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All members of the band use the Allen & Heath SQ4You app to control their IEM mixes.

Allen & Heath A Game Changer For EES & The Yes-Ja! Band On Tour

Engineer Florian Hackenberg-Keßler employs 48-channel SQ-5 surface for his mixes joined by two DX168 expanders in a compact kit.

The recent Game Changer Tour by Namibian artist EES, a.k.a., Eric Sell and his supporting group, The Yes-Ja! Band, was supported by live sound engineer Florian Hackenberg-Keßler utilizing an Allen & Heath 48-channel SQ-5 surface for his mixes joined by two DX168 expanders in a portable, compact kit offering quick set up and strike.

Allen & Heath’s XCVI 96 kHz FPGA engine, the SQ-5 offers a range of integrated processing tools and FX so Hackenberg-Keßler didn’t need to use any external processing. “I am super-satisfied with everything the SQ-5 offers me. The compressors are great, and so are the reverbs,” he says. “I use a lot of the ADT Doubler, it simply works well. Another plus is the low latency, and 96 kHz operation. I use the USB interface at every show for multitrack recording. You don’t get all of this anywhere else in this price range.”

Florian Hackenberg-Keßler at work on the SQ-5.

The 30 channels of the band are handled by the 17 faders of the SQ-5. Aaccording to Hackenberg-Keßler: “It works great because of the DCA spills. I get everything I need on one layer. It’s so flexible, you can layout the surface the way you want it so you don’t need any more faders. Brilliant.”

For onstage I/O, the two DX168 expanders are deployed with cabling kept to a minimum. “I daisy-chain the DX168s,” he explains. “I always order CAT cables locally, but I carry one myself as a backup. But the SQ consoles are great, they’ve taken every cable I’ve tried without problems, it has always been plug-and-play. The two DX168s are permanently installed in a case with cable harnesses to the respective musicians.”

All six members of The Yes-Ja! band rely on IEMs for monitoring, and the introduction of the SQ-5 has allowed the musicians to control their monitor mixes via the SQ4You app for iOS and Android. “It works extremely well,” notes Hackenberg-Keßler concludes. “We had two rehearsal days and everyone quickly got into the groove, the app is very easy to use.

“To be honest, I’m always fascinated by this console: everything just works and it sounds great. Allen & Heath has really made a mark with this thing.”

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