How to use the A&H SQ5 - In-depth Tutorial

In this video I will walk you through an SQ5 digital mixing desk. I will explain the controls and how to use them. I will also show you some of my top tips for getting the most from this console for your church.
0:00 - Intro
1:50 - An overview of the Allen & Heath SQ5 - what do all the controls do?
19:00 - How to set gain / Pre-amp on an SQ5 console
27:05 - Setting HPF on an SQ5
33:20 - What is an audio gate and how do you set it on your console?
38:45 - How to set your parametric EQ on the A&H SQ5 console
45:33 - What is a compressor and how do I use it?
48:50 - Using a pan control on and Allen & Heath console
49:50 - How to get sound out of your speakers from a digital console
50:20 - Using the aux / mix bus sends on an A&H SQ5 digital console
52:10 - How to use effects / FX on an Allen & Heath digital audio console
54:24 - How to insert an audio effect onto a channel
------------------------------ My Gear -----------------------------------
Cameras
- Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 6k
- Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4k
- Sony A6400
Lenses
- Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 (EF mount)
- Canon 17-35mm F2.8
- Canon 24 - 70mm F4
- Canon 24-105mm F4
- Canon 70-200mm F2.8
- Zeiss 16mm - 70mm
- Sony 18-105 F4
Audio
- Rode NTG 4+
- Rode Video mic NTG
- Allen & Heath SQ5, digital mixer
- Tasam DR 60D MKii, field recorder
- Zoom F2-BT, field recorder
- Sennheiser XSW-D, lav mic
Lighting
- Amaran 100X
- Apature 60cm Lantern
- Sokani X60
- Neewer 60cm Softbox
Sotware
- DaVinci Resolve
Any questions just leave me a comment or visit www.pluggedin-av.co.uk

[@user-ii8re4rv9l]

I would love to see you do a video focusing on routing, I/O, aux sends, and matrix sends. How do we set up the basics of the signal path?

[@profquad]

yes, that is the main thing I look for in a tutorial. Most of the rest of the stuff is the same across all the boards, pretty much. The routing can be quite buried in somewhat random menus.

[@Reali_T_Check]

Brilliant video buddy! Clear and concise tuition and modest. Excellent

[@PluggedinAV]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@stanislasmasengesho1646]

For sure you helped me a lot didn't know about digital mixer but now i have some knowledge

[@viincentfonkert2870]

Simply the best In-Depth tutorial for this mixer out there right now!

[@PluggedinAV]

Thanks, glad you found it helpful

[@adejumoadekanmbi-ev4dh]

Thanks for the training it's so helpful please keep doing some more training on this mixer please

[@PluggedinAV]

Thanks, I have some plans for more videos on this in the new year

[@zcac1d34]

Thanks for your tutorial, my church just bought SQ5 and your video helps us a lot from turning from analog to digital mixer. Appreciated you can also introduce how we set for Aux .

[@PluggedinAV]

No problem. Enjoy your new console

[@jaduds]

We are installing ours this week. I have a couple days before our first meeting. I am super overwhelmed currently but very thankful for this video. We are also going from analog to the SQ...

[@PluggedinAV]

It’s a big step but I’m sure you will get into it. Give yourself some grace for the first few weeks. There will be a learning curve and there will probably be mistakes the first few times. I always say a mistake is only a problem if you don’t learn from it. Take it one step at a time and I’m sure it will all come together

[@rowyn-1323]

Great video! Perfect explanation

[@PluggedinAV]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@stanislasmasengesho1646]

Great work

[@PluggedinAV]

🙏🏻

[@stephencasey7822]

Currently headed to a resort as a breakout floater. Operating a Roland XS84H and this mixer. Thank you so much for the run down 😭 y’all wish me luck lol

[@PluggedinAV]

Sounds fun, enjoy

[@ricardopineda8224]

Thank you

[@natuhamyalinus5625]

I was having challenges with SQ5 and my friend sent me me this video . OmG this video saved me a lot coz I didn’t know to to balance the frequencies I was just turning nobes up and down not knowing the use

[@PluggedinAV]

Your welcome. Glad it was helpful

[@TAHDAHFarm]

I set this mixer up at our church and love it. Yes, best bag for the $$$. I would like to understand more about the trim in the preamp section and how to put a 31 band eq on aan insert. The pulpit mic is giving some feed back in several areas but the main eq was setup for the room and dont want to change the main. All the other mics sound great. Im not surr why i cant select any of the 31 band eq to the ex rack. Hopefully this all make sense. Btw, great info and will be using this video to help tech the other volunteers.

[@PluggedinAV]

Thanks for the feedback. Glad you found it helpful. You can’t insert a graphic into a Chanel however if you need more bands you can feed your mic into a group and use the EQ on the group in addition to the chanel

[@TAHDAHFarm]

I thought about using a group, but that makes it more confusing for my volunteers. I'm already using the grouping or ganging function on the pulpit mics. Our building came with a pulpit that has 2 mics on it. The system is mono, but the way the pulpit is, 1 mic will not work because it is off to the side. It is working now, but it would be nice to put an eq in the insert. I have done that on a yamaha board before, and it works out great.

[@ivanvlaj1312]

Hello, it would be interesting if you could make a video where you do EQ for the whole band, a multi-channel record, and explain to us step by step what you are doing and why you are doing it, it would seem like you are teaching us how to mix, which is exactly what you would do. It would be a great help to those of us who are just starting out. I think it would be an interesting video for a wide audience, I decided on SQ because it seems very simple to me. if you are able and have time, I would thank you in advance.

[@PluggedinAV]

I’ve had an idea to do something like this. Trying to work out how to do it but I will see what I can do

[@ivanvlaj1312]

@@PluggedinAV Thanks m8! :)

[@franks4973]

really a fantastic video, thank you for so much information. I am very new to this for my church and trying to figure it out. Will likely have to watch this video a few times. Question: We have bell choir that sets up on the floor in front of pews and struggle with audience feedback noise on mics on the table. Is that when you would use a gate? Again, thanks!

[@PluggedinAV]

No problem, glad you like it. I’m struggling to understand the question but a gate will help cut out low-level background noise so if that’s what you are trying to do then it could be a solution.

[@franks4973]

Yes that is what we would want is to lessen background noise that is close to the source microphones. Thx

[@Junglemunky]

Hey! I found this video very helpful as a guide to the mixer, it went into depth of everything from the start to the end, thank you. I have a question: I believe you use macOS on the computer you use in your videos; how did you get the Allen and Heath SQ Mixpad app on your mac?? I appreciate your help in advance, keep making great videos!

[@PluggedinAV]

No problem. Thanks for the comment. I downloaded it from the Allen & Heath website

[@Junglemunky]

@@PluggedinAV Thank you so much, I've looked there before but apparently never close enough - just found it. 😂 Have a fantastic day, God Bless!

[@tonyperez2690]

Thank you for the video. We got a sq5 with a ar2412 at the front and using Pro-presenter 7. Could you do an advance routing video to set in-ear monitors?

[@PluggedinAV]

Check out my most recent live stream. I’ve just done exactly that this week 👍🏻

[@audiosales24]

I have a sq5 from the start but i dont need a lot of channels and maybe i go for the modern dm3

[@user-vl1ep7xp5e]

We have had the SQ7 for about 5 years now and have set it up with the basics. Gain, EQ, high pass etc.. It all sounds (okay) however, I would like to use other vocal effects like delay....etc.. Is there a tutorial the would help explain all of the 8 effects on this mixer?

[@PickLost]

Thank you for the video! I'm designing a small-ish outdoor rig and planning on getting an SQ5 for it. One question I have in terms of the amount of input channels. I understand you can fold them into a stereo fader, but you can't essentially have 48 stereo channels. Do FX need returns as input channels too? That would further reduce the amount of available input channels for my setup

[@PluggedinAV]

Yeah, you have 48 channels but this will reduce if you join some into stereo. Regarding FX, you have 4 FX bus that don’t need to come back into a channel so don’t count to you channels. However you can use an additional 4 FX units (giving you 8 in total) and these need to come back somewhere so that could be a channel or just insert it into a channel or group. Hope that helps

[@PickLost]

@@PluggedinAV That helps massively, thank you! Is it the same for the Talkback? It has its own mic input, does it also have its own bus? Or does that take up an input channel too?

[@PluggedinAV]

@@PickLost I think that has its own channel but I can’t remember TBH

[@PickLost]

@@PluggedinAV Okay no problem. thank you very much anyway!

[@pfrankymaringmedarshang5532]

the video is good but the Live training banner is kind off hiding some parts when the camera is changed. it would have been better if it was smaller or at all removed and just add a small badge to the top right something like that.

[@PluggedinAV]

Thanks. I do have loads more videos on this mixer so you could try one of those

[@aggi999]

You forgot to cover how you would set up the aux mixes

[@fliegerle256]

Feedback Frequencies should be adjusted/eq-ed on the Main L/R Bus and not on the channel.

[@PluggedinAV]

Depends. If the feedback problems exist on all mics you can deal with it at the master level. If it’s specific to a channel you should deal with it at the channel level.

[@fliegerle256]

​@@PluggedinAV Yepp. Thats why I always first EQ the room with an RTA Mic to cut the frequencies which do run you into because of the room modes. After that you will have much less problems with Feedback on monitors. My guys only use Audix VX5 and OM6. Never had an issue with Feedback on the Stage Wedges

[@imdomtrotta]

Do you use Smaart or another software with your RTA Mic? @@fliegerle256

[@user-vl1ep7xp5e]

By the way....your instructions were fantastic. It's too bad you're 10,000 miles away.

[@PluggedinAV]

Ha, thanks. Yes, my more recent videos will be going into how to use the effects on this mixer

[@murraywebster1228]

Compressors don’t squash down, it lessens the amount of volume increase above the threshold, eg, with a 2:1 ratio when the sound increases 10dB over the threshold then the volume will only increase by 5dB on the output, nothing is being turned „down“, it is reducing what would be the level on the output, I find it a bit misleading to say it’s turning the sound down, this will just confuse noobs and amateurs, squashing is also a bit misleading as an image, yes you can have a squashing effect with very low threshold and a large makeup gain but this is seldom used in a live situation due to feedback danger….sorry but this annoys me somewhat while it’s misleading and therefore confusing for inexperienced people

[@franks4973]

Would you use a compressor to lessen a singer who is right on the mic and has a wide db range? So the peaks don't overload?

[@NoelWatson-kg9qh]

Hi. Went to alchemea. At one time considered to be the best audio engineering college In The world. We used the same terminology as the variable you are considering is the gain reduction and to visualize that is to visualize “compression” or a squashing of the dynamic range of the output. So no problems here.

[@rodddrake]

Noobs....Nice. why is the sound community so annoying

[@richexperiencevideos]

Much too basic for anyone who has done digital mixing before.

[@PluggedinAV]

Sure, that’s why my most recent video goes into more depth for everyone else

[@rodddrake]

But perfect for those who haven't,eh.

[@Juquehy]

i think this could be a really helpful video, but your setup, the video angles, the mess around you… I cannotgo on watching this. Maybe this is also an advise, not only complaining?!

[@realSethMeyers]

Sounds like just complaining

[@Mar10K0ng]

This is 100% complaining aswell a you problem.

[@0124852008]

We have the SQ7 mixer in our church but we have problems with feedback audio. Can u make a tutorial to eliminate this problem? Thank you.

[@PluggedinAV]

Feedback is a difficult thing to eliminate as you can go about it in many ways. Try moving your speakers further away from your stage