Allen & Heath Qu-Pac Digital Mixer

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.

Features:

• 19” Rack Mountable
• 16 local Mono Mic/Line Inputs (TRS + XLR)
• Recallable AnaLOGIQ Preamps
• 3 Stereo Inputs (TRS)
• 12 local Mix Outputs (XLR)
• Expandable to 38 input, 24 out using dSNAKE AudioRack
• 4 Stereo Groups (switchable to Mix mode)
• Up to 11 Monitor Mixes (4 mono + 7 stereo)
• 4 FX Engines
• 4 dedicated FX Sends / Returns
• 4 Mute Groups
• 4 DCA Groups
• AES Digital Out
• 32×32 USB Audio Interface
• dSNAKE Remote Audio Port
• 800×480 Touchscreen
• 15 Soft Keys

Qu Ecosystem
Qu provides much more than just a mixer. Qu is an entire ecosystem with Remote AudioRacks allowing I/O to be placed where it’s needed, ME Personal Mixers expanding monitor mixes and enabling simple, time-saving local control, Qu Apps for complete remote setup and wireless mixing on stage or anywhere else in the venue, ProFactory Mic presets to speed up preparation time and ensure the best sound, plus USB recording and DAW integration for powerful workflow optimisation from one centrepiece device.

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 800 x 480, 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.

Qu apps for greater wireless control
Add the fully-featured Qu-Pad app for iPad to your Qu-Pac 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.

AnalogiQ Preamps
Qu-Pac features sixteen built-in AnalogiQ 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 AnalogiQ 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 mixers.

dSNAKE Remote Audio Racks
Qu-Pac 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, or expanding the number of input and outputs available, Qu-Pac’s built-in dSNAKE port has you future-proofed, allowing connection to a remote AB168, AR2412 or AR84 Stagebox. dSNAKE is Allen & Heath’s proprietary networking solution, boasting a transport latency of only 105us over cable runs of up to 120m / 390’. The AudioRacks unleash all the power of Qu-Pac, giving you access to extra outputs for Stereo Matrix, Groups, and extra monitor Mixes.

ProFactory Mic Presets
Allen & Heath has teamed up with leading microphone manufacturers and top engineers at Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, and Shure to provide EQ Library presets for a large number of popular and industry standard microphones. Presets for vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, brass and woodwind have been painstakingly crafted to offer you the best possible starting point for the source and your microphone of choice. Whether you’re a keen amateur or a seasoned professional, you can get to work quickly and easily, saving valuable time so you can concentrate on EQ’ing the source and room acoustics.

Qu-Drive
Qu-Pac 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.

USB Audio Streaming
Qu’s built-in interface streams multitrack audio to your Mac or PC via a flexible patching system: all Input channels and the Main LR can be recorded at the same time, or you may choose to record something different such as FX returns or a pair of mixes.

The returns from the computer can be assigned to the Input channels. The interface is class-compliant on Mac OS X – and drivers are available for Windows systems. Either way, it will be recognized straightaway by any DAW supporting ASIO or Core Audio, including Logic, Cubase, Reaper, and Pro Tools.

Rack FX
Qu-Pac’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-Pac 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.

ME Personal Mixing System
Qu-Pac is fully compatible with the 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).

Automatic Mic Mixer (AMM)
AMM is vital 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 Automatic Microphone Mixer feature helps the engineer to manage the levels of multiple mic inputs, ensuring that each speaker’s contribution is heard. Allen & Heath’s D-Classic dynamic gain sharing algorithm is inspired by industry standard automixers. Up to 16 microphone sources can be mixed at once, with each channel having a priority setting which determines its ‘weight’ in the total system gain.

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 mixers are equipped with 5 cores of high efficiency ARM core processing, with dedicated ARM cores running the touchscreen display and surface, USB streaming, Qu-Drive multi-channel USB recording / playback and Ethernet. 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.

The mixer’s DSP farm exploits next generation dual core DSPs. With plenty of DSP power under the hood the channel processing is only using a fraction of capacity, so Qu is future-proofed, with ample room for updates and extra functionality.

The 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.