Allen & Heath CQ-18T at a glance:

The Allen & Heath CQ-18T is a compact and feature-rich 16-channel digital mixer with haptic controls and a 7" multi-touch screen that fits in your backpack. As the largest desktop mixer in the CQ range, it is ideal for bands, rehearsal rooms, home recording and streaming, voice recording and corporate AV. This portable mixer with 96-kHz engine delivers uncompromised audio quality, ensuring premium sound in any application. And its intelligent controls and processing tools make operation a breeze.

The digital signal processing utilizes Allen & Heath's highly acclaimed FPGA technology and brings a host of time-saving tools to help users of all experience levels work faster and easier. Gain Assistant automatically adjusts and monitors the gain of the Preamps for optimal performance and to catch unforeseen signal spikes. Feedback Assistant detects and filters problem frequencies on all outputs at the touch of a button, but also allows specific parameter adjustments for more complex acoustic environments.

CQ Series

You want manual control? No problem. Input channels can be switched between two modes of operation. Quick Input provides users with source-specific setting options that can be adjusted via a single knob. Complete Input, on the other hand, gives full control over all channel parameters. The CQ Series also introduces a new set of high-quality, user-friendly reverb, delay and modulation algorithms with instrument-specific presets that are especially quick to set up. The FX Assist function dynamically shapes an effect depending on the input signal for best transparency. The CQ-18T has four FX engines at its disposal.

In addition, the digital mixer impresses with flexible recording and playback options, including a multi-channel USB audio interface, SD card support for multitrack playback and recording, easy stereo recording and playback via an external USB memory, and convenient stereo playback from Bluetooth. The CQ Series' feature set is further enhanced with a pair of free multi-platform apps. The CQ-MixPad app provides remote control of the mixers, while the CQ4You app allows musicians to take control of their respective monitor mixes from their own smartphones or tablets.

Last but not least, the CQ-18T has a powerful dual-band WLAN on board, so connecting to the control apps is quick and easy, even without additional network equipment.