System Q Recording Environment
A unified musician ecosystem for rehearsal, recording, sound shaping, mix review, and venue playback. Rig, Cube, Racks, Console, Venue, and software all share one operating language.
00 — Why it matters
GIG is not just another interface or controller. These are the ideas that make it a product family.
Analog and software paths can create serious tone before piling on extra plugins or outboard.
A SpaceMouse-style command surface keeps focus, selection, and value changes in one hand position.
One slot, many voicings. Drop in a Neve-style preamp today, an SSL color tomorrow, or trade an 1176-style FET comp for an LA-2A-style opto — without touching the rest of the chain.
The recorded mix plays back at its intended level relationships, then adapts to the room.
01 — Ecosystem
Each player brings a Rig, connects to the band, records through Cube or Racks, shapes the sound, and carries the mix into Venue while Console keeps the whole system under one tactile language.
Each musician plugs into a Rig for sounds, monitoring, playback, processing, and session control.
The band rehearses inside the same connected environment they will use to capture and refine the session.
Choose the simpler Cube path or move into Racks for premium analog capture and processing.
Analog and software stages share one operating model so the sound can be dialed without breaking flow.
Use Console across rehearsal, studio, and live playback while Venue translates the result to the room.
02 — Hardware
The racks are the studio-grade analog core, split as input rack and output rack. The signal path stays analog from input through to monitor — you are always hearing analog, not a digital reconstruction of the sound you're tracking.
Both racks are card frames: every slot ships with an analog PCB card, and every card pulls and swaps. Where competing systems hand you an empty digitally-controlled path you have to fill with outboard, the GIG racks arrive populated — pull a card, drop in another voicing, change the chain without rewiring anything.
02a — Slot × Card
Every rack bay is a slot. Every slot ships with an analog PCB card. Pull the card, drop in another voicing — the slot stays the same, the character changes. Input rack shapes each channel on the way in. Output rack glues the mix on the way out.
Card names are illustrative voicings — references identify the classic units that inspired each card profile, not licensed clones.
03 — Modular I/O
Cubes are the simple modular I/O path into GIG: small nodes for fast setup, smaller sessions, and musicians who want the workflow without starting with the full rack footprint.
04 — Software
System Q Console is the current GIG software layer: a desktop recording and mix environment built around one navigation model, one polar editor, and one visual language for channels, sends, aux returns, inserts, transport, timeline editing, and the master bus.
The software is no longer just a browser sketch. The active build combines channel faders and send banking, solo / mute / record-arm, group and aux selection, hardware insert slots, stereo master metering, timeline markers, cut / copy / paste / undo, scrub / shuttle, and SpaceMouse-style directional control.
Each selected channel, aux return, or master bus uses the polar editor to expose the processing chain: filters, mic pre where applicable, harmonics, gate, compressor / limiter, EQ, transient shaping, exciter, tube saturation, reverb, delay, and modulation. The point is not a generic DAW skin; it is a console workflow where routing, sound shaping, and editing stay in one tactile operating system.
Each stage uses polar editing where the display changes to the selected processor: frequency bands, threshold, width, gain, reflections, delay time, modulation, saturation, and level are shown as rings, arcs, color, and brightness.
Mic pre / filters — input gain, LPF, HPF, phantom, phase and polar level control.
Harmonics — a unique 5-band harmonic processor (H1–H5) for controlled character.
Gate / compressor / limiter — visual threshold, depth or ratio, attack, release, frequency and width.
EQ / transient — multi-band frequency, gain, shape, attack, sustain, and band selection.
Aux effects — reverb, delay, and modulation on aux returns, with sends feeding the active return.
05 — Command
Console is the command surface for rehearsal, studio, mix, and live operation. Its 6‑DOF SpaceMouse-style edit control lets the operator select directionally and turn values without jumping across unrelated knobs, plugin windows, and menus.
It is the shared tactile layer across the whole ecosystem: touch focus, transport, monitoring, faders, and parameter editing in one surface.
06 — Musician Endpoint
Each musician has a Rig for instrument or microphone input, IEM mix, talkback, playback, recording, patches, sheet music, and session tools. It is the personal doorway into the band network.
07 — Output
Venue is the live output and room translation layer. It plays the audio file at the recorded mix's level relationships, then helps adapt that intended balance to the room.
Reference mic feedback can help with balancing and translation, so playback and final checks stay inside the same ecosystem.
Hardware chain from preamp to conversion. Dial in any character—clean, colored, or tube-saturated.
Show up, plug in, track. The system handles routing, clocking, and monitoring so you start making music immediately.
Every musician controls their own headphone mix. No amps, no extra rig—just the network and your ears.
Surface, software, and hardware present the same operating model. What you touch is what you hear.