hello again and welcome back to the
channel. i thought for this episode we
would take an overview look at the
behringer xr18 and the midas mr18.
a walkthrough from the front panel
connections all the way through the
outputs.
the features, and the faux pas. on that
note let's start with the ethernet
connector.
ethernet is for control software. no
audio passes through here.
you can hardwire your computer directly
here, or you can use the wi-fi to connect
with your computer or tablet. and that
brings us to
the faux pas: don't ever count on the
built-in wi-fi
for anything important. there are two
kinds of xr18 users-
those that have had the built-in wi-fi
failed them at a gig,
and those that will have the built-in
wi-fi them at a gig. it's just not very
robust
and when you're in a heavy cell use
place, like a packed gig,
the wi-fi gets overwhelmed. basically the
built-in wi-fi will fail you when you
need it most.
the answer is simple: just add an
external dual band router.
any decent dual band router will serve
you much better.
i'm using an asus rtn
56u with mine. with an external router
for your wi-fi
you'll also have an extra port so that
you can connect a computer via hardwire
for redundancy
if you want. then we have the midi
ports. most users won't be using these
for live situations but I will put a
link in the text below to a midi
implementation chart for the xr18 (and MR18).
next to that we have the usb connector.
this is where you connect the computer
for transferring audio.
this could be for playing back tracks
from a computer, or recording your shows
to multitrack.
this is how you would connect for things
like a virtual soundcheck,
or using the xr18 or mr18 for a usb
audio interface for your DAW.
next, we have the ultranet connector. this
is not the same as the aes50 ports on an
x32.
you can't use the xr18 as an external
preamp for
an x32. you use Ultranet to feed things
like the behringer p16 personal monitor
setup,
and other music tribe ultranet equipped
gear.
below that we have our 16 xlr inputs
and our two quarter inch aux inputs.
all 16 xlr inputs are multiple connector
style inputs and accept quarter inch
inputs
as well as xlr inputs. the quarter inch
inputs on channel 1 and 2
are actually high impedance inputs and
you can directly connect a bass guitar
or acoustic guitar there
without a di. that said if your
instrument cable needs to be much beyond
20 feet,
I would still recommend using a DI and
an xlr cable
into the xr18. the longer a standard
quarter inch instrument cable is,
the more susceptible to noise it is.
the two quarter inch aux in inputs are
typically used for an mp3 player for
walk-in music and break music.
below all of these we have our six xlr
aux outputs. these would be where you'd
connect your stage monitors typically.
these could also be for a recording feed
or a stream feed...
if you're not using usb for those feeds.
for stereo outputs, like you might use
for in-ear monitors,
we'd use a pair of these xlr outs. And
you can link the outputs within the
software.
to the right of these outputs we have
our main left and right output for our
front of house speakers.
and lastly we have a headphone jack, and
a volume control, where the engineer can
solo and listen to channels and mixes.
let's take a look at the x-air edit
software.
this area is where you'll connect with
your computer and set up some of the
options.
if you load mixer to pc then when the
two devices connect
the last settings from the xr18 will be
loaded
into the xr edit software.
if you load pc to mixer then the
settings in the pc
will be loaded to the xr18 and erase
whatever the last show in the
xr18 was. always be careful with this
if you don't want to lose any settings.
use the save option first if you need to!
the default settings will get you
rolling fine in the audio section.
in the monitor tab, it's important to
know that these are talking about the
engineer's monitoring.
this is not talking about stage
monitoring. this is what the headphones
are being fed
and not the stage monitors. AFL
means after fader listen. what you hear
in the headphones will track with the
fader level
if what you're monitoring is set to AFL.
PFL means pre fader listen.
when you solo a channel or bus to listen
in PFL mode,
then you'll hear what is in the channel
or bus regardless of the fader setting.
this would be the normal live sound
reinforcement setting(s).
PFL also means the meter will show you
the input level of the channel
regardless of the fader setting.
in the gui preferences tab, probably the
one change you'll want to change from the
default
is to check the bus buttons 'show bus
names' option.
this lets you name the bus buttons in
the output section of the software.
let's look at the channels.
when we take a look at a channel the
first thing we need to concern ourselves
with
is the gain control... unless your microphone or DI
requires phantom power.
if that's the case, then the first thing
we need to do is make sure and enable
phantom power on that channel. since
we're dealing with digital consoles,
the meters are in dbfs- db full scale.
unlike on an analog console, on these
meters
0 is the max. it's the top of the scale.
we want to set our gain to hit around
-18 dbfs
on average on the input meter. it can
peak 3 or even six db higher,
but we want to be in this window. an
important point to know about the gain
control
is that it's our first point in signal
flow that we have control over.
everything follows the gain. if we change
the gain then
we change the signal fed to everything
else in the channel.
The monitor sends, effects buses, even the
house.
they all go up and down with the gain
control.
if you've ever adjusted the gain after
setting the monitors,
and someone complained their monitor
changed, well it did.
that gain control change also changed
their monitor level.
with the gain being first in signal flow,
that's why it's important to set the
gain first,
and try and avoid changing it later. the
next point in the signal flow
is the high pass filter, or AKA low cut. we
can use the low-cut filter to roll off
lows
below whatever our source can produce.
that way the flute channel isn't trying
to pick up the lows of the kick
or the bass guitar as those sounds wash
over the stage.
this is the traditional way of removing
low end mud from a channel.
on our sends we have tap point options.
for monitors, you almost always want the
sends not to be
post fader, but do you want them to get
the channel eq
changes, the gates and the compressor?
this chart shows the different options
you have with these tap points.
i'll leave a link above to a video that
goes into more detail about these
options.
we also have the option of post fader
sends, or making any send into a
subgroup.
if you're using aux fed subs, this would be
an example of a place where you would
want a post fader send.
a sub group is useful when you want to
group several similar channels together
for a master level control for those
channels.
we can make these pickpoint changes on
the sends on a channel by channel basis,
or we can highlight the globe icon in
the right hand corner.
when the globe is highlighted, then a
change on that channel
will be applied to all the channels.
these global changes
only apply to the tap points, not any
other changes on the sends like levels or
anything else.
the effects sends also have these
options but typically effect sends will
be
post fader. we of course have our eq
section,
which is basically self-explanatory. one
thing in the eq
section is this is the place where we
can turn on the RTA.
RTA stands for real-time analyzer.
an RTA will give us a visual
representation of our signal and it will
show us exactly where feedback is
happening.
every channel has a gate option. the
presets are fairly solid,
though it's important that you set your
gain correctly in the first place,
and you adjust the threshold for your
own source.
every channel has a compressor as well.
really just like the gates,
the compressor presets are functional if
you adjust the threshold for your own
signal.
the compressor section also has a mix
control.
for normal compression, the mix control
will be at one hundred percent.
if it's at zero percent then the
compression isn't doing anything.
the mix control allows us to do parallel
compression.
parallel compression is its own video,
but it's become a popular effect where
you run a mix of heavy compression,
versus no compression on something like
vocals or drums...
and you use the mix control to blend
those two things.
in the channel section marked main we
have our DCA
assignments, our mute group assignments,
our assignments to the left right bus,
our channel pan control, and we have auto
mix.
DCAs are another way to group channels.
mute groups are simply a way to mute a
group of channels.
let's talk about auto mix.
auto mix is not going to mix your band
for you.
what it is going to do is give you a
major hand in handling a panel at a
conference where you have several mics
and anyone could speak at any time. it's
hard to chase several open mics at a
conference.
auto mix does that for you. you still
have to set the gain and eq for the mics,
and the fader, like you normally would...
and then you assign the mics to either x
or y
on the auto mix channel. x and y is
really just two separate sets of auto
mix
channels. you're likely going to want
your conference panel
all on just one of those options so
let's say x for the panel.
if you have a couple of mic'ed lecterns in
the room, those might be where you would
assign those mics to the y
assignment for auto mix. auto mix will
now adjust those mic
levels for you, turning down unused mics,
and not allowing too many open mics to
be too far
open at the same time. once again, it's
important that you set the gain and the
fader properly to begin with.
it's not going to do everything for you.
it's a helping hand,
but not really automated to the point of
doing everything.
the default weight setting at zero is
typically fine here.
next we have the effects rack section.
unlike on the x32 and the m32,
where we have eight stereo slots, here we
only have four stereo slots.
but the xr18 and the mr18 allows us to
insert
graphic eqs directly on the outputs.
the x32 and the m32 requires us to use
slots in the effects rack for that.
this makes the four slots of the xr less
limiting than they might seem at first.
this takes us to the outputs. if we
choose a bus button,
or the main bus, and click that bus in
the fader tray,
that gives us access to the options for
the outputs.
we have our eq, we have our compression...
this is where we link buses for stereo
monitors, like in-ear monitors might be.
we can also assign the buses to our main
left-right outputs, but we wouldn't do
that for monitors or a stream mix.
we'd do that for subgroups mainly. if you
ever notice your monitor mixes are
coming
up in your house, it's a good bet you've
got a monitor bus
assigned to the left and right outputs.
it will still feed the monitor
exactly like it should when that happens,
but it'll feed your house too!
when you press a bus output button, you
can right click on the master section
and that will allow you to rename and
recolor that bus...
assuming you made the gui preferences
change like i mentioned at the start of
the video.
the xr18 playlist link above has videos
that delve into many of these topics
in more detail, so be sure and check that
out if you need more information about
the topics that we've touched on here.
i've now added a patreon page so if
anyone is interested in that i will
leave a link in the text below.
if you like information like this, then
please like and subscribe to the channel,
click the bell for notifications, click
the affiliate links in the text below to
support the channel,
and i will see you next time
[Music]