New home setup Behringer XR16 or XR18?

ESBlonde

Speak to me oh wise ones.

So I'm completely new to digital home recording but fully understand the mixing/bouncing down etc. from Tape days.
Since I'm going to buy a half decent laptop when I retire in a few weeks I thought I'd set myself up to record too. It then occurred to me that I could update my little indestructible live mixer with one of those XR16 or XR18 boxes and have potentially more control over the PA in a tiny package. The upside would appear to be using it as an audio interface for recording both live gigs and home recording. I think the XR12 might be too limiting in terms of inputs one in a while.
So the questions are:
A) Have I got it right and these little boxes will do live mixer and audio interface?
B ) Any experience from people here with these devices.
D) What happened to C.
4) Is one preferable to the other apart from Chan/bus options.  The 18 has Ultranet personal monitoring - whatever that is.
C) Ah! there it is.

PolarityMan

We have an XR16 for running the band IEM mix. It's worth noting that it is only a stereo audio in terms of USB recording and I dont think it can be used as an audio interface. I do know the XR 18 gets you multitrack recording.

Tbh though they are PA's not Audio Interfaces though.

PC_Dave

I recently bullied the singer in my band to get an XR18 to help with monitoring and overall mix - I have to say it's great. It does work well as an interface, and you have have 18 tracks into your DAW if needed.

I assume you won't be using the wireless, but if you do then get a separate router.

Musicwolf

I have an XR18 which I bought primarily as a live mixer, however, I also use it to record the band at rehearsals (or did when live music was a thing).  Sound quality is very good.  You get 16 mono inputs with combi XLR / TRS connections plus a stereo pair at line level.  18 simultaneous tracks of recording over USB, 4 effects slots and 6 monitor busses (mono).  You can add multiple P16-M personal mixers for more monitoring options.

Only downside – you need to mix from a laptop (or you can get something like an X-Touch but then you might as well get an all in one mixer).

I’m very happy with mine.

mrkb

I’ve got an xr18 and love it. I run I mics from my drum kit as well as a few vocals and guitar multifx inputs. Glad I got the 18 rather than the 16 as 18 has 16 usb inputs/outputs and I use the MP3 input a lot as well. Great bit of kit for the money. I’m tempted to upgrade to the x32 rack to give a few more inputs and allow onboard editing.

Legionreturns

For the difference in price, if you're recording, XR18 is a no brainer. You get 18 tracks instead of a LR mix. 

I use this in my studio and the results are brilliant and easy. 

Roland

The XR18 and 16 are marvellous live devices. You can also take a digital multi-track recording from it, which is what you need. You can then mix them using Reaper/Logic/etc software on your new laptop.

This is a video from a rehearsal last year using an XR-Air. The audio was taken straight from the XR-Air, and collapsed to stereo. It hasn’t been mixed, which is why the EQ and levels are all over the place.

https://youtu.be/G3SNAqHQbbk

(On seeing the video I realised that I had to re-write the guitar part)

ESBlonde

This is all very useful information and I am encouraged to go for the XR18 (which I've eyed for several years). It just seems like a tool that whilst compact, covers so many basis for me at this time.
Thank you all for your comments.

PolarityMan

For those using it as an audio interface what is the latency like? 

Musicwolf

PolarityMan said:

For those using it as an audio interface what is the latency like? 

If it were me I would be direct monitoring whilst tracking (you still have access to the 4 onboard effects slots) so latency isn't an issue as such.

mike257

ESBlonde said:

This is all very useful information and I am encouraged to go for the XR18 (which I've eyed for several years). It just seems like a tool that whilst compact, covers so many basis for me at this time.
Thank you all for your comments.

I'd definitely recommend it. I've got one in our hire stock and it's just a handy little box to have around. It's been used for mixing small band shows and conference gigs, with a splitter as an IEM system, and as an audio interface on live recording sessions. 

The internal wifi is pants, so I've got mine racked up with a small router permanently fitted in the case, and a little Android tablet running Mixing Station that lives with it. Great little package.

PolarityMan

Musicwolf said:

PolarityMan said:

For those using it as an audio interface what is the latency like? 

If it were me I would be direct monitoring whilst tracking (you still have access to the 4 onboard effects slots) so latency isn't an issue as such.

I kinda like to be hearing the tone I'm using when im tracking for demos at home though. 

thecolourbox

Musicwolf said:

PolarityMan said:

For those using it as an audio interface what is the latency like? 

If it were me I would be direct monitoring whilst tracking (you still have access to the 4 onboard effects slots) so latency isn't an issue as such.

So I suppose recording along to backing tracks or click tracks in the daw is a bit of a pain then?

Musicwolf

thecolourbox said:

Musicwolf said:

PolarityMan said:

For those using it as an audio interface what is the latency like? 

If it were me I would be direct monitoring whilst tracking (you still have access to the 4 onboard effects slots) so latency isn't an issue as such.

So I suppose recording along to backing tracks or click tracks in the daw is a bit of a pain then?

Not at all.  You plug your guitar into say channel one, add any reverb or delay that you require.  You can record with these effects or send the signal to the DAW pre-effect.  For playback you send the output of the DAW (i.e. the mix) to a stereo chanel (usually 17 / 18) of the XR18.

Musicwolf

mike257 said:

The internal wifi is pants, so I've got mine racked up with a small router permanently fitted in the case, and a little Android tablet running Mixing Station that lives with it. Great little package.

I agree (I forgot to mention this before).

I'm using mine with a laptop so I connect by Ethernet cable.

PC_Dave

Musicwolf said:

mike257 said:

The internal wifi is pants, so I've got mine racked up with a small router permanently fitted in the case, and a little Android tablet running Mixing Station that lives with it. Great little package.

I agree (I forgot to mention this before).

I'm using mine with a laptop so I connect by Ethernet cable.

I have a laptop connected via Ethernet (and USB for recording), and I have an iPad so I can move around for FoH sound check and everyone in the band has an app for their own monitor mix. It's really good from that point of view.

PolarityMan

Musicwolf said:

thecolourbox said:

Musicwolf said:

PolarityMan said:

For those using it as an audio interface what is the latency like? 

If it were me I would be direct monitoring whilst tracking (you still have access to the 4 onboard effects slots) so latency isn't an issue as such.

So I suppose recording along to backing tracks or click tracks in the daw is a bit of a pain then?

Not at all.  You plug your guitar into say channel one, add any reverb or delay that you require.  You can record with these effects or send the signal to the DAW pre-effect.  For playback you send the output of the DAW (i.e. the mix) to a stereo chanel (usually 17 / 18) of the XR18.

For the majority of stuff I do having the clean guitar as direct monitoring isnt that useful as it's high gain so I need to be able to react to the way the amp or amp sim is behaving. So to direct monitoring I would need to ABY into an amp but that means I cant record at night or maybe use my helix but then I need to loopback the audio from the helix into the interface so I can get it in the same headphone mix as the track. So its much more convenient to me to jsut plug right into the interface and monitor through the amp sim. Anyway the point being is im not sure if the XR18 would be a decent replacement for an AI for me, plus its obviously missing midi as well. I would like to persuade the band to upgrade from the 16 to the 18 though jsut to get the additional buses for stereo monitor mixes and to get per track USB recording as these units really are incredible PA's for the money. Just not sure if I would put it into use as an at home AI too or leave it as a band thing.

Musicwolf

PolarityMan said:

Musicwolf said:

thecolourbox said:

Musicwolf said:

PolarityMan said:

For those using it as an audio interface what is the latency like? 

If it were me I would be direct monitoring whilst tracking (you still have access to the 4 onboard effects slots) so latency isn't an issue as such.

So I suppose recording along to backing tracks or click tracks in the daw is a bit of a pain then?

Not at all.  You plug your guitar into say channel one, add any reverb or delay that you require.  You can record with these effects or send the signal to the DAW pre-effect.  For playback you send the output of the DAW (i.e. the mix) to a stereo chanel (usually 17 / 18) of the XR18.

For the majority of stuff I do having the clean guitar as direct monitoring isnt that useful as it's high gain so I need to be able to react to the way the amp or amp sim is behaving. So to direct monitoring I would need to ABY into an amp but that means I cant record at night or maybe use my helix but then I need to loopback the audio from the helix into the interface so I can get it in the same headphone mix as the track. So its much more convenient to me to jsut plug right into the interface and monitor through the amp sim. Anyway the point being is im not sure if the XR18 would be a decent replacement for an AI for me, plus its obviously missing midi as well. I would like to persuade the band to upgrade from the 16 to the 18 though jsut to get the additional buses for stereo monitor mixes and to get per track USB recording as these units really are incredible PA's for the money. Just not sure if I would put it into use as an at home AI too or leave it as a band thing.

If you are using a computer based sim then yes, latancy will be an issue.  I'm afraid that I don't know what the figure is as I don't use mine this way (I record from either a Kemper or a Helix).

John_A

Just to add multitrack recording is only on the 18, the 16 is just stereo.  As others have said, with an external router they make an excellent live mixer, and would be 'more than good enough' for home recording and is a bargain if you need all the inputs, if you sent a cheap dedicated audio interface for recording might be a better bet

PolarityMan

Ive never needed an external router tbh but we are literally only using it for monitor mix so were not constantly tweaking or anything

John_A

PolarityMan said:

Ive never needed an external router tbh but we are literally only using it for monitor mix so were not constantly tweaking or anything

We didn't either until one gig where the network was so congested the internal one just wouldn't work, the signal dropped with fortunately the vocal mic unmuted (nothing else) I did the gig using an 8" monitor as backline.  Bought a used Apple airport for £20 and it was solid as a rock