Re: So now what?
Hi John,
There are a couple of reasons that recallable gains" are very useful IMHO. The first is that you don't have to worry about the gain knobs being bumped around and changing things when the unit is transported. I have a friend that has a DL1608 and it is one of his biggest gripes. He does sound for his own band only and even in this capacity, recallable gains would be a very usable feature.
Second, as mentioned in another post, it is nice to be able to remotely mix. Part of being able to do that is being able to change the gains when someone gets silly with their input volume (or gets too quiet ...... like that ever happens 
).
As a general statement, I think that it is disingenuous to suggest that only a physical interface can be used as a professional level mixing platform. I know more and more local bands that are going digital ..... and going completely remote for mixing. My local "super church" has a pretty massive mixer; however, most of the feedback, monitoring and controls are done with PC's.
Wireless in general can be prone to serious issues, so I don't want to suggest anything different. I would say that I haven't encountered it in the last 3 months that I have been using my X32 Rack. Others I know that have been using the DL1608 for much longer have had only very minor issues with wireless, or none at all.
Sure, if you are playing a huge gig with thousands of people, you have a much better chance of having wireless interference, but is anyone here seriously suggesting that any of the mixers we have been discussing here would be used on such a gig?
Right now, using a good 5Ghz router and a set of high gain antennas is going to give you a very robust connection in almost all situations you will ever encounter with these small digital mixers. I would suggest that even in a huge venue, simply running CAT5e cable from the stage out to where you intend to mix and then placing your wireless router there would always result in a solid connection regardless of how many people in the crowd were using your specific channel of the 5Ghz band.
I believe that remote wireless mixing is the future. There will certainly be advancements in the technology which will make it more robust than it is today; however, even today the technology is solid enough that it is considered a must for many operators.
As for the Qu-16, I have only a little experience with it in a live situation. I really liked the layout and it feels quite solid. My only real gripe is that the channel VU meters are pathetic (only 3 and the top one means you are clipping). Having said that, the sound is fantastic, and if you can't make it sound good, it surely isn't the mixer.
The DL1608 vocal efx are not on the same level as the X32 and Qu (which are both fantastic in this regard).
