I wanted to talk a little bit about the
effects rack in the Behringer xr18 and
the Midas mr18. I still see a lot of
questions and confusion surrounding it
and in particular setting up reverbs
delays and choruses.
first, out of the box the effects rack is
already set up in the basic
configuration that most will want... but
you might want a different flavor of
Reverb or whatever in the slots. for
example, here is my Baseline effects rack
for the xr18.
I use slot 1 as my drum verb.
Slot 2 is my main vocal verb.
slot 3 is my utility Reverb.
and Slot 4 is my delay.
but outside of these flavor options as
to what is in the effects rack, the
general configuration of a newly
initialized console is already how most
are going to want it configured.
the confusion is generally right here.
people see "off" and think it needs to be
"on". at first glance that would seem to
make sense, but this doesn't mean the
effect is off. we need to take a look
above this. there is an 'insert' button
that is grayed out. these two options
below the insert button are for when the
effect is inserted. I'll get to what
inserted means in a moment. for the way
most are going to want to use the
console you don't want these effects
inserted. you're going to want them how
they're already configured. if you've
been struggling with your reverbs delays
and choruses, your time-based effects, make
sure the insert button is not engaged.
and set these all to off.
alright, next let's look at the effects
return faders.
make sure they are at Unity as shown
here.
now let's move to the master effects
sends.
choose each effect send button, one at a
time, here.
and for each one make sure the master
effects send fader here is at Unity.
by default on a freshly initialized
console they will already be set this
way...
but if you've already been making
changes you might have changed these.
these are being used no differently than
how they would be used on an analog
console.
now if we connect a mic to a channel,
talking into the mic... and set our gain...
testing one two three four five testing
testing... setting gain... one two three four
five...
then bring that channel fader up Channel
up... one two three four five test test
Channel up Channel up. and then finally
switch to the sends tab.
we bring our vocal Reverb up like this.
let's say it's the Reverb in effect slot
2. bringing up Reverb One Two Three...
Reverb in FX slot two... check one two... more
Reverb... One two lots of Reverb... lots of
Reverb!... bringing the Reverb down to
something more manageable... one two three
four five... Reverb Reverb... check check...
I always talk about signal flow and this
is another place that understanding
signal flow can help you understand what
is happening here.
we have the mic connected to a channel.
we have our main Channel fader.
we have our effects sends that are post
fader.
post fader here means they take their
feed after the channel fader.
we have the individual Master effects
sends.
and then we have the effects returns.
in the basic configuration the microphone's
Channel feeds the Left Right outputs of
the mixer.
also in this basic default configuration,
the effects returns feeds the Left Right
output of the mixer.
so the Reverb or other time-based effect
that you add via the channel fx send is
sent in parallel with the mic's normal
signal. all the way to the output of the
console.
in fact if you look here, the Reverb is
not actually combined with the vocal
signal until it hits the main outputs of
the console.
the channel effects sends allow you to
add more or less Reverb or other
time-based effect by how much of the
Channel's signal you are sending to each
effect send.
bringing up Reverb One Two Three Reverb
in FX slot two... check one two... more Reverb
One two... lots of Reverb lots of... For many
of you this is all you really need to
know for your basic mixing needs...
but at the risk of confusing things, I
will mention inserts.
an effect that is inserted is connected
directly to the channel strip or a bus.
the normal type of effect to be inserted
would be a non-time based effect like a
vintage compressor, a de-esser, an EQ, and
so on.
the Behringer and Midas already has
compressors Gates and eqs built into
each Channel and output.
even though the X air and M air mixers
are limited to four effects slots, there
could come a time that you'll want to add a
de-essor to a Channel, or something like the
combinator to an output bus. there are
definitely times a tech might want to
use an insert.
and a bit of background info here- when
inserting a time-based effect like a
chorus, a Reverb, or a delay, you need a
wet dry balance control. otherwise you're
only going to get the wet signal and no
dry signal.
most of the Behringer Reverb plugins do
not have a wet dry balance control on
them.
this is perfectly fine for the default
configuration of time-based send and
return effects.
that's not what you want for inserted
time-based effects though.
so this is just one more reason why the
default configuration is already
perfectly fine for most users.
for things like compressors and
de-essers though it's just the opposite.
you want those inserted.
and you want the full effect. you don't
want a mix / wet dry control.
and you definitely don't run those to
send and return effects for normal
applications.
a general rule of thumb-
time-based effects are reverbs delays and
choruses. you typically don't want to
insert time-based effects, and you
especially don't want to do it if you
don't have a wet dry mix control.
non-time based effects like compressors,
de-essers, Gates, you do want to insert
those.
check your effects rack to make sure you
haven't configured anything opposite to
this.
it's a pretty common configuration
mistake to see a compressor being used
as a send and return effect...
or said better trying to be used!
it's also pretty common to see all kinds
of mistakes with reverbs and delays with
people being confused by that 'off' setting
that we talked about at the beginning of
the video.
this video is not to say you never use
time-based effects as an insert in live
sound, but it's to point out it's less
typical, and to say on the Behringer
there are some limitations that I've
covered here.
always remember to bend or break the
rules you must first understand the
rules.
for a video that talks about sending
effects to the monitors click here. and
this is a channel walkthrough video for
the xr18. I'll upload my default xr18
effects rack to the patreon page. make
sure to check out the other videos and
the links in the text below. please like
And subscribe... and I will see you next
time