Hi everyone!!!
I wanted to ask if any of you are using the BEHRINGER Xari XR18.
I was looking for a digital mixer for our band , and I liked the idea of being able to control some of the Main Mixer controls within GIG .
The idea is to use my PC where I currently only use it for GIG and interface with XR18.
I wonder if I might have performance problems with my Laptop, because I would also like to record with a DAW (Ableton).
PC Specs
Intel Core i9-12900H laptop,Ram 16 GB DDR5, 1024 GB SSD, GeForce RTX 4060 8 GB, Windows 11 Home
My band uses the XR18. Fantastic piece of kit.
We use wifi to control it though. iPad for FOH and phones for monitor mixes.
I use IEM’s in stereo from the XR18 and we have a couple of mono IEM’s and a floor monitor running. We don’t have a sound guy so after sound check FOH is mostly static. I use the iPad to adjust my IEM mix though.
I also record our gigs as multitrack in to an iPad running either cubasis or logic. This works so well, although Cubasis seems a bit easier to set up.
Not sure I’d want to do mixer and GP from the same device, although i know it’s possible.
Do you mean performance problems if you use GP as a mixer?
That obviously depends on how loaded your computer is, but probably not, mixing without effects isn’t really taxing.
But it’s relatively easy to test, isn’t it? What works for some may not work for you.
I’d say mixing in GP can work, especially if it’s one static mix, and assuming you have all the inputs and outputs. The usability of doing it this way is another story though.
If you have separate monitor mixes I’d say go with a dedicated mixer (or a sound card that can work as such - I used a MOTU Ultralite AVB, which essentially provides most features of X-Air in a much smaller package). Setting up busses and submixes in GP is also possible, I believe, but would be quite cumbersome.
So if I understand correctly you want to use the 18 channels of the X18 to mix the physical inputs for the band and digital (usb) inputs for your GP outputs?
Then you can’t record into a daw using the X18’s usb interface at the same time. It’s either playback (in this case GP) or record.
You might want to take a look at an used X32 Rack. I have recently seen some for under 600,- in mint condition. This would give you much more flexibility in routing, e.g. if you add the X-live SD recording card, this would give you 32 channels of recording and playback independent from the usb interface. The routing for this is not trivial, but doable.
Another advantage of the X/X-Air environment is the expandability in regard of monitoring solutions. There are three different personal mixers available, using different protocols which can be combined in many ways.
Thank you all for the answers. I understood that XR18 is a digital/hardware mixer, but the control interface is only possible via software with LAN/WIFI connection. To manage the mixer you have to use the XAir software that is distributed for IOS/Android/WIndows.
The USB connection, if I understand correctly, allows you to use the XR18’s sound/midi card to be able to assign up to 18 audio/midi channels and thus be usable for recording from a DAW. I read from the manual that via MIDI you can control the faders / volume / pan .
I would use it with GIG just to make an interface with widgets and map the main controls (faders) just to use for some adjustments on the fly during performance when we are without a sound engineer. But it is not crucial in my choice, however it is a possibility. I think in this scenario I should use a second instance of GIG and interface the MIDI channels of XR18. I just have the performance doubt if I use a DAW (Ableton for example) to record and GIG to play. In this scenario the DAW is configured with the XR18 sound card and I would use it to record tracks.
I use the DAW, but I have never recorded multiple channels, so I have no idea what it might take and I would not want to mess up the performance with GIG.
Ok, our posts have overlapped.
In this case, when no audio must be routed between GP and the X18, you should be fine.
But I still recommend to take a look at a P-16 HQ monitor mixer. It’s only 169,- at Thomann and let’s you control any mix you want, FOH, IEMs, stream, whatever.
You dont have to use the Air software. Mixing Station is miles better and more stable.
Yes, the USB out can be configured for 18 out/18in. Makes a good audio interface as well.
By default each mixer channel goes out on a separate channel over USB, so there is nothing to really configre at that end. Just make sure your DAW is set up to receive all those channels.
Take a look here. I tried X32 but ended up with this setup. The mixer works from any browser, phone, iPad, computer, whatever, and also controllable with OSC. And yes, you can record and mix.
Thank you, I am starting to have more ideas, . The setup you propose is very professional which I think comes from experience . We are starting from scratch , so we have to consider the experience which is not much and the budget . I am thinking about an intermediate solution , I would like to start with digital mixer anyway , it seems to me more versatile
We use an XR18 mixer. I use a separate laptop connected USB to record all channels flowing through the mixer using the free version of WaveForm.
We have 4 band members using Behringer’s P16 monitor mixers connected through the matching hub which powers those units so we don’t need to cheap AC adapters.
We have a small ethernet switch plugged in to the ethernet port on the XR. We try to avoid using WiFi as it can be problematic. We use three laptops with that so the FOH, drummer and I can all run the controller software (X-AIR) for the mixer. The drummer and I use that to control our monitor sends and avoid purchasing more P16 (which have been unavailable for a while).
So, I am running GP on the same laptop as the Behringer mixer controller software. I can assist with FOH if needed. But the point is, I do run X-AIR on the same laptop (less processing power than yours) with GP and don’t have any problems.
I do not attempt to have GP control the mixer. Haven’t really seen the need.
I guess a need could be to save money and have less gear to carry.
The latter was certainly a major reason for me to not use a dedicated “mixer” and go with a smaller piece of equipment (which also worked as a mixer but wasn’t call that, and one would still need a multichannel sound card to do mixing in GP).
Yes, that was what I was thinking of doing, or I would use my PC with GIG and Behringer mixer anyway.
It seems to me that for the features and the price (about 488€/539$) it’s interesting stuff, I don’t know about the quality , but if you use it I think you’ll be fine.
Fun fact about XAir
I calculated that to record a 2-hour 8-track 24bit 44.1 kHz session you need about 7Gb. I didn’t understand if you can use a 48kHz sampling rate.
I didn’t use X-Air 18 specifically, but X-32 was fine, and it’s used quite widely. The effects of course aren’t top notch, but I guess that’s not a stopper for this type of use.
Nice diagram!
So this way GP gets all channels for the recording, right?
As you’re only three people, have you considered running the iems in stereo? The P2s can do this and you have the needed additional Aux Outs to link the busses to stereo.
In my opinion a huge difference, especially when using ambient mics.
Yes, the X-Air Edit software does not need a lot of processing power.
I wonder, do you run vsti in GP and send those channels via usb audio to the X18 while recording all channels from the usb audio interface at the same time? Or did I miss something?
The cool thing nowadays is the choices we have. There are audio interfaces with digital mixers built in and vice versa. I think it depends on your preferences and budget. For live work the digital mixers with their ever growing number of usable fx have an advantage, so those fx don’t have to be processed by the computer. And there are single RU sized ones which don’t take more space in a rack than an udio interface with comparable numbers of i/o. On the other hand something like the RME UFX with TotalMix is a sweet system.
This is by no means a sales pitch, but I think the Behringer/Midas eco system is the most cost effective and flexible in their market. My 2 cents.
Sorry, I grabbed the old Version: I changed to stereo IEM by using all 6 AUXes and pairing them. Sounds way better than Mono.
We all have Mixing Station on our phones to Control the personal mixes.
