I wanted to do a longer look at the XR18 FX Rack to try and help answer some of the questions I'm seeing, and really just focusing on the FX Rack itself and how it works. How it's configured out of the box, the options, the common mistakes... Really keeping the focus on that aspect of the console. I imagine with the consoles recently coming back into stock at Sweetwater (links below) there are going to be a lot of new users so hopefully this will be a good resource for them as they come online searching for answers. Other Channel Videos- Want to Know More About the Midas MR18 and Behringer XR18 FX Rack and FX Plugins? th-cam.com/video/dCTcbV-_ccQ/w-d-xo.html Sending FX to Monitors with the Behringer or Midas Digital Mixers: th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html Behringer XR18 Channel Walkthrough: th-cam.com/video/xPsSPK6RKzU/w-d-xo.html 3 Tips For Aspiring Live Audio Engineers: th-cam.com/video/tEX2Prwfh-g/w-d-xo.html 5 Tips for Mixing Live Vocals: th-cam.com/video/oP4sdpkkNhY/w-d-xo.html Direct Boxes - What are they? How to use them? Direct Box 101: th-cam.com/video/6iwW5_Ia9Uc/w-d-xo.html Building a Concert - Production for Trace Adkins: th-cam.com/video/m2dJr5gR77g/w-d-xo.html Guitar Amp Micing Tips: th-cam.com/video/GBTyFxxNNBE/w-d-xo.html My 5 Most Used Adapters for Live Sound: th-cam.com/video/SFzPh3UYAoE/w-d-xo.html ~Affiliate Links~: Sweetwater Sound: Behringer XR18 Digital Mixer at Sweetwater Sound: imp.i114863.net/WDVNDO Midas MR18 Digital Mixer at Sweetwater Sound: imp.i114863.net/NKjKM1 Shure SM57 on Sweetwater Sound: imp.i114863.net/YgZJDP Amazon Affiliate Links: Rubber Mic Clips on Amazon: amzn.to/3FO6VIg Equipment used to make video: ►Sony ZV1 Camera on Amazon: amzn.to/3HJWd3f ►Canon EOS M50 Mark II on Amazon: amzn.to/3avOr1s ► SL40 Podcast Mic (narration mic) on Amazon: amzn.to/3frSrCB "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases." "I earn from qualifying purchases utilizing affiliate links" ~~~~~ Support via Patreon where there are PDF tutorials, Behringer channel and scene files, and other materials: www.patreon.com/AlanHamiltonAudio ~~~ Drum Mixing Tutorial Playlist: th-cam.com/play/PLWtgwSNlxTjMsX8H1K87UcAP17zYSZqsT.html
Hi Alan - Have the XR18 and using it for my band. I believe I understand the effects and how to set that up. We just want to use them with our one singer as vocal effects. Plan to use reverb, delay and chorus. Working to set it up so the singer can turn effects on and off with foot switch as needed during specific parts of the song. It appears I can do that with a midi foot controller. Just wondering if you have specific MIDI info / settings (or tips on midi programming) on how to turn those effects on and off. Thanks!
I'd been pulling my hair out for an hour trying to get these to behave after stepping away from this mixer for a few months. You cleared everything up in minutes. Thank you!
Hello, these tutorials are clearly explained. Without them I would never have managed to make the effects work so easily. Thank you for your good work.
On a real one broski your videos should be the first to come up when looking up fixes for the xr18 because I’ve been looking all over the place for a channel as informational and as diverse in topic (in relation to the xr18) as you
Great job as always. Your videos always answer the questions I have regarding my XR18. Thank you for taking the time to do these videos. Very much appreciated.
This was such a help! Thanks so much for this. Ididn't know about the full scale gain so this fixed that mistake. Most importantly, I was confused by the effects channel faders and was creating *BAD* feedback loops through my reverb and delays. They are all totally fixed and we got multiple compliments on our live sound at our last gig. One thing I do that seems a tiny bit easier, though, is when adjusting the channel's effect, instead of using the channel screen and that tiny blue slider bar, I go to the master effect screen then all the instruments show up (like a mixer page) and the fader is tied to that slider so its easier to move and see. Not suire if I described that well enough)
I think you're saying you go to what is essentially the "Sends on Faders" page to adjust the FX levels. IOW, you click on the FX bus you want to add, this then brings up a page full of the channel faders... and you then go to the vocal channel on that page and bring the fader up. Since it's in "Sends on Faders" mode, that channel fader on that particular page is the selected levels for the FX send that you chose in the master section. On the XR18 software it doesn't technically 'call' it Sends on Faders mode, but that's what it basically is. Some consoles call it 'Fader Flip'. Since the XR18 doesn't have 'real' faders they probably decided they didn't really need to name it that. And the way you select that mode is pretty fast, just by hitting a 'virtual' button and you're directly to the sends on fader page you want to be on. If you really want to go down a rabbit hole and see the idea in more detail, and how it works on a console that has a surface, I have this video about it: th-cam.com/video/d3N9B0xjjT4/w-d-xo.html
Thank you for putting this video out! I was just trying to figure out the FX rack through your other videos and this combines them well. What do you use the “utility reverb” for?
Keys, acoustic guitars... just kind of anywhere that might need a little depth. Or else I might use it for a quick change to a ballad snare or side stick splash.
Maybe it is a silly question but could you please explain what does the green symbol at the top right corner of the plugin at 6:34 do? The one between "X" and "-" ?? I've noticed that if you click on it it changes direction but i cant really figure out what is it doing or changing,,,
The exact point of it is.... hmmmm???.... I 'think' it's pinning the opened FX to the screen so that when you open another FX rack slot plugin, it doesn't replace the first one. They just keep opening on the screen and you can move them around and have all 4 active at once for adjustments. I don't think you have to pin each one either. Just pin one of them and then they'll all stay onscreen as you open them. (Altho clicking the pin icon on a subsequent FX might bring that FX to the front... might check me on that point though). Whether that is actually the point of it, or it has some other point... I dunno. So it's not a silly question.
Ah ok, thnx for the fast reply, so it is not something affecting the audio proccessing (cause this was confusing me since i was hearing no difference at all), its related to screen preferences,,,, thank you again
Alan, thank you SO much for the video. I just got an XR12 and am setting it up this weekend. Using mostly for vocals so I love your examples on the sends and FX....Keep the great content coming!!
Yes, I didn't want to get too far into the weeds talking about things like that because if a user knows about and understands parallel compression, they probably don't need any help understanding other aspects of the FX Rack. That's why I said you 'typically' don't use compression as a send and return effect. Plus, on the Behringer the built-in compressor on each channel and bus already has the ability to do parallel compression via the 'mix' control. So that even makes it less likely someone would 'need' and want' to run parallel compression using something in the FX rack... it's already built in without needing an FX slot and taking away from more typical things that might be wanted more. I've never bothered to test and see how the Behringer handles latency when the comp is used that way for parallel compression versus the built-in comps on the channel strip and output busses. It's always possible the latency creates an issue to not make that work very well to the point someone wouldn't want to do it anyway, even if they understood what they were trying to accomplish. Have you used it that way on the Behringer? Any cancellations from latency and the two signals combining at the outputs with one having to go thru the FX rack compression and one not?
On the FX Return channel(s) you can just de-select the L-R Main button. When it's 'engaged' a channel will route signal to the mains... deselecting it means it won't send it to the mains. That's probably the most simple and most foolproof way.
Hi there! Nice video. It is very clear. i have 1 question. As a band we rehearse with in ears. is it possible for me (vocals) to have more than 1 fx on my vocal channel and to hear that in our in ears? Thanks!
Yes, absolutely... But there are caveats. First and foremost, there are no real caveats for doing it for FOH. I do things like use a reverb AND delay on the lead vocals very often for a lot of shows. So, as long as you blend FX tastefully/artistically and it sounds good to everyone, that is no issue. BUT... when you want to do it on monitors too, or monitors alone... that's where caveats come into play. There are only so many FX slots and sends and returns to work with. The FX can easily be SHARED in the monitors, but if someone doesn't want to hear someone else's reverb or delay, then you have to dedicate a delay or reverb to make that happen. Or else someone wants something FX-wise in their monitors that you don't want in the house. Same issue happens for you and the band. That's when you start losing options for FX for FOH, or options on how you can use FX in FOH. If they are OK with your changes to the Effect for FOH for the show, then it's somewhat less limiting. But it's also possible they want one specific reverb and they want it unchanged all night. With the XR18 you have 4 FX slots. If you have to dedicate one to the lead singer for something they specifically want in their monitors, and they want to hear no ghost reverbs of anyone else in the band, then that is one FX used up just for that lead singer's monitor. And if that reverb is not useful to you at FOH, then you can't actually share and use it for FOH. So, essentially, you need 2 FX slots just for the lead vocalist just so you can have one reverb out front. As long as nobody else is that picky then that still gives you a dedicated FX slot for lead vocals in monitors, a drum reverb for FOH, a vocal reverb for FOH and a delay for FOH. Easily do-able. But if there are a lot of singers and the entire band is picky about ghost reverbs... NOW you've got issues to sort thru and compromises to make... Fortunately, most people aren't that picky and won't even notice ghost reverbs as long as they have a normal full mix of vocals in their monitors/ears when taking reverb in the monitors. But if someone doesn't want the SR vox in their mix, but does want reverb in their mix, then they likely won't want any of SR vox's ghost reverb in their mix either. That is how you start running into limitations when mixing mons from FOH and bands wanting FX in the monitors and having limited FX options. This video explains it better to help you understand what I'm saying here: th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html
Hey, thanks for the video... I suggest you to do a part 2 where you visually show the path of reverb effects applied to a bus used as a singer's monitor with a small amount of reverb fed to it... I recently had a puzzle to solve with loud reverb trails on an xr12 with two busses/two lead singers. The only solution I found was to use two identical reverb processors to independently control how much reverb singer A hears from singer B and vice versa. Do you know of a better solution.
Thanks for the tutorial and I have viewed it multiple times. The issue I am having is; I can get reverbs to work fine but not any of the delays. I can see the delay out levels go up then "bounce" (for lack of a better term) from the effect itself and the associated effect return. However, it does not reach main out. I am listening on headphones and have the In/Out for phones to main L/R. If I switch to a reverb, I hear the effect. If I switch to a delay, I don't. Any pointers or references? Thanks!
Are you able to save your scene and reinitialize the console? I have a feeling you've made some change or changes over the course of time, experimenting or whatever, and have a rogue setting or two in the scene you're working with. It might be hard to find that. If you can reinitialize the console, and then follow the video instructions, it SHOULD work when you load up a delay. The default setting of the console is the typical baseline setting that most need to get going. But if you've changed something along the way, that could be where the problem is. Maybe even forgotten about ever changing it. One area to look at: In the output routing the default headphone output (on the MAIN tab) should be set to MONITOR, not L/R. Then in SETUP/MONITOR the Monitor Source should be AFL/L-R. Channel SOLO and Bus SOLO set to PFL. 0dB on the level settings there. If you've changed your phone routing L-R then that's not really typical, and they'd be monitoring L-R anyway, with the default setup, except then you get all of the SOLO options available to you. So, that alone, shouldn't be the problem, but it is an example of how things that were already OK via defaults might get changed and start leading to other changes and eventually the impacts of those changes could lead to other problems. Of course in that Main output tab, MAIN should be Main L/R. Your FX Returns should all be assigned to Main L/R on the channel level as well. It's possible you have a DCA assigned to one (or more) of the FX Sends or Returns, and then have that DCA turned down or muted. So that could also be a problem for the Delay. You could email me your scene if you want me to look at it.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks very much for the response. I just resolved my issue. It was confusion on what screen I was looking at between Main and the FX 2 (in this case). I thought I had the FX 2 return up in the FOH display but I was actually looking in the FX 2 display. Took a walk, washed dishes, then came back to it and I saw the issue right away. Works great now. Again. Sorry to bother everyone with this braindeadness.
Could you possibly make a video on the x32 for studio users, on how to record some tracks to the DAW while listening to tracks already recorded to the DAW. I’ve been wanting to buy the x32, but I’m not sure it will do that. You have the most in depth explanations, so I would love to see a video about this from you. Most people do videos about live setups, which is completely understandable. Example: I want to record drums while listening to scratch guitar and vox, then record bass while listening to drums. Here’s the catch... I want to be able to hear the drums being processed by the x32 on their individual channels while recording bass to the DAW. Kind of like the DAW is just a tape machine. Can it be done? Thank you!
Alan, your other videos were very helpful in getting more out of a mixer I have used for years. On the XR18 is there a way to use one of the effects channels as a (7th) aux assigned to the headphone jack? Or is it when you are out of Busses it's time to buy an X32?
Actually you sort of can, but you'll need to unassign 1 or 2 busses from their respective aux output: 1. in/out menu → main out: link Monitor → Phones 2. under "Aux out": link (for example) FX 4 L to Aux 6 (any tap setting should work) 3. go to Setup → Monitor and select Bus 6 as Monitor Source Now you have: FX 4L → Aux 6 output Bus 6 → Monitor → Phones output This even works in stereo so if you separate the phones L/R channels you could choose e.g. Bus 5/6 as Monitor and link FX 3L → Bus 5 and FX 4L → Bus 6 to get a total of 8 buses. Now the caveat here is that you can't disable the effect on the FX bus and it can't be in insert mode so just choose something like EQ or limiter.
Thank you for the wealth of information you provide. Am I correct to assume, you can control the FX sends via a DCA? Is this something that is common to do, or advisable? Thanks again Alan!
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks for the reply. I may have misspoke when I said Sends. Just to be sure I would like to clarify the terminology. The Sends (on an M32) are on the right side of the console, with the other mix busses and the Returns are on the left side of the console, a couple of layers down. the returns are what is sent to FOH, correct. Thanks again!
@@mhgreen Yip.... sounds like you're thinking correctly. Although I think you can choose the last layer and all the bus masters are there on the left too... which would include the default master FX sends 13-16. I never use that layer and always hang to the master section on the right so I might be misremembering that. And I was just on my M32 not an hour ago mixing a conference lol
Great video. As I mentioned in the subgroups video, I subgrouped a bus so I can add the same effects (reverb, delay) to all voice inputs using the subgroup. In this video you are suggesting that I shouldn't be doing this using inserts. So if I want to apply an effect across several voice inputs, how would you suggest doing that without using inserts? My guess would be to each individual channel. I was trying to avoid doing that.
Subgroups are a great way to add non-time-based FX like compression... But not recommended for inserting time-based FC (like reverb) when you don't have a wet/dry balance control. Which nearly all the time-based FX in the XR18 and X32 do not have wet/dry balance controls. Plus, a subgroup is not the typical way to add reverb/delay to live vocals anyway. Use send and return and dial up the FX balance on a channel by channel basis.
You have to assign one (or more) of the FX returns to an Ultranet output. You can generally be OK to just assign like FX1L and not assign FX1R and just take a mono feed for the P16 to save on channels at the P16. You also have to decide if a shared reverb works. Lets say in the house every vocal is going to the FX1 reverb. In the P16 maybe the lead singer has only his vocal. So he goes to add that assigned FX1 return verb feed in his P16. He'll hear his reverb come up... but he'll also hear ghost reverbs from the other vocals. He won't hear their vocals per se'... but he'll hear their reverbs. If he's taking their vocals in his mix anyway, he probably doesn't even notice that. If he absolutely has someone he doesn't want to hear in his mix, he WILL hear that ghost reverb of their vocal and MAYBE it will be too distracting. If that is the case then you have to set up a dedicated reverb for that person. A reverb that ONLY their voice gets sent to in the first place. Then assign that FX return to the P16. Now the singer can take his reverb without hearing any ghost reverbs. If you more or less understand that part, then this video that talks about sending FX to the monitors might help it all to click into place better. This is not talking about the P16 specifically, but the concept of shared verbs versus dedicated verbs/FX, and ghost FX are discussed and the info does transfer over to the P16 when you look at the big picture and consider signal flow issues. th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html
Each bus has it's own master EQ on the output... but each channel send does not have any other EQ besides the channel EQ. You can choose the default parametric EQ or a couple flavors of graphic EQs on those mon outs.
No, you'd need to go into the routing... IN/OUT- USB Sends and then move one or more of the 18 USB sends to come from the FX Returns. The XR18 allows you to send 18 total USB channel outs... so your DAW can get 18 tracks from the XR. But those don't have to be from the inputs of the XR18. You can use some of those USB Sends to feed from the FX Returns. Technically, for stereo, you have to use 2, although if mono is OK you can just choose like the Left channel of any FX returns where you want to print the reverb/FX. Another way to do this (and cut down on tracks needed and USB outputs from the XR18) is to route all of your FX Returns to a stereo subgroup (let's say you use busses 5-6 for that). So, you could then move USB17 and USB18 over to Bus 5-6 on the routing graph. This would get all of your FX printed on 'tape' (DAW) Tracks 17-18, but they would already be submixed together. Which may or may not be something you want, just depending on the end goal. If it's just to capture the FX from a live show when you're tracking the instruments and vocals for post production, then it's probably OK for that. If you really want something less restrictive, then you need to dedicate as many sep USB sends as possible for each of the FX Returns you want to print. 4 USB Sends would get all four FX rack slots... but in mono... You'd need 8 to get all in stereo.
HI I just watched the tutorial and it really helped. Thanks so much for spending the time. I currently have an issue that stumps me. Slot 1 and 4 don't return sound to the LR mix whereas, 2 and 3 do. I see signal on the VU meters on 1 and 4 so I know the routing is going to them. Any thoughts on why I am having the issue?
Have you check on the return channels to make sure that they are routed to the L-R and that Main L-R button isn't disengaged? ...Or that they aren't assigned to a DCA that is muted or turned down?
I have owned a XR-18 from 2015. It worked great at first five years, but I noticed that over time the channels develop a pretty severe high frequency rolloff. No two channels sound the same anymore. Its probably a capacitor problem but there are hundreds of them in there. I continued to use it because the USB interface makes it convenient for testing, but eventually it stopped working all together. I opened it up and figured out that the power supply +5V was reading 3.32V so I fix it by replaced the caps in the power supply. (They were bulging after 7 years of use) This got the unit to function again, but the channel rolloff persists. I love the software and flexibility, but at this point I have to retire the device because it no longer sounds good. I wish the hardware had more longevity.
That sucks! I haven't noticed any sonic drop off with mine. I did have a loose ribbon cable issue at one point that caused issues with the left output.
I have the Reaper video that talks about how to connect it and set up for it, but it doesn't do an actual soundcheck example in the video. It's mainly about connecting the XR18 to Reaper/DAW, and the various settings (and options) to use/consider. th-cam.com/video/xYmJGyroVe0/w-d-xo.html
Hi Alan, for example, I have two instruments: guitar and vocal. I have to send reverb to the vocal but not to the guitar. Both instruments go to bus 1. How do I do that? edit: Vocals only want himself with reverb and delay, but there are a couple of instruments on his bus. So, I can't send the reverb to the whole bus.
I think you can do it, but the video doesn't show how. I use mixing Station and it's fairly obvious how to do it when you switch to a particular Fx send. I don't know how to do it in the Xair app
I cannot figure out how to get reverb in my Aux busses!! My band uses the 6 aux out as our in ear monitors and we want to have some reverb on the drums and vocals. I can’t figure it out!
Did you see this video on sending reverb to monitors (link below the comment)? If not watch it and see if that explains it to you... or at least gets you to a point that you can ask specific questions about the parts where you're not understanding or getting lost: th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html
What most people are doing, assuming they don't have an external processor that can delay the feed, is inserting the Pitch Shift plugin on the output (or outputs). You have to eat up an FX Rack slot, but it gives you one stereo or one dual (2 x mono) control. The key is to not use the pitch shift function on the plugin, but it also has a delay function. Just set the pitch shift to the center position where it's at 0, and make sure the plugin balance is at full wet. It gives you 0ms to 1/2sec of delay.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thank you for the quick response. Do you think they could at a time delay function on the busses in a future update or is this technical not possible?
@@Mambl98 I'm just guessing, but I bet it's technically possible. But I'm kind of having doubts they will do it anytime soon, if at all, at this point. With the supply chain issues and limited stock, I doubt anything software-wise is being worked on right now in the XR stuff. But I could be wrong. The fact is, compared to the software upgrades the X32/M32 platform has gotten over time, you could argue the X-Air stuff is due for an upgrade. And if something was in the pipeline pre-2020 then maybe it's not a major distraction to finish it even if supplies of new XR18/MR18 units are not quick to restock.
I really need subgroups and inserts - it is SUPER convoluted to set up on X32/XR18 software but a worthwhile exercise. The LS9 had a similar backflip trick for subgroups that confused new users too. Patching a stereo comp on a pair of stereo busses is a PITA to explain with all the "oh ya, don't forget to..." Lot's of strange clicking for what should be 2 button presses. Very unfriendly! Pro consoles handle it much more smoothly.
I don't think it really works much differently as any other console in implementation as far as in the background, but it's not clear right up front what is doing what. A bit of a GUI tweak or two would surely help.
For each effect in the effects rack, it has the settings Insert L, Insert R, for which you can choose inputs and outputs from the dropdown menu below each of these. Then below this, there are 3 buttons which come on - Insert, Insert and Insert Mode. So what is the difference between all these? And if I'm working in mono mostly (for wedge monitors), is gets confusing when you've got both L and R inserts!
You don't really have a choice for L-R. If you're choosing to insert something into the L-R bus (main out) then choosing L-R for one automatically chooses L-R for the other (so that your balance remains the same). If you choose a DUAL effect, like the Dual DeEsser, then it's two independent channels (what you do on one side does nothing on the other and vice versa). So in the INSERT drop down you can choose two different places to INSERT it. You can insert one side of it on a vocal in channel 12 and the other side on a vocal in channel 15 for example. Or one side on a vocal in channel 12 and the other side left OFF and unused. You could choose to insert a DUAL effect into the L-R bus and adjust the Left and right sides of the effect differently, as long as you know what you're doing and WANT the L and R sides to be different. Dual effects are wholly independent between the left and right channels of the effect. Stereo effects are always the same settings on the left and right sides. Then once you make these assignments, make sure to ENABLE the insert. Of course, like the video points out, make sure INSERTing the effect is what you really want to do versus the normal send/return style effect.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks for your helpful and detailed reply! Do you have any tutorial videos for using the Mixing Station Android app with the XR18? I might try the Windows App, but I'm currently using the Android app. I've just bought the XR18 and there's quite a steep learning curve. Anyway, excellent channel and videos by the way, thanks for all your hard work.
@@neilkendall5499 The XR18 Channel Walkthru video uses both X-Air Edit and Mixing Station showing how to do things on both so that users can see where the two different pieces of software compare, and hopefully making it easier to follow other videos no matter what software is being used. So I would definitely recommend that video: th-cam.com/video/xPsSPK6RKzU/w-d-xo.html Then there's the sister video to that one talking about the outputs: th-cam.com/video/UNO-dACc7YY/w-d-xo.html The two videos above are rather fast-paced because of all the material they have to cover. This XR18 Overview video is slower paced, but has more general but important info. So, you might prefer to watch it next before watching the two videos above: th-cam.com/video/gTM7IdkCprk/w-d-xo.html This Top Five FAQ video might also be of interest to you. It's the 5 questions that (at least at the time of making the video) were questions that I was either getting a lot or seeing on social media being asked a lot: th-cam.com/video/x9wciA2wFd0/w-d-xo.html I have a playlist of XR18 videos on the channel that you can find on the channel homepage.
Hi Alan Can we control with different way ? 1.Send level and bus unity then adjust return 2. Send level and return unity then adjust bus 3. Bus and return unity then adjust send like you video. So which one better and why?
I like 3 better because you can fine tune things more easily, on a channel by channel basis. Especially if you share a reverb across multiple vocals or vocals and instruments even.
The issue I ran into is that the reverb effect is only enabled via insertion. I have no control over how much reverb is applied either. How can I fix this issue especially for the livestream output side of the mix
You have to be doing something wrong in your configuration. As the video explains, inserting the reverb on the XR18 is not what you want to do 99% of the time. It's full wet and no way to balance in any dry signal in almost all instances. Plus, it definitely works as intended when used as a send and return effect. You need to follow the video's instructions on not using the reverb as an insert. Then make sure you have the MASTER send turned up for the reverb FX slot. Then have the Reverb return fader turned up (let's say it's FX1 for this example). So in the master section, make sure FX1 (send) is turned up. Then on the channel strip, make sure FX1 RTN is turned up (turn them up to unity). Make sure the FX RTN channel is assigned to L-R (Main output). Make sure neither is muted. Make sure neither is assigned to a DCA (for testing... you might ultimately want to use a DCA and that is fine but you don't want a muted or turned down DCA to be an issue as you troubleshoot). On the reverb itself... probably wouldn't hurt to change out the reverb in the FX slot even if you go back to the same reverb but reload it. That way you can be certain you're working off default values in the verb settings. By default all of then I/O is set as you'll need it to work as a Send/Return effect. If you accidentally changed something you shouldn't have on the reverb itself, this will get it back to factory default reverb settings. Finally, plug a mic into your vocal channel, talk into the mic, turn the channel fader up... and make sure you hear the mic in the mains or headphones. Then go to the channel strip and as you talk, turn up the FX1 send on the channel and you SHOULD hear reverb on your voice. If you don't, and you're listening thru headphones, my next guess is you have changed the default setting for the the headphone routing and that's what is keeping you from hearing the reverb. If you solo the vocal channel itself you should NOT hear reverb on the vocal channel by itself. So if that is the problem, then that's an expectation issue. Reverb is added in parallel with the vocal and shows up at the outputs of the console (which is 100% normal). But that means you won't hear it soloing a channel. EDIT: This would explain why you would hear it when used as an insert though... so this bears mentioning for that reason. You SHOULD hear it when soloing the Main or listening to the main out. So the caveat in all of this, once you're sure you're following the proper signal chain for the reverb to work, is whether your headphone routing is correct (which is normally fine as the factory default as it set)... and secondarily, nothing weird in your output routing if you're not hearing it in your mains via speakers connect to the L and/or Right outputs.
I redid our signal flow for our in ears the other day, and couldn’t for the life of me figure out why the reverb wasn’t working right. I clicked insert. Which I did think needed to be on, until watching this. All along I was the problem lol.
You'd either need to create a subgroup and bus the toms kick and snare to the subgroup and use 1 channel of the 1176 to globally compress them (or insert the 1176 in stereo mode on a stereo subgroup using 2 buses for the subgroup)... Or use 2 FX slots, each loaded with an 1176 (in dual mode) which would give you 4 channels of 1176 compression. Which could be Kick, snare, tom 1, and tom 2. Or else use a subgroup with a 1176 inserted on the group to globally compress the toms. But each FX rack slot is limited to 2 channels, or 1 stereo channel. So it's one instance of insertion on each side of the unit in the FX rack (in insert mode). You can insert those FX 'channels' on an input channel OR a bus... But it's a maximum of 2 insert 'channels' per FX rack slot.
Dual is like two completely separate FX. So if you have a couple of mono sources, like vocals, you could load a dual DeEsser and use 1 channel of it for one vocal and the other side of it for a different vocalist on a different mixer channel, and do completely different settings. Stereo FX, while still being 2 sep sides, you don't get separate control on each side. So you can't put one channel on one vocalist and the other channel on a different vocalist, AND dial in separate settings for the different (and unique) vocalists. Or whatever mono sources you might choose. If you were to use a dual EQ on your stereo mains, you'd have to manually adjust the left AND right sides. Whereas, a Stereo EQ just has one set of controls which does change both sides to match. The same would be true of a stereo compressor... You don't have to manually dial in the sides to match. You just have one set of controls that perfectly set both the left and right sides to match. With a dual unit, setting one side does absolutely nothing to the other side. So, the choice to use dual or stereo really depends on the end goal. But for all intents and purposes, stereo is generally best for inserting on a stereo bus or stereo channel. That would be true except for some unique and special circumstances that would be outside of the norm. Meanwhile, Dual FX are generally best as inserts on mono busses or mono channels. You might not even use the second side of the effect and just have one side inserted many times. Or you could have a dual comp inserted with one channel of it on a mono drum subgroup and the other channel of it on a mono vocal subgroup. In that case, there's not much chance you'd want the same settings for those two very different sources. But if you wanted to insert a vintage comp on a stereo synthesizer, then stereo makes much more sense. Insert a Stereo unit onto the the two linked channels and both sides will match perfectly in how you set things without needing to set both channels to match. Also, and I assume Behringer implemented this, for something like compression on a stereo buss, you generally want it to engage on both sides equally, even if the two signals don't match ahead of the compressor. IOW, you don't want something throttling the right side when the threshold is crossed and the left side being full speed ahead. So stereo tied keeps things acting balanced between the sides.
Not sure what you're asking? Assuming you're running the reverb as a send and return effect, you can add it to anything you want via the reverb (FX) channel send on each selected (instrument or vocal) channel.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio let's say I wanted to have reverb on all mics but not on any instruments, do I do the steps in the video for each channel that has a mic connected to it, and not for the channels that have instruments connected?
@@CarloCastillo If you don't want reverb on instruments, then you simply don't turn up the channel reverb FX send on the instrument channels. If you do want reverb on an instrument, then you have to turn up the channel FX send for that instrument. Same for each vocal channel. Each channel allows you to set your reverb balance for that individual channel. So if the reverb is in FX1 slot in the rack then the channel FX1 send on EACH channel controls how much reverb you put on that particular channel. If you want none on a channel, leave that channel's FX send(s) off. If you want a lot, turn that channel's FX1 send up a lot. You have 4 slots in the FX rack of the XR18, so therefore there are 4 channel FX sends on each channel. Plus a master FX send and a master FX return for each slot. Which mostly, and for simplicity's sake, you just want master FX send and returns those set at unity. Then the individual channels each have 4 FX sends.
I have a video about that. There are a couple of things to consider when you do it, and you need to pick the method that works best for you (which this video explains). Check out this video about FX in mons: th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html
So confused.....sooooo confused. With regards solely to FX to FOH, please answer these questions: 1. Why does the Fx Sends (blue) need to be at unity? 2. Why does the Fx Returns (green) need to be at unity? 3. What is the difference between adjusting FX via the channel Send vs Fx Returns (green; in MAIN LR window) vs the particular fx's FX Master bus? Thank You
When you're setting up the Effect, you want to make sure you have plenty level INTO the effect from the FX Send and plenty of level for the return. Then, when you go to the channel to set the Effect (reverb for example), when you bring the reverb up on the reverb channel send (whether it's FX1, FX2, FX, or FX4) you know your master send and returns are at a 'good' level. Not choked back or turned up extra high. And not muted or off either. This then means your reverb send on the channel will end up being in a useful and easily adjusted area. Unity can be thought of in this case for the FX as the 'normal' working level. By having these at unity, it means your 'channel' FX send will live in a basically consistent and normal level for what you are hearing in the PA. Plus, it means you know you started with the master FX Send and FX Returns at these 'normal' levels so you know you SHOULD hear reverb when you turn it up on the channel. And you know roughly where the channel FX 'fader' should be on the reverb FX send on the channel for the amount of reverb you want and/or are hearing. Since you're always working within the baseline of starting with your FX Sends and FX Returns at unity, then you're going to have consistency in both what you're seeing (channel FX send 'fader' level placement) AND hearing with the channel FX Send levels at the points that sound good to you. You very well could want to take 3dB or more off the vocal reverb FX return during soundcheck or the show. And maybe put it back later depending on the songs. Or use the delay FX return fader to fly in delay cues and pull them back down for just certain words or phrases... or blend in a slapback echo. For a song that uses a subtle delay, you probably are not going to leave the FX return at unity. But STARTING with it at unity allows you to get a good baseline at soundcheck with plenty signal. But for the most part, they're going to live AROUND unity as long as you START with them there and THEN bring up the channel FX send(s) and season to taste. Basically, you start with them at unity as you're setting things in a technical sense... and then you can make changes as you're mixing and things become more subjective song to song. It's far easier to just bring the FX return back a few dB on some songs for everything than reset everyone's vocal FX on a channel by channel basis... ONCE the show is going... But it's really easy to set these wrong, or not able to get things working at all at set up IF you don't start with a proper baseline of unity in and unity out of the FX Send and Returns. So it's about having a consistent baseline in your workflow, AND consistent reference points... before you get subjective about things. I'm not big on ever changing the master FX send off of unity. Some people prefer to do their delay cues off of the FX Send versus the FX return. But either works.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thank you for the detailed response. im gathering, provided i set fx return/send at unity during setup, that fx return is where i should make final adjustments during show. here's the problem, the fx starts to generate feedback despite not using a lot of it. in this situation, im guessing pulling back the fx return is where the adjustment should be made? i think the small practice room size (not acoustically treated) is a contributor. if youre looking for video ideas, i think this would be useful to some. adjusting fx send vs return and feedbacknproblem solving related to fx. again, thank you!
@@cardp17 You probably shouldn't be getting feedback in normal situations by adding reverb. If you are... it's not going to matter whether you turn it down on the channel FX send or the overall FX return. If adding reverb starts to cause feedback due to level, either would stop the feedback, but both would also mean you have the exact same reverb balance in the end. The same would be true of the FX Return and turning it down or up. Feedback doesn't care where the level comes from or where you turn it down to eliminate it. Volume is volume. It could simply be the EQ on the channel strip or the EQ in the mains (or monitors if FX are being sent to the mons)... Or speaker placement... Or mic placement.... Or overall level in a small space. If you have a situation where you're already close to feedback, and you add reverb, that could be the extra oomph needed to take you over the edge. Also... make sure inn the FX Return (or FX returns overall) that you aren't sending an Effect back to itself. IOW... Example: If you look on an FX Return and see any of the channel FX sends on that FX return turned up any at all... then you're sending that FX back to itself. That is a recipe for feedback and a feedback loop even at a certain point. So definitely check for that. Your feedback issue might have a quick fix right there. Beyond that, when you get in a real venue and outside of a small practice space, that might open up and improve speaker placement, mic placement, overall geometry, and give you enough space that volume levels versus feedback all improve and fix the issue (assuming there's not a technical setting issue like improper EQ or sending an Effect back to itself) at play. And of course, it could be a combination of these factors and not just one thing.
Also... assuming everything else is correct... and you still have a bit of a ghost ring that seems to be only caused by the level reverb is adding... You can equalize the FX return to notch out that frequency area. And the FX unit itself might have filter you can dial in to roll off highs. The other thing that hits me that could be in play is if you're using an Effect that has a wet/dry balance control as a send and return effect, make sure that the balance is set to entirely WET. Not 50-50 or any other setting. Entirely wet. Otherwise that too can cause feedback because as you add reverb or delay (or chorus... etc...) you also add dry signal back into the chain. So that means you house reverb balance isn't changing like it should, AND you're overall channel level is increasing even though you aren't even moving the fader. So definitely go thru your FX rack and look for that issue too.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio BINGO! you hit the nail on the head here. I figured out my problem! When i select an FX Send in the far right window (blue accented box), the FX1-4 (green) faders were all at unity. i was sending reverb back to the reverb send, thus creating the loop. as soon as i turned those 4 faders all the way down, problem solved! THANKS for hanging in there w me! this has been super frustrating, especially with an upcoming FIRST gig and no one to run the FOH mix. MUCH APPRECIATED.
Parallel compression can be a great way to subtly blend the dynamics, I definitely wouldn’t say to ONLY run compressors as an insert. You just need to understand what you’re doing
Yeah, I was just giving a basic example. There are so many ways to approach it. You can get really creative with what you're doing in the FX racks. Within the limitations of the rack. But the channels and buses already have a compressor built into the strip, and a balance control to use for parallel compression... so the process is already available without even needing a slot in the FX rack. Of course if someone is wanting the 'vintage' plugin flavor, we're back to needing the rack for it. My experience has been the vast number of people running a comp as a S/R effect were not getting artistic and creative, but just doing it wrong for what they intended to be happening. So, for what they wanted and expected, they were in a "Can't get there from here" situation.
I haven't been able to solve one problem for over a year now. The vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist feed the signal to the behringer xr18 mixer from the mixer to the Boss RC505 Looper from the looper back to the mixer and to the main. But if, for example, the vocalist is recording a loop, then the guitarist and keyboardist must not play so that their parts do not overlap with the vocalist's loop. We purchased BOSS AB-2 signal output switches, the principle of its operation is one input and two outputs, when the pedal is pressed, the signal goes either to output 1 or to output 2. We connected one to the mixer and set it to send a signal to the looper, the second to output to the main. Assuming that the signal going to the lane will not fall into the looper. But this did not happen, all the signals fall into the looper. Tell me how to overcome the problem?
When I use this setup, and I go to the mains to adjust the vocal volume, it will raise and lower the mic but the effects stay the same level. How do you make these to raise and lower together? Or can you?
You mean the overall main fader isn't lowering the fx? ...or do you mean the channel fader isn't lowering the fx? The channel fader would likely mean the fx sends in the channel are not set to post fader... which is the default and what you want. If you mean the main fader doesn't impact fx levels....that shouldn't even be possible
Hi Alan, (its me again!) thanks again a great tutorial, floowing your setup using the Main LR that ok, however my question is around using the AUX/BUS out puts for IEM, all wortk sgreat but, I find to get the FX!/reverb on say bus one I have to increase the FX1 Return slider on the bus setup, if I turn down the 01 channel (vocals) on the bus I still get the vocals through the FX1 fader, i thought the reverb is added to the vovals channal and would therefor be heard by any aux/bus listening to the vocals, rather than add the reverb to each listener for example
Have you followed the steps and read the concepts and considerations about sending effects to the monitors in this video? I think it probably answers your question... but I'm not 100% sure what it is you're asking. Are you asking if the reverb is directly on each vocal channel, and so you shouldn't have to add it separately in the monitors? That's not the case... the reverb runs parallel to the vocal and doesn't really mix with the vocal until both things separately hit the main output. And the reverb can't even get to the main (typically) if the reverb return is down or unassigned from the main. And it's at that point (returns) that you can send it other places... like monitor mixes, stream mixes, etc...
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks Alan yes I followed and understood yoru video, and yes I can see that the reverb runs parrallel to the vocal (clean) and mixes at the BUS yes I get that, my real questions is that means as a monitor i.e. IEM BUS 1, if I want to must the vocal I would have to mute the Vocal channel adn the reverb as weel righ? As when I mute the vocal I still hear it through reverd, albeit lower volume
@@AlanHamiltonAudio yes I believe I ahve folowed those steps and yes I can see from yoru diagram that the reverb runs parrallel to the clean voice channel, my question sis that if I want to mute the Vocal I would need to also mute the reveb ? as it seems when I just mute the vocal I still here the reverb albeit a lower volume, on BUS 1 as IEM for example, (this is NOT the cas on the main LRoutput of course
@@billtomlinson3287 I need to check because I think if you mute the vocal channel it should mute the FX send too. But you're saying that's not what is happening, right?
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Yes thats correct, the exampel you show in this video is mostly for the main and thats fine, so with the same setup go to a bus and add the vocal and the same revewrb in the bus, note if you then lower the vocal slider in the bus the (dry I think) goes off, but u can still her e the vocal through the Reverb, also muting vocal channel in bus does the same of course
Very useful. thank you. But with a P16M? Via ultranet I can't hear the effects at all! And it seems very strange to me to have a personal mixer for singers who hear their voices without effects. I haven't been able to figure out how to make it work (I'm not a sound engineer, I'm just a musician, I know practically nothing about mixers, i'm ignorant in this sector.
This video doesn't touch on sending FX to monitor mixes. It only illustrates FX to FOH. I was hoping for the same information as you. Our singers really don't want dry vocals in their monitors. After messing with it for a couple hours, I was able to get reverb to the monitor mixes by selecting Pre Fader on the FX slots on the sends tab (seen in the video at 3:09). I don't know if there are any negative ramifications as a result of making this change (they were set to Post Fader as seen in the video). Again, no idea if this is going to create problems so take this with a grain of salt.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks. I've studied that video as well. It appears your strategy is setting monitor effects after the main mix effects, and using the effects slots in post fader mode. Meaning, if you don't have your channel faders up, you won't hear the effects on your pre-fader monitor mixes. I changed the effects slots to pre fader to allow hearing reverb when the main faders aren't up. Am I setting myself up for trouble doing it this way?
If you have available input channels (or they aren’t in use for monitoring through P16) you can instead assign the FX output to that p16 channel on the “ultranet” routing page
Can someone explain how you can send effects to the Aux buses only, for monitoring?. It doesn't seem possible unless the same effect send is on the Main LR output.
Pretty sure it's in the video... If you want it only going to Mons and not FOH, just make sure and unassign L-R on the FX Return channel section... or also (at least on X-Air Edit) in the channel "Main" section of the FX return(s).
Hello, what is your advice for XR12 who wanted to connect in OBS? should i buy a cheap MIXER that has usb interface option? Or just connect the aux via pl cord to line in of a computer?? Which option is best? Pls help and guide me.. thank you so much
I probably would get a USB audio interface instead of the cheap mixer. Doesn't need to be too elaborate. One of the cheaper Focusrite or even Behringer ones.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio alright, one of my problem as well is i dont have enough aux out since it only has 2 aux out.. secondly, if we would buy an audio interface, would that oblige us to use DAW?
There's something I can't seem to understand about how the effects are routed on XR18 that I wanted your help. I do understand the function of the FX send faders for each channel under the sends tab, this is how much of my dry signal will be routed to the FX processor. Then I also understan the function of the main fader (all the way to the right) of each FX return channel (those you set to unity in your video). Then I also understand the FX return faders set to unity on Main LR Layer to allow wet signal to return to Main LR output (which I suppose it's true for each Aux output as well). What I was not able to understand yet is what is the function of the FX return Faders (last 4 on the right) when I have either FX layer selected. (As I reflect on my question and read some of your responses, I realize) Would that be related to your answer to @CG-gp2bh where you explain that the FX return channel would be sending it's own signal back to itself? If that's the answer, this means that these 4 faders should be set to minus infinity for each FX layer to avoid issues, correct? This seems to be an important topic to cover in one of your videos, because people could easily be turning those faders up and having feedback nightmares. Also, is there a situation you see where you would turn up these 4 last faders?
The FX return channels are what allow you to send the reverb/FX to places you want to hear it. IOW, if you want to hear reverb on the vocals in the mains, then you have to bring the reverb FX return fader up AND have it assigned to main (which it is by default assigned to main). This way you hear the FX you put on the vocals in the mains. Otherwise, there's no path to the mains in a typical scenario. Essentially, the FX Returns are just console input channels. In this case, with the 'output' of the FX 'hardwired' to the input of an FX Return. Or probably easier to remember that by calling it an FX Return channel. This is also how you send an effect to the monitors. And by the same token, turning OFF the main-LR assignment on that FX return would take it out of the house so that it's only being sent to whatever monitor sends you're sending the reverb/FX too. Which you'd choose by turning up the monitor send on the FX return channel. Just like you would for a vocal channel. Or a keyboard channel. The way you'd create a feedback loop is if you were on an FX return channel, went to its 'own' FX send on that channel (FX return channel), and turned it up (turned up the channel FX send on the FX Return channel). Therefore, sending it back to itself.
Do you know of a way to EQ the effects send? I am using a MR12 mixer. The busses all have DYN and PEQ options but nothing on the effects send. Would like to be able to EQ the send before it hits the reverb.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Seems like they could be add the PEQ and DYN to the sends in a firmware update maybe. Or maybe somehow route the effects send to a buss that has DYN and PEQ on it. I'll have to keep playing with it. Thanks for the reply! :)
@@michaelmantey6433 I just checked... and on the X32/M32 platform they DO have EQ on the sends. Compression too can be enabled. It works exactly like you'd think too... choose the FX send... and click EQ... and there it is... I don't know if that was left off from the X-Air stuff for memory reasons, or just something to make more of a difference between the X-32 vs the XR18. The X-Air consoles don't have matrixes, or outputs delays, yet the X32/M32 does have those things.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Yep. I have the M32 also. Trying to set up a small system for acoustic gigs with the MR12. We have gotten so spoiled with all the features these mixers have nowadays! :)
Every one of these videos are demonstrated on a laptop. On an iPad it looks completely different. Is there a way to demonstrate this on the iPad software?
I don't have an iPad so can't demonstrate on an iPad. I also use Mixing Station for tablet software so even if I had an iPad, I'd probably be using Mixing Station on it. Although different, Mixing Station seems to have more in common with X-Air Edit than the original iPad software (I've not actually seen this latest iteration of iPad software). But fortunately, X-Air Edit is available for Mac and PC for free and much of the information is setup info, not necessarily mixing on the fly info, so scenes can be tweaked offline at home, in the rehearsal space, or in the hotel and then loaded onto the console for then mixing the gig on an iPad, Android, or laptop and whatever the preferred mixing software is. I did make it a point of using both Mixing Station and X-Air Edit for the channel walk-thru video: th-cam.com/video/xPsSPK6RKzU/w-d-xo.html
I'm running X-Air edit on the PC (can get from Behringer website), and Mixing Station on my Android stuff. But I also have the Mixing Station for PC software and used it in the latest video. mixingstation.app/#download So you can see it in my video here: th-cam.com/video/O_vnsN_TrIA/w-d-xo.html
I was wondering if anyone has any insight into the issue I'm having. I've set up effects on individual channels per this video, but I'm not hearing any effects when using the Ultranet Personal Monitoring system. I feed out into a Behringer 16-channel personal mixer, and can hear everything, but no effects. I've tried looking into all the settings on the app and desktop app, but can't find the issue (like maybe I'm not sending effects out via personnel monitoring?). When I plug directly into the headphone jack on the digital mixer, I can actually hear the effects. So they're working, but aren't being sent out via the Ultranet. Any help is greatly appreciated.
You have to route the FX to an Ultranet output. In the In/Out settings on X-Air Edit there is an Ultranet tab. It lets you choose what is sent to the Behringer Ultranet mon personal mixer. By default, it sends each channel on a 1 to 1 basis to it. Your reverb/FX doesn't reside in the channel, so by default it won't be in the Ultranet monitor feed. I don't have the Behringer Personal Mixer so I don't have a way to do a video on one to explain what is going on visually. This is a signal flow issue so you need to pay attention to the signal flow on this. There are a few different ways to get one or more reverb/FX feeds into your monitors. At least as long as you aren't using all 16 Ultranet channels already. Probably the most simple way is if you have any unused busses. Create a subgroup and route your vocal FX there on the FX return(s) on the mixer. In fact, you can leave the FX going to the main L-R as normal ON EACH OF THE FX RETURNS, and then on your Subgroup you created, in the main section you need to UNASSIGN it from the mains. This keeps the main FX feed stereo without using 2 busses for a stereo subgroup feed. You could do that the other way around too... But you'd need TWO busses to keep your FX stereo for the house. If you don't care about stereo, you could just use the one bus. One way or the other though, you don't want the FX assigned to the L-R at the FX returns and ALSO assigned to the L-R at your subgroup. That would be double-assigning the FX. Caveat: I'm sending the FX to the ears in mono how I am describing this. If you want them coming in in stereo, you'd use 2 busses for that for a stereo subgroup. But that's probably not necessary, and might overly complicate things anyway. And requires TWO free busses on the mixer and TWO free channels on the personal mixer too. Then in the In/Out section, Ultranet tab- Simply move an Ultranet assignment from an unused channel to your subgroup bus. Let's say channel 16 isn't used. Let's also say you made Bus 6 your FX subgroup and turned on the subgroup bus 6 on your vocal FX Return(s). So, make ULTRANET 16 now be assigned to Bus 6 in the In/Out-Ultranet tab in X-Air Edit. Then whatever vocal FX you're using in the house (and whatever FX you send to that subgroup you created), you can bring up on your personal mixer on channel 16 to whatever level you want. This is not the only way to do this. If you have enough unused channels on the personal mixer, you can skip the above and just assign the FX directly to the personal mixer in the In/Out-Ultranet tab. Which in theory could take 8 channels for all 4 FX in stereo. But you could just assign the left side of each reverb/delay/chorus to the monitors and then need only 4 channels (it would be mono of course). And one or more of your FX slots are housing a de-esser or compressor, then you don't need (nor want) to assign that to the personal mixer. And it's also possible all you really want/need is the main vocal FX, so you could just assign it alone, either both the L-R or just L OR R (mono), and just need one or two channels of your personal mixer for it.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio i have 2 questions: 1- is there a way for you to send me the audio mix? 2- how can i put my channel in different sets for example: guitar amp and hall reverb?
Look on the FX Return channels. Check the 'sends' tab of each FX return. You almost certainly have one or more of the FX sends, on the FX RTN channels, turned up. Which means, when you turn up one of the FX sends on the FX Return, and IF it's own Effect, then it's sending its signal back to itself. If all else fails, save your scene and reinitialize the console and come back to this video and step thru the process again. The default settings of an XR18/MR18 is perfectly for normal operation in a live sound setting. So, as long as you have a clean slate console, and follow the video, then there should not be a feedback loop created with any of the FX (unless your console has a problem... and that would be a really rare issue). So, once you confirm everything is working like it should be, you'll need to compare your scene's settings versus the default and see if you can find any odd routing or other signal chain changes that you might've done. Although, the most likely problem is the thing I mentioned at the top.
Ok ok great but... why didnt you explain how to set up an insert effect. It looks like you could insert an effect on more than one channel at a time. Why hold back info.
You can only insert 1 effect on one channel (or bus)... but each FX Rack effect slot can be for a dual effect version of the plugin (For using it on 2 independent channels, you do not want a stereo FX plugin, but rather dual (stereo is different in this case. Dual is 2 separate mono instances of the same effect)) in which case you can do channel A on one channel or bus, and channel B on another channel or bus. But that is all you can do. You can't insert the same effect otherwise anywhere but one place. I thought the video talked about this... although maybe it's in the other FX video: th-cam.com/video/dCTcbV-_ccQ/w-d-xo.html
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks. your tutorials have been very enlightening. can you go deeper on the channel presets? what do you think of the factory presets, saving snapshots verses shows?
@@masbass1011 I usually just save shows, but snapshots work too. Snapshots actually save inside the X-Air where scenes/shows save inside the device (not the X-air). Snapshots (snippets) are handy for loading special settings for a song(s) for a band you work with a lot too. Are there factory channel presets shipping with the X-Air stuff now or do you mean the presets that are in the gate and compression sections on X-Air Edit?
Hey guys @AlanHamiltonAudio, my MR 18 pre amps have a crackling sound everytime I adjust the gain. All 16 XLR inputs do this. Is normal with this mixer?🤔 This happens with or with anything plugged into the inputs. As soon as the gain reaches 0dB it starts cracking.. only when you move it. Have tried all the different firmware versions, no resolve. Here is a video of what is happening th-cam.com/video/v2C9pQCnwjg/w-d-xo.htmlsi=nNXzdkLUn8xvmY7-
Well, trying firmware was always worth a shot but that seems to be a hardware problem. If there's nothing plugged in, all you should hear with the gain increasing is hiss creeping in. There should not be any hum or pops. If there are cables connected, all bets are off. There's always the chance of a bad cable picking up some weird RF. But it should go away when you unplug the cable. So if there are no cables plugged in, then there's something electronic wrong with the console. If it's on all channels that it does that, it makes me wonder about a cap (or caps) on the power supply. If it's under warranty (or new) probably best to address it with your dealer. If the warranty is out and you know someone good with electronics, ask them to check the PS.
@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks for replying. The mixer is brand new, out the box. I've tried all past and present firmware updates.. no change. I will also note that my unit is V1 hardware so I don't know if maybe that makes a difference cause I've heard that there are V2 hard versions of this mixer which fixes V1 hardware issues.
@@magneticktempoz There could be something minor they upgraded/improved going from V1 to V2, but mainly V2 is a change in hardware to meet demand for the units when supply chain issues made the V1 design hard to produce (read: Hard to get some of the pieces they needed for the unit). So they did a bit of a design change to be able to meet demand by switching to something, or some things, that were more readily available. So, for the most part, V1 or V2 should be fine and essentially identical to the end user. Shouldn't really be a factor with what is happening with yours. It sounds like you just had a bit of bad luck :(
It should. I'm using Behringer's X-Air Edit (on PC) which is free to download from Behringer and also available on Mac and Linux. I'm using V1.7 in the video, but there's no real graphical or overall functionality difference with V1.8 of the software. Is the FW changing something that the control software is doing/showing?
Where are you confused? It essentially uses the exact same signal flow as connecting processing on an analog always has... but of course, doing it digitally it might not be as easy to follow (until you get the hang of it) as physically taking a cable from an output and patching it into an input... and then vice versa. Taking things to and from the console and thru a rackmount effect.
I wanted to do a longer look at the XR18 FX Rack to try and help answer some of the questions I'm seeing, and really just focusing on the FX Rack itself and how it works. How it's configured out of the box, the options, the common mistakes... Really keeping the focus on that aspect of the console. I imagine with the consoles recently coming back into stock at Sweetwater (links below) there are going to be a lot of new users so hopefully this will be a good resource for them as they come online searching for answers.
Other Channel Videos-
Want to Know More About the Midas MR18 and Behringer XR18 FX Rack and FX Plugins?
th-cam.com/video/dCTcbV-_ccQ/w-d-xo.html
Sending FX to Monitors with the Behringer or Midas Digital Mixers:
th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html
Behringer XR18 Channel Walkthrough:
th-cam.com/video/xPsSPK6RKzU/w-d-xo.html
3 Tips For Aspiring Live Audio Engineers:
th-cam.com/video/tEX2Prwfh-g/w-d-xo.html
5 Tips for Mixing Live Vocals:
th-cam.com/video/oP4sdpkkNhY/w-d-xo.html
Direct Boxes - What are they? How to use them? Direct Box 101:
th-cam.com/video/6iwW5_Ia9Uc/w-d-xo.html
Building a Concert - Production for Trace Adkins:
th-cam.com/video/m2dJr5gR77g/w-d-xo.html
Guitar Amp Micing Tips:
th-cam.com/video/GBTyFxxNNBE/w-d-xo.html
My 5 Most Used Adapters for Live Sound:
th-cam.com/video/SFzPh3UYAoE/w-d-xo.html
~Affiliate Links~:
Sweetwater Sound:
Behringer XR18 Digital Mixer at Sweetwater Sound:
imp.i114863.net/WDVNDO
Midas MR18 Digital Mixer at Sweetwater Sound:
imp.i114863.net/NKjKM1
Shure SM57 on Sweetwater Sound:
imp.i114863.net/YgZJDP
Amazon Affiliate Links:
Rubber Mic Clips on Amazon:
amzn.to/3FO6VIg
Equipment used to make video:
►Sony ZV1 Camera on Amazon:
amzn.to/3HJWd3f
►Canon EOS M50 Mark II on Amazon:
amzn.to/3avOr1s
► SL40 Podcast Mic (narration mic) on Amazon:
amzn.to/3frSrCB
"As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases."
"I earn from qualifying purchases utilizing affiliate links"
~~~~~
Support via Patreon where there are PDF tutorials, Behringer channel and scene files, and other materials:
www.patreon.com/AlanHamiltonAudio
~~~
Drum Mixing Tutorial Playlist:
th-cam.com/play/PLWtgwSNlxTjMsX8H1K87UcAP17zYSZqsT.html
Hi Alan - Have the XR18 and using it for my band. I believe I understand the effects and how to set that up. We just want to use them with our one singer as vocal effects. Plan to use reverb, delay and chorus. Working to set it up so the singer can turn effects on and off with foot switch as needed during specific parts of the song. It appears I can do that with a midi foot controller. Just wondering if you have specific MIDI info / settings (or tips on midi programming) on how to turn those effects on and off. Thanks!
I'd been pulling my hair out for an hour trying to get these to behave after stepping away from this mixer for a few months. You cleared everything up in minutes. Thank you!
Hello, these tutorials are clearly explained. Without them I would never have managed to make the effects work so easily. Thank you for your good work.
Thank you for watching and commenting! :)
Thanks! I've been looking for videos for so long on how to us the FX Rack. This was a huge help.
Thank you!! Glad it helped!
You are the best of all the mentors on TH-cam… please make more videos… you are my Heroic !
Thanks!
On a real one broski your videos should be the first to come up when looking up fixes for the xr18 because I’ve been looking all over the place for a channel as informational and as diverse in topic (in relation to the xr18) as you
Great job as always. Your videos always answer the questions I have regarding my XR18. Thank you for taking the time to do these videos. Very much appreciated.
Thanks!
Looking forward to watching this on my lunch break.
Still the best X air18 demo i've seen. Many thanks.
Another great tutorial, this is easily the best YT channel for XR18 information. Thanks.
Glad to help!
Helpful for sure. The insert and buttons were confusing. Got it now thanks
Great to hear!
Thanks!
Thank you! :)
the visual signal flow around 5 min. in is fantastic!
Thanks!
Man, that was clear and thorough, thank you for posting.
Thanks! This one took a bit to put together.
Alan, very informative video - as always! I've benefited greatly from your XR18 series of tips & information. Thank you!
Thank you!
That insert button on the FX page was my issue! Couldn't get the reverb to work properly. This vid fixed it! Thanks!
Cool! Glad it helped! :)
Thanks
Thank you!!!
Bless your heart for this simple explanation.
Good stuff as always Alan! Congratulations on 20k plus subscribers.
Thank you very much!
Thank you Alan. Very useful in correcting a few mistakes in my setup
Cool! Glad it helped!
God bless you!!! Only when I saw your diagram for the routing I really got it!! Thank you!!
Thanks! I'm glad it helped.
Just want to say thanks for these videos... they have been invaluable and you are a great instructor ...thanks!!!
Thanks!
This was such a help! Thanks so much for this. Ididn't know about the full scale gain so this fixed that mistake.
Most importantly, I was confused by the effects channel faders and was creating *BAD* feedback loops through my reverb and delays. They are all totally fixed and we got multiple compliments on our live sound at our last gig.
One thing I do that seems a tiny bit easier, though, is when adjusting the channel's effect, instead of using the channel screen and that tiny blue slider bar, I go to the master effect screen then all the instruments show up (like a mixer page) and the fader is tied to that slider so its easier to move and see. Not suire if I described that well enough)
I think you're saying you go to what is essentially the "Sends on Faders" page to adjust the FX levels. IOW, you click on the FX bus you want to add, this then brings up a page full of the channel faders... and you then go to the vocal channel on that page and bring the fader up. Since it's in "Sends on Faders" mode, that channel fader on that particular page is the selected levels for the FX send that you chose in the master section.
On the XR18 software it doesn't technically 'call' it Sends on Faders mode, but that's what it basically is. Some consoles call it 'Fader Flip'.
Since the XR18 doesn't have 'real' faders they probably decided they didn't really need to name it that. And the way you select that mode is pretty fast, just by hitting a 'virtual' button and you're directly to the sends on fader page you want to be on.
If you really want to go down a rabbit hole and see the idea in more detail, and how it works on a console that has a surface, I have this video about it:
th-cam.com/video/d3N9B0xjjT4/w-d-xo.html
Hi Alan, thanks again for your great tutorials.
Thank you for putting this video out! I was just trying to figure out the FX rack through your other videos and this combines them well. What do you use the “utility reverb” for?
Keys, acoustic guitars... just kind of anywhere that might need a little depth. Or else I might use it for a quick change to a ballad snare or side stick splash.
Maybe it is a silly question but could you please explain what does the green symbol at the top right corner of the plugin at 6:34 do? The one between "X" and "-" ?? I've noticed that if you click on it it changes direction but i cant really figure out what is it doing or changing,,,
The exact point of it is.... hmmmm???.... I 'think' it's pinning the opened FX to the screen so that when you open another FX rack slot plugin, it doesn't replace the first one. They just keep opening on the screen and you can move them around and have all 4 active at once for adjustments.
I don't think you have to pin each one either. Just pin one of them and then they'll all stay onscreen as you open them. (Altho clicking the pin icon on a subsequent FX might bring that FX to the front... might check me on that point though).
Whether that is actually the point of it, or it has some other point... I dunno.
So it's not a silly question.
Ah ok, thnx for the fast reply, so it is not something affecting the audio proccessing (cause this was confusing me since i was hearing no difference at all), its related to screen preferences,,,, thank you again
@@edisonceni1092 Yip... just a screen layout thing. Nothing audio. :)
Always great videos! Thank you! Can you please do one on the combinator?
I have this one on the Combinator:
th-cam.com/video/iSGLpaGNthU/w-d-xo.html
Very well explained! Thank you!
Thank you for watching! :)
Alan, thank you SO much for the video. I just got an XR12 and am setting it up this weekend. Using mostly for vocals so I love your examples on the sends and FX....Keep the great content coming!!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Great explanation of important concepts. I still love my XR18 every day but hardly use ikts effects section, such a shame right?
Hat off for the clear explanation..! Thx :-)
Thank you!
This is THE best video on the FX and XR12.....So well done. Thanks for sharing
Thank you! 🙂
Thank you that info is very helpful.
It's ok to use a compressor on a send/return if you're trying to achieve parallel compression.
Yes, I didn't want to get too far into the weeds talking about things like that because if a user knows about and understands parallel compression, they probably don't need any help understanding other aspects of the FX Rack.
That's why I said you 'typically' don't use compression as a send and return effect. Plus, on the Behringer the built-in compressor on each channel and bus already has the ability to do parallel compression via the 'mix' control. So that even makes it less likely someone would 'need' and want' to run parallel compression using something in the FX rack... it's already built in without needing an FX slot and taking away from more typical things that might be wanted more.
I've never bothered to test and see how the Behringer handles latency when the comp is used that way for parallel compression versus the built-in comps on the channel strip and output busses. It's always possible the latency creates an issue to not make that work very well to the point someone wouldn't want to do it anyway, even if they understood what they were trying to accomplish. Have you used it that way on the Behringer? Any cancellations from latency and the two signals combining at the outputs with one having to go thru the FX rack compression and one not?
Thank you so much for this
it just eased the issues i had
Great one! Thank you!
Glad you liked it!
Forwarding to the people in my band who are allowed to touch the controls)
Guys in my band are hopelessly LOST if I'm not present at a rehearsal. Damned rock stars! Ha, ha, ha!
Just did the same.
Hi Alan
Thank tou for explaining. I was wondering how does FX send effect get only Bus1. I don’t want to send FX in Main LR.
Thanks
On the FX Return channel(s) you can just de-select the L-R Main button. When it's 'engaged' a channel will route signal to the mains... deselecting it means it won't send it to the mains. That's probably the most simple and most foolproof way.
Hi there!
Nice video. It is very clear. i have 1 question. As a band we rehearse with in ears. is it possible for me (vocals) to have more than 1 fx on my vocal channel and to hear that in our in ears?
Thanks!
Yes, absolutely... But there are caveats. First and foremost, there are no real caveats for doing it for FOH. I do things like use a reverb AND delay on the lead vocals very often for a lot of shows. So, as long as you blend FX tastefully/artistically and it sounds good to everyone, that is no issue.
BUT... when you want to do it on monitors too, or monitors alone... that's where caveats come into play. There are only so many FX slots and sends and returns to work with. The FX can easily be SHARED in the monitors, but if someone doesn't want to hear someone else's reverb or delay, then you have to dedicate a delay or reverb to make that happen. Or else someone wants something FX-wise in their monitors that you don't want in the house. Same issue happens for you and the band. That's when you start losing options for FX for FOH, or options on how you can use FX in FOH.
If they are OK with your changes to the Effect for FOH for the show, then it's somewhat less limiting. But it's also possible they want one specific reverb and they want it unchanged all night.
With the XR18 you have 4 FX slots. If you have to dedicate one to the lead singer for something they specifically want in their monitors, and they want to hear no ghost reverbs of anyone else in the band, then that is one FX used up just for that lead singer's monitor. And if that reverb is not useful to you at FOH, then you can't actually share and use it for FOH. So, essentially, you need 2 FX slots just for the lead vocalist just so you can have one reverb out front. As long as nobody else is that picky then that still gives you a dedicated FX slot for lead vocals in monitors, a drum reverb for FOH, a vocal reverb for FOH and a delay for FOH.
Easily do-able.
But if there are a lot of singers and the entire band is picky about ghost reverbs... NOW you've got issues to sort thru and compromises to make...
Fortunately, most people aren't that picky and won't even notice ghost reverbs as long as they have a normal full mix of vocals in their monitors/ears when taking reverb in the monitors. But if someone doesn't want the SR vox in their mix, but does want reverb in their mix, then they likely won't want any of SR vox's ghost reverb in their mix either. That is how you start running into limitations when mixing mons from FOH and bands wanting FX in the monitors and having limited FX options.
This video explains it better to help you understand what I'm saying here:
th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html
@AlanHamiltonAudio this is a great reaction. Thank you, sir. Tomorrow, we'll try it out.
Hey, thanks for the video... I suggest you to do a part 2 where you visually show the path of reverb effects applied to a bus used as a singer's monitor with a small amount of reverb fed to it... I recently had a puzzle to solve with loud reverb trails on an xr12 with two busses/two lead singers. The only solution I found was to use two identical reverb processors to independently control how much reverb singer A hears from singer B and vice versa. Do you know of a better solution.
I'm ahead of you... ;)
I did one already. th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html
@@AlanHamiltonAudio respect...
Tremendously helpful. Thank you.
Thanks for the tutorial and I have viewed it multiple times. The issue I am having is; I can get reverbs to work fine but not any of the delays. I can see the delay out levels go up then "bounce" (for lack of a better term) from the effect itself and the associated effect return. However, it does not reach main out. I am listening on headphones and have the In/Out for phones to main L/R. If I switch to a reverb, I hear the effect. If I switch to a delay, I don't. Any pointers or references? Thanks!
Are you able to save your scene and reinitialize the console?
I have a feeling you've made some change or changes over the course of time, experimenting or whatever, and have a rogue setting or two in the scene you're working with. It might be hard to find that.
If you can reinitialize the console, and then follow the video instructions, it SHOULD work when you load up a delay. The default setting of the console is the typical baseline setting that most need to get going. But if you've changed something along the way, that could be where the problem is. Maybe even forgotten about ever changing it.
One area to look at:
In the output routing the default headphone output (on the MAIN tab) should be set to MONITOR, not L/R.
Then in SETUP/MONITOR the Monitor Source should be AFL/L-R. Channel SOLO and Bus SOLO set to PFL. 0dB on the level settings there.
If you've changed your phone routing L-R then that's not really typical, and they'd be monitoring L-R anyway, with the default setup, except then you get all of the SOLO options available to you. So, that alone, shouldn't be the problem, but it is an example of how things that were already OK via defaults might get changed and start leading to other changes and eventually the impacts of those changes could lead to other problems.
Of course in that Main output tab, MAIN should be Main L/R.
Your FX Returns should all be assigned to Main L/R on the channel level as well.
It's possible you have a DCA assigned to one (or more) of the FX Sends or Returns, and then have that DCA turned down or muted. So that could also be a problem for the Delay.
You could email me your scene if you want me to look at it.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks very much for the response. I just resolved my issue. It was confusion on what screen I was looking at between Main and the FX 2 (in this case). I thought I had the FX 2 return up in the FOH display but I was actually looking in the FX 2 display. Took a walk, washed dishes, then came back to it and I saw the issue right away. Works great now.
Again. Sorry to bother everyone with this braindeadness.
@@johndeal1624 No problem. I figured it was probably one of those things hiding in plain sight. But it's so hard to know where to look sometimes.
Could you possibly make a video on the x32 for studio users, on how to record some tracks to the DAW while listening to tracks already recorded to the DAW. I’ve been wanting to buy the x32, but I’m not sure it will do that. You have the most in depth explanations, so I would love to see a video about this from you. Most people do videos about live setups, which is completely understandable. Example: I want to record drums while listening to scratch guitar and vox, then record bass while listening to drums. Here’s the catch... I want to be able to hear the drums being processed by the x32 on their individual channels while recording bass to the DAW. Kind of like the DAW is just a tape machine. Can it be done? Thank you!
You are an absolute gem! Thank you you have a new subscriber :)
Thanks!
Alan, your other videos were very helpful in getting more out of a mixer I have used for years. On the XR18 is there a way to use one of the effects channels as a (7th) aux assigned to the headphone jack? Or is it when you are out of Busses it's time to buy an X32?
Not that I'm aware of... but something like the P16 might be a good interim step to connect to the XR18 if you need more outputs.
Actually you sort of can, but you'll need to unassign 1 or 2 busses from their respective aux output:
1. in/out menu → main out: link Monitor → Phones
2. under "Aux out": link (for example) FX 4 L to Aux 6 (any tap setting should work)
3. go to Setup → Monitor and select Bus 6 as Monitor Source
Now you have:
FX 4L → Aux 6 output
Bus 6 → Monitor → Phones output
This even works in stereo so if you separate the phones L/R channels you could choose e.g. Bus 5/6 as Monitor and link FX 3L → Bus 5 and FX 4L → Bus 6 to get a total of 8 buses.
Now the caveat here is that you can't disable the effect on the FX bus and it can't be in insert mode so just choose something like EQ or limiter.
Thank you for the wealth of information you provide. Am I correct to assume, you can control the FX sends via a DCA? Is this something that is common to do, or advisable? Thanks again Alan!
Yes... altho I usually assign the returns to a dca you can do it either way depending on the goal.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks for the reply. I may have misspoke when I said Sends. Just to be sure I would like to clarify the terminology. The Sends (on an M32) are on the right side of the console, with the other mix busses and the Returns are on the left side of the console, a couple of layers down. the returns are what is sent to FOH, correct. Thanks again!
@@mhgreen Yip.... sounds like you're thinking correctly. Although I think you can choose the last layer and all the bus masters are there on the left too... which would include the default master FX sends 13-16. I never use that layer and always hang to the master section on the right so I might be misremembering that. And I was just on my M32 not an hour ago mixing a conference lol
Great video. As I mentioned in the subgroups video, I subgrouped a bus so I can add the same effects (reverb, delay) to all voice inputs using the subgroup. In this video you are suggesting that I shouldn't be doing this using inserts. So if I want to apply an effect across several voice inputs, how would you suggest doing that without using inserts? My guess would be to each individual channel. I was trying to avoid doing that.
Subgroups are a great way to add non-time-based FX like compression... But not recommended for inserting time-based FC (like reverb) when you don't have a wet/dry balance control. Which nearly all the time-based FX in the XR18 and X32 do not have wet/dry balance controls.
Plus, a subgroup is not the typical way to add reverb/delay to live vocals anyway.
Use send and return and dial up the FX balance on a channel by channel basis.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks. I removed the subgroup and am applying the FX one channel at a time.
Thank you for making those videos. I wonder how to set FX on P16 console, I hear only inserted FX. Do you have any suggestions?
You have to assign one (or more) of the FX returns to an Ultranet output. You can generally be OK to just assign like FX1L and not assign FX1R and just take a mono feed for the P16 to save on channels at the P16.
You also have to decide if a shared reverb works. Lets say in the house every vocal is going to the FX1 reverb. In the P16 maybe the lead singer has only his vocal. So he goes to add that assigned FX1 return verb feed in his P16. He'll hear his reverb come up... but he'll also hear ghost reverbs from the other vocals. He won't hear their vocals per se'... but he'll hear their reverbs. If he's taking their vocals in his mix anyway, he probably doesn't even notice that.
If he absolutely has someone he doesn't want to hear in his mix, he WILL hear that ghost reverb of their vocal and MAYBE it will be too distracting.
If that is the case then you have to set up a dedicated reverb for that person. A reverb that ONLY their voice gets sent to in the first place. Then assign that FX return to the P16. Now the singer can take his reverb without hearing any ghost reverbs.
If you more or less understand that part, then this video that talks about sending FX to the monitors might help it all to click into place better. This is not talking about the P16 specifically, but the concept of shared verbs versus dedicated verbs/FX, and ghost FX are discussed and the info does transfer over to the P16 when you look at the big picture and consider signal flow issues.
th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html
for the xr18, is there a separate global eq for each aux out?
Each bus has it's own master EQ on the output... but each channel send does not have any other EQ besides the channel EQ.
You can choose the default parametric EQ or a couple flavors of graphic EQs on those mon outs.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thank you!
Thanks for this. Very helpful
Thanks!
How can I have fx printed/recorded when recording to a daw? Would changing channel fx from post to pre do this?cheers for the video 💯
No, you'd need to go into the routing... IN/OUT- USB Sends and then move one or more of the 18 USB sends to come from the FX Returns.
The XR18 allows you to send 18 total USB channel outs... so your DAW can get 18 tracks from the XR.
But those don't have to be from the inputs of the XR18. You can use some of those USB Sends to feed from the FX Returns.
Technically, for stereo, you have to use 2, although if mono is OK you can just choose like the Left channel of any FX returns where you want to print the reverb/FX.
Another way to do this (and cut down on tracks needed and USB outputs from the XR18) is to route all of your FX Returns to a stereo subgroup (let's say you use busses 5-6 for that). So, you could then move USB17 and USB18 over to Bus 5-6 on the routing graph. This would get all of your FX printed on 'tape' (DAW) Tracks 17-18, but they would already be submixed together. Which may or may not be something you want, just depending on the end goal. If it's just to capture the FX from a live show when you're tracking the instruments and vocals for post production, then it's probably OK for that.
If you really want something less restrictive, then you need to dedicate as many sep USB sends as possible for each of the FX Returns you want to print. 4 USB Sends would get all four FX rack slots... but in mono... You'd need 8 to get all in stereo.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Ahh thank you very much , that all just became a lot clearer in my mind. All the best 👍
HI I just watched the tutorial and it really helped. Thanks so much for spending the time. I currently have an issue that stumps me. Slot 1 and 4 don't return sound to the LR mix whereas, 2 and 3 do. I see signal on the VU meters on 1 and 4 so I know the routing is going to them. Any thoughts on why I am having the issue?
Have you check on the return channels to make sure that they are routed to the L-R and that Main L-R button isn't disengaged? ...Or that they aren't assigned to a DCA that is muted or turned down?
Great explanation thank you. Very helpful..
Glad it was helpful!
I have owned a XR-18 from 2015. It worked great at first five years, but I noticed that over time the channels develop a pretty severe high frequency rolloff. No two channels sound the same anymore. Its probably a capacitor problem but there are hundreds of them in there. I continued to use it because the USB interface makes it convenient for testing, but eventually it stopped working all together. I opened it up and figured out that the power supply +5V was reading 3.32V so I fix it by replaced the caps in the power supply. (They were bulging after 7 years of use) This got the unit to function again, but the channel rolloff persists. I love the software and flexibility, but at this point I have to retire the device because it no longer sounds good. I wish the hardware had more longevity.
That sucks! I haven't noticed any sonic drop off with mine. I did have a loose ribbon cable issue at one point that caused issues with the left output.
How you doing my friend, can you tell me what kind of effects do you use for drums? I using my behringer air 18. Please help on that
I use the Vintage Reverb a lot for my drums.
th-cam.com/video/6r5k1P_ZGsQ/w-d-xo.html
Alan, do you have any videos on virtual sound checks with the XR18?
I have the Reaper video that talks about how to connect it and set up for it, but it doesn't do an actual soundcheck example in the video. It's mainly about connecting the XR18 to Reaper/DAW, and the various settings (and options) to use/consider. th-cam.com/video/xYmJGyroVe0/w-d-xo.html
Hi Alan, for example, I have two instruments: guitar and vocal. I have to send reverb to the vocal but not to the guitar. Both instruments go to bus 1. How do I do that?
edit: Vocals only want himself with reverb and delay, but there are a couple of instruments on his bus. So, I can't send the reverb to the whole bus.
I think you can do it, but the video doesn't show how. I use mixing Station and it's fairly obvious how to do it when you switch to a particular Fx send. I don't know how to do it in the Xair app
I cannot figure out how to get reverb in my Aux busses!!
My band uses the 6 aux out as our in ear monitors and we want to have some reverb on the drums and vocals.
I can’t figure it out!
Did you see this video on sending reverb to monitors (link below the comment)? If not watch it and see if that explains it to you... or at least gets you to a point that you can ask specific questions about the parts where you're not understanding or getting lost:
th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html
What is the best way to add a time delay to a bus for a delay line or additional speakers with the XR 16?
What most people are doing, assuming they don't have an external processor that can delay the feed, is inserting the Pitch Shift plugin on the output (or outputs). You have to eat up an FX Rack slot, but it gives you one stereo or one dual (2 x mono) control. The key is to not use the pitch shift function on the plugin, but it also has a delay function. Just set the pitch shift to the center position where it's at 0, and make sure the plugin balance is at full wet. It gives you 0ms to 1/2sec of delay.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thank you for the quick response. Do you think they could at a time delay function on the busses in a future update or is this technical not possible?
@@Mambl98 I'm just guessing, but I bet it's technically possible. But I'm kind of having doubts they will do it anytime soon, if at all, at this point. With the supply chain issues and limited stock, I doubt anything software-wise is being worked on right now in the XR stuff.
But I could be wrong.
The fact is, compared to the software upgrades the X32/M32 platform has gotten over time, you could argue the X-Air stuff is due for an upgrade. And if something was in the pipeline pre-2020 then maybe it's not a major distraction to finish it even if supplies of new XR18/MR18 units are not quick to restock.
I really need subgroups and inserts - it is SUPER convoluted to set up on X32/XR18 software but a worthwhile exercise. The LS9 had a similar backflip trick for subgroups that confused new users too.
Patching a stereo comp on a pair of stereo busses is a PITA to explain with all the "oh ya, don't forget to..." Lot's of strange clicking for what should be 2 button presses.
Very unfriendly! Pro consoles handle it much more smoothly.
I don't think it really works much differently as any other console in implementation as far as in the background, but it's not clear right up front what is doing what. A bit of a GUI tweak or two would surely help.
For each effect in the effects rack, it has the settings Insert L, Insert R, for which you can choose inputs and outputs from the dropdown menu below each of these. Then below this, there are 3 buttons which come on - Insert, Insert and Insert Mode. So what is the difference between all these? And if I'm working in mono mostly (for wedge monitors), is gets confusing when you've got both L and R inserts!
You don't really have a choice for L-R. If you're choosing to insert something into the L-R bus (main out) then choosing L-R for one automatically chooses L-R for the other (so that your balance remains the same).
If you choose a DUAL effect, like the Dual DeEsser, then it's two independent channels (what you do on one side does nothing on the other and vice versa). So in the INSERT drop down you can choose two different places to INSERT it. You can insert one side of it on a vocal in channel 12 and the other side on a vocal in channel 15 for example. Or one side on a vocal in channel 12 and the other side left OFF and unused.
You could choose to insert a DUAL effect into the L-R bus and adjust the Left and right sides of the effect differently, as long as you know what you're doing and WANT the L and R sides to be different.
Dual effects are wholly independent between the left and right channels of the effect. Stereo effects are always the same settings on the left and right sides.
Then once you make these assignments, make sure to ENABLE the insert.
Of course, like the video points out, make sure INSERTing the effect is what you really want to do versus the normal send/return style effect.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks for your helpful and detailed reply! Do you have any tutorial videos for using the Mixing Station Android app with the XR18? I might try the Windows App, but I'm currently using the Android app. I've just bought the XR18 and there's quite a steep learning curve. Anyway, excellent channel and videos by the way, thanks for all your hard work.
@@neilkendall5499 The XR18 Channel Walkthru video uses both X-Air Edit and Mixing Station showing how to do things on both so that users can see where the two different pieces of software compare, and hopefully making it easier to follow other videos no matter what software is being used.
So I would definitely recommend that video:
th-cam.com/video/xPsSPK6RKzU/w-d-xo.html
Then there's the sister video to that one talking about the outputs:
th-cam.com/video/UNO-dACc7YY/w-d-xo.html
The two videos above are rather fast-paced because of all the material they have to cover. This XR18 Overview video is slower paced, but has more general but important info. So, you might prefer to watch it next before watching the two videos above:
th-cam.com/video/gTM7IdkCprk/w-d-xo.html
This Top Five FAQ video might also be of interest to you. It's the 5 questions that (at least at the time of making the video) were questions that I was either getting a lot or seeing on social media being asked a lot:
th-cam.com/video/x9wciA2wFd0/w-d-xo.html
I have a playlist of XR18 videos on the channel that you can find on the channel homepage.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thank you, I will check these out!
Hi Alan
Can we control with different way ?
1.Send level and bus unity then adjust return
2. Send level and return unity then adjust bus
3. Bus and return unity then adjust send like you video.
So which one better and why?
I like 3 better because you can fine tune things more easily, on a channel by channel basis. Especially if you share a reverb across multiple vocals or vocals and instruments even.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thank you so much.
I personally do option one I set the fx levels that I want on each channel and turn the fx returns down for the whole vocals as a whole.
The issue I ran into is that the reverb effect is only enabled via insertion. I have no control over how much reverb is applied either. How can I fix this issue especially for the livestream output side of the mix
You have to be doing something wrong in your configuration. As the video explains, inserting the reverb on the XR18 is not what you want to do 99% of the time. It's full wet and no way to balance in any dry signal in almost all instances. Plus, it definitely works as intended when used as a send and return effect.
You need to follow the video's instructions on not using the reverb as an insert. Then make sure you have the MASTER send turned up for the reverb FX slot. Then have the Reverb return fader turned up (let's say it's FX1 for this example).
So in the master section, make sure FX1 (send) is turned up. Then on the channel strip, make sure FX1 RTN is turned up (turn them up to unity).
Make sure the FX RTN channel is assigned to L-R (Main output).
Make sure neither is muted. Make sure neither is assigned to a DCA (for testing... you might ultimately want to use a DCA and that is fine but you don't want a muted or turned down DCA to be an issue as you troubleshoot).
On the reverb itself... probably wouldn't hurt to change out the reverb in the FX slot even if you go back to the same reverb but reload it. That way you can be certain you're working off default values in the verb settings. By default all of then I/O is set as you'll need it to work as a Send/Return effect. If you accidentally changed something you shouldn't have on the reverb itself, this will get it back to factory default reverb settings.
Finally, plug a mic into your vocal channel, talk into the mic, turn the channel fader up... and make sure you hear the mic in the mains or headphones. Then go to the channel strip and as you talk, turn up the FX1 send on the channel and you SHOULD hear reverb on your voice. If you don't, and you're listening thru headphones, my next guess is you have changed the default setting for the the headphone routing and that's what is keeping you from hearing the reverb.
If you solo the vocal channel itself you should NOT hear reverb on the vocal channel by itself. So if that is the problem, then that's an expectation issue. Reverb is added in parallel with the vocal and shows up at the outputs of the console (which is 100% normal). But that means you won't hear it soloing a channel. EDIT: This would explain why you would hear it when used as an insert though... so this bears mentioning for that reason. You SHOULD hear it when soloing the Main or listening to the main out.
So the caveat in all of this, once you're sure you're following the proper signal chain for the reverb to work, is whether your headphone routing is correct (which is normally fine as the factory default as it set)... and secondarily, nothing weird in your output routing if you're not hearing it in your mains via speakers connect to the L and/or Right outputs.
@ thank you for your reply. I’ll update on the result once I get a chance 🙏🏾
I redid our signal flow for our in ears the other day, and couldn’t for the life of me figure out why the reverb wasn’t working right. I clicked insert. Which I did think needed to be on, until watching this. All along I was the problem lol.
I'm still rather new at this and I'm VERY sure I would have made the same mistake lol
@@CarloCastillo it took me a few tries to also figure out I had the sends set wrong as well. Got it working now and it’s glorious!!
alan, why is it that an insert from the rack can only be used on 2 channels at most? I would like to insert the 1176 onto my toms,kick, and snare
You'd either need to create a subgroup and bus the toms kick and snare to the subgroup and use 1 channel of the 1176 to globally compress them (or insert the 1176 in stereo mode on a stereo subgroup using 2 buses for the subgroup)...
Or use 2 FX slots, each loaded with an 1176 (in dual mode) which would give you 4 channels of 1176 compression. Which could be Kick, snare, tom 1, and tom 2. Or else use a subgroup with a 1176 inserted on the group to globally compress the toms.
But each FX rack slot is limited to 2 channels, or 1 stereo channel. So it's one instance of insertion on each side of the unit in the FX rack (in insert mode). You can insert those FX 'channels' on an input channel OR a bus... But it's a maximum of 2 insert 'channels' per FX rack slot.
what is the difference between stereo and dual effects? should we use dual all the way?
Dual is like two completely separate FX. So if you have a couple of mono sources, like vocals, you could load a dual DeEsser and use 1 channel of it for one vocal and the other side of it for a different vocalist on a different mixer channel, and do completely different settings.
Stereo FX, while still being 2 sep sides, you don't get separate control on each side. So you can't put one channel on one vocalist and the other channel on a different vocalist, AND dial in separate settings for the different (and unique) vocalists. Or whatever mono sources you might choose.
If you were to use a dual EQ on your stereo mains, you'd have to manually adjust the left AND right sides. Whereas, a Stereo EQ just has one set of controls which does change both sides to match. The same would be true of a stereo compressor... You don't have to manually dial in the sides to match. You just have one set of controls that perfectly set both the left and right sides to match.
With a dual unit, setting one side does absolutely nothing to the other side.
So, the choice to use dual or stereo really depends on the end goal. But for all intents and purposes, stereo is generally best for inserting on a stereo bus or stereo channel. That would be true except for some unique and special circumstances that would be outside of the norm. Meanwhile, Dual FX are generally best as inserts on mono busses or mono channels. You might not even use the second side of the effect and just have one side inserted many times. Or you could have a dual comp inserted with one channel of it on a mono drum subgroup and the other channel of it on a mono vocal subgroup. In that case, there's not much chance you'd want the same settings for those two very different sources.
But if you wanted to insert a vintage comp on a stereo synthesizer, then stereo makes much more sense. Insert a Stereo unit onto the the two linked channels and both sides will match perfectly in how you set things without needing to set both channels to match.
Also, and I assume Behringer implemented this, for something like compression on a stereo buss, you generally want it to engage on both sides equally, even if the two signals don't match ahead of the compressor. IOW, you don't want something throttling the right side when the threshold is crossed and the left side being full speed ahead. So stereo tied keeps things acting balanced between the sides.
You can set an effect on selected channels only, correct? For example, set reverb only on channels that have mics connected and not instruments?
Not sure what you're asking? Assuming you're running the reverb as a send and return effect, you can add it to anything you want via the reverb (FX) channel send on each selected (instrument or vocal) channel.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio let's say I wanted to have reverb on all mics but not on any instruments, do I do the steps in the video for each channel that has a mic connected to it, and not for the channels that have instruments connected?
@@CarloCastillo If you don't want reverb on instruments, then you simply don't turn up the channel reverb FX send on the instrument channels. If you do want reverb on an instrument, then you have to turn up the channel FX send for that instrument. Same for each vocal channel. Each channel allows you to set your reverb balance for that individual channel. So if the reverb is in FX1 slot in the rack then the channel FX1 send on EACH channel controls how much reverb you put on that particular channel. If you want none on a channel, leave that channel's FX send(s) off. If you want a lot, turn that channel's FX1 send up a lot.
You have 4 slots in the FX rack of the XR18, so therefore there are 4 channel FX sends on each channel. Plus a master FX send and a master FX return for each slot. Which mostly, and for simplicity's sake, you just want master FX send and returns those set at unity.
Then the individual channels each have 4 FX sends.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio as usual, brilliant work! Thanks!
what about my buses? I want to put reverb on my drums and vocals going back to our in ears.
I have a video about that. There are a couple of things to consider when you do it, and you need to pick the method that works best for you (which this video explains). Check out this video about FX in mons:
th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html
Thanks alan!
You're welcome!
THANK YOU!!!
You're welcome!
So confused.....sooooo confused. With regards solely to FX to FOH, please answer these questions:
1. Why does the Fx Sends (blue) need to be at unity?
2. Why does the Fx Returns (green) need to be at unity?
3. What is the difference between adjusting FX via the channel Send vs Fx Returns (green; in MAIN LR window) vs the particular fx's FX Master bus?
Thank You
When you're setting up the Effect, you want to make sure you have plenty level INTO the effect from the FX Send and plenty of level for the return. Then, when you go to the channel to set the Effect (reverb for example), when you bring the reverb up on the reverb channel send (whether it's FX1, FX2, FX, or FX4) you know your master send and returns are at a 'good' level. Not choked back or turned up extra high. And not muted or off either. This then means your reverb send on the channel will end up being in a useful and easily adjusted area.
Unity can be thought of in this case for the FX as the 'normal' working level. By having these at unity, it means your 'channel' FX send will live in a basically consistent and normal level for what you are hearing in the PA. Plus, it means you know you started with the master FX Send and FX Returns at these 'normal' levels so you know you SHOULD hear reverb when you turn it up on the channel. And you know roughly where the channel FX 'fader' should be on the reverb FX send on the channel for the amount of reverb you want and/or are hearing. Since you're always working within the baseline of starting with your FX Sends and FX Returns at unity, then you're going to have consistency in both what you're seeing (channel FX send 'fader' level placement) AND hearing with the channel FX Send levels at the points that sound good to you.
You very well could want to take 3dB or more off the vocal reverb FX return during soundcheck or the show. And maybe put it back later depending on the songs. Or use the delay FX return fader to fly in delay cues and pull them back down for just certain words or phrases... or blend in a slapback echo. For a song that uses a subtle delay, you probably are not going to leave the FX return at unity. But STARTING with it at unity allows you to get a good baseline at soundcheck with plenty signal.
But for the most part, they're going to live AROUND unity as long as you START with them there and THEN bring up the channel FX send(s) and season to taste.
Basically, you start with them at unity as you're setting things in a technical sense... and then you can make changes as you're mixing and things become more subjective song to song. It's far easier to just bring the FX return back a few dB on some songs for everything than reset everyone's vocal FX on a channel by channel basis... ONCE the show is going... But it's really easy to set these wrong, or not able to get things working at all at set up IF you don't start with a proper baseline of unity in and unity out of the FX Send and Returns.
So it's about having a consistent baseline in your workflow, AND consistent reference points... before you get subjective about things.
I'm not big on ever changing the master FX send off of unity. Some people prefer to do their delay cues off of the FX Send versus the FX return. But either works.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thank you for the detailed response. im gathering, provided i set fx return/send at unity during setup, that fx return is where i should make final adjustments during show. here's the problem, the fx starts to generate feedback despite not using a lot of it. in this situation, im guessing pulling back the fx return is where the adjustment should be made? i think the small practice room size (not acoustically treated) is a contributor.
if youre looking for video ideas, i think this would be useful to some. adjusting fx send vs return and feedbacknproblem solving related to fx. again, thank you!
@@cardp17 You probably shouldn't be getting feedback in normal situations by adding reverb. If you are... it's not going to matter whether you turn it down on the channel FX send or the overall FX return. If adding reverb starts to cause feedback due to level, either would stop the feedback, but both would also mean you have the exact same reverb balance in the end. The same would be true of the FX Return and turning it down or up. Feedback doesn't care where the level comes from or where you turn it down to eliminate it. Volume is volume.
It could simply be the EQ on the channel strip or the EQ in the mains (or monitors if FX are being sent to the mons)... Or speaker placement... Or mic placement.... Or overall level in a small space.
If you have a situation where you're already close to feedback, and you add reverb, that could be the extra oomph needed to take you over the edge.
Also... make sure inn the FX Return (or FX returns overall) that you aren't sending an Effect back to itself. IOW... Example: If you look on an FX Return and see any of the channel FX sends on that FX return turned up any at all... then you're sending that FX back to itself. That is a recipe for feedback and a feedback loop even at a certain point. So definitely check for that. Your feedback issue might have a quick fix right there.
Beyond that, when you get in a real venue and outside of a small practice space, that might open up and improve speaker placement, mic placement, overall geometry, and give you enough space that volume levels versus feedback all improve and fix the issue (assuming there's not a technical setting issue like improper EQ or sending an Effect back to itself) at play.
And of course, it could be a combination of these factors and not just one thing.
Also... assuming everything else is correct... and you still have a bit of a ghost ring that seems to be only caused by the level reverb is adding... You can equalize the FX return to notch out that frequency area. And the FX unit itself might have filter you can dial in to roll off highs.
The other thing that hits me that could be in play is if you're using an Effect that has a wet/dry balance control as a send and return effect, make sure that the balance is set to entirely WET. Not 50-50 or any other setting. Entirely wet. Otherwise that too can cause feedback because as you add reverb or delay (or chorus... etc...) you also add dry signal back into the chain. So that means you house reverb balance isn't changing like it should, AND you're overall channel level is increasing even though you aren't even moving the fader. So definitely go thru your FX rack and look for that issue too.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio BINGO! you hit the nail on the head here. I figured out my problem! When i select an FX Send in the far right window (blue accented box), the FX1-4 (green) faders were all at unity. i was sending reverb back to the reverb send, thus creating the loop. as soon as i turned those 4 faders all the way down, problem solved! THANKS for hanging in there w me! this has been super frustrating, especially with an upcoming FIRST gig and no one to run the FOH mix. MUCH APPRECIATED.
Parallel compression can be a great way to subtly blend the dynamics, I definitely wouldn’t say to ONLY run compressors as an insert. You just need to understand what you’re doing
Yeah, I was just giving a basic example. There are so many ways to approach it. You can get really creative with what you're doing in the FX racks. Within the limitations of the rack.
But the channels and buses already have a compressor built into the strip, and a balance control to use for parallel compression... so the process is already available without even needing a slot in the FX rack. Of course if someone is wanting the 'vintage' plugin flavor, we're back to needing the rack for it.
My experience has been the vast number of people running a comp as a S/R effect were not getting artistic and creative, but just doing it wrong for what they intended to be happening. So, for what they wanted and expected, they were in a "Can't get there from here" situation.
I haven't been able to solve one problem for over a year now. The vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist feed the signal to the behringer xr18 mixer from the mixer to the Boss RC505 Looper from the looper back to the mixer and to the main. But if, for example, the vocalist is recording a loop, then the guitarist and keyboardist must not play so that their parts do not overlap with the vocalist's loop. We purchased BOSS AB-2 signal output switches, the principle of its operation is one input and two outputs, when the pedal is pressed, the signal goes either to output 1 or to output 2. We connected one to the mixer and set it to send a signal to the looper, the second to output to the main. Assuming that the signal going to the lane will not fall into the looper. But this did not happen, all the signals fall into the looper. Tell me how to overcome the problem?
I'm not sure I follow the question exactly. It probably is not helping that I don't have and have not used the Boss Looper. :(
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Sorry, so the question is not at the right place! ))
When I use this setup, and I go to the mains to adjust the vocal volume, it will raise and lower the mic but the effects stay the same level. How do you make these to raise and lower together? Or can you?
You mean the overall main fader isn't lowering the fx? ...or do you mean the channel fader isn't lowering the fx? The channel fader would likely mean the fx sends in the channel are not set to post fader... which is the default and what you want.
If you mean the main fader doesn't impact fx levels....that shouldn't even be possible
I’m looking for these settings. Can you point me to them? I see in the Sends tab, effects are set to post EQ.
Hi Alan, (its me again!) thanks again a great tutorial, floowing your setup using the Main LR that ok, however my question is around using the AUX/BUS out puts for IEM, all wortk sgreat but, I find to get the FX!/reverb on say bus one I have to increase the FX1 Return slider on the bus setup, if I turn down the 01 channel (vocals) on the bus I still get the vocals through the FX1 fader, i thought the reverb is added to the vovals channal and would therefor be heard by any aux/bus listening to the vocals, rather than add the reverb to each listener for example
Have you followed the steps and read the concepts and considerations about sending effects to the monitors in this video?
I think it probably answers your question... but I'm not 100% sure what it is you're asking.
Are you asking if the reverb is directly on each vocal channel, and so you shouldn't have to add it separately in the monitors? That's not the case... the reverb runs parallel to the vocal and doesn't really mix with the vocal until both things separately hit the main output. And the reverb can't even get to the main (typically) if the reverb return is down or unassigned from the main. And it's at that point (returns) that you can send it other places... like monitor mixes, stream mixes, etc...
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks Alan yes I followed and understood yoru video, and yes I can see that the reverb runs parrallel to the vocal (clean) and mixes at the BUS yes I get that, my real questions is that means as a monitor i.e. IEM BUS 1, if I want to must the vocal I would have to mute the Vocal channel adn the reverb as weel righ? As when I mute the vocal I still hear it through reverd, albeit lower volume
@@AlanHamiltonAudio yes I believe I ahve folowed those steps and yes I can see from yoru diagram that the reverb runs parrallel to the clean voice channel, my question sis that if I want to mute the Vocal I would need to also mute the reveb ? as it seems when I just mute the vocal I still here the reverb albeit a lower volume, on BUS 1 as IEM for example, (this is NOT the cas on the main LRoutput of course
@@billtomlinson3287 I need to check because I think if you mute the vocal channel it should mute the FX send too. But you're saying that's not what is happening, right?
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Yes thats correct, the exampel you show in this video is mostly for the main and thats fine, so with the same setup go to a bus and add the vocal and the same revewrb in the bus, note if you then lower the vocal slider in the bus the (dry I think) goes off, but u can still her e the vocal through the Reverb, also muting vocal channel in bus does the same of course
This is great. Just send to the band. Stop turning on inserts, guys!
Cool! I hope it helps.
Very useful. thank you. But with a P16M? Via ultranet I can't hear the effects at all! And it seems very strange to me to have a personal mixer for singers who hear their voices without effects. I haven't been able to figure out how to make it work (I'm not a sound engineer, I'm just a musician, I know practically nothing about mixers, i'm ignorant in this sector.
This video doesn't touch on sending FX to monitor mixes. It only illustrates FX to FOH. I was hoping for the same information as you. Our singers really don't want dry vocals in their monitors. After messing with it for a couple hours, I was able to get reverb to the monitor mixes by selecting Pre Fader on the FX slots on the sends tab (seen in the video at 3:09). I don't know if there are any negative ramifications as a result of making this change (they were set to Post Fader as seen in the video). Again, no idea if this is going to create problems so take this with a grain of salt.
There is a channel video that talks about FX to monitors:
th-cam.com/video/e_XsfTV36vU/w-d-xo.html
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks. I've studied that video as well. It appears your strategy is setting monitor effects after the main mix effects, and using the effects slots in post fader mode. Meaning, if you don't have your channel faders up, you won't hear the effects on your pre-fader monitor mixes. I changed the effects slots to pre fader to allow hearing reverb when the main faders aren't up. Am I setting myself up for trouble doing it this way?
If you have available input channels (or they aren’t in use for monitoring through P16) you can instead assign the FX output to that p16 channel on the “ultranet” routing page
Can someone explain how you can send effects to the Aux buses only, for monitoring?. It doesn't seem possible unless the same effect send is on the Main LR output.
Pretty sure it's in the video... If you want it only going to Mons and not FOH, just make sure and unassign L-R on the FX Return channel section... or also (at least on X-Air Edit) in the channel "Main" section of the FX return(s).
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Ah! it's in your other video for setting up Mons mixes... Huge Thanks, this worked!!!😃
@@robinarmstrong8886 Cool. I knew it was in one of the videos somewhere! ;)
Glad you found it!
Hello, what is your advice for XR12 who wanted to connect in OBS? should i buy a cheap MIXER that has usb interface option? Or just connect the aux via pl cord to line in of a computer?? Which option is best? Pls help and guide me.. thank you so much
I probably would get a USB audio interface instead of the cheap mixer. Doesn't need to be too elaborate. One of the cheaper Focusrite or even Behringer ones.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio alright, one of my problem as well is i dont have enough aux out since it only has 2 aux out.. secondly, if we would buy an audio interface, would that oblige us to use DAW?
There's something I can't seem to understand about how the effects are routed on XR18 that I wanted your help. I do understand the function of the FX send faders for each channel under the sends tab, this is how much of my dry signal will be routed to the FX processor. Then I also understan the function of the main fader (all the way to the right) of each FX return channel (those you set to unity in your video). Then I also understand the FX return faders set to unity on Main LR Layer to allow wet signal to return to Main LR output (which I suppose it's true for each Aux output as well). What I was not able to understand yet is what is the function of the FX return Faders (last 4 on the right) when I have either FX layer selected. (As I reflect on my question and read some of your responses, I realize) Would that be related to your answer to @CG-gp2bh where you explain that the FX return channel would be sending it's own signal back to itself? If that's the answer, this means that these 4 faders should be set to minus infinity for each FX layer to avoid issues, correct? This seems to be an important topic to cover in one of your videos, because people could easily be turning those faders up and having feedback nightmares. Also, is there a situation you see where you would turn up these 4 last faders?
The FX return channels are what allow you to send the reverb/FX to places you want to hear it. IOW, if you want to hear reverb on the vocals in the mains, then you have to bring the reverb FX return fader up AND have it assigned to main (which it is by default assigned to main). This way you hear the FX you put on the vocals in the mains. Otherwise, there's no path to the mains in a typical scenario.
Essentially, the FX Returns are just console input channels. In this case, with the 'output' of the FX 'hardwired' to the input of an FX Return. Or probably easier to remember that by calling it an FX Return channel.
This is also how you send an effect to the monitors. And by the same token, turning OFF the main-LR assignment on that FX return would take it out of the house so that it's only being sent to whatever monitor sends you're sending the reverb/FX too. Which you'd choose by turning up the monitor send on the FX return channel.
Just like you would for a vocal channel. Or a keyboard channel.
The way you'd create a feedback loop is if you were on an FX return channel, went to its 'own' FX send on that channel (FX return channel), and turned it up (turned up the channel FX send on the FX Return channel). Therefore, sending it back to itself.
Do you know of a way to EQ the effects send? I am using a MR12 mixer. The busses all have DYN and PEQ options but nothing on the effects send. Would like to be able to EQ the send before it hits the reverb.
Nothing off the top of my head. Obviously, the returns can be EQ'ed, but AFAIK there's no way to EQ the sends.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Seems like they could be add the PEQ and DYN to the sends in a firmware update maybe. Or maybe somehow route the effects send to a buss that has DYN and PEQ on it. I'll have to keep playing with it. Thanks for the reply! :)
@@michaelmantey6433 I just checked... and on the X32/M32 platform they DO have EQ on the sends. Compression too can be enabled. It works exactly like you'd think too... choose the FX send... and click EQ... and there it is...
I don't know if that was left off from the X-Air stuff for memory reasons, or just something to make more of a difference between the X-32 vs the XR18. The X-Air consoles don't have matrixes, or outputs delays, yet the X32/M32 does have those things.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Yep. I have the M32 also. Trying to set up a small system for acoustic gigs with the MR12. We have gotten so spoiled with all the features these mixers have nowadays! :)
Every one of these videos are demonstrated on a laptop. On an iPad it looks completely different. Is there a way to demonstrate this on the iPad software?
I don't have an iPad so can't demonstrate on an iPad. I also use Mixing Station for tablet software so even if I had an iPad, I'd probably be using Mixing Station on it. Although different, Mixing Station seems to have more in common with X-Air Edit than the original iPad software (I've not actually seen this latest iteration of iPad software).
But fortunately, X-Air Edit is available for Mac and PC for free and much of the information is setup info, not necessarily mixing on the fly info, so scenes can be tweaked offline at home, in the rehearsal space, or in the hotel and then loaded onto the console for then mixing the gig on an iPad, Android, or laptop and whatever the preferred mixing software is.
I did make it a point of using both Mixing Station and X-Air Edit for the channel walk-thru video:
th-cam.com/video/xPsSPK6RKzU/w-d-xo.html
Hi Al!
Hello Hunter!
It seems you are running the app on a PC, do you use an emulator or is there an official PC app to download?
I'm running X-Air edit on the PC (can get from Behringer website), and Mixing Station on my Android stuff. But I also have the Mixing Station for PC software and used it in the latest video. mixingstation.app/#download So you can see it in my video here: th-cam.com/video/O_vnsN_TrIA/w-d-xo.html
Where is the vocal harmony effect in xr18?
Other than a basic pitch changer effect, there's not any kind of intelligent harmonizer. :(
I was wondering if anyone has any insight into the issue I'm having. I've set up effects on individual channels per this video, but I'm not hearing any effects when using the Ultranet Personal Monitoring system. I feed out into a Behringer 16-channel personal mixer, and can hear everything, but no effects. I've tried looking into all the settings on the app and desktop app, but can't find the issue (like maybe I'm not sending effects out via personnel monitoring?).
When I plug directly into the headphone jack on the digital mixer, I can actually hear the effects. So they're working, but aren't being sent out via the Ultranet.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
You have to route the FX to an Ultranet output. In the In/Out settings on X-Air Edit there is an Ultranet tab. It lets you choose what is sent to the Behringer Ultranet mon personal mixer. By default, it sends each channel on a 1 to 1 basis to it. Your reverb/FX doesn't reside in the channel, so by default it won't be in the Ultranet monitor feed.
I don't have the Behringer Personal Mixer so I don't have a way to do a video on one to explain what is going on visually.
This is a signal flow issue so you need to pay attention to the signal flow on this.
There are a few different ways to get one or more reverb/FX feeds into your monitors. At least as long as you aren't using all 16 Ultranet channels already. Probably the most simple way is if you have any unused busses. Create a subgroup and route your vocal FX there on the FX return(s) on the mixer. In fact, you can leave the FX going to the main L-R as normal ON EACH OF THE FX RETURNS, and then on your Subgroup you created, in the main section you need to UNASSIGN it from the mains. This keeps the main FX feed stereo without using 2 busses for a stereo subgroup feed.
You could do that the other way around too... But you'd need TWO busses to keep your FX stereo for the house. If you don't care about stereo, you could just use the one bus. One way or the other though, you don't want the FX assigned to the L-R at the FX returns and ALSO assigned to the L-R at your subgroup. That would be double-assigning the FX.
Caveat: I'm sending the FX to the ears in mono how I am describing this. If you want them coming in in stereo, you'd use 2 busses for that for a stereo subgroup. But that's probably not necessary, and might overly complicate things anyway. And requires TWO free busses on the mixer and TWO free channels on the personal mixer too.
Then in the In/Out section, Ultranet tab- Simply move an Ultranet assignment from an unused channel to your subgroup bus.
Let's say channel 16 isn't used. Let's also say you made Bus 6 your FX subgroup and turned on the subgroup bus 6 on your vocal FX Return(s). So, make ULTRANET 16 now be assigned to Bus 6 in the In/Out-Ultranet tab in X-Air Edit.
Then whatever vocal FX you're using in the house (and whatever FX you send to that subgroup you created), you can bring up on your personal mixer on channel 16 to whatever level you want.
This is not the only way to do this.
If you have enough unused channels on the personal mixer, you can skip the above and just assign the FX directly to the personal mixer in the In/Out-Ultranet tab. Which in theory could take 8 channels for all 4 FX in stereo. But you could just assign the left side of each reverb/delay/chorus to the monitors and then need only 4 channels (it would be mono of course).
And one or more of your FX slots are housing a de-esser or compressor, then you don't need (nor want) to assign that to the personal mixer.
And it's also possible all you really want/need is the main vocal FX, so you could just assign it alone, either both the L-R or just L OR R (mono), and just need one or two channels of your personal mixer for it.
How can i put it in a way that can sound like an electric rock guitar effect😢
You can use this effect in one of the slots:
th-cam.com/video/Hhsf0PMgjb4/w-d-xo.html
@@AlanHamiltonAudio i have 2 questions:
1- is there a way for you to send me the audio mix?
2- how can i put my channel in different sets for example: guitar amp and hall reverb?
Setting my mr18 this way always creates a feedback loop what am I doing wrong
Look on the FX Return channels. Check the 'sends' tab of each FX return. You almost certainly have one or more of the FX sends, on the FX RTN channels, turned up. Which means, when you turn up one of the FX sends on the FX Return, and IF it's own Effect, then it's sending its signal back to itself.
If all else fails, save your scene and reinitialize the console and come back to this video and step thru the process again. The default settings of an XR18/MR18 is perfectly for normal operation in a live sound setting. So, as long as you have a clean slate console, and follow the video, then there should not be a feedback loop created with any of the FX (unless your console has a problem... and that would be a really rare issue). So, once you confirm everything is working like it should be, you'll need to compare your scene's settings versus the default and see if you can find any odd routing or other signal chain changes that you might've done.
Although, the most likely problem is the thing I mentioned at the top.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks I’ll check
Wow.
Ok ok great but... why didnt you explain how to set up an insert effect. It looks like you could insert an effect on more than one channel at a time. Why hold back info.
You can only insert 1 effect on one channel (or bus)... but each FX Rack effect slot can be for a dual effect version of the plugin (For using it on 2 independent channels, you do not want a stereo FX plugin, but rather dual (stereo is different in this case. Dual is 2 separate mono instances of the same effect)) in which case you can do channel A on one channel or bus, and channel B on another channel or bus. But that is all you can do. You can't insert the same effect otherwise anywhere but one place.
I thought the video talked about this... although maybe it's in the other FX video:
th-cam.com/video/dCTcbV-_ccQ/w-d-xo.html
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks. your tutorials have been very enlightening. can you go deeper on the channel presets? what do you think of the factory presets, saving snapshots verses shows?
@@masbass1011 I usually just save shows, but snapshots work too. Snapshots actually save inside the X-Air where scenes/shows save inside the device (not the X-air).
Snapshots (snippets) are handy for loading special settings for a song(s) for a band you work with a lot too.
Are there factory channel presets shipping with the X-Air stuff now or do you mean the presets that are in the gate and compression sections on X-Air Edit?
Hey guys
@AlanHamiltonAudio, my MR 18 pre amps have a crackling sound everytime I adjust the gain. All 16 XLR inputs do this. Is normal with this mixer?🤔
This happens with or with anything plugged into the inputs. As soon as the gain reaches 0dB it starts cracking.. only when you move it.
Have tried all the different firmware versions, no resolve. Here is a video of what is happening th-cam.com/video/v2C9pQCnwjg/w-d-xo.htmlsi=nNXzdkLUn8xvmY7-
Well, trying firmware was always worth a shot but that seems to be a hardware problem. If there's nothing plugged in, all you should hear with the gain increasing is hiss creeping in. There should not be any hum or pops. If there are cables connected, all bets are off. There's always the chance of a bad cable picking up some weird RF. But it should go away when you unplug the cable.
So if there are no cables plugged in, then there's something electronic wrong with the console. If it's on all channels that it does that, it makes me wonder about a cap (or caps) on the power supply. If it's under warranty (or new) probably best to address it with your dealer. If the warranty is out and you know someone good with electronics, ask them to check the PS.
@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks for replying.
The mixer is brand new, out the box. I've tried all past and present firmware updates.. no change.
I will also note that my unit is V1 hardware so I don't know if maybe that makes a difference cause I've heard that there are V2 hard versions of this mixer which fixes V1 hardware issues.
@@magneticktempoz There could be something minor they upgraded/improved going from V1 to V2, but mainly V2 is a change in hardware to meet demand for the units when supply chain issues made the V1 design hard to produce (read: Hard to get some of the pieces they needed for the unit). So they did a bit of a design change to be able to meet demand by switching to something, or some things, that were more readily available.
So, for the most part, V1 or V2 should be fine and essentially identical to the end user. Shouldn't really be a factor with what is happening with yours. It sounds like you just had a bit of bad luck :(
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks.
🤦♂️I'll be taking it back to the supplier. Hope I'll be able to get a good unit this time around.
It does not work as your video shows. Probably a firmware difference. Thanks for the video
It should. I'm using Behringer's X-Air Edit (on PC) which is free to download from Behringer and also available on Mac and Linux. I'm using V1.7 in the video, but there's no real graphical or overall functionality difference with V1.8 of the software.
Is the FW changing something that the control software is doing/showing?
There is possibly to text you by WhatsApp?
So confused…
Where are you confused? It essentially uses the exact same signal flow as connecting processing on an analog always has... but of course, doing it digitally it might not be as easy to follow (until you get the hang of it) as physically taking a cable from an output and patching it into an input... and then vice versa. Taking things to and from the console and thru a rackmount effect.
Thanks, this is really useful.
Glad you think so!