hello again and welcome back to the channel. on this episode i thought we would take a look at
connecting the behringer xr18 to obs for live streaming you'll need to download some software
and drivers and i'll leave the links for those in the text below from the behringer website
you'll need the usb audio drivers for the xr18 unless you're using a mac macs don't need drivers
for the xr18 you should also check the firmware version that you're using in your behringer xr18
and if it's not up to date you can download the latest firmware here and go ahead and update it
while you're at it i'm using the x air edit pc software to control the xr18 and you can
also download that here or the mac version or you can use your ipad or tablet no matter what
pc users will need the xr18 usb audio drivers and you'll want to install those on the computer that
you'll be streaming from you'll be connecting the x air to the computer using usb your cat5 or wi-fi
connection is only for mixer control and not the audio connection next you'll want to go to the obs
site and download the obs streaming software and install that with your xr18 connected to the
streaming computer via usb and powered on we're ready to open the obs software and configure it
obs will look like this you'll want to click file and then settings then mouse
down and click the audio icon on the left side of the window make sure your sample rate is 48k
it should default to your proper desktop audio settings so we can leave that alone
at the mic slash auxiliary audio drop down there should be an option for behringer x air
choose that if that is not there then you'll need to check your usb connection check that
the xr is powered up and try reinstalling the behringer usb audio drivers and rebooting your
computer i'm going to suggest leaving the rest of these settings at their defaults
you can configure your video settings after the audio is connected and working
if you're new to obs their website has a lot of information to guide you through adjusting video
connecting your camera adding text overlays etc and that link will be below as for audio
monitoring you'll be listening to your mix with headphones or speakers connected to the xr18 this
is a configured version of obs as we might see for a stream the mic slash aux meter and fader is the
one we're concerned about that will be your audio feed coming into obs as you can see you have an
online fader to adjust volume and an online meter to guide you the other audio devices that you'll
likely see here you'll want to turn down and mute where you see video capture device that is the
mic on my camera i have it muted and turned down since we don't want that mic audio in our stream
we only want the audio from the xr18 i also have the desktop audio turned down and muted there are
a couple of situations where you might want that unmuted if you have a video to play during the
stream then this is where you'd adjust the volume for that you also might have a pre-roll video to
play prior to the band taking the stage or the service or conference to start something like this
other than that likely the only audio source you'll want to engage is the behringer xr18 at
this point obs is ready now we have some options to consider with the behringer
to know what routing we'll want to use you'll have to answer a few questions do you plan to
be streaming only or will there be an audience in the room with you that will be listening to the pa
if there is an audience in the room with you do you plan for the stream to get the same mix as the
venue audience is hearing or will you want to send a secondary mix to the stream in the case of the
first two options the routing is fairly simple with just a couple of things to consider let's
cover these first two bases first and the third option will take a little more configuration time
let's set up our xr18 the first step is to go into setup and then into the audio midi tab we want to
make sure we have the xr18 set up for 48k we set obs at 48k and the xr needs that same clock rate
and we can close this window now earlier i asked the question about what mix you'd be
feeding to the stream for the first two answers whether you're mixing only to the stream and no
audience in the venue or there is an audience in the venue but you're sending the same mix they
hear to the stream then these are the steps for that click in out at the top right of the screen
to open the routing window tab over to the usb sends obs is looking for audio from usb1 and usb2
so we need to send our mix to usb1 and usb2 so obs can hear it left click in the graph and move usb1
and usb2 to left and right like this technically the default red ring which you can see the key
for the color codes at the bottom will work for either of these two methods if you're mixing to a
live audience in the room with you as well as the same mix going to the stream then we definitely
want the red ring option that way your house eq house compression and master fader changes
will not have any impact on your stream mix if you're only mixing to the stream then that setting
can still work but you might want the option to use the master fader to control the stream level
to add a low cut filter to the stream mix or a bit of your own compression or if you do this at least
you can keep the door open to those changes if you want and by that i mean to get those
options right click on the red ring and choose the light blue post fader ring at this point with
either of those methods you can begin to set up your mix run a rehearsal and record it with obs
you can then listen back on the computer to hear what your mix is going to sound like
and how it will translate you can even upload it as a private or unlisted video
and see what any downstream compression that the host has will do to your mix compared to
what you heard before you uploaded it make any necessary changes to your mix to compensate
for that and try again once you're happy save the show and you're ready to go live with that method
those were the two simple options now let's look at that third option in this scenario
you're performing to a room with a live audience but you don't want the house mix to be what you
send to the stream so let's talk about how to send a completely separate mix to the stream
we're going to have to dedicate one or two of the xr 18 buses for this mix you'll have to
decide if you want mono or stereo for the stream mix you'll have to have two available buses open
on the xr18 4 stereo in either case we need to get back to our routing screen choose in
out at the top right to open the routing screen and then tab over to the usb sends tab for this
demonstration i will have buses 5 and 6 br stream mix but you can apply this technique
to whatever buses you want and whatever buses you have available remember though to link buses
in stereo on the behringer it has to be odd even channels you can't link even odd channels
if you only have one bus available or you just want to send a mono feed to the stream then just
assign usb 1 and usb 2 to the same bus like this if you want it to be stereo then assign them like
this once again technically the red ring works but we have no ability to add bus compression or
eq nor will the master ox faders have any impact if you know you won't be needing those things then
you can leave this just as it is otherwise make a choice based on the key at the bottom
i'm going to choose the light blue ring for post fader by right clicking in the graph
and choosing that option that will give us a master bus fader for the stream and that will also
give us the option to add compression or eq or a high pass filter should we want to now we need to
choose any channel on our mixer by selecting it it doesn't matter which channel now tab over to sins
and click there highlight the globe in the top right it will turn blue when it's highlighted that
tells the xr we want to apply our send assignments globally so we don't have to do this setup for
each channel by itself now on our stream bus or buses and for this example i'm using five and six
choose post fader by clicking here and here since we highlighted the global icon before we did this
all channels now have buses five and six as post fader okay mouse over to the master section and
choose one of the stream buses i'll choose six go over to the fader tray and highlight it by
clicking on the bus six tab above the fader you should see it highlight we have two very important
steps here first tab all the way over to the top to channel and click it if you're setting up
stereo busses in the channel input section at the left click the stereo link button like this that
gives us our stereo busses and it automatically pan them for us and now a really important step
whether you're doing stereo busses or not tab on over to the right to the section
that says main out and deselect the orange lr left right button you want it grayed out
if you link the buses for stereo in the prior step then this
changes both buses for us we don't want our stream buses also feeding the house mix
now we can start to put together our stream mix you can entirely set the mix from scratch
if you want just by choosing your bus mix button and then setting the faders for your stream mix
if you chose the option to do your stream mix and stereo if you look between bus five and six
on the sins tab of any channel you can see a pan control you can pan the channel left or right for
your stream just like this for a mixing shortcut choose your stream bus like this then just bring
every channel you're using up to unity and that includes your effects sends on this bus layer what
this does is create a carbon copy of your house mix since the buses are post-fader now you can run
a quick sound check and record it into obs listen back and now tweak your bus 5 and 6 channels where
you hear it needs to be different than your house mix if you have channels that you aren't using in
the house at all then just bring those channel faders up so the post fader bus will get signal
but unassign those house channels from the mains by deselecting left and right on those channels
this setup assumed you don't have someone dedicated to mixing only the stream while
your house engineer mixes the house for example someone with their own ipad dedicated to mixing
only the stream in that case the main difference would be you'd want to use pre-fader buses
instead of post-fader buses when we made our global bus assignments the video link above has
more information about pre and post fader setups as well as monitors so you might want to click
that for some further background information it's really important that you get your game structure
right so here's a video about game structure and here's a video to help with vocal mixes leave me
any questions in the comments section below and let's hear some live stream nightmare stories
too please like and subscribe to the channel click the affiliate links to support the channel click
the bell icon for notifications thank you for watching and i will see you next time