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

Qu Qu General Discussions
22

Sorry for the delayed responses. Waiting for my newbie timer to allow them.

OK, great info folks, much appreciated.

I understand my apparent misconception regarding Mackie HUI protocol. No problem. My version of this X32 Rack is lacking the option for this regardless.

My pastor is not only ready to order the Qu-5 but add a stage box so we can alter hardware setup, using the stage box in the sound room and having the mixer in the sanctuary. Yep currently I hadn’t had a physical mixer in the sanctuary, just remote app or webpage control.

Our Sweetwater sales guy is supposed to contact me as he’s still under the impression the Qu-5 cannot do what the old Soundcraft Ui16 did.

The only thing possibly that it can’t, and it seems most mixers actually don’t, is per channel mute in FOH that won’t affect Aux mixes. The Soundcraft Ui16 operated where pre-fader send operated including separation of even the mute in the main channel strip.

So um I don’t know. I guess how should my audio setup be changed to make it work properly? Input sources and output destinations must be maintained. FOH mix plus foyer, hearing, nursery can be identical fully. Piano monitor Aux was only my pulpit wired mic. They didn’t want anything else. Finally my Livestream should be basically a send return loop with the Mac in the middle to feed the ATEM Mini Pro, OBS Broadcast, and Studio One 7 Pro DAW, then back into the mixer allowing processed fill music to go to the FOH speakers.

Still baffled why lower level Soundcraft Ui16 was running this, but higher capable mixers seemingly can’t, according to the sales source.

Still looking into local equipment showroom that I can try the Qu-5 in person. Nothing seems nearby to southern Franklin county PA, USA. Both myself and the Church reside there.

23

With regards the mute question, no the channel mutes will still mute the auxiliaries.

What you could do as a work-around though is (providing you don’t require all the processing for auxs):

  • Send your channels to Groups instead of direct to L/R
  • Assign these groups to L/R
  • Mute the Groups only if you want to leave audio running to all Auxs you have set but not L/R.
  • Mute the channels if you want to mute audio to all outputs
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24

Sounds doable. Thanks.

I’m quite fine with editing how I do things. Right now our system is dead without a mixer, obviously. So I’m jumping all in to get a Qu-5.

Happy Friday!

25

Any new console will involve changing how you mix to some extent.
I, in the last year, went from a Digidesign Profile to the dLive.
Had to change certain things, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

You are going to have a blast with the new desk. I haven’t used the Qu-5 myself, but I believe it isn’t exactly unsimilar to the SQ5 which I do know, and also love.

Don’t be afraid to try everything, you will find new ways to do what you did previously which will work better.

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26

The rack version never has that. It has no faders!!!

I highly recommend ordering it at a different place.
We are aware that Sweetwater is a bit pricey sometimes…
You don’t have a sound company around? With some interior similar to what you want, so you can share knowledge and parts if something weird happens.

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27

No supplier nearby unfortunately. We’re returning the X32 for refund. Various suppliers we’ve dealt with otherwise are offering the Qu-5 at the same price.

I’m Pennsylvania USA based.

OK yep makes sense then with Mackie HUI not being on the Rack. Not a deal breaker, just was under the wrong impression it might help me get the mixer to integrate with my system.

I’ll get the mixer then adjust everything to make it work from there. I’m weird I guess, but I’ll actually like finding out how to make it work.

28

Worth talking to these guys? Not sure how near they are to you.
Authorised A&H dealers. Found their details on the main A&H site.

Dang. Maybe not. Didn’t notice that Google brought me there but it was in the Rental section.

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Nearest actual distributor is in Connecticut it seems. You could always talk to them and see what they say about a deal, or just answering your questions?

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29

The direct outs from a channel can be assigned pre or post Mute. Of course, the higher-end platforms are thinking that the monitoring may be something like the ME-1 personal mixer. You can then Mute the channel but the musician still has the direct outs in their ears.

We currently mix the vocals, the drums and the instruments into separate groups and do the trick mentioned above with various mute groups. We can then Mute (say) the vocal group only, this leaves the AUX mixes alone. Or Mute the vocal channel(s), either on-mass (using a mute group) or one at a time.

Look at the block diagram for what you can (and can’t) do.

You can also feed one input into two separate strips. One strip in FOH and the other strip for AUX use. Wasteful of strips, but it can be useful to keep this trick in mind.

We have a very good A&H distributor near us, which is why I was asking about your location.

Dave

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30

Good shout on the digital split, Daver2.
Not sure why I always overlook that option. I think I just like overthinking things. Ha!

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31

It took me the last 20 minutes to write down a step-by-step guide on the digital split just to figure out that you already gave the solution :grinning_face:

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32

I’ll be talking with American Musical and Sound. We’ve bought from them 10+ years ago, no issues.

I’m up to fully wiping out what and how I configure my system, with the only constraints being same outputs in some fashion, and minimal extra money.

If I didn’t mention, pastor wants me to finally get the mixer physically into Sanctuary, adding in a stage box within soundroom to be kinda like a patch panel. He wants the thru wall cabling decluttered.

33

You can daisy-chain two expanders if you need more positions with I/O.
And for fixed installations, the DX-88-P is a good choice too.

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34

Thanks, really appreciate it. I’ll have to get those shiny boxes in and see what I get setup. Have to wait a few days for rack ears for the stage box, but that’s fine.

35

Quick update. Mixer and stage box arrival today, possible hookup this evening. My thinking it’s going to be just fine.

I’ll post how it goes. I think it’s just me getting up to speed on how to mix with current style mixer.

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36

Follow-up after using my new Qu-5 and AB168. I have the basics going, FOH mix plus 5 Aux Buses. They’re as separate as they’re getting. Setup under 2 hours for physical connections and Aux mixes.

My modification from old mixer to now, I just have to keep active channels unmuted for any mix open, and pull faders down. I got away with just hitting mute on the old mixer per channel per mix as I saw fit. No deal breaker.

Drag and drop layout is a nice touch. Scribble strips useful. Will need to claim my free Tube Stage preamp DEEP plug-in.

I am using the feedback suppression on FOH and the only monitor mix I’ve got running. It does the job well. My Sanctuary has yet to have acoustic treatment, and without it there’s a very live reverb of about 4.5 seconds. So pretty easy for feedback. I could use the GEQ I suppose as an alternative, just haven’t done so as of now.

The iPad and Android app is very easy to access, and mixing is easy to do here, while not being tied to a desk.

I’ll dig in and make things a bit more complex as I go, but the biggest hurdle was just get the audio running again.

I’m really liking mixing on an actual mixer again.

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37

Hi,

sounds great, congratulations!

If I understand you right, you don’t mute a channel because otherwise you would mute it for all mixes, correct?

As Dave mentioned above, you can assign a single (hardware) input to multiple channels. If you mute one of these channels, it won’t affect the other channels using the same input. Only think affected by all channels with the same input is the gain setting.

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38

Thanks for the reminder. I’ll have to try that to see if that works better for me. I only have 10 mic inputs currently, so using extras is not going to hinder my setup. At most I’d want a full duplicate of FOH for Livestream and run full separate mixes. The other 4 Aux mixbuses can follow FOH.

Even so, the Qu-5 has been the best choice in rebuilding my audio system.

And thanks to all for info and advisement.

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39

OK, I’ll try to illustrate what I did on my mixer to get Mutes not affecting some Mixbuses (Aux) and to mute others.

Hopefully this makes sense, and I can attempt to clarify as needed.

OK I have 10 mics to input, which physically connect to my AB168 stage box that’s actually in the sound room where the connections are from the stage.

On the Qu-5 I used Layer A to build FOH, AKA the LR Mix. This takes up channel strips 1-10, and are assigned input connections 1-10 on the stage box in Input Patching. I think the Processing/Input Source Select page with socket select type plus socket numbers are used here as well to assign these. I then used my touch screen on Strip Assign and modified the order they present in the mixer and app. Edit example: channel 7 should have been at fader 2, so I clicked and dragged 7 to 2, editing the fader placement on the Surface. Once I let number 7 go, it pushed all the higher faders to the right by 1 spot. Now that looks right to me on the mixer layout.

I’ve got the gain set per channel, compression, EQ, gate, and LR output assigned on 1-10. I held the Assign button on the left while tapping Select on all the channels that should make up my FOH mix, and deselect all Layer B. So we’re good for FOH. That’s Layer 1 LR Mix.

I already had built up Mixbuses 1-5 created for 1. Lobby, 2. Piano Monitor, 3 Hearing, 4. Nursery, 5. Livestream. This was just how I ended up creating these, in that order. The numbers correspond with Mix numbers on the right of the Qu-5.

For Livestream specifically, I redid Layer B which normally on my mixer is channels 17-32. Channels 17-26 became duplicates of 1-10, I even used Copy and Paste to get the same gate, compression, EQ, gain, at least for now. These each are also assigned stage box input 1-10 via Input Patching. Here’s the difference, these aren’t assigned Main on the Routing tab for sending the channel to main.

Layer B I held Assign on the left of the mixer, mix 5 Livestream, and Selected all channels going there.

In the end, I assigned Lobby, Piano monitor, and Nursery mixes to mute with FOH by assigning these to Layer A and unassigned from Layer B. I’m having Hearing only follow Layer B Livestream mutes.

And yes this does work as intended. Layer A will mute per channel the 4 mixes assigned there including FOH/LR, ditto Layer B and its 2 assigned mixes.

All mix outputs are assigned physical outputs on the stage box, except Livestream, it goes out a mixer local output to the ATEM camera switcher.

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40

A room with 4.5 seconds of reverb sounds like so much fun to work in!!!

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41

It is until it’s not. I’d rather have it that way than our old building which absorbed all sound.

I’ll probably see about getting a crew of our guys together sometime and just build some sound absorbing panels. Especially on our back wall.

I forget the Sanctuary dimensions, but we have a cathedral style ceiling that adds about 5 foot. I’m only running 2 Peavey Sanctuary 15 speakers flown with a small side to side spread. I can go loud pretty easy if needed. Especially now with the feedback suppression on the Qu-5, it’s working great.

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