There’s an old post about this in the troubleshooting section and it was suggested that one be created here also, but I can’t find one so I’m posting it myself.
The AMM is great but it’s in the wrong point of the signal chain. When AMM is active I can’t PFL a channel that’s muted, and even when the channel is unmuted I can’t see any metering until the fader is up. This makes it almost completely impractical for TV work where I need to PFL mic’s before they go live. The only solutions I can see is to constantly add and remove mics from the automix just to PFL them, which is very clunky. Or double patch and gang every mic, which is even worse. Please change the AMM signal flow or at least make it configurable so we can meter and PFL mics easily.
@SteffenR PFL post preamp is not suitable as I need to eq the mic while I’m PFL’ing. I think the only complete solution to the issue is for the AMM point to be configurable in the signal chain. Open to other suggestions though.
This is such a perfect little desk for smaller broadcast jobs but in its current state the AMM is near useless, which seems like such a waste of potential.
This is such a perfect little desk for smaller broadcast jobs but in its current state the AMM is near useless, which seems like such a waste of potential.
as the name implies it is an automated mixer… it affects the gain of the channel directly with an extra gain stage…
So why do you need to change the EQ of the signals?
This should be done before you turn on the AMM.
@SteffenR As I suggested earlier, constantly adding and removing mics from the automix just so I can PFL them is tedious and impractical. No respectable automix implementation works this way. PFLing a muted mic while it’s part of an automix is a task performed many times a day in a broadcast environment.
Basically what I’m asking is to have the same options that were added to dLive, so the metering point and PFL point can be chosen specifically for AMM channels
I’ve just spent a long week on a Yamaha QL1 for a bunch of broadcast work and as much as I was frustrated by some of the QL’s bus architecture limitations compared to the SQ, I was so happy to be able to use the AMM function in a proper post-fader setup. It’s a small but important difference that the A+H implementation is pre-fade but with a “fader follow” mode. It works but is clunky, and it is far inferior to simply being able to move the AMM (or any insert for that matter) pre-fade or post-fade.
Just to be clear here, the SQ is almost half the RRP of a QL, yet is superior in many ways for broadcast work. The bus architecture and implementation of groups is a perfect example. That’s a major achievement by Allen + Heath, but this AMM limitation is a major stumbling block that I think is stopping the SQ from being a staple with small OB setups where you often see QL/CL or SD consoles.
I couldn’t agree more with these posts. No other desk - Yamaha, etc., behaves this way. Remember that the automixer should behave as a post fader insert (original Dugan automixers were inserts on each channel), and the PFL is obviously pre fader. It makes no sense that we can’t PFL an input that is being automixed. I consider this a bug, not a feature request.
Thanks to the original poster for authoring this post.
A work around ( using a Dante Card ) is to use two channels that are daisychained, so mic is fed into channel 1, then post fade direct out is routed to a Dante output which is looped back into channel 16 which has the AMM inserted, gives you the ability to have the PFL and meters where they should be in the signal path ( also the added bonus of two inset points if needed ). It’s not ideal but does work better than not being able to use the AMM at all in it’s current position.
I do find the AMM a bit chattery in quiet moments, not quite as good as a Dugan, but for the cost of the console it’s an incredible piece of kit.
I’m sure A&H will be looking at options for the AMM position but I suspect the DSP to move the AMM is more complicated than it would be in the analogue world. I often find what I would consider simple suggestions are often met with horror by programmers, as they understand the DSP implications of my ‘simple’ suggestion!
Certainly good to bring this to the attention of the tech folks at A&H. It would be an important addition as well as making the SQ line a hot contender for broadcast (and especially remote truck) applications.
I know this is an old thread, but the recent firmware that came out last month still doesn’t fix this issue.
The first time I used an SQ-7 and this happened to me, in the middle of a show, I thought the wireless microphone that I had 200 feet away had somehow gone offline. Put me in a bit of a panic.
Even though I know it’s a problem now, it’s still a problem that makes the board lose some of its functionality.
The lack of metering when the AMM is engaged makes it impossible to know at a glance if the microphone is functioning (power switches on wireless bodypacks…), and the lack of PFL when the AMM is engaged makes it impossible to EQ the lavs on presenters before they go onstage. The current workaround is to turn off the AMM when the mics are offstage, but that often invites feedback if the AMM isn’t engaged before the mics go live.
My use case for this is live mixing of things like panel discussions where there are multiple presenters on lavalier microphones. Typical workflow is that the presenters are mic’d up offstage, and EQ is done via PFL (no onstage soundcheck). Wireless systems are usually in play, and power/mute on the bodypacks aren’t guaranteed to be disabled. The AMM is used to increase gain before feedback (that extra 6dB going from 4 open mics to 1 open mic can make a big difference) and help manage the transition between lavs and lectern mics if both are in use.