Finally, the perfect mixer? [Allen & Heath QuPac]

The Lounge Other Gear
#176

Big thanks to @darenager for starting this topic! I was looking for a new digital mixer to replace a X32 rack and got interested in the Qu-Pac after reading this. Like many of you here I need loads of line inputs to hook up synths and stuff ;).

So I got out and bought a Qu-Pac and soon got interested in Mixing Station Qu but didn’t have an android tablet to run it on. Got a cheap Minix Neo X6 connected to a 21" LCD - works like a charm!

I’m now in the process of choosing a controller for some physical control of the faders - looks like any combination with Bome’s Miditranslator will do the trick. I managed to map an AK knob to control a fader with it.

Anyway, I’m loving the Qu-Pac!

Patrick.

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#177

i’ve kept thinking about using an ipad/android tablet to control my qu-pac, but the onboard interface is oh so easy to use that i keep putting it on the back burner.

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#178

I’m starting to feel the pull for this one again even though I have a perfectly capable multi-tracking mixer. Especially moved by the prospect of recording directly to an external drive, setting up quick aux send scenes, having more inputs, and having a compressor on every input. I fear that I’ll miss having EQ knobs and faders on hand for every channel, but I think I should just pay attention to how much I’m actually using them in practice – maybe mutes are really all I need, since I do continuous volume control at the sound source.

#179

Fortunately, the 15 tactile soft keys on the face of the Qu-Pac can be assigned to all sorts of things, including channel mutes and mute groups!

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#180

Yep, so I understand!

#181

I was doing sound at the ‘live’ stage of a psy-festival with a Qpac a couple of months ago.
We had two ipads - one to mix FOH and one to do monitors .

Its a pretty great little mixer ! and I think it would suit a large live-electronic setup pretty well.
I found the effects ok… the ‘dub delay’ was fucking terrible but hey maybe I just didn’t have time to get my head around it (but really its a dub delay how complicated can it be).
Also doing dub shots on an ipad isn’t fun.
Neither it trying to mix a 9 piece afro-beat band on an ipad (with…dodgy foldbacks). next year im trying to get them to hire a Qu32 or Qu24 console and only 1 ipad. ANYWAY

Qpac = all good in my books unless your mixing bands for 3 days :wink:

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Mixer solution for my homestudio
#182

The Blue Man Group in Vegas use the Qu-Pac.

#183

ha ha awesome

#184

I’m planning to order a QuPac next week. I have a couple of questions for those of you who have one.

Is there any operating noise/fan noise? I like to mix fairly quietly.

I want to use an Octatrack, Machinedrum, Monomachine and Quadraverb with as many of the Elektron machines’ inputs available as possible. How would I best route things? I’ll be using Ableton for extra synths, software fx and recording.

Any other considerations with this setup?

Thanks for your help.

#185

Super quiet, if it makes noise, I can’t hear it.

As for how to route things, that’s all up to you. It’ll also depend on what outs you’re using from your gear. I use all 6 outs from the MnM and just 2 outs from the AR, but I plan to get an expander box to begin to using all of the AR’s outs.

I have a standard template I start from and then I’ll go crazy with routing. I currently have a track I’m working on where I have a Blofeld being fed into a Biscuit and then into a BIM. I just save the scene and load it when I need it.

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#186

Yeah super quiet, super clean but also really great sounding, the only noise I have ever had is with certain USB thumb drives only when they are first inserted, it does a kind of data access whine for a few seconds.

Routng is very comprehensive, so you should probably be able to do most if not all of what you want to do.

In short it is the best affordable mixer I have used.

3 Likes
#187

Thanks guys, really looking forward to giving it a spin.

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#188

I am not great with mixers, so this thing is blowing my mind a bit. The reference guide seems to assume you understand all the concepts already. Anyway, I pretty much have it how I want it, but I want to stream my DAW back to the Qu-PAC over USB. When it says 32x32 USB interface, does that assume you have expanded the Qu-PAC’s inputs? Namely, I want to stream back audio from my DAW, but does that mean I have to leave a pair of physical inputs free on the mixer in order to do this?

Apologies that this is doubtless an idiot’s question.

#189

This baby is REALLY starting to look like a great solution to so many challenges with my live setup. I have a Korg Radias and the thing is just so damned “brassy” - it really needs some dynamics, a couple EQs, and updated effects to sit in a modern mix.

So, sorry if this was covered, but has anyone successfully controlled this with a hardware MIDI controller? Do you have to have something like a Kenton or iConnect MIDI host to use a generic controller like a BCF-2000?

#190

Yes to use a midi controller withou a computer (yuk!) inbetween you either need a controller that is a USB host or a Midi-USB host converter.

It is not often that I recommend gear, but the QuPac is such an brilliant mixer it would almost be rude not to :slight_smile:

#191

I don’t use a DAW so I might be wrong here although @AdamJay might be able to confirm, but I believe in the routing page you can configure the additional inputs to be either local (physical), dsnake (expander), or USB (computer)

#192

Do any QuPac owners also own a iconnectmidi4+? I’m wondering if it can be connected to the rear USB on the QuPac to facilitate streaming audio over USB from Roland Boutiques etc

#193

I’m wondering if the BomeBox could work. It can connect to USB MIDI devices and translate messages between them. Essentially Bome Midi Translator in a box. Using the Midi Translator software I’ve managed to set up a Novation Launchcontrol to control the Qu. It would also be interesting if Midi over Ethernet works on the Qu. Haven’t been able to figure out how that works on OSX yet though.

#194

Thanks so much for the advice - got it all figured out and can now stream back from my DAW without wasting physical inputs. Also worked out how to get the three stereo input pairs into the DAW separately as that isn’t made clear and requires some patching.

All in all, great mixer, am getting to grips with it and enjoying working with it a lot.

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#195

I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of the FX processors lately.

I have soft keys assigned to FX MIX select and FX MIX mutes, so I can easily add FX to anything.

Borrowed a friend’s BS2, actually my old BS2 that I had sold.
Hooked it up to my CV to MIDI converter to be able to sequence it with A4 CV & trig conditions, p-locked velocity & filter cutoff…
As soon as I engaged some Qu-Pac reverb, chorus, tap delay, it really came alive and inspired me to noodle less and work more.

Little workflow things like this, and its ability to make just about any gear sound great on the way to being recorded… these features are making the Qu-Pac indispensable to me.

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