You might try setting up compressors on your busses to push them into main with the comp set up more like a limiter — most folks pushing for those kind of levels do it in at least two stages.
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This is what i tried, i have an Octatrack input channel where i put a limiter, and then another one on the LR channel, where i compress the other signals with the bassline from the OT. (Other channels are MPC, Erica DB1, a LXR from Erica, and some fx pwdals, an Analog4) i have set it to infinite and 300 micro seconds, but that was possibly a bit to extreme settings.) That is why i asked what is sensible with the Qu.
…not sure what ur tryin to do and where u wanna end up with the sum of ur qpac…
i’ve made the experience, that usually, using te qpac as my stage mixer and giving out it’s master sum to foh via passive di boxes or multi stage boxes, or even directly to pa, i’m always comin in too hot…and have to turn down qpacs main bus…
while all my internal gainstaging is properly set and no internal compressors at work…
they do a decent job on various single instruments, while on any electronic gear main outs, they’re pretty unneccesary…
so i hardly doubt, u really need any further dynamic squeezing for gaining loudness…pretty much the opposite…recheck ur signal flow and ur actual perception of ur overall gain…
if ur single channels floating close to 0db and so is ur qpacs main bus, u should be already way more than fine…and no further compressor will make that any better…the only thing that could push ur loudness perception any further would be a truu brickwall limiter, which is not part of qpacs internal fx selection…
when i was new to the qpac, i also thought, i better put a compressor on the mainbus, put it in a kind of dead end limiting mode to get “more” out of it…but after a while i realised, ooops, untouched dynamics do all the trick it needs, if the single inputs are gainstaged properly…
and as said, ihave to turn down the mainbus gain always a little eversince…
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I stopped on the inputs when the metering is green, you suggest i go on the Kick input near zero, which is close to red? Then no additional compression is needed?
I will try your suggestion the next session, thank you.
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Using XLR or balanced jacks is not the same, I found.
On XLR my Elektron boxes were coming too hot. With balanced jacks I have way more headroom.
Or that’s what it seemed on my first setup. Maybe I should check again now that I know this mixer better…
Only “problem” now is when I record, my tracks in Ableton are very thin.
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I got Midifighter Twister, can you please suggest how can I pair it with QU-SB? Still can’t get the process. Am I need Bome translator for this? And I’m totally not into programming SYSex. Will I still be able to mate Midifighter and mixer? 
So, there are two options. If you have the mixer plugged into a laptop with the drivers installed, it can do midi over USB, but I don’t think it’s class compliant, so other kinds of USB midi host devices probably won’t work. Alternately, you can use the Bome Box to host the midifighter and connect the Bome you the mixer’s network control port. A&H have pretty good documentation for what it sends and accepts. It uses NRPN, not Sysex. If it’s not possible to make the midifighter do NRPN as the qu needs, a license for Bome midi translator pro will let you create a translation file that should do the trick, or a midihub can do it. It’s a bit of a faf if you don’t already have the Bome, but entirely doable.
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Thanks a lot for the answer. My advanced MIDI knowledge didn’t went much farther than MIDI-learn option. I tried stoically to dig into the A&H documentation couple of times, but feel like I need step-to-step guide. Yes, I use mixer connected to laptop having not BOME. Just tried to recognise and copy-paste in Ableton MIDI commands that mixer sent over USB when I touch some controls on iPad. With some commands it worked, like Mute channels or something else.
So, I need to buy their Box for this task, yes?
But I can confirm that there is no need to have much skills to send MIDI program change command from laptop to my QU-SB. So, I’m changing presets on mixer as easy as I’m changing patches on synths. Just creating dull MIDI-clip, sending number of preset and voila, mixer changing presets from scene to scene automatically.
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I tried it the last time with your advise - no additional compression on the input, and balanced around the kick input, worked a lot better. We will set up all sounds with amp level, and let channel level to be controlled on the device itself, to avoid too high volume spikes.
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Ah, if you’re using it with the laptop attached, no extra hardware needed, but you will have to sort out making sure the output from the twister is routed through to the mixer and then setting the twister to send the right values. I’m not sure if the twister can do 14bit NRPN, so you may have have Ableton do some midi translation for you. I can’t really help with that bit (never touched it), but you should be able to get it to work without any extra hardware. Good luck!
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