this X32 Rack.

If I must I’ll get another Soundcraft Ui series but I’d think other mixers should be at least equally capable to do what I did before.

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I might be off track, but you mean like a demo of the mix app? I’ve tried the demo of the Qu Mixpad running on my iPad Air 5th Gen. It looks like from that aspect the new Qu will be more than able.

My I/O counts from the Soundcraft Ui16 were 12 XLR including 10 mics and 2 return from the DAW. Outputs were L/R Main and 6 Aux TRS by way of reconfiguring the headphone to give aux 5-6 within the Ui mix menu. Otherwise the Ui16 has 4 TRS aux outputs. It was a full mixer by then, but it handled it for the past 3 years.

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Yes on iPad but not on Mac just yet! Prob not on Windows either.

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Qu Mixpad for Android and iPadOS only

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I have the Mixpad on my Android Samsung S24 Ultra. Looks very much the same as the iPad version. Excellent job by the devs.

I’m going to make a serious push to get the Qu-5.

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Although by “offline tool” he might also mean something that is currently only available starting with SQ, where you can truly set up your show offline, save it, and later transfer it to your console.

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Certainly possible. I’ve only been wrong 1,000,000 times so far. What’s once more?

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Yes, I was specifically thinking of the offline development mode in Mix Pad, where you can give names to channels, set the routing, Mute groups, effects etc. Essentially you can only do with Mix Pad what you can do on the real desk, and then you can push the configuration to the real desk.

Ah, so the QU may not have it.

Dave

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Copy I’ve been practicing with it on the iPad. I’m going for a buy for the Qu-5.

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Yup correct no offline dev editor like SQ yet.

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14

I would recommend getting an onsite demo if you are able to. Well worth it in my opinion.

Dave

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Good idea. I’ll have to search what’s nearby.

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As Steff has mentioned, there is no reason that any of those consoles should not work if routed correctly and in good working order. My personal choice would be the QU5 but the other options are capable.
I would probably use some matrix routing for Foyer, Hearing assist and Nursery. However, everything else you mention seems solid and should work fine.

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Thanks. I’ll do that when I get one.

Appreciate all the comments.

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From a really quick look at the Qu5 manual you have the ability to send each channel to each mix as either pre or post fade, on a mix-by-mix basis, just like the Soundcraft. It will be a really good replacement.

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Mackie HUI is for remote control a DAW. There is no possibility to send audio with Mackie HUI.
And the X-32 rack has no faders to control a DAW.

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21

I had a quick look at the A&H website at the QU5 (I got bored of reviewing documents at work), this was much more interesting!

It looks quite capable for what you propose using it for.

Sorry to hear about your lightning problems, but a nice shiny A&H desk is a silver lining!

Are you based in the UK or elsewhere (out of interest)?

Dave

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