Texas A&M’s MSC Town Hall Aims High

College Station, TX (October 30, 2024)—Texas A&M may have recently held the largest ticketed single-artist concert in U.S. history, hosting George Strait at Kyle Field, but it hosts (inevitably) smaller gigs as well. Part of that is due to the university’s student-run concert programming committee, MSC Town Hall, which keeps up a busy performance schedule, producing upwards of 15 shows each semester, ranging from coffee house gigs to large-scale concerts with national artists and local stars.

A key part of the campus’ entertainment scene for more than 70 years, MSC Town Hall lets students do more than just push papers or book shows; they get involved in every aspect of production—including audio. With that in mind, the organization recently got its hands on an Allen & Heath CQ-18T digital mixer which is used for events.

Student Travis Whitaker, an executive in a Town Hall subcommittee, has used the CQ-18T, and found he was able to run a performance on his first attempt. “The first time that I touched it was immediately before a sound check,” he recalled. “I ended up just using the quick start mode with Quick Channel presets. I was able to run a full sound check and we put on a concert and everything sounded great.” After familiarizing himself with the console for a few hours, he took the time to access the CQ’s Complete channels, with full processing like parametric EQ, gates, and compressors.

“The CQ-18T is a powerful little thing,” Whitaker remarked. “I was curious when I first saw it, wondering how much it could really do. Once I started exploring the system, I was truly amazed by its capabilities.” Whitaker also appreciated the CQ’s built-in Reverbs with FX Assist, which monitor incoming signals and make automatic changes to ensure the mix does not get overpowered. “The reverb was definitely easier to work with compared to other boards I’ve worked on.”

The diminutive desk fits, too, with the organization’s budgets and goals, as Jillian Weeks, vice chair of MSC Town Hall, noted: ” The scale of what we can do fluctuates with funding and shifts in the industry itself. For the near future, we’ve really focused on platforming the up-and-coming local bands in Texas and surrounding states. I definitely see us growing as we continue to explore what we can bring to campus.”