Digital Mixer Allen & Heath Qu-Pac

Allen & Heath Qu-Pac takes the power and legendary quality of the Qu family and shrinks it into a compact desk or rack mount format. With Qu-Pac you are free to mix from your iPad, but the full functions of the mixer can be accessed from the front panel and touchscreen should you need them. Custom settings and Cat5 expansion up to 38 inputs, makes Qu-Pac a scalable, failsafe solution for hardworking bands, schools, hotels, corporate events, live music bars, conferences, personal mixing and many more scenarios requiring a pro mixing solution in a tiny footprint. User permissions and the customisable Qu-Control screen make Qu-Pac convenient and safe for day-to-day use by non-technical staff. Qu series features include multitrack recording direct to USB, Automatic Mic Mixing, ProFactory mic presets, plus an ever growing ecosystem of apps, accessories and remote I/O.

Qu-Pad

Add the fully-featured Qu-Pad app for iPad to your Qu-32 and you’re free to EQ and mix monitors on stage, roam around the venue whilst adjusting the PA, and mix the show from the heart of the audience. Qu-Pad connects to the mixer over Wi-Fi and gives instant access to all live mixing parameters and settings.

Qu-You allows up to seven performers to control their own monitor mixes using any iOS or Android device, and frees up the engineer to focus on mixing for the audience. Qu-Control is a customisable iOS app providing a simple interface for non-technical users to control the essential parameters of Qu mixers when technical operators are not around. Apps require the connection of a Wi-Fi router or access point to the mixer’s Network port.

Touch Control

Having massive processing power and advanced functionality is great, but it counts for nothing if you can’t access the controls you need in a heartbeat. The 800x480, sixteen million colour Touchscreen and its dedicated data encoder form the heart of Qu-Pac’s interface, providing super-fast, easy access to all settings. Dedicated keys and screen tabs quickly guide you to meter and RTA views, FX racks, channel processing, USB audio control, scenes, setup menus and much more.

The Qu-Control key brings up a fully customizable screen which gives access to channels and settings tailored to the user and application. Several ‘widgets’ can be assigned to the page, including channel levels, mutes and assignment on/off switches and are arranged to suit the user requirement, for example, as a source selection and level control of background music to one or multiple zones.

AnalogiQ Preamps

Qu-32 features sixteen AnalogiQTM digitally controlled preamps with advanced zero-crossing detection and a padless 1dB-step gain stage, which have been closely allied to the DSP for optimal gain accuracy and audio transparency. The analogue signal is captured by high-class, low latency 24bit analogue to digital converters, which are matched to 24bit digital to analogue converters to deliver the required high quality output. The AnalogiQTM preamp design has been refined to offer superb transparency, minimal distortion and an ultra-low noise floor, with a warm, musical sound that is missing from some digital consoles.

dSNAKE

Qu-32 is a self-contained mixer, so if you’ve already got the analogue cables you’re good to go. If you’re thinking of trading in the copper multicore for a Cat5 digital snake, Qu-32’s built-in dSNAKE port has you future-proofed, allowing connection to a remote AB168, AR2412 or AR84 Stagebox. dSNAKE is our proprietary networking solution, boasting a transport latency of only 105us over cable runs of up to 120m. So if you’re mixing FoH you can place your I/O on the stage and run a single Cat5 cable back to the Qu-32 in the mix position.

Rack FX

Qu-32’s dynamics and FX algorithms are derived from those used in Allen & Heath’s pro touring consoles. Some of the world’s most respected audio engineers have chosen to use RackFX on tour in preference to top-end plug-ins and external FX units. Qu-32 boasts 4 stereo RackFX engines, featuring lovingly crafted emulations of legendary classic reverbs, gated reverbs, delays, modulators, flangers and more. FX are returned to the mix on dedicated return channels, so you’re not tying up your mono and stereo input channels. Each Stereo FX Return has a dedicated 4 band PEQ.

Mac OS and Windows DAW Integration

Qu-32’s built-in audio interface streams up to 24 selectable tracks to your Mac or PC and returns from the computer can be easily assigned to the Input channels. The interface is class-compliant on Mac OS X making it truly plug ‘n play and will be recognized straight away by any DAW supporting Core Audio, including Logic, Cubase, Reaper, and Pro Tools. An ASIO and WDM compatible driver is available for Windows computers. Standard MIDI control is tunnelled over the USB connection so you can map the faders to the tracks of your favourite DAW. A DAW Control driver is available for easy setup and emulation of HUI or Mackie Control protocols on Mac OS X and Windows systems.

Qu-Drive

Qu-32 has an integrated multitrack USB recorder, providing 18 channels of 48kHz, 24bit recording and playback straight to/from your USB key or hard drive. Capturing multitrack recordings of your shows has never been so easy. A selectable stereo pair can be recorded alongside the 16 Mono channels, and multitrack audio can be played back to the 16 Mono inputs plus ST1. On top of this, Qu-Drive also provides stereo recording patchable from any pair of Mix outputs, the Main LR (pre, post, or summed to mono) or even the PAFL bus, with 2- track stereo playback to ST3.

Channel Ducker

An advanced yet easy to use Ducker is available on every channel. It can be inserted on the fly on any number of Inputs and Stereo Groups, providing auto signal attenuation and then gently restoring the level to aid the operator in endless applications: reduce the level of background music when a single microphone or mic mix is in use, for example during live announcements, or give a chairman microphone priority over others. Setup is a breeze, with the option to share Ducker settings across multiple channels when in Gang mode.

Armed To The Hilt

Qu-32 is equipped with 5 high efficiency ARM core processors. Between them, the ARM cores provide state-of-the-art processing, working in parallel to deliver extensive control, instant-on operation, and lightning-fast response, with dedicated cores running the touchscreen and surface, USB streaming, Qu-Drive multi-channel recording/playback, Ethernet control and fader automation. The mixer’s DSP farm exploits next generation dual-core DSPs, giving 10 DSP cores, 8 of which are dedicated to channel and mix processing alone. Qu-32’s DSP architecture employs varied bit depths, tailored to specific algorithms, with 48 bits on critical EQ functions and a 56-bit accumulator on the mix bus where it really counts, allowing every nuance of the audio to be captured in the final mix.

ME Personal Mixing System

Qu-32 is fully compatible with our ME Personal Mixing System. ME-1 expands available monitor mixes and gives each performer tailored control over their own mix, leaving the engineer free to focus on the audience experience. Any number of ME-1 personal mixers can be chained from the dSNAKE port (or from an AR2412 or AB168 Stagebox connected to the dSNAKE port).

User Guide