I have to assume that your two excerpts from the documentations you attached did not take into account any potential effect of the trim control.
Based on my experience with the console, the SQ doesn’t have a separate peak meter, and therefore there’s no way to measure before the trim control and it always affects the channel measurement.
I’ve just verified this again practically and found my assumption to be correct.
Perhaps you or someone else could confirm this after an actual practical test on the device – or, of course, refute it.
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I put 60 dB of gain on a mic input and trimmed the signal all the way down.
I can confirm that the level meter and peak led do not show that the analog circuit is overloading.
But you definitely can hear it 
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You’ve opened up a controversial topic here Andreas!
There are supporters for both views. Some say the signal level in the channel should be optimised using input gain, with the aim of minimizing noise and using full digital resolution. The FOH level is then set with the channel fader, which is likely to mean lots of different fader levels.
Alternatively some argue having the fader at 0 gives finer and more accurate control for adjustments, and use the channel gain to ensure this is so. For low level channels (reverb returns for example) this might mean the channel gain is set very low.
With analogue desks the noise floor was higher so adequate signal levels in the channel were more important. This is less of an issue with digital desks, especially those with 24 bit internal processing.
My preference is for a compromise somewhere between these two principles!
S
I started writing on the wrong topic.
I won’t deny that what you mention. You are right there. Everyone does have a different workflow and opinion.
I am on for mixing with faders around unity gain and input levels that average where meters turn from green to yellow.
@Brian-1 mentioned using a DCA and that is what I am going for.
Andreas
Hi all monitoring Andreas’s post, some excellent suggestions have been made, well done to those contributors. Mike take on this thread is this, what about first principles concerning Andreas’s mixer to speaker setup?
Is the speaker to mixer setup what Andreas means as the “analogue circuit”?
Andreas, how are your front of house (FOH) speakers connected to your mixer?
- are your FOH speakers connected direct to a speaker amplifier and then to your mixer? If so is there any volume controls on your amps before the speaker?
- are your FOH speaker connected directly to your mixer? Are your FOH speakers “powered” or plug into mains power? Many powered or active speakers have a volume or gain knob on the back? if so I suggest you check and turn them down as if they have been turned up; this may be a potential source of your distortion.
Lastly gain setting is such a critical aspect of a sound guys job and its worth remembering that when sound checking instruments we are aiming to set up each channel so the average volume is at unity or “0” or unity on your channel with occasional peaks over. This is the start point for your mix for each channel and each channel in turn may be reduced to give a balanced mix.
Lastly i saw mention of guitars as the source of your distortion. Guitars can have active and passive pickups. Active pickups can be very loud. If you have an acoustic guitar plugged in direct to your mixer this might be the source of your problem which can be solved with a DI or direct mic solution; guitar pickups are often unearthed and if you are using an XLR to TSR cable this may also be a cause, again the solution is a “passive” Direct Injection box (DI).
Of course if your using a perfectly functional DI already and your speaker config is correct first principals might be irrelevant.
Good luck!
S
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I agree, the contributers are what makes this forum so refreshing! I hope I can help and give back in the future as I progress with A&H.
For me this topic is resolved.
Not quite yet, because unfortunately is still missing the retraction of @steffenromeiss’s controversial claim that the preamp also has its own metering and that therefore the overload of an analog input is always indicated by a peak, even if the subsequent trim control is turned down.
This would actually be important for the functionality in this particular case of the OP.
I am not an expert on the software capabilities for this console but in my opinion A&H could include a visual peak control meter on every possible gain stage within the console.
They actually wrote a post about a similar topic on their website
In connection with a surprising change in the position of an aux source point within a firmware update for the SQ and a complaint about it, A&H explained here in the forum that a maximum of only 4 source points for buses are possible.
And the source points of the meter “buses” also correspond to these 4 - and they are also the same for the QU2.0 series.
Therefore, it would seem more logical to me that only these 4 meter points are possible for the SQ and also the QU, and thus measurements cannot be taken before the trim controller.
A&H are certainly reading along and would be the only ones who could easily clarify this …
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I saw an interesting video suggesting for digital consoles, keeping everything at 0db across the board is the best practice for two reasons. Not noise. One, the usual finer resolution for adjustments. But two, you’re using more of your available bits throughout the signal path, making the signal reproduction more accurate. if you’re mixing with the fader way down, you’re using way fewer bits to represent the signal. If it’s too loud with everything at 0, turn down the amps. Food for thought.
Define 0.
If you mean 0dB FS, this isn’t a good idea. It is a very bad idea in live sound.
I think I saw a similar video some time ago with FOH engineer Robert Scovill.
The faders position is post digital conversion and has therefore no influence on the amount of bits used at the input of the console.
Did you use the level meter in the preamp screen?
But on the output!!!
These four metering points are the possible positions for the channel meter.
Every processing block has its own metering only visible when the processing is shown.
If the input had no dedicated level metering, the level assistant would use guessing?
The fader position? Could you clarify?
There is no peak shown after trimming an otherwise fully distorted preamp neither on screen or on the surface.
Ok - I don’t have a Gain Assistant on the SQ, so I can’t check it - were you able to confirm it on a QU?
I wouldn’t find it illogical that the Gain Assistant also only evaluates the signal after the trim.
In any case, on a SQ I can’t seem to see a Post Preamp meter that shows the level before the trim and is therefore independent of its position.
Please tell me briefly what I need to do to achieve this.
Unity. 0 on the faders.
So what are you adjusting if not bits? It’s digital throughout the mixer.