Allen & Heath has launched new Chrome Editions of its Qu series compact digital mixers to mark the release of Qu v1.8 Chrome firmware in mid-October, which adds major new features such as automatic mic mixing, a spectrogram, and more monitor mixes. (Allen & Heath is distributed in the U.S. by American Music & Sound.)
Chrome Edition Qu-16, Qu-24 and Qu-32 mixers have the same high contrast metallic finish rotary controls and fader caps as the premium GLD Chrome series, providing optimal visibility in low lighting scenarios and enhanced tactile control.
The new Automatic Microphone Mixer (AMM) coming in v1.8 firmware manages the levels of multiple mic inputs, helping to insure that each the contribution of each person speaking is heard, but with priority settings to establish an order of precedence. AMM is highly useful in applications such as conferences, meetings and panel discussions where a number of microphones are open at the same time, reducing background noise and minimising the risk of feedback.
The new spectrogram tool provides a fast, visual means of hunting down and dealing with problem frequencies, helping to eliminate feedback and tame difficult room acoustics.
The increase in monitor mixes is accomplished by allowing stereo groups to be switched to mix mode. This takes the maximum number of discrete monitor sends to 9 on Qu-24 (4 mono, 5 stereo) and 11 on Qu-32 and Qu-Pac (4 mono, 7 stereo), making them well suited to compact touring as dedicated monitor consoles.
The Qu-Pad app receives further enhancements with the inclusion of new controls, views and functions, such as remote control over AMM settings. Qu-Pad is one of a series of control apps which also includes Qu-You for personal monitoring.
“With features like the touchscreen, motorized faders, multitrack recording to USB and a choice of hardware and software for personal monitoring, Qu has been the pace setter in compact digital mixing,” says Nicola Beretta, A&H product manager.“The new updates make Qu Chrome an unrivaled solution for conferencing and monitor mixing. These add to a broad range of live sound and recording applications where Qu is already excelling, and of course existing Qu users will be able to update to v1.8 Chrome firmware to get even more flexibility from their mixers.”
