Allen & Heath SQ7

The SQ-7 is the flagship of the SQ series, built for engineers who want the whole show on the surface at once. The 96kHz XCVI FPGA core again handles 48 input channels to LR plus 12 stereo mixes and 3 stereo matrix, but the SQ-7 fronts it with 32+1 motorized faders, 32 onboard mic preamps and eight assignable soft rotaries, so faders, sends and processing are all within reach without diving through layers. A 7-inch capacitive touchscreen anchors the drag-and-drop layout and metering.

Local I/O provides 32 mic inputs on XLR and 18 assignable outputs (16 XLR plus 2 TRS) with a stereo AES3 digital output. Channel and mix processing includes parametric EQ, a 28-band graphic EQ and a compressor throughout, plus eight RackExtra FX engines of classic reverbs, delays and modulators. The SQ-Drive records multitrack to USB, a 32 x 32 USB interface handles DAW work, and the SLink port scales the rig up to 48 mic inputs across Allen & Heath's Everything I/O stageboxes and expanders.