QU and Pro Tools for Re-Recording Mixing

Qu Qu General Discussions
1

I’m considering a QU series console for re-recording applications for mixing movies. I have a few questions.

  1. Is there any chance of it upgrading from 48K to 24 bit/96K (HD standard for video) in the future?

  2. If I have a Pro Tools session in 24/96, can it be controlled via the QU without it being converted to 48K?

  3. If I have a lot more than 32 tracks in Pro Tools, can I bank over to another set of 32 tracks to be controlled by the QU and then another set of 32 tracks?

  4. Can I set the soft keys to rewind, fast forward, and play in pro tools like a transport?

  5. If I wanted to use it for a 7.1 mixing application, can I go out the auxes to outboard gear (my 7.1 out or 8 auxes if you will) to outboard gear like mix bus compressors, and back in to inputs and then back out to my 7.1 monitors?

These are some of the basics that I want to do and I want to know if the QU can handle it. So far, it looks like a great board.

2

I am also very curious on these questions, plus the transport control question is #1 on my list…

I have yet to see anything about these questions.

3

Hi DS,

  1. No I’m afraid, the sample rate is fixed 48kHz.

  2. The interface is fixed 48kHz 24bit. I believe Pro Tools will require the session to be converted. Other DAWs such as Reaper can do SRC on the fly and work with Qu mixers regardless of the native SR of the session.

  3. If you are running Pro Tools on a Mac, then yes, the DAW Control driver will emulate a HUI control surface and starting with firmware V1.5 you can assign DAW Bank up/down controls to the SoftKeys.

  4. You can set the SoftKeys to standard MMC transport controls and again, with the DAW Control driver installed in OS X, these will act as HUI transport controls for Pro Tools.

  5. There are no analogue insert points on Qu mixers, so if you send your Mix outputs to analogue outboard processors you would run out of outputs for your 7.1 monitors. On Qu-32 you might use the 4 St Groups for this, say CH1-8 (DAW 7.1 mix) feeding the Groups, Group XLR outputs to your analogue outboard gear, CH9-16 (outboard returns) feeding your Auxes for monitoring. BTW Qu mixers have excellent on-board dynamic processing on all channels and mixes!

Hope this helps.