# QLab interface



## drankin (Oct 13, 2020)

Can someone recommend hardware for routing Q lab output to various amplifiers? I have looked this up in the past, but can’t remember what I found. We have six amplifiers, and I would like to spend $1000 or so.


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## TimMc (Oct 13, 2020)

You mean a multi channel audio interface for the Q-Lab iFruit? You're driving speakers directly rather than through a mixing console?


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## drankin (Oct 13, 2020)

No. It goes through a mixer.


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## Malabaristo (Oct 13, 2020)

I recently bought one of these to replace a smaller interface that died at one of our high schools . It hasn't been used on a real show yet due to the shutdown, but I did enough testing to know that it works as advertised and sounds decent. It's quite a bit cheaper than your budget and does more than you asked for, but it looks like it's backordered now... There are lots of other similar products of varying prices to consider.

It might help get better suggestions if you give us more details on what your sound system looks like and what you want to accomplish. For example, if your mixer supports Dante, then you could keep the audio digital and not eat up six analog inputs. Is there a DSP between the mixer and the amps? Maybe it makes more sense to skip the mixer and go straight into that?


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## TimMc (Oct 13, 2020)

The Roland OctaCapture is in stock at most of the usual dealers. Almost everything else 8x8 or bigger, and under US$1000 is on back order. There are a couple of MOTU units with enough outputs, around 1k (street price) that might work, but I'm not an iFruit/QLab user so can't say which models are suitable.


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## drankin (Oct 16, 2020)

I am not tech savvy on sound systems. We have a sound craft SI expression. Whatever solution we have needs to be a minimum of $1000 or it doesn’t go under our capital funds budget.We simply need a way to route Q lab signals to four or five different outputs.


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## almorton (Oct 16, 2020)

We use a Soundcraft SI Impact connected over USB. Works well, although I would rather the mixer had MIDI or OSC control too.


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## Lextech (Oct 16, 2020)

What about a Dante card for the console and Dante Virtual Soundcard? 64x64, one little cat5 cable and away you go. Card is a bit above 1000, DVS is like 30 bucks.


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## drankin (Oct 16, 2020)

almorton said:


> We use a Soundcraft SI Impact connected over USB. Works well, although I would rather the mixer had MIDI or OSC control too.


What is it connected to? Does USB from the computer control what outputs it uses?

Lextech said:


> What about a Dante card for the console and Dante Virtual Soundcard? 64x64, one little cat5 cable and away you go. Card is a bit above 1000, DVS is like 30 bucks.


 Thanks. That might work. The only question I have is does the Mac with QLab connect to the Dante card via USB cable or network cable? It looks like it has only Cat5 connectors on the Dante card. I’ve never run a board with Q lab before so I am a newbie.


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## almorton (Oct 17, 2020)

The SI is connected to the mac and appears as (I think) a 32 in and out channel sound device to Qlab.


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## Lextech (Oct 17, 2020)

Audio is all over a single cat 5e or better cable from the Mac to the card in the SI.


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## yert33 (Oct 21, 2020)

I have a USB cable I'll sell you for $999.99 US.


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## Malabaristo (Oct 24, 2020)

yert33 said:


> I have a USB cable I'll sell you for $999.99 US.



He said a minimum of 1k, so I've got one for $1000.01

Just had to add my $0.02


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## Jay Ashworth (Oct 26, 2020)

Do you mean "multiple separate outputs from QLab"? You need the paid version to get that, I think.


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## TimMc (Oct 27, 2020)

Jay Ashworth said:


> Do you mean "multiple separate outputs from QLab"? You need the paid version to get that, I think.


The console pic showed the outputs of the mixer... presumably the Qlab computer has been hooked up to the mixer before. After a bit of time, I now think this is a signal routing questions rather than an interface device question.


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