Behringer Air mixers? XR18 in particular

paulmapp8306

Are these things worth it?

I currently use a Soundcraft mixer (Signature 12) - its 12 channels (6 mono and 3 stereo) but was actually bought for home primarily - its a 12 in 14 out interface.

But - Im looking and the XR18.  The upside is its smaller (will give me desk space back at home and easy to transport live) AND has a lot of stuff I dont have for live (31 band GEQ, 4 band para, compressors, limiters, de-essers etc - 6 monitor outs v my current 2 etc).  

The down side - no control surface in its own right.  I can use my PC at home - but would need to get used to needing my PC on whenever I play (which it is most of the time at present, but not always).  It would connect via Ethernet in this context.  Live Id need to buy a tablet (as I dont have one) so that ups the cost - or I have an old laptop I could re purpose (battery isnt great, would need to be mains plugged at the time).  Adding the Tablet means I could use that at home as well - taking up less desk space than the mixer does currently.

I could keep the sound craft as a hardware backup, or option or could sell and recoup some costs (enough to cover the tablet as long as I go android plus a little more probably).

So - is it work changing?  What I have works fine, but it does take space, and does lack those "plug in" processor bits.  Recording/mixing is fine as I have Studio one 4 plus other plugins - its just for practice, as an interface and possibly for live. 

kennedydream1980

Factor in a 5g router as well as the internal WiFi on the XR18 is terrible.

paulmapp8306

That could well be a deal breaker.

Obviously not if I use the laptop live as I could use Cat5, nor for home use as the tablet would be directly in front of the XR - with the PC via Cat 5 being used 95% of the time  - but yeh for walking out front and mixing for a tablet not great news.  

Danny1969

I'm about to pull the trigger on a Soundcraft Ui24 ..... for a cheap surfaceless mixer it looks a better bet than the x18 which doesn's have enough aux sends for ears, or enough inputs for the band unless everything is mono 

It's about £200 more than the Behringer but spec wise pisses all over it

Danny1969

Oh and for live recording the Ui24 can record direct to USB in multitrack and ASIO multitrack to laptop at the same time !

paulmapp8306

I did look at the Ui12 - but not enough ins/outs really, and the Ui16 is still short of the XR18.  The 18 is enough for what I need in that respect.

sw67

I have my macbook connected via ethernet but a £20 used airport extreme and a ipad mini i had lying in a drawer will be getting used tonight. Has worked so far at home and makes the perfect set up with wireless for out front sound and back up laptop hard wired on stage

kennedydream1980

Danny1969 said:

Oh and for live recording the Ui24 can record direct to USB in multitrack and ASIO multitrack to laptop at the same time !

We are looking at upgrading out XR18 to the UI24. It will be interesting to see how you get on with it Danny.

mike257

I've got an XR18 in hire stock that goes out on small gigs. Very happy with it. I have it in a rack with a small, inexpensive TP Link mini router in the back permanently wired in, and an Android tablet that lives with it full time. 

Gives you a lot of capabilities that you can't get in a small analogue setup without spending a lot more money. Been very pleased with it for the cash. 

Roland

We use the X Air, plus an external wireless router. It gives us six Aux channels, of which we use five for IEMs. We record from the desk, pre-EQ and faders, into Reaper running on a MAC PC which is hardwired in. The MAC also means that we can still manage the mix of the Wi-fi goes down.

Danny1969

kennedydream1980 said:

Danny1969 said:

Oh and for live recording the Ui24 can record direct to USB in multitrack and ASIO multitrack to laptop at the same time !

We are looking at upgrading out XR18 to the UI24. It will be interesting to see how you get on with it Danny.

I’m only buying it to run on stage for our IEMs mate ... running of splits . Tthe theatres all tend to have their own desk this is just so the band can I have their IEM mixes already set up and not rely on the FOH mixer to get involved with our IEMs as they really can’t do it properly from  front house. 

That eight aux  sends and stereo left and right means I can run five stereo IEM feeds ..  I really can’t be doing with mono ears thats just barbaric in this day and age

John_P

Cracking little desks.   I do live sound for bands and I also have an x32 but it’s rare I bother with it and even for bigger room I often just take the xr18 rack for the convenience and I find the software quicker to wizz around.    

As said above get a cheap 5g router and a cheap tablet and you’re sorted. 

davros

Been very happy with the RCF M18, appears very similar to X18, and Wifi is very good. I never even use the antenna.

paulmapp8306

I did look at that - but its iPad only which ups the cost considerably if you dont already have one.

John_A

Danny1969 said:

Oh and for live recording the Ui24 can record direct to USB in multitrack and ASIO multitrack to laptop at the same time !

So can the xr18

external router is needed if you are using wifi, other than that it’s  great, what surprised he after upgrading is just how much better it sounded than our old analogue desk

paulmapp8306

Any 1080p 10" tablet OK - something like:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phablet-Android-Support-Bluetooth-TYD-107/dp/B083GXTJY4/ref=sr_1_13?keywords=10%22+Tablet&qid=1582401968&sr=8-13

 or should I go for something better from Samsung? (over twice the price though).

a surface for the XR would be the only thing its used for.

something like this in the middle ground:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TECLAST-Processor-Acceleration-1920x1200-Bluetooth/dp/B07Y51KL5Z/ref=pd_sbs_147_13?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07Y51KL5Z&pd_rd_r=073e2b32-34fb-4afb-b4b9-e52219fbe762&pd_rd_w=AMNix&pd_rd_wg=jWFSq&pf_rd_p=96cae456-8d7a-4bc1-91c7-9b20b4dfd7c9&pf_rd_r=W16073QCN28VAHKBTBBQ&psc=1&refRID=W16073QCN28VAHKBTBBQ

davros

RCF M18 can do android too, i run it on a £50 amazon fire tablet, but not PC

davros

...and a separate app just for controlling your monitor mix, so 6 people can connect their phones up to control one of the auxs each

siremoon

I have an XR18 and I've found it to be excellent.  The wifi issue has been documented to death but I had an old dual band router already which I take with me to gigs.

Musicwolf

Another happy XR18 owner.  Audio and spec wise it is fantastic for the money provided that;

You already have a suitable laptop or tablet with which to control it (otherwise the cost isn't so great)

You are happy to mix from said laptop

You connect via either a copper wire or you already have, or have factored in, a seperate wifi router

I mix from the stage so I have snapshots for 2 or 3 different mix scenes which are switched, using MIDI, from my Helix.

I routinely record practices using Reaper on the same laptop as I control the mix with.  You can playback the recorded tracks through the same desk channels in order to do a 'virtual soundcheck' which is very useful if you don't have a dedicated Engineer.

Danny1969

John_A said:

Danny1969 said:

Oh and for live recording the Ui24 can record direct to USB in multitrack and ASIO multitrack to laptop at the same time !

So can the xr18

external router is needed if you are using wifi, other than that it’s  great, what surprised he after upgrading is just how much better it sounded than our old analogue desk

I thought the X18 only had one USB socket ..... what I was referring to was the Ui24 ability to a make 2 multitrack recordings on 2 different devices at the same time, a feature the desks I've used before like the QU series and Tascam DM's didn't have.  Every digital desk can record to multitrack but often it's a  B type  socket for ASIO and an  A type socket for 2 track rather than both multitrack

There's been a couple of times I've come unstuck recording wise so the ability to record 2 multitrack's of the gig is quite appealing

I did look at the X18 as it's only for running our monitors onstage and the X18 is nice and cheap but there's no way of getting five stereo mixes out of it ... as far as I can tell  which is what I need.   Plus 16 channels is a bit limiting when I need 8 for drums minimum then got 4 keyboards, 2 guitars, bass and 4 vocals