A little tease from Allen & Heath

[Dave SA]

Please A&H give us the desk we want.

 

And what is it that we want?!

 

Not this one.

 

Well, actually, this one! Except not nerfed to 16 channels. I've always been an exponent of A&H because of their 'one thought ahead' console design. I've yet to see this same ethos applied to any digital board they've made.

 

Why you would get this and not an expression is beyond me.

[Stuart91]

Thanks, a very good explanation of the situation, far better than I had managed.

 

Uli being quoted as saying one of the fundamentals to making the desk so cheaply was manufacturing the components. apparently (I have no idea if this is true or not) most other desk manufacturers 'buy in' the motorised faders but behringer developed their own from scratch for the x32 - and it makes sense that they would be cheaper than average to make when you think about it.

 

Of course, the other thing to bear in mind here is that if Uli wants to start a price war, he has the margin of the component manufacture to play with as well, so there is far more scope to cut prices to the bone if that is what he wants to do.

[Alec]

SCRIBBLE STRIPS!!!

 

What's frustrating is that there are now three great looking rackmount mixers in a similar price bracket, all of which are quite appealing, but have relative benefits & drawbacks, yet none have scribble strips to help cope with layers.

 

The X32 Producer is clearly the cheapest by far, with potential to have a mixer & 16 way remote stagebox all for around £2k. Love the functionality, but no scribble-strips!!! I know it's a cost saving, and that they were trying to make the mixer smaller, but what a loss! I know Behringer's argument would probably be that you should buy the Compact, but you're back into a larger package again...

 

The Si Expression is a lovely neat mixer, and the fader glow helps a lot. But what a shame they couldn't have added in the scribble strips from the Performer. I'm wondering how many Performer sales they'll actually make as the price differential between the Expression and the Performer is now huge for "just" DMX & scribble strips.

 

The QU looks like a great mixer but does pale a little in the light of the competition. And again, no scribble strips!!!

[mervaka]

The Qu16 is small enough not to need them. If you can't keep track of 16 channels..

Then I guess you need to put down some tape and you know, scribble? :)

[Bobbsy]

Just FYI, the x32 price is actually lower here than it was at release--all the dealers are now offering decent discounts. Similarly, a friend in the USA reports the same thing...he got a good enough discount that he's just bought two.

 

So...I do wonder if any increase in UK pricing is down to exchange rates--the UK peso is at the lowest it's ever been against the Aussie dollar for example.

 

As for the 16 channel limit, I'll wait and see. It would be too small for my needs but was talking to a guy just last week who felt the x32 was too big since he needed 16 channels max (and didn't like the look of the x16 use of the iPad). This would be ideal for him. But how many like him out there, I dunno...but the analogue Mixwiz certainly found a market.

[Dave SA]

Bobbsy, the last line of your post there has been ringing around A&H HQ for a while now I'd imagine! I hope they are right for their sake!

[haymere]

I am considering buying this type of desk in the autumn probably the berry producer but the qu16 looks great the only downside being no daw control which is one of my requirements

[mervaka]

I am considering buying this type of desk in the autumn probably the berry producer but the qu16 looks great the only downside being no daw control which is one of my requirements

http://www.allen-heath.com/uk/products/pages/ProductDetails.aspx?catId=Qu16&ProductId=Qu16

 

• DAW MIDI Control

[parky58]

I have used an LS9 for the last four years and been quite pleased with the desk. That is until I attended a Midas Pro6 course and was really taken with the concept. I thought the "scribble strip" to be a major advantage when sound-checking and engineering multiple bands. It was of no surprise that when the GLD80 came within my budget I acquired one and have found the functionality and quality staggering for the price.

 

I also have a couple of smaller analogue mixers (A&H PA20 and a Soundcraft EFX12 which I use for smaller gigs (including my own band)). I was quite excited to read about the QU16 as a replacement for the two until I read the above posts and found the one feature I yearned was missing - The scribble strip!

[mervaka]

On a desk this size, I'm not sure why it would be needed. I doubt the LCD they use is cheap..

[StevieR]

I don't understand why people are surprised that a 'feature' that is present on more expensive desks is not on the entry level models. That's how you create an up-selling model.

 

Personally, I'm very excited about this desk. I've always been a MixWiz fan and have been waiting for the right desk to upgrade to for some of our small systems.

 

Steve

[Simon Lewis]

I don't understand why people are surprised that a 'feature' that is present on more expensive desks is not on the entry level models. That's how you create an up-selling model.

 

I think most are pretty aware that you won't get all the top features on a budget desk, and that each manufacturer has to maintain sufficient differentiation to make each model viable in its own right but not steal too many sales from the next model up...

 

However, in this case, I'd hoped that there might be just a little more flexibility in expanding the channel count... The ability to have 16 local and 16 remote inputs plus a leyer to toggle with would have made it a very useful desk, although people would then moan all the more about lack of DCAs etc.

[Stuart91]

I don't understand why people are surprised that a 'feature' that is present on more expensive desks is not on the entry level models. That's how you create an up-selling model.

 

The problem for the manufacturers is that a lot of the additional "features" on more expensive desks are implemented in software with minimal hardware cost. (obviously scribble strips, with the LCD panels etc. is an exception) Adding DCAs to the QU16 would require a bit more processing power, and maybe an extra button on the surface to select the extra layer. The actual hardware cost is pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things.

 

So we end up in a vicious cycle where each new desk adds a few new features that are unique for that kind of price point. Then the next competing desk has to better that feature set to get market share. And so on... It's the free market in action.

 

Again, Behringer are in a pretty good position here, because it's unlikely that the X32 family is going to start cannibalising sales of Midas products, no matter how many features they pack into them. But A&H need to be careful that successors to the QU16 aren't encroaching on iLive sales.

[Paul J Need]

I don't understand why people are surprised that a 'feature' that is present on more expensive desks is not on the entry level models. That's how you create an up-selling model.

 

Again, Behringer are in a pretty good position here, because it's unlikely that the X32 family is going to start cannibalising sales of Midas products, no matter how many features they pack into them. But A&H need to be careful that successors to the QU16 aren't encroaching on iLive sales.

 

I understand that Ilive sales will suffer

I had my first play on the GLD80 yesterday and its actually rather good - I'm told a lot of the features of the GLD have found the way on to the QU16 and we'll certainly be buying a couple of QU16s to our hire stock. The price per features on the QU16 is frankly amazing when you add to the mix (excuse the pun) the mic pre-amps being of the same standard as the Ilive, and the double record facility - the ability to record 16 tracks on to hard disc or Mac at the same time is brilliant. The suggested retail price of £1699 inc VAT will I'm sure give Yamaha and Beringher a run for their money.

[TonyMitchell]

Although the press release said "shipping May", I'm told that stock won't be in the UK distribution network until late June. Shame, as a couple of these would have been useful over the summer.