Hi Bob, I do not care for the multi-channel wave file design
All of this info is very very helpful - so thanks for all of the input from everyone! Much appreciated!
Robbocurry – I’m located in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. The price I’ve been quoted is $1900 for the Mackie, Qu-pac $1400 plus AB168 for $950. I’d put both in a rack and use an ipad for both. So a decent savings on the Mackie, except that I am very much interested in having “Some” control without an ipad, and the qu-pac does give me that with its front panel features. I plan to record to a hard drive at live shows, so the lower channel count for recording is a bummer on the qu-pac, but the individual track recordings over the Mackie is a positive to me. I had no idea the Mackie recorded a single file. That is helpful information for sure… I’ve played around with both Ipad apps, and they seem to work well and I feel pretty comfortable with both already.
Honestly, I’m torn at this point…
I wish I was paying your prices John!
Hi Bob, I do not care for the multi-channel wave file designIt's part of the wav specification - it's how stereo files are put together.
The biggest disadvantage is that the wav file is inherently limited in length - doing file per track is far more generous in
time, the reduced seek load/fragmentation on the disc is an advantage the other way though.
Either way I’d like to see “break file now” functionality…
This has been such a useful thread, I have two additional questions for you guys using the QU mixers:
- Is the IPad Air sufficiently fast/capable, or will I be better served spending the extra $$$ for the IPAD Air2?
- With mute groups on the Qu-Pac – If I set a soft key to mute a specific channel, does hitting the softkey a 2nd time unmute the channel? That would be very very helpful when using the QU-Pac.
Thanks in advance!
I don’t know about the iPad Air being fast, what I do know, is if you are buying a new iPad, get one with the fastest processor. In a year or two, you will be kicking yourself if you buy an older (slower) iPad.
You can not use a softkey to mute just one channel, but if you are using a softkey for muting purposes, then pressing it again will indeed unmute… mute, unmute, mute, unmute, etc.
Thanks for the response! I was thinking that I could set up a mute group that is only one channel, thereby effectively only muting (and unmuting) that one. Is that not possible?
So I think I may know the answer to my next question… given your response, if I set up a mute group to mute all my inputs, except the stereo input for an mp3 player (for break music)… if I hit the softkey again, will it unmute everything and mute the stereo input?
It won’t touch the ST input, since that isn’t part of the mute group.
“Oh, the Qu recording sample rate is locked in and not changeable at 48 Khz. with 16 Bit depth…”
From the Allen and Heath literature:
Qu-16 has an integrated multitrack USB recorder, providing 18 channels of 48kHz 24bit recording and playback straight to / from your USB hard drive.
So the Qu is locked in at 24bit.
John, I was wrong when I stated… “you can not use a softkey to mute just one channel”
but you can…
hit the routing button located to the right of the touchscreen,
then the Mute/DCA Group Assign tab,
then the function button located just below the touchscreen,
then the Mute Group Assign tab,
finally, select the channel or channels that you want to be muted for each of the four assignable mute groups.
[XAP]Bob
As far as your statement “I’d like to see “break file now” functionality,” I use the DL32R, and it takes about 2s to stop & restart the recording. I like how the DL automatically increments the recording name (_2, _3, etc.).
The only time this has bit me is when the band takes less time than I expect between songs, and I miss the first 500ms or so of the next song 
Yes - that’s why the “don’t break it at all” system works OK - but it’s a pain if your band segues from one song to the next…
I pulled the trigger and got the Qu-Pac! It arrived last night. While I’ve been mixing and playing in bands for 30 years, this is my first move into the digital mixing world. Thanks to everyone who helped me sort through my questions on this board. I do have a couple more now that I’ve had a chance to turn on the qu-pac and dig in a bit:
(1)For about half our gigs, we have used a second main mix for the sides – with my old board, it would sum the mains L/R to a mono mix that I controlled with a separate volume knob. Would someone tell me how I can achieve the same/similar thing with the qu-pac (though I assume I can make it a second stereo mix). I assume I run the mains L/R on the qu-pac to one of the XLR mix outs (stereo or mono) – I’m just not sure “how”… Maybe when I get the qu-pad app up and running it’ll seem more intuitive…
(2)is there a list somewhere of what functions on the qu-pad app are not in sync with the qu-pac itself? My understanding is that when I turn off the qu-pad and then turn it on next time, everything will be exactly how I left it. I just don’t want any surprises if I make a bunch of changes on the App and then they don’t get saved to the qu-pac…
(3) I had a heck of a time getting the rack ears screwed in. The screws really didn’t feel like they fit well. Is this normal?
(4) I’d like to use two of the outs on the AB168 (yup I got that too!) for a stereo mix. Would someone please explain how I set up the Qu-pac so that I am using some of the AB168 outputs rather than only the ones on the back of the qu-pac?
By the way, it is shocking to me how much “stuff” is packed into that tiny little digital mixing box…
Thanks!!
Nothing is ever saved on the app…
John,
Bob is correct, the scenes are stored in the mixer, not the App. One reason is so that you can load scenes even if you forgot to bring your iPad to the gig. As you move and change things on the app, those changes are reflected inside the QuPac mixer. The App is just a remote control for the mixer. It does not process audio.
If you make one change to a fader or twenty seven changes to EQ, monitor mix levels, pan settings, effects… all of those cause the QuPac to change according to the app’s instructions via Wi-Fi. If you then drop the iPad and it explodes and green smoke spews out of it, nothing will change from that point on. If you power down the QuPac, and turn it on a year later, it will come back on with the same exact settings it had when you dropped your iPad.
So, does the QuPac automatically save our changes in the loaded scene as we mix throughout the show? No,
but it does remember the changes if we shut it down without saving a new scene or Over-Writing the loaded scene.
If we make changes that we like, then Over-Write the scene we have loaded, those changes will be recalled in the future.
Here is an example of what could happen…
we get to a new job and turn everything on and we can’t figure out why things are not sounding correct, so we make a bunch of changes then we realize, OH CRAP!!! I just made a bunch of changes to the wrong scene!
No problem, load the scene you want. The changes that you inadvertantly made to the scene that was loaded are discarded when you load a different scene, provided you never used the “Overwrite Scene?” option.
I hope this isn’t confusing but it is just like most software on Mac and Windows computers.
If you load a project in Microsoft Word that you worked on and saved yesterday, when you make changes and then quit that project/file, the app should prompt you, “do you want to save or quit without saving?” Something like that.
The QuPac is similar except that if you make changes to a loaded scene, it won’t prompt you to save the scene when you load a different scene.
Ok. That is very helpful! Thanks much! If you have time, any thoughts on how I accomplish (1) and (4) would be greatly appreciated.
(1) doesn’t the Qu-Pac have a matrix feed which would serve this? It also should have a delay to compensate the distance…
(4a) read the manual, section 10.14, IO-Patch setup, dSnake Out… 
(4b) go to Setup->IO-Patch->dSnake and assign whatever you want to send to your remoute outputs, including the Matrix feed from (1)
so unfortunately I still can’t get the qu=pac to do what I want. I’d like to send the mains L/R to one of the Mix outputs. Every other option seems like it doesn’t get me to an XLR output or it requires separately mixing to a mix bus to “try” to match what is happening in the mains. I want it to be the same all the way round, with the only difference being separate volume control over the Mix out. Any help would be appreciated.
Use a matrix, not a mix…
Or the AltOuts?
From what I see from the Qu-Pac Block-Diagram is, that the Qu-Pac does not have local Matrix Outputs, but since you’re also asking for dSnake routing I thought its ok to have the matrix routed to stage via dSnake.
If you need the duplicated outputs locally then AltOuts may be an option, take care about the dedicated AltOut volume knob.
If you don’t need groups for other purposes, you may mix to Group1-2 instead of LR and send that stereo group to some stereo mix and LR.
You can not send LR back to some mix, only to a matrix (remote output via dSnake).