Allen & Heath SQ - DCA & Mute Groups

[@baylinkdashyt]

Fun Tip [which I stole from a random guy who preceded me on someone's QL-5]: When mixing live, put *every output that feeds a speaker* all into DCA 8, put it next to the main, and label it HOUSE. Then, if you ever hear any feedback live in the room, you have ONE HANDLE you can yank on to kill it while you figure out where it came from -- and usually 1dB is plenty; nobody will notice. Including all your monitor channels is what makes this work -- especially if they are pre-fader.

[@MichaelMoore-bx6st]

Hoping for DCA Spill in the next firmware update! Especially for the SQ-5. . When working with a small surface with a large channel count DCA spill is the best way to work. Please help us out A&H

[@hk4lyfe59]

Hi, we just ordered this and we will be having someone doing an in-house mix and another person mixing the livestream using the app on an iPad. Is it possible to give all the mute control to the main mixer both for live and in house so that way the person running the livestream mix only has to worry about mixing and not turning channels on and off as needed?

[@AllenandHeathUK]

Hi! The channel mute will mute the audio in all mixes, so there will be no need to mute a channel in the live stream separately to the LR mix. If you do need a separate control for this, you could unassign a channel from the mix instead, as this will stop the audio going to a mix, but will leave all other mixes unaffected. Thanks Alex

[@The300ZXGuru]

so if i have the band muted with Slink stage boxes on soft key 8 on the sq6 then if i want to unmute one of the wired sure mics for a person to talk with and it was one of the singers mic then I can nopt unmute it from the group. The stinks because i will have to unmute all 16 channels again for this one mic to unmute. Is there a way around thyis?

[@AllenandHeathUK]

Hi! On all of our products, the DCA and Mute Groups control the mute of the channel, so there is no way for the channel to be muted and unmuted at the same time. The best way to tackle this scenario on SQ would be to unassign the channel from the DCA or Mute Group when it's needed. This could be quickly controlled in the DCA or Mute Group assignment page, or using the Assign key on the surface. Thanks Alex

[@owenjoseph6097]

double patch the inputs you may need. IE patch rf1 to desk inputs 1 and 9. then send channel 1 to the dca and ch 9 is free and easy.

[@ppeterson9359]

We've assigned 4 DCA groups for Band, Vocals, Drums and FX. Previously, the DCAs only affected Main L/R. Somehow something changed such that the DCAs now affect Main L/R and all AUXs (in our case IEMs and our streaming audio). How do I reset it back to Main L/R only?

[@AllenandHeathUK]

Hello P Peterson, This will likely be caused due to your channels being in Post Fader mode for those Aux's. Mix Aux's are generally set as Pre Fader, to make sure that any changes on your L&R Mix does not affect your sends to Aux. If these are set Post Fader, it means that level changes on your L&R mix will affect the level of the send to the Aux, which will similarly be affected by the DCA's, as these are level controllers. Cheers, Rafael

[@ppeterson9359]

Thanks Rafael! You were right. I can't figure out how those got changed from pre to post fade, but it's fixed now.

[@pitotoyo4568]

Very good 👍👍👍

[@saewms2616]

Will this mixer function as a DAW control surface for Adobe Audition?

[@cediethedogsawaw7598]

Hello , how to seperate mute from main LR to mix , thank you

[@AllenandHeathUK]

Hello Cedie, If you could please elaborate further your enquiry and reach out to [e-mail], we'll be happy to help. Cheers, Rafael

[@cediethedogsawaw7598]

@@AllenandHeathUK thank you for your responce, aside from pushing the faders below from foh , can sq series seperate the mute from main/foh to aux?, example I want to off instrument in the main/foh and open the instrument to there aux/in ear monitor... because our musician requested that during our services they want to practice a song , and I don't know how to do it seperate the mute from main/foh to aux ,all I can do is pushing the fader below from main/foh , we using sq7 ...thanks

[@alaskaaudioguy35]

Will it ever do spills

[@AllenandHeathUK]

Hi Alex, this feature is not planned for SQ at the moment. However, it is on the feature request list and may be looked at one day. Thanks! Alex

[@EltonBear]

It does now ;-) v1.5

[@bars4etkar467]

Здравствуйте, можно сделать в SQ, так, чтобы DCA группу можно было эквализировать, а также компрессор кидать.

[@AllenandHeathUK]

Hello BARS, DCA's do not have any kind of processing because they are not an output bus channel, they are simply voltage controllers. You may use a 'Group' instead, if you wish to add any kind of processing to a few channels altogether. Thank you, Rafael

[@bars4etkar467]

@@AllenandHeathUK Спасибо за ваш ответ Рафаэль!😉

[@williamthesoundguybalestri1745]

DCA is "Digitally Controlled Attenuator" - NOT Amplifier. Just FYI. Everyone says amplifier. LOL!

[@AllenandHeathUK]

Heh, thanks William, but what about if you turn it up?! I went with the most accepted term, and the one I think most engineers who haven't used one before would understand. The term is slightly strange either way of course, as unlike a VCA in the past, this controls a digital gain stage... DCDGS? DCMSL (Digitally Controller Master Send Level)? Thanks for listening/watching! Cheers, Keith.