Even though I've never been much of a gear head, I still have a responsibility as a church technical director to stay up to date on the equipment options available. Almost every church could find a use for a small-frame digital console. Some might only use it as a utility piece, while others might be able to use it to mix an entire service. Since we always seem to have a need for this type of mixing console, I was interested to check out the Allen and Heath Qu-16 rack mountable digital mixer.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but right out of the box I was surprised at its small footprint. It's designed to fit in a standard 19-inch rack (rack ears offered as an additional part) but the whole thing is only 11 rack spaces high. This one came with removable smooth end caps installed in place of the rack ears. A nice touch cosmetically if you were to use it on a table or mix area instead of installed in a rack. Although nicely sized, it was quickly evident the horsepower on board since this little guy weighs in at 22 pounds.
A fresh look
Not having much experience with Allen and Heath consoles, it fun to learn how many features the company packed into this small package. In addition to the design simplicity of the back panel, they didn't miss a beat with all the connectivity options. I loved that both mic and line inputs were included for all 16 channels (something that some manufacturers tend to skimp on), 12 XLR outputs (10 groups and 2 for Main L/R), a couple of stereo line input jacks, a dedicated talkback input, two-channel AES output, two “alternative” outputs (balanced TRS jacks), a dedicated stereo record output, USB-B socket, CAT5 network connector, and their proprietary dSnake remote audio connection (to mate up with their audio interface rack devices and ME-1 personal monitoring system). I found the feature set to be pretty impressive.
Just to see how quickly I could get some playback going, I purposely didn't look at any literature before I used it for the first time. In a word, it was easy. It only took a few seconds to familiarize myself with the nomenclature and layout of the front panel, but like most digital consoles of this size, the layout is reminiscent of a conventional analog piece. The bulk of the face is taken up by 16 recallable fader strips, each with an individual solo, select, and mute button accompanied by a simple three-segment LED signal meter. I typically prefer more increments on an input meter, but the 800 by 480 color touch screen above the faders offered a great input graphic for each channel. The preamp, parametric equalizer, dynamics, and high-pass filter are all laid out and labeled clearly with their functionality being controlled by the select button on an associated Input or output fader. All 17 motorized faders are recallable for both send on fader, bus and master output control, and mix recall options.
As I pulled up some of my trusted music selections, I was immediately impressed by how much output and clarity was available from these preamps. The equalizer, high-pass filter, gates, and comps were all extremely accurate and pleasant sounding, although I will say I gave my bifocals a workout using the touch-screen. To thoroughly check out all the different options available, I pulled in some different microphones and inputs and was pleased at how simple it was to set up all the associated input and output parameters. One thing I've never been fond of is the mangled menu layout found in some digital consoles. Anything that may cause you to waste precious seconds digging around for a function while mixing definitely goes in the negative column. Not so with the Qu-16—everything was where my brain wanted it to be, and I was navigating through the menu options fairly rapidly. Whether using a large console or a small one, this factor always carries a lot of weight with me when considering what to use to mix an event.
More impressions
Being a major effects guy, the on-board effects engines sounded quite nice. These are pulled from Allen and Heath's iLive series, so they all translated tried and true, even on this small platform. The thick algorithms easily satisfied the side of my brain that's addicted to effects and effect layering. It was also pretty cool that the tap delay time was set by just tapping on the actual delay time graphic on the touch screen—a simple way to do it and it made sense. There are four effect slots available that can all be patched to/from aux buses or to/from individual channels. It's nice to have the option to tie an effect directly to an input on occasion without using up a separate bus. When looking at the effect “rack” on the touch screen, it was easy to patch because you can switch between the front view, representing the front controls and parameters normally found on a conventional effect unit, and the rear view, which gives you the input and output patching options for that particular unit. Again, that jives with how I think, so I was able to immediately get those sorted out where I needed them.
Other than relying on my glasses a bit, I really did appreciate the touch-panel. Perhaps I'm a simpleton at heart, but not having to rely on a cursor or arrow buttons to get around really made me enjoy manipulating the console parameters. Things like channel linking, one of the first things I do when sorting out my inputs, was easy. Hit the link button right in the middle of the channel view on the touch screen and you're linked. If I was designing a touch screen into a console of this size, I would have the tendency to pack it with tons of options and parameter controls—but by keeping the layout simple with a few easy-to-read tabs, it feels like you could use this console and still keep your focus on mixing.
The basics of this unit are slick; connecting a sound source and getting audio pumping was simple and clean, all very cool. But the additional extras they've included are what set this unit apart, especially one of this size and price.
For instance, they've included an RTA of sorts. You can select the RTA tab on the touch screen and immediately see a 31-band graphic representation of the selected source. A nice touch and better yet, a useful tool for almost any mixing scenario.
Here's another: the USB functionality. Via the Qu-Drive (USB port on the front surface), you can employ a USB drive for both stereo and 18-track recording and playback. Having that level of multi-track integration in something of this size really makes sense. Furthermore, using the additional USB port you can connect to Pro-Tools, Logic, or a similar DAW and be up and running. When you play these files back into the console, you can switch the console's AnaLogiq preamp over to USB mode and set the incoming gains for these same channels—a really sensible addition, making this feature incredibly functional.
As with most digital consoles these days, there is a wireless remote iPad app available that would be useful for making monitor and audio system tweaks while not near the console. Even though it was easy to interface and simple to operate, I wouldn't want to use it to mix anything too involved.
Being totally satisfied with the options I discovered on this console, the scene memory feature was icing on the cake. It was as useful as most I've encountered, capable of storing up to 100 scenes, all nicely displayed, stored, and edited via the touch screen. All the normal functions such as store, recall, and copy are present, as well a lengthy list of global filter and scene safe options. I totally didn't expect this part of the system to amount to much, but I was truly impressed.
There are far too many options with the Qu-16 to hit them all, but suffice it to say, for the right application, I would use this piece in a heartbeat. Well done Allen and Heath—the list of places I would like to deploy this piece of gear only got longer.
