I was reached by @glooms for my thoughts on the Qu24 mixer. Guess it would be useful for some people if I write them down here…
So yes, I am very happy with the Qu24, I use it several days a week since Nov. 2018 (got it for 1969€ FYI). At that time I had money to spend ^^
Any recording on my Soundcloud since this date makes use of it.
The mix sends (3 stereo + 4 mono) are very useful, the converters and amp pretty transparent, you have a lot of headroom, the EQ are very easy to setup, I often make use the compressor/limiter as well as the gate (some of my friends love distorsion a lot)… Motorized faders + graphical feedback are both ace. And you can record 16 tracks + main stereo without a computer, which is handy sometimes when you want to capture a jam quickly and don’t want to kill the vibe by taking the time to switch the computer on and setting up Ableton…
A very complete mixer for the studio, very cool piece of kit!!
Yet I think it’s a bit overkill tbh: I have bought a pair of patchbays 2 years ago so I can reroute my machines and FX the way I want, and I would have gone for the Qu16 if I had understood that before: I never use everything at the same time, even when I have several friends at home.
I had bought the QuPac before the Qu24, and while the quality was here, I missed the interface. So yeah, I would advise to go for the Qu16 and a Samson S-patch plus any day, it makes more sense IMO.
Yes indeed, from A&H website it seems Qu-16 and Qu-24 have both 4 mono and 3 stereo “mixes” (aka aux sends). You can set very easily the amount of send for each track: just press a Mix button in the lower right and the motorized faders will offer the clearest and fastest feedback + interaction mean you could imagine.
You have to use inputs to get these sends back into the mix, but you don’t need to sacrifice much as there are 2 additional stereo inputs (ST1in and ST2in) that can be used for this.
There is even another one (ST3in) that be found on the front, though I usually set such track as the return from the computer, which I find handy to sample some sound from the Mac.
It also has a matrix mode, you can route anything to anything with it. I belive the qu pac can even do 2x matrix, it wasnt clear for me what to use it for, untill i saw an actual matrix mixer in a loopop video, and realized that the q has this build in. I.e. u could use fx as send and inserts at the same time with thix matrix, or send multiple synth through a insert.
Not sure what is actually the part of the mixer sound
To me, its best characteristics is to avoid tainting the audio in any way.
Together with the monitors, I see this as the sound control tools.
Qu Pac is different, its just an audio interface with 18 inputs, display + eq & recording, it just happens to be remotly controllable - it takes not much space when put to a rack.
Also: noise gate, parametric and graphiq eq, compressor, and sends to 4 internal fx slots per track + groups + presets/scenes (incl. preamp settings), all in a very small format that can be extended to 32 mono + several stereo inputs…
For live mixing of my synths, I was missing the experience of physical faders and did not need so many inputd. I still love it for our live band, though!
I’m still looking for the ultimate mixer recorder solution. So far 1010 Music Bluebox is my favorite to capture happy modular accidents. I like my Keith McMillen K-Mix a lot for small setups. Mackie 16 channel mixer is my large mixer and works well. I have a Bastl Dude and Koma mixer on the way. Those look fun. Would love an SSL mixer or similar.
…Not to mention the built-in ”RackFX”: reverbs, delays, choruses, phasers, flangers. On their own dedicated busses, separate from external I/O. Up to four at a time, and quite internally routable. Kinda mind blowing actually.
On a side note, it’s fascinating that the Qu-Pac has been sold out everywhere for at least a year. (with at least one retailer pinning summer 2023 for stock!) Used and preorder prices have nearly doubled.
I interpret that as a testament to the Qu-Pac’s versatility and power, likely with a bit of supply chain issues mixed in. But even at the currently going rate of $2000, there’s still nothing out there that competes, on size/ability/flexibility/quality.