Source Expander/Comp Stortion for existing SQ

[whessler]

Will the Source Expander and Comp Stortion plugins also be available as add-ons for existing SQ customers?

[TheSoundHog1]

Doubt it. We are getting left in the dust after they just ran a sale for all of the plugins a month ago. Pretty lame business practices if you ask me

[Keith]

@whessler Almost certainly not, sorry - one of the reasons for the updates in hardware for the SQ+ models was to add slightly more processing per channel so the latest DEEP Add-Ons could fit into the Gate/Comp processing ‘blocks’.

If we could have added these Add-Ons to the original SQ models, we definitely would have done, as a lot of users already said they would happily pay for them.

[lgmorley]

Is the original SQ approaching EOL, or can we expect to see future firmware updates and features?

[Marwie]

If processing power is the problem, wouldn’t it be possible to add a mode with less input channels but with source expander? But maybe the deep core isn’t flexible enough.

[SQuser]

@Keith

If we could have added these Add-Ons to the original SQ models, we definitely would have done,

You shouldn’t be surprised if SQ users now feel exploited as mere sources of ideas.
For years, for instance, they “begged”, e.g., for an Expander, only to learn now that they could never have had it on their console, because it was, quite simply, technically impossible.

@MarkF

so make suggestions that you feel will be helpful without worrying about whether they’re possible or not. We’ll work that out, and we always try to let you all know if things are definitely not possible.

And despite your corresponding statements in the forum, they were unfortunately never explicitly informed about this impossibility.

[Dave54]

IIRC, AH said they wouldn’t dumb down the expander to fit into the SQ limitations. I’d happily use a dumbed down version.

[Keith]

To try and clarify -

Source Expander and Dual Threshold Expander are more advanced and use more processing than most basic expanders.

They sound and work more like industry standard expanders.

For hopefully very obvious reasons, we would not

A) Change SE and DTE code so they weren’t actually the same processing, but had the same GUI and then claim they were the same thing and sell them as Add-Ons.

B) Put out something that we are not happy with or proud to put our name to.

While we cannot fit the SE and DTE into the OG SQ, we will continue to investigate other options for expanders that don’t use as much processing. If we can create something that uses less processing but sounds good, then great!

Thanks,

Keith.

[steffenromeiss]

Just a simple expander mode for the standard gate would be good starting point.

[FieldEffect]

Expander mode for the standard gate on the OG SQs would be great!

[RobT]

If the issue is the amount of processing power required for the Source Expander and CompStortion as DEEP plugins, any possibility of adding them as RackExtra instead? There’s certainly precedent for channel-type processing in the effects racks from other vendors (both the Yamaha CL/QL series and the Music Group M32/X32 series do this, for example), and even within A&H, there’s precedent with the multiband compressors. Even having a couple instances would be useful - e.g. the Source Expander on the money channel, and CompStortion on a drum bus.

Sure, this muddies the distinction between the DEEP processing and RackExtra a bit, but if it means that these add-ons are available on the less capable consoles, I suspect that the benefits to users outweigh the marketing challenges.