NickVon
Well-Known Member
Allen & Heath SQ6
My Background:
Primary console: Yamaha LS9
Secondary Experience, Berhinger X32, Yamaha CL5, A&H GLD, A&H Dlive/iLive, Soundcraft Expression
My primary console at work is an ls9 where I mix one off events, Community/semi Pro Musical Theater, College Events, and Dance. Off-site and freelancing I’ve encountered a variety of consoles that I’ve had passing hands on experience with. Clearly I won’t compare the 3500$ msrp SQ6 to the iLive/Dive and CL5 for obvious reasons. My Freelancing jobs are generally mixing Musical theater in rooms/theaters with established sound systems.
The Basics:
I have mixed two shows so far on the SQ6 with identical setups, same wireless mics and PA in the same room with in a 2 weeks of each other. (RENT and 13: the Musical) The Year prior I’d mixed in the same room with a GLD80
I really enjoyed the workflow of dialing in compressors/ FX racks/ EQ etc. Getting used to “MUTE” instead of Yamaha’s “ON” buttons took a couple days to get used to. I occasionally got confused about how to get to certain settings because there are a number of ways to get to the same functions of the console. It took both shows and some You Tub’ing to comprehend A&H’s Groups vs Aux mentality, since the LS9 just uses “mix”. I’ll be better prepared for there difference for fancier setups in the future I think.
I only ran a Main L+R into a system processor running splitting the mono-sub out, one set of delays on matrix, and a vocal monitor mix for the music Director.
19 channels of Body Mics,
5 channels of Band.
2 Stereo Sources (Playback from Qlab) and House music (ipod)
Talkback/VOG
Band was mixed into a Group Master, and the Vocals where split up into a Lead/Ensemble DCA’s
The sound was great, I don’t have a golden ear but I loved how room sounded and with my playing around I was happier with how the shows sounded this year vs the year prior on the GLD80
Things I really liked over the LS9:
Multiple fully customization layers and all the modern convinces of digital console. Features that have become staples that even high end older consoles (like LS9-32) don't have. (Scribble Strips, Touch Screens, Sidechaing)
The FX racks I felt where more intuitive and I felt it was easier to dial in subtle effects that didn’t come across as harsh or overbearing but still fit. (FX settings not a strong point for me as an individual skill.)
I still labeled with board tape channel numbers, despite naming the “characters” on the LED strip. (I mark a script with mic numbers as off and on, so a full word describing a mic is not as easy to recognize as a nice solid MIC 4 on!)
I tried the USB B multitrack recording and found it quite intuitive and powerful. That said 28 tracks at 24bit, 96khz was more than my 2017 Mac Pro Retina could handle. After between 60 -90 minutes The recording would hard stop, and need to be started again. Next time the console goes out I’ll try tracking in Logic at 16bit, 48khz for the recording testing. When my venue reopens i'll try it with venues Mac Pro.
Things I'd like improved:
I like the soft key Rotaries with the screens, but wish they indicated a DB meter when assigned to a channel fader level. I used 2 of them as “channel fader controls/ and mute on/off for play back and the emcee mic”
The Midi Control is a work in progress from A&H. I’m looking forward to what is anticipated direct midi control through soft keys assignments. (ie. Being able to send a very specific midi control that Qlab recognize, and interprets as Play/ Pause, arrow Up, Down, etc. There was some workaround by using “midi faders on a layer, and using the select, mute and cue buttons” but it’s harder to label what was assigned, and puts Qlab transport controls very close to buttons and faders which are being touched frequently in my circumstance.
I had hard time getting My 2 SanDisk Extreme 250GB SSD to be recognized as drives by the console. Either for saving show files or for stereo/multitrack recording through the SQDrive. I took a couple of attempts formatting on a computer before the SQ was happy to run it’s “formatting” on them.
Additional Thoughts:
Once my Arts Venue reopens after some works, I’m looking forward to doing a little A/B’ing between the SQ6 and the LS9 in a room I’m very familiar with.
While personally I don’t need to bring a console with for most of the freelance work I do, I will absolute be toting it around where I have the time to hook in, or at locations with no digital boards now that I own the SQ. I will probably even bring it to a local HS that has and X32, as I’m much happier with the added flexibility and workflow on the SQ over the X32. And it’s great to expose Students to all sorts of different gear!
I do not have any additional accessories for the SQ series, stageboxes, ME monitoring system etc. If the Dante Cards for SQ come down in price from 1500$ I may very much look at one for Dante Sound Card Capture and integration with some older ilive IDR’s for expanded channel count. Though the ability use them with the AB/AR stage boxes also makes the SQ expand-ability quite budget friendly for getting all the way up the 48 channel count. (but at the cost of the Dante cards now, you’d spend more on the cards then just purchasing all the DX Stage Boxes’ you’d need for it instead.)
I don’t have much comment on the console in a touring band world. Though it’s flexibly still appears greater then it’s X32 competitor.
IF anyone has any specific question about my experiences with it I'll answer as best I can.
My Background:
Primary console: Yamaha LS9
Secondary Experience, Berhinger X32, Yamaha CL5, A&H GLD, A&H Dlive/iLive, Soundcraft Expression
My primary console at work is an ls9 where I mix one off events, Community/semi Pro Musical Theater, College Events, and Dance. Off-site and freelancing I’ve encountered a variety of consoles that I’ve had passing hands on experience with. Clearly I won’t compare the 3500$ msrp SQ6 to the iLive/Dive and CL5 for obvious reasons. My Freelancing jobs are generally mixing Musical theater in rooms/theaters with established sound systems.
The Basics:
I have mixed two shows so far on the SQ6 with identical setups, same wireless mics and PA in the same room with in a 2 weeks of each other. (RENT and 13: the Musical) The Year prior I’d mixed in the same room with a GLD80
I really enjoyed the workflow of dialing in compressors/ FX racks/ EQ etc. Getting used to “MUTE” instead of Yamaha’s “ON” buttons took a couple days to get used to. I occasionally got confused about how to get to certain settings because there are a number of ways to get to the same functions of the console. It took both shows and some You Tub’ing to comprehend A&H’s Groups vs Aux mentality, since the LS9 just uses “mix”. I’ll be better prepared for there difference for fancier setups in the future I think.
I only ran a Main L+R into a system processor running splitting the mono-sub out, one set of delays on matrix, and a vocal monitor mix for the music Director.
19 channels of Body Mics,
5 channels of Band.
2 Stereo Sources (Playback from Qlab) and House music (ipod)
Talkback/VOG
Band was mixed into a Group Master, and the Vocals where split up into a Lead/Ensemble DCA’s
The sound was great, I don’t have a golden ear but I loved how room sounded and with my playing around I was happier with how the shows sounded this year vs the year prior on the GLD80
Things I really liked over the LS9:
Multiple fully customization layers and all the modern convinces of digital console. Features that have become staples that even high end older consoles (like LS9-32) don't have. (Scribble Strips, Touch Screens, Sidechaing)
The FX racks I felt where more intuitive and I felt it was easier to dial in subtle effects that didn’t come across as harsh or overbearing but still fit. (FX settings not a strong point for me as an individual skill.)
I still labeled with board tape channel numbers, despite naming the “characters” on the LED strip. (I mark a script with mic numbers as off and on, so a full word describing a mic is not as easy to recognize as a nice solid MIC 4 on!)
I tried the USB B multitrack recording and found it quite intuitive and powerful. That said 28 tracks at 24bit, 96khz was more than my 2017 Mac Pro Retina could handle. After between 60 -90 minutes The recording would hard stop, and need to be started again. Next time the console goes out I’ll try tracking in Logic at 16bit, 48khz for the recording testing. When my venue reopens i'll try it with venues Mac Pro.
Things I'd like improved:
I like the soft key Rotaries with the screens, but wish they indicated a DB meter when assigned to a channel fader level. I used 2 of them as “channel fader controls/ and mute on/off for play back and the emcee mic”
The Midi Control is a work in progress from A&H. I’m looking forward to what is anticipated direct midi control through soft keys assignments. (ie. Being able to send a very specific midi control that Qlab recognize, and interprets as Play/ Pause, arrow Up, Down, etc. There was some workaround by using “midi faders on a layer, and using the select, mute and cue buttons” but it’s harder to label what was assigned, and puts Qlab transport controls very close to buttons and faders which are being touched frequently in my circumstance.
I had hard time getting My 2 SanDisk Extreme 250GB SSD to be recognized as drives by the console. Either for saving show files or for stereo/multitrack recording through the SQDrive. I took a couple of attempts formatting on a computer before the SQ was happy to run it’s “formatting” on them.
Additional Thoughts:
Once my Arts Venue reopens after some works, I’m looking forward to doing a little A/B’ing between the SQ6 and the LS9 in a room I’m very familiar with.
While personally I don’t need to bring a console with for most of the freelance work I do, I will absolute be toting it around where I have the time to hook in, or at locations with no digital boards now that I own the SQ. I will probably even bring it to a local HS that has and X32, as I’m much happier with the added flexibility and workflow on the SQ over the X32. And it’s great to expose Students to all sorts of different gear!
I do not have any additional accessories for the SQ series, stageboxes, ME monitoring system etc. If the Dante Cards for SQ come down in price from 1500$ I may very much look at one for Dante Sound Card Capture and integration with some older ilive IDR’s for expanded channel count. Though the ability use them with the AB/AR stage boxes also makes the SQ expand-ability quite budget friendly for getting all the way up the 48 channel count. (but at the cost of the Dante cards now, you’d spend more on the cards then just purchasing all the DX Stage Boxes’ you’d need for it instead.)
I don’t have much comment on the console in a touring band world. Though it’s flexibly still appears greater then it’s X32 competitor.
IF anyone has any specific question about my experiences with it I'll answer as best I can.