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.
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.
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.
Thanks guys, really looking forward to giving it a spin.
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.
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?
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 
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)
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
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.
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.
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.
Since I haven’t been able to find any actual recorded examples of the Qu-Pac’s FX, I don’t know how to value them in the overall package. Can any Qu-Pac owners offer at least subjective comparisons to, say, Eventide pedals’, or even the dark Elektron boxes’ effects? If I could imagine selling my H9 then the cost of the unit suddenly would be a no-brainer for me.
All I know is that the ZED-12FX’s inbuilt effects are some of the worst I’ve heard, so I don’t know where to put Allen & Heath on the DSP map.
Hello Qu-Pac owners…any word on the preamp? How do they sound?
I am a Yamaha 01V96VCM owner and I can say its preamps are plastic shit when it comes to sound…
Thank you!
Re the FX - they are modelled after classic fx units, so don’t expect something like an Eventide space, that said they are capable of sounding very good if you know what you are doing when programming your own, the presets are just ok IMHO. Also you get 4 fx so you can easily do more experimental stuff when using them in series or parallel. The weakest are the choruses and delay, just basic nothing fancy type things, the reverbs and moog style phaser are very good IMHO. Edit - I think that preference on sound of fx is very subjective, I really love the dark and plate reverbs, filter, comb filter and delay on the Octatrack and the reverb and delay on the A4 but plenty of people don’t, so probably try to listen to some demos beforehand just to be sure. Currently I am working on other ptojects so I do not have any examples to post but maybe some of the other guys do.
Re the pre-amps - I don’t find them to be very coloured, rather neutral in fact but overall a more analog sound than digital to my ear, I have had a lot of mixers and the Qu-Pac ranks among my favourites.
Overall though the main draw is the overall package, it does lots of things very well and a couple of things extremely well, in a small size, it has become one of the best purchases I have ever made, sure you could find better fx, maybe better pre-amps, maybe better eq or what have you, but to my knowledge not in the same price range or in a tidy well thought all in one out solution, I will continue to use it until it stops working and then I’ll probably try to find another.
It has sufficient depth that I continue to find new ways to use it, I am by no means fully au fait with everything it can do, I have not messed with DCA groups or matrix mixing yet, for a creative studio mixer it is to mixing what the Octatrack is to sampling, only perhaps a bit friendlier and also deeper.
A classic for the future!
I rank the Qu-Pac FX as about as good as most TC or Zoom FX.
While I love the sound of the A4 delay, the Qu-Pac’s 2 tap delay/echo is far more customizable. Same for the reverb. Chorus is about the same.
It will not replace your H9. But the Qu-Pac’s various outputs, stereo inputs, and assignable soft keys make using an H9 or any other stereo effect processor very easy as a send/return device.
That’s all very helpful, thanks @AdamJay and @darenager. I also happen to like the OT and A4’s reverb and delays, and I think the A4’s chorus is plenty lush.
Still on the fence about replacing my Soundcraft MTK with a Qu-Pac, mostly out of fear of lost immediacy in terms of EQ and volume control. And while the comparison to the Octatrack in terms of routing flexibility is definitely appealing to me in the sense that I love the flexibility of the OT, my rig is already at about peak complexity before cognitive load impedes productivity, and I wonder if the conveniences of losing the DAW for recording wouldn’t outweigh the additional complexity of its touch menu interface.
I will say that having these comparisons about the FX quality helps me sort out that question and is encouraging enough to me!
If you are recording your A4 through the Qu-PAC then are you applying delay to the whole mix, what with the lack of individual outs?
Thanks for the insights!
When I record the A4 with the Qu-Pac, I only use the A4’s FX for the A4.
I use the Qu-Pac’s FX for just about all my other gear, though.