Allen and Heath CQ18T review and demo - walkthrough of the features and examples of live recordings
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- Опубликовано: 8 июл 2024
- This week I review my Allen and Heath CQ18T digital desk. I walkthrough all the features, show some live footage with the audio captured on the desk.
@AllenandHeathUK #allenandheath #review #mixing 
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I've got the CQ20B and it is super-nice as well. Many thanks for your video Tom. Great job. Band sounds great!
Thanks for this video… the best review and guide of this desk on the net. Your video clinched the deal to the purchase.
Thanks.....hope you're enjoying the new desk.....I told Lee.....he said "Will I want one when I see it".....I said, "Yes"!!!
Excellent walkthrough. I've had this mixer for awhile and haven't had the chance to dig into it. This is a great help. Thanks!
Great review thanks
Best video so far With this amazing mixer. Thank you so much for sharing🎸🎹🎤🥁❤️❤️❤️
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you!
T.J. Thank you for this share. I have had mine since October '23 and just received the case for it today. Anyway, if you gain the ear of Mr. Keith of Allen & Heath please also ask for a footswitch control with the multitrack recording whereby you can start an stop recording with the footswitch. This is a must for us musicians attempting to use this unit for multitrack recording while performing the track. I think you hear my plea. Anyway, Thank you Mate, stay healthy and "Keep Doing That Voodoo That You Do!"
If I hear anything I'll certainly mention that one too! I've seen on the forums there are quite a few feature requests, I think the 2 I've mentioned are pretty reasonable!!
Great idea.
Loved your free fallin cover at the end there. Sounds good!
Thank you!
Great video I've been looking for a video that explains the ui in simple and practical terms
Glad it was helpful!
Happy XR18 user here but very interesting vlog this week, cheers TJ...
Thanks 👍. XR18 is a great unit......I would now be using it if I hadn't been sent the email about the A&H....and be £300 richer!!
Buy an i pad screen protecter the same size, and trim it to fit. It would work.
Ok it’s ok now thank you so much
Awesome aint it, very happy with mine 😄
It sure is!
Wow. Nice unit. I’ll definitely be considering this if we need to replace our Zoom Livetrack. Two more feature requests. Scribble strips for the soft keys and coloured LED rings for the inputs and ouputs. “Bob, plug your guitar into the purple one”.
The soft keys thing should be possible in software....the other would require different hardware wouldn't it.....might be more of an ask!!
@@iamtjwalker Yup, I’m already thinking of v2!
Great video on its features. Well done.
You mentioned the playback from multitrack recording was fiddily and you were going to discuss it later.... I watched the video and must've missed that.
Way better video then A+H vids
Sorry, I think I forgot to mention it. It was confusing as it's on the config screen under the Inputs tab. You basically have to set the input source from Analogue to SD Card for each of the channels you want to play back. It will then play back on the channel it was recorded on.
I should probably do a youtube short on this to demo!
So you can record tracks while the others are playing back? Are there no latency issues when you over dub like that?
@@karlderdelinckx I've not tried it....I must give it a try.....I wouldn't have thought there would be!
Yes please @@iamtjwalker
Hey mate. Did you, by chance, get the soft case for this mixer? I'm about to bite the bullet on one but need a way to cart it around. I've heard the official soft case is annoyingly fiddly to close, which i why I'm looking at the hard cases (by Swan and NSP). They seem perfect (and smaller than the soft case) just much more expensive. Excellent videos on the mixer as well!
It has mute groups know from the latest firmware update from what I understand. I don’t own one right now so I can’t verify but I’m about to order one so I’ve done a lot of rea search and seems like they added that and DCAs.
I'm going to do a video this week on the new features.....but yes it does now have everything I need including mute groups!
@@iamtjwalker awesome I just ordered one yesterday so I should have it Friday. I’ll take all the info I can get on it!
Great run down from someone who knows what they're talking about. I just got the 18T for my 5-piece band to get them to get IEM.
One question - where can I find a tutorial on how to set things up for gigs in terms of knowing the basics of initial setup for each instrument, effects, high pass filters, what to sound check first (drum,s, VX, bass, guitar, keys??), etc? All the A&H videos I've seen assume a fairly high level of knowledge already, and it's the first time I've wanted to actually do this myself properly instead of leaving it to others!
A feature request - a way to enable easy talkback for the band. If everyone has the app, a prominent button (on latch) that enables this, would be amazing
I don't often get accused of knowing what I'm talking about😀 thank you!! Briefly, what I do when I'm setting up the desk (I do it in advance before I get to the gig/rehearsal) is set up using Quick Channels and name them all. That gives you a preset based setting for each instrument. The drum channels have the dial that allows you to select kick/snare etc. I also set up the aux outputs that will be used by naming them and setting a rough level of what I think people might want to hear eg: a general mix with their own instrument a bit louder! I then set up a reverb setting the front of house level and a level to the aux outputs. When I'm soundchecking I mute the PA then I will go through the drums first starting with the kick....I used the thing to set the gain automatically (now I'm a bit more familiar with it on some instruments I do it manually). Once you've set the gain on all the instruments everyone can sort their own IEM mix. Once you're all happy with that you can then mix the front of house PA. Once you get more familiar with the desk you can convert the Quick Channels to complete channels to give yourself more control.....but I've found the Quick Channels are pretty good and in most cases I haven't felt the need to convert them. As for your feature request.....I'm not sure I've ever seen that feature....what people tend to do is have a 2nd mic (or a dedicated mic if they're not singing) that is only in the monitors that they can talk to the band on without the audience hearing. Hope that helps....let me know if you have any other questions....I'm loving the unit so like working out how to do things on it!!
Thanks for a great and comprehensive review! Do I understand it correctly that you can set different EQs on each channel for the Aux out compared to what's going to FOH? This is one feature that I miss in my current Soundcraft Ui24R (at least to my understanding 🙂). Thx,
Yes I think you can. On the processing section of each output channel there are 2 different types of EQ, compression and a limiter. I've not used them but I've seen them there!
@@iamtjwalker Thanks for your reply!
Great work, good overview. When pairing two inputs I assume that’s for extra true stereo?
Yes I think they are hard panned, also it applies all settings/fx etc to both sides together
Does it have polarity phase reverse on each channel for the drummers with several mics?
Yes you can, on the config screen inputs tab, each input has an Invert Polarity button.
Thank you, how did you use this with the QC ?
Did the CQ effect / color the sound ?
I use the guitar lead preset on the EZ channel on the CQ for the guitar….pretty much without editing it. The recorded sound is clean before any of the EQ etc
Thanks for the review! Is the screen on the CQ-18 multi-touch? I would like to be able to bring one fader down while bringing another up and from all that I've seen it appears you can only move one fader at a time. Also, it looks like the touch screen only allows you to select a fader and then all movement on the fader is managed via the rotary knob rather than by dragging the fader on the screen with your finger. Is that correct?
You can move the faders on the screen by dragging your finger...not sure if you can do 2 at once....I will try when I get a chance and let you know!!
@@iamtjwalker Thanks for checking for me!
@@Dogwood2556 I was just at my computer doing some replies.....yes you can drag 2 faders at the same time, tried it last night on the gig to test it for you!!
@@iamtjwalker You're the best! Thank you!
I bought it in November ‘23 and after receiving it, I found out the main outs didn’t work the same (the Left was quieter than the Right)
It took 1 months to replace the components
Anyway really great mixer with natural sounds.
The only reason to not buy it is the lack of mute groups and Dca groups
That's annoying about the outputs! I'm hoping they introduce mute groups.....at the very least an ability to mute everything apart from the bluetooth/SD card playback so you can play music in between sets with all the instruments and mics muted....even the most basic desks usually have that.
Mute groups and DCA groups were added in V1.2
I'm a "hands on fader" type of guy. However this small format is attractive. I'm torn between this and the Yamaha DM3.
Hi TJ. New subscriber here, keyboard player from London! Thanks for your content and entertaining musings! I'm most interested in the 18T and in particular, nobody in youtube land seems to have done a review of the effects - are they any good? I'm also slightly hankering after the smaller form factor of the 12T despite its lack of wifi and... the 12T is limited to 2 effects while the the 18T is limited to 4 effects. Trying to work out whether 4 vs 2 is a significant limitation or not - do you find you use the effects alot?
Thanks for the sub, and thanks for watching! I've not had a chance to do a deep dive on the FX, I've only used the reverbs. I did use 3 slots for the first time yesterday, but that's because I had to insert them onto a channel rather than having them as a send. If the FX sends could be pre-fade then you could send a room reverb to just the monitor sends so I wouldn't need to put them on different channels. re: the 12T.....I think it depends how you're using it......but the lack of wifi would be a big issue for me as everyone in the band connects their phones to do their own monitor mixes. If you had to have an external router then you lose the advantage of the smaller unit a bit!! I've also used up to 14 channels with one band!!
brill, thanks so much for taking the time to respond! Yeh think 18T is the way to go. More twiddly guitar bits and gear chat from your channel please, love it! All the best
Can I use the two Stereo Inputs to run Main Keys in stereo mode?
Have you had any bluetooth or wifi issues? I've read some comments with people having problems with those.
My primary use for this would be to run all my instruments through (synths, guitar, mic, keyboard, mpc) and record in to my DAW. Would this be a good fit? How are the preamps? What are some cons with this unit?
No BT or Wifi issues. The preamps sound great. Having the SD card is brilliant so you don't need to connect a computer....record on the card and copy them over!
I think you should add that it doesn't have to be an ios tablet. This mixer also accepts the android platform as well, which is a big part of what sold us.
I didn't realise I'd not mentioned that.....apologies! I did it without realising as I've got an ipad!!
Excellent vidéo. I tried à multichannel recording. I worked but volume level are too low. I used gain assist and auto gain to fix the gain. What would you recommend to get enough signal ?
I’ve found the auto assist (the one that makes sure it’s not distorting) is a bit too aggressive and can reduce the level from a peak and you end up losing too much gain. I’ve worked out roughly where the channels need to be. It’s still on the low side but there is no noise so I just boost them once I import them into a DAW.
@@iamtjwalker thank you very much for your answer, glad to see that others have the same issue with the gain assist system. I will adopt your strategy and increase a little bit the gain set by the gain auto assist when it is for recording.
How.to output main L/R to aux out?
Hi, does it have direct monitoring?
How do u get the recording out of the sd card to like an audio ?
I put the SD card in a reader and plug it into my computer and copy the audio files over.
I'm looking for something like this that can store and recall MP3 files and playlists. Think of it as an all-in-one mixer/mp3 player. The use case here is prerecording and playback/queueing of run-up songs for athletes, fight songs, anthems, etc. Would anyone be able to recommend something?
I have an issue that I can't seem to find a solution to. I can't get any sound from the headphone jacks when trying to listen to Main L/R outs. I can hear sound through each solo channel when I turn on headphones seperatly in each channel. When I turn off the solo headphone option and try to switch to main L/R Main headphones I get silence. I was hoping you or a fellow subsciber could help me solve this problem. I am thinking it is a simple fix ( like turning on a switch) I am missing something to turn them on. Thank you in advance.
I think you need to go to config/outputs/headphone (A or B) and then select "source". If you choose Main L/R as your source that should fix your problem.
hi very instructive video. I just bought the cq18T. when I record on the sd card how can I listen what I have record Please HELP I NEED SOMEBODY
You go into the input screen and set the input from analogue to SD card and it will play back on the channel you recorded it on. (I’m doing this from memory so I can’t give more specific instructions but that’s basically how you do it.)
Can this be used as a 16 in audio interface?
24 in I think
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Please tell me if it is possible to sing live with the band at concerts. I'm very interested. Thank you very much
hi how are the internal effects?
I find them ok....I think I need to do a video demo on them as several people have asked!
definitely! most of the videos are from right after the launch and sincerely most of them they are like from shops that want to show only the good things.... in any case in Europe is sold out almost anywhere so it should be good I've ordered one I'll get it in a couple of weeks hopefully
Er.... that unit has more mic inputs than I have friends....
15 friends isn't bad!
@@iamtjwalker if only! Actually the unit has more on/off power switches than I have friends....
Those non-combo jacks can be used for guitar processors too. We use 5 just for guitars. Two of us run stereo plus one bass which also uses a modeler.
Why won’t it let me touch my fucking screen?