Step by step tutorial for connecting the XR18 or Midas MR18 to Reaper DAW. Use the XR18 as a USB 16 mic pre audio interface. Updated version (Jan 2020). I had several requests to remove the background music tracks from the original version of this video series because it was distracting. So, I finally finished that project, but, with quite a bit of re-editing to address flow and pacing, and making it into 1 video with 3 chapters, and an overall update of the entire video. Chapter 3 was totally redone to make it fit better with the other parts (the original part 3 was an add on and did not flow well when watching all 3 videos together). And most importantly, the background music is gone! ;) Hopefully, all of this work makes for a better viewer experience. There are a lot of steps to keep track of for the viewer, so better flow and no distracting BG music tracks throughout the entire video can't hurt. Amazon Affiliate Links- Behringer XR18 on Amazon: amzn.to/2LfTpmO Midas MR18 on Amazon: amzn.to/3q4Z4Li Behringer X32 on Amazon: amzn.to/35oCcyo Midas M32 on Amazon: amzn.to/3ovhi8n Stellar XT Recording Mic on Amazon: amzn.to/38xE7Tr 10' (3 meter) USB Cable on Amazon amzn.to/3sZRZxD Cat 5E (25') Cable on Amazon amzn.to/3pAkO1T Apex 575 Earset Mic was used for some of the narration: amzn.to/2NHcQG2 Video: 5 Typical Mistakes Behringer XR18 and Midas MR18 Users Make: ua-cam.com/video/EilVDp39A9g/v-deo.html Video: How to Mic an Acoustic Guitar for Stage and Studio- Tips and Tricks: ua-cam.com/video/sNrvYfdhnTU/v-deo.html
Awesome tutorial! I just installed Reaper and I'm waiting for my XR18 to arrive, but this already gives me so much confidence in setting everything up. Thank you! Your instructions are concise and yet explain everything perfectly. As a newbie I feel like I just graduated from a master class in setting up routing channels on a mixer!
amazingly helpful, ive been struggling with getting them to work, but you give the answer about instaling the old drivers too and that has fixed it all for me!
Thank you for putting this up here Alan! We have a little different setup at our church. The streaming media uses a full X32 Compact mixer for the sounds coming in. Your video also provides the almost exact same set up for an X32 to use in Reaper. I would also point out that you can use the 32/32 USB setting in the X32 for Reaper and then have each of those audio inputs ALSO available as an individual audio source for OBS if you're using it for streaming (of course grouping them would make life easier....). Of course, you will want a decently powerful enough machine to do this. Thanks for the video!
Thanks! At some point I need to do a video specifically on the X32 and Reaper. People searching for info on the X32 and Reaper will likely never see my XR18 to Reaper video, even though there's a lot of crossover in the two platforms. I've not connected Reaper to is since the V4 Firmware, so I need to run thru it all myself and make sure I'm not missing anything in the changeover. And, I put the Live card in one of the X32's (the card that takes two SD cards and lets you mutli-track directly within the console) so I have really had the need to user Reaper since FW4.0 anyway... which has put me a little behind the curve on navigating Reaper and the new FW on the X32.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Well, if you want a suggestion for a good video, talk about connecting an X32 through its USB 32/32 to Reaper and then connecting/accessing those audio channels in OBS. And as an added bonus, also include a quick comment about using the USB 2/2 channel option as an audio source in OBS. Again, thanks for the reply and the videos you do!
@@ThomasLoyd There are plans in the works for doing a USB 2 channel connect to OBS for the X-Air that might happen soon. And I was talking with someone about getting together on a future X32 video that would be a streaming deep dive that would really delve into how to connect it, options for the feed, mixing, and even touch on some stream video too. But, that's would be a fairly adventurous video to plan, make, and edit... so whether it reaches fruition is a question mark.
Awesome man! Learned some new things about the routing. I got the XR18 to work nicely with my outboard gear. What I do is turn off the master send. Then send a individual track to channel 1 on x air. Then channel 1 to aux out 1. Aux 1 out to outboard gear and back into a input channel. It works great. I know there’s a plugin called reainsert that’s supposed to help with this but the latency was bad.
Cool deal! Latency can quickly be a PITA so anything adding latency can be trouble. Obviously, there will always be 'some' but it has to be manageable. I hadn't heard of reainsert.
Alan Hamilton reainsert is a plugin similar to the in/out menu on the x air. It’s a stock plugin in reaper. Say if you have a interface with 2 outs and 2 ins. Reainsert can route the 2 outs to say a axe fx. Then you route the axe fx back into the 2 ins and reainsert will route it on a different track. I do this with dry recorded tracks. If I want a particular effect on that track later I’ll use this method.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Hey, I have a question you might know. I followed all your steps and I think all settings are correct. I am sending audio (Spotify) from my laptop (where I have Reaper and am recording from) to my XR18 through a jack, and both Reaper and the XR18 show a signal when I play that audio/music. However, when I want to record in Reaper, nothing is recorded. In the track line I don't see any graphs (or how do you call this). Do you happen to know what's wrong?
@@thomasgulikers When you go to record, are you changing the channel inputs to the XR front panel or are they set to USB inputs? On X-Air Edit "Input" tab the Channel Source can be set to 'listen' to Mic/Line A/D or USB. If you're connecting a mic or mics to the XR18 to SEND to Reaper to record, then that needs to be set to Mic/Line AD. Otherwise it's 'listening' and receiving whatever Reaper would be sending on that USB channel. So... IOW... nothing to record would be sent to Reaper. You can also make this change globally by going to In/Out USB Returns tab, and clicking he OFF(Analog) button. That turns the USB sends OFF and turns the Analog inputs on for every channel.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Found the issue and fixed it! The inputs in the XR18 were fine. It was the routing in Reaper that I had set wrong. Turned out I didn't pay close enough attention to your video. 😅 Working like a charm now! Many thanks!
0:00 Intro 0:25 Chapter 1: Setting Up XR18 6:00 Chapter 2A: Setting Up Reaper 8:45 Chapter 2B: Advanced Settings For Reaper (Typical of Virtual Soundcheck) 13:00 Chapter 3: Mixing "In The Box" With Reaper and Using the XR18 as a 2 Channel Feed For Studio Monitors or Headphones. Also, a Quick Listen Method Without the Need in Routing Changes.
Alan great video very helpful, I learned alot from your instructional material. One important setting to be aware of, is the Audio/Midi Tab @(2:30) of the video Within the menu screen, USB Interface (18/18 ch) or (2/2ch) Make sure (18/18) is selected in order for Reaper to Recognize all 18 channels from the X-Air Mixer. For some reason my XR18 was set to (2/2) as a default & drove me crazy when trying to setting up Reaper & it wouldn’t recognize more than two channels to load. (18/18) was the key.
@@andyramirez9481 Good point. Yes, 18/18 for multi-track recording and that should be the default in the console. I wonder if that changed in the FW at some point? It's definitely that way in the last couple of FW's, but maybe that wasn't the original default...
FWIW, I've never had any issues sending/receiving 2 track audio with the console in 18/18 mode. I'm not sure if there's a reason to even use anything but 18/18. Maybe somebody knows and got stung by being in 18/18 mode and couldn't do something that required 2/2.
Thanks! It took me a bit, but I got it done. I had to clean up some background noise from the narration track that all of a sudden mattered, and I had to do some pacing edits since there was some dead air points that stood out without the background music. Plus, just to make the 3 parts flow together better. The 3rd part was almost entirely redone. And then, since I was already in the editor, some visual embellishments/enhancements while I was at it. And the transition pieces between part 1-2-3 had to be built. Also, I had to resync the audio and video, since the sep audio tracks were in Reaper and not the video editor. I think it all made for a better video/tutorial and viewer experience. At least I hope it did! :)
Great video. Do you a similar video with the x32 edit software for the x32? Also how do you get the global icon to show on the main x32 edit software page. Thank you.
Thanks! I haven't done any recording software videos with the X32, several X32 videos about mixing in general on the channel though. The Global icon on the X-Edit software is there on X-Edit the same as X-Air Edit... EXCEPT they move it to the LEFT side of the Sends window. When you're in the SENDS tab, it'll be between the large channel fader at the top left and the 1st of the SENDs faders. Same icon too... just a totally different location. Same tab, same icon, almost opposite location ;) At least on the version of X-Edit I'm using and I THINK it's the newest version... 4.2?
Am a new XR18 and Reaper owner/user and new subscriber to your channel. Glad to have come across your content, it has been most helpful. At approx the 8:10 time point when you are checking for a signal, is there a way to monitor? Thanks for the input up front!
Yes, but how you do it would depend on some setup decisions and where you are in the process. In the video I mention the default output routing of Reaper is for the Reaper Main L-R to be USB 1 and USB 2. So, with that in mind, you'd want to either change that to be 17/18 and then in the mixer, go to the Aux in channel (which is 17/18) and on the 'channel' tab after selecting the Aux channel, change the input from Analog to USB. Now you can solo 17 and 18, or just bring them up, and any tracks playing back/thru Reaper will show up in the headphones (or studio mons) connected to the XR18. If it's just a quick "is this thing working?" test... then you could leave all that alone, and connect your test mic into channel 3 (or any channel except channel 1 or 2), arm the corresponding track in Reaper (so, assuming 1 to 1, connect to input 3 on the XR18 and arm track number 3 in reaper. Now.... In the XR18, select channel 1 on the mixer, tab to CHANNEL, and select USB instead of Analog... That will enable monitoring of the left side of Reaper. Repeat for channel 2 and that will enable monitoring for the right. You can also LINK the channels for stereo linking. Now when you solo 1/2 they will feed your headphones connected to the XR18. But this is more of just a test setup kind of thing, because you lose you channel 1 and channel 2 as inputs for your XR18. At least as long as they are set to USB you do. ...Whereas when you do the method with 17-18, you don't lose any preamps for direct 1-16 one to one connection to Reaper. In part 3 of the video, this part is described more. There are so many options that there are several ways to get somewhere, just depending on what might be best for a specific use. I hope that made sense. It gets kind of convoluted until you dig in and just see how it's working, and then it should click in. Thanks for watching and subscribing!! :)
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thank you for that detailed explanation...it's much appreciated. I have some limited experience with an Allen & Heath SQ-7 at Church and when I think about how it's configured, it sounds similiar to what you describe, so it does make sense. Thanks for expanding the knowledge base!
Thank Alan, one question: is posible to usb return just 8 tracks, from repear, like an electric drum with a plugin, and the others resting on xr18 could be vocals. Bass and guitar but those connected by line?
Hi Alan. Seem to have everything working and signal looks good everywhere, but the mic sounds robotic and highly reverberant at phones out on xr18.. Tried to follow your instructions as accurately as possible. I've run out of ideas, could it be the ASIO driver or firmware? There was only one driver available on Behringer website. Any help appreciated and thanks for all you do!
In the Mixer, you can go into routing (IN/OUT from X-Air Edit) and then into USB Sends and change every channel to the same USB output (whatever track you want everything on). That's assuming you only want everything recorded and not individual tracks PLUS everything. Otherwise... for that possibility of doing both... You could just assign the main output of the X-Air to one track (or two tracks for the main stereo out if you're mixing in stereo). You could alternatively create a mono subgroup and assign EVERYTHING (or everything except anything you DON'T want there inside X-Air Edit on the mixer, then UNASSIGN that subgroup from the mains (since you don't want the channels double assigned to the mains) and then set that subgroup bus to the USB Send in X-Air routing that you want going to the one track. These last two methods would let you both have individual tracks PLUS an overall mix recorded (if you wanted). Just do it from the USB Sends section of routing IN/OUT in X-Air edit. Or the similar method that the other software uses to assign USB sends.
There is... BUT... you are maxed out with 18 outputs from the XR18 into the DAW. So it depends on if you have unused channels that aren't already going to the DAW. The In/Out tab has routing in the USB sends part that lets you move each channel's send to something else to record... like the main-LR, or a bus... and that includes FX which can themselves be routed to USB sends (and thus to DAW tracks). Keep in mind that FX are stereo, so they technically take two tracks per FX to fully capture the effect (if you're trying to be 100% accurate... if it's just to capture some reverb you 'could' just capture it mono). You could also route all of your FX to a stereo subgroup and then route that subgroup via USB to the DAW. That would just need 2 tracks. But you'd be stuck with the overall mix of FX, at least as to how they balance with themselves. You could still turn the entire FX mix up or down in post. As for compression/gates... you can just tap the USB send after the compression/gates on the channels or busses. Which would be pre-fader to capture the channel comp... but that also captures the gate and channel EQ. You can capture the gate, but not channel comp (or channel EQ), by tapping the USB send pre-EQ.
Hi, Many thanks for your excellent video! I have followed all your instructions and then discovered that for some reason, I have something that sounds like static coming back from the output of reaper back to the XR18. Any suggestions as to what this could be or how I could get rid of it. I tried testing with one channel and the sound appears to come from the XR18 but when I play it back I can hear it but with a lot of (what sound like) static.
That sounds like an over-taxed CPU. Are there any plugins running on Reaper? Any other programs running in the background? Clock settings should match, but I'm not sure it would work at all if they didn't. You might need to go into Reaper and try some more conservative settings in the setup page(s) and see if that corrects things.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Hi Alan, thanks for your quick response. I'll keep an eye on that in future. As a last resort, I tried swapping the USB cable this morning so (touch wood) that seems to have resolved the problem.
Hi Sir Excellent video and thank u...I have a quick question..does the computer for reaper and the computer for xr18 have to be different or can both be done on the same computer?
You can use the same computer for recording and control, but you need to use both the USB connection (audio) and the Ethernet (or Wifi) for control. Audio is only done over USB and system control is only handled over ethernet.
Hi Alan, great video, love your content :)! Question for you, I remixed our band last gig, essentially doing a virtual sound check at home, adding eq, compression, etc, and now I want to show the band. Is there any easy way of exporting/saving the sound coming out of the virtual sound check? The only thing I can think of is to, in USB Sends, set USB 17/18 to Main L/R, and then hit play, and record the whole show in real time.
I have a routing question... I use the xr18 as an interface to record to my DAW... and would like to know how to route each channel so the internal gate/eq/compressor that have presets can actually be recorded... i can hear them in my monitor mix...but they don't seem to on the playback once recorded...specifically the kick and snare gate preset .... thanks
That would be the "pre fader" pick point in the In/OUT window, USB Sends. That is the pink colored ring you'd want in the graph on any channels you want sending those things to the DAW to be recorded.
My advice to you would be to record as Alan says, directly from the preamps. Once you record gating etc, you cannot go back. You are better off adding compression etc in your DAW 😎
Great tutorial…..thanks. However I have one question - can the pc be connected directly to the cat5 port for control, or must mixer and pc be connected to a switch/router?
Hello thanks for all your content. It has helped me so much. I do have a question. I'm using an x18 to live stream via USB from a stereo linked bus. I am wondering if there is a way to multitrack record and live stream at the same time.
Now does this record the effects from the XR18 also? Or is this recording the dry clean signal? Also I saw a video you were doing a show in Bedford, Indiana. I’m from Jasper, IN and now live in Carmel, IN.
It can. You have to either dedicate a track or tracks for the FX you want to record and route them in the USB sends to your tracks, or send the FX to a subgroup (mono or stereo) instead of straight to L-R and then dedicate 1-2 tracks (2 for stereo) and route that subgroup to either 1 or 2 USB sends. Either of those methods would capture the FX (assuming we're talking time-based FX like reverb, delay...).
Hi, many people said that only gain affects the recorded sound the DAW? so even if we set EQ, fx, or whatever that have been set up in the mixer, those will not affect the recorded sound? I was hoping to use the EQ etc for live streaming purpose, and may be also for recording.
You can set it up in different ways. In the USB sends section on the X-air there are options for where you can tap the USB send. By default it's just after the preamp (red ring), but you can also change that tap point to several other points all the way up to (and including) post fader. Pretty sure that is mentioned in the video, but just skimmed over because most people will be recording just after the preamp to be after to re-mix and do things in post. But the option is there to record/present your mix exactly as it is being mixed live. I might be doing a more in-depth video on the USB sends soon to explain this better.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks for the response. yeah I saw it in the video... just currently dont have the XR18 to test it :D actually I want to buy it, but before that I want to make sure it will fulfil my needs (and this is one of those).
Hi Alan! Love how educational your videos are, quick question: When recording to Pro Tools I get mic levels too low even if the gain is properly set in the mixer software ,is this so something related to the sends settings (pre or post fader) or a setting within routing? I would like to record a live concert with pro tool with the same computer but keep getting low gain levels coming into pro tools. Thanks in advance!
I'd make sure you're being aggressive enough with the input gains. It should average -18dBFS, but can and should peak higher. If you're only peaking at -18dBFS then that could hurt the waveform sizes/levels in PTs. Or if you're being conservative and barely allowing any peaking above -18dBFS. But, other than that, assuming your pick point is right after the preamp (which is the default), you should be able to get a workable level into PTs.
Many thanks for this tutorial. However, I am planning to use my laptop (hardwired via ethernet to the XR18 for system control via de X-air software) for FOH mix of a live band. Which means that my laptop will be at the back of the venue for live mixing. The XR18 will be on stage with instruments and mic's plugged in. I will therefore not be able to multitrack the band via USB connection on the same laptop (Studio One is my DAW)... Any suggestions to get around this?
I only have Reaper installed on my computers. I'm too deep into using Reaper to try and manage another DAW now. ;) I'm afraid I'd just forget some of the Reaper shortcuts and just not know how to do something on both platforms if I switched at this point! ;) Thanks for watching and the compliment! :)
great video. I got completely lost between all the in/out routing for USB and the charts what left hand and top of them mean. could you make a video talking about how to route things to a bus and then send the bus out to a USB left and right to a PC? I do drum lessons online and would like to send my Superior Drummer (which I can route to any channel via USB) and my mic to skype/zoom while while hearing myself, their mic (skype output), and Superior Drummer but I don't want them to hear their mic coming back at them. I'd like to monitor one bus and send another to skype. I guess I'm asking how to set up the behringer xr18 for a zoom call
I haven't tried Zoom, but I suspect the routing and setup are pretty similar to setting up the XR18 for OBS. Have you watched that video to see if it helps? ua-cam.com/video/aNlBOOhWbZw/v-deo.html
Hi Alan, I am a subscriber to your channel I have learned so much and I love the content. I have an XR18 and followed your instructions on this video to a tee (at least I think so). Everything got recorded, all was good. But I then realised that the songs recorded were a full tone below the original key that we played the songs in Ie,... the song was originally in A minor, but on playback it sounded closer to G minor. Can you shed any light on this,...and what I may have done wrong?
I'm guessing they aren't recorded wrong but are instead playing back wrong. A sample rate mismatch with the computer maybe? I'm thinking this is a computer issue, not Reaper or the XR18.
@@warrenbass7350 Warren, did you have any luck with this? does it seem a bit slower too on playback? I know initially i had an issue where i unknowingly changed the tempo of my reaper project (default is 120) and had a similar issue as yours. Maybe something to check
Hi Alan, I have 2 questions for you if you have time. I am using a XAIR18 as an interface with Reaper on my laptop to record live tracks at band practice so we can play them back and share them with one another to work on and make tweaks before our next practice. The problems I am having is I have channel 17/18 Aux as a play back slider like you have show in the video but the fader on the XR18 will not do anything I have to hit the SOLO button to make sound play back in the headphones, but then I have no control of the volume. The next problem is when I unplug from the XR18 because it stays at the practice place when I get home and open reaper it says missing device driver and I can not playback anything that was recorded. I loved your video I followed it step by step and as far as recording from the XR18 into Reaper it works fantastic so thank you.
Part one sounds like on the Aux channel(s) (17-18) in the XR18, that you don't have it assigned to L-R. If you select the Aux channel, tab over to MAIN at the top and click it, and then look in the Main Output section that opens up, you should see Main Stereo with the "L-R" button highlighted (orange). If it's greyed out, then that is the problem. For the second problem... It sounds like you need to try reinstalling the driver on your computer and rebooting. If that doesn't work, last time I looked, Behringer had 2 revisions of the driver on their download site, so try the older driver and install it. Or see if you're on the older version and update to the newer driver. It almost has to be a driver problem, though you could always try a different USB cable and port on the computer. And, if you're using a long USB cable, that could cause troubles. I had problems with that at one point when I wanted to connect to my desktop and it gave me problems. Though I don't remember the exact symptoms. I just remember it wouldn't work until I moved the XR18 closer and switch the USB cable.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thank you so much for your fast reply but unfortunately neither one of those fixed my problems. The Aux channel LR Mains is Orange, and I have tried to install and uninstall and install the drivers like 3 times. It's a brand new computer so maybe I am just missing something. Again thank you so much for taking your time to respond and I love your video's they are very easy to follow.
You probably still have your ASIO driver selected in Reaper to communicate with your XR18. You must change the audio driver back to your native computer driver in your Reaper settings to send audio to your computer.
very good tutorial. thank you! I'm currently set up this way to get all my raw tracks Pre EQ , Pre Everything apparently, into Reaper. is there a way to get the FOH- Master LR - post EQ post everything, into Reaper so I can have a down and dirty recording of what the FOH was like after the show? I dont want to have to EQ in Reaper or turn around and send back to my Xr18. if not, what is the best and simplest way to get the FOH recorded? thanks again!
Yes... In the In/Out (routing) section of X-Air Edit you can go to the USB Sends tab and move any two available USB sends over to the MAIN L-R section of the grid. Keep in mind that since it's your house mix with all your channels feeding it, then it will get all your channel EQ (comps/gates/etc... also)... It doesn't matter how the channels are configured to individually feed the USB send because the L-R is already getting the fully processed versions of the channels sent to it before it sends those to your USB outs. So, then the only choice to consider is whether you want your overall main house EQ and compression also included in the recording. Probably not (since the house EQ is likely for your overall system/speaker EQ and you probably don't want that in your mix recordings), and in that case, the default red ring is fine. Otherwise, you can change it as needed but just keep in mind the only thing that the USB tap point is sending from the MAIN L-R USB send is the actual EQ you use on the main L-R and nothing to do with your channel EQs that are 'cooked' into the mix by that point. At the least, when recording the main out you likely at least want it PRE FADER, which captures everything except the main fader moves. If you put it POST FADER, you capture the overall house EQ, but you also capture any main fader moves up and down as the night goes on. Normally you wouldn't want that so just keep that in mind... And if you DO want that, there's no option to capture the master fader moves and NOT capture the main EQ, house comp, etc... Once you tap POST Fader on the main L-R in the USB Sends grid, then it's everything going to the DAW. Then on the DAW you just need to setup two tracks that match (are listening to) whatever 2 USB sends you assigned to the Main L-R in the In/Out USB Sends grid.
In the USB Sends section of the XR18 (In/Out... Routing...) you have colored (red by default) rings/circles on the graph. The type and color indicate what is being sent to the DAW. Normally, for complete control in post, you want everything picked/tapped just after the preamp. And that is the default setting. That sends an unaltered signal to the DAW for doing full mixing later. But you can change that by right clicking in the graph and choosing a different tap point. There's a key under the graph that explains where you're moving the tap point to based on the color of the circle that you choose. So, for example, Post EQ would capture your channel EQ in the DAW. Post Fader would capture everything, including your channel fader moves in the DAW, although you probably don't want your recorded tracks changing in level on an individual track by track basis, except for very specific applications. This video (XR18/MR18 Channel Walk-thru) ua-cam.com/video/xPsSPK6RKzU/v-deo.html talks about tap points for the bus sends (not USB sends), but if you watch it and grasp the concept, the information would also apply to what the USB Sends tap point changes would mean to the USB Sends being sent to your DAW. Different part of the console, but the concept remains the same. I have plans to do a video like the Channel walk-thru video that will focus on outputs... both the physical outputs on front and the USB outputs. But it'll be a couple of weeks at best before I can get to this video idea... but it would fit right in directly with the question you're asking.
Hi, i have a problem. I have a 18 track like in the video and it's work great. But I wanted to add "pilot song" for the drummer in MIDI format so I added a new track - problem is that REAPER sees the MIDI track but you cant hear it. I can't correctly do the routing of this track. Could you help me?
Quick question: i need to use this in a live rig. In the Daw i'll be sending to the Xr 18 my synths/Backing tracks and the click track. at the same time, i need to connect 2 guitars and bass to the Xr18, and be able to hear everything (both reaper sends and instruments in the xr18) by using the Aux outputs to IEMs. Can i assign like 3-4 tracks from Reaper to 1-4 channels on the Xr18 and then use also the remaining other channels from the Analog input of the Xr18 ??
If I follow, then yes... that'll work. You just need to save a scene with your USB routing in place. Each channel allows you to select either analog (front panel/preamp input) or USB input. And you can softpatch to even which channels these are if you need to. Once you have your channels assigned the way you want, then saving the scene into your laptop or tablet makes it easy to recall each show thereafter. And you can update that baseline scene at each gig as your mix evolves, or keep that baseline untouched and save a new scene for each venue or gig that is based on that original baseline (or based on the previous show that is originally based on the baseline but has evolved). That way, if you mess something up in the future, you still have the previous week's show that was OK to recall, or worst case, your original baseline. Plus saving multiple shows and naming them via date and/or venue means you can go in a new venue that is similar and start soundcheck with a baseline scene from a similar venue.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks so much for being this fast! That's exactly what i need. I won't record anything atm, but i'll use this setup for in ear monitoring in live shows and to send to the FOH some tracks.
for example I record drum covers how to setup my monitoring through aux channel so I can hear my drums live as I am playing them plus CLICK track and track/song from DAW?
tried rollingback the xair usb driver to 4.59. It worked for about 20seconds. During that time i was able to map reaper's first 5 tracks to the appropriate inputs. Then i got the ASIO driver error and i could no longer map the remaining 12 tracks to inputs within Reaper. Any suggestions?
If anyone is using a USB hub and connecting the xair usb out to the usb hub, i found that reaper wouldnt show anything in the ENABLE INPUTS/OUTPUT RANGE. when i plugged xr18 usb directly to the computer, everything displayed and i could change these sections.
I believe this video talks about that (or at least points you in the right direction IIRC): ua-cam.com/video/UNO-dACc7YY/v-deo.html Essentially, in the In/out routing section, the USB Sends needs to have their tap point changed on the graph. There's a key below the graph to tell you what is the post EQ tap. That's for EQ... for FX... You need to unassign (some) channels from the USB sends and move those taps to the FX. Which is also in the routing section/USB Sends tab. You have a total of 18 possible USB sends... So, you're ultimately limited to 18 tracks in one pass coming from the XR18. You can also do things like send the vocals to a subgroup and return the FX to a subgroup and then send that subgroup to the DAW... BUT... you'd be limited to whatever FX balance you record at if you do that. And if you send multiple vocals to that subgroup, you'd also have no way to rebalance the vocals once you've recorded the track. So that method has a giant tradeoff, even though it only requires a track or two (2 for stereo) to record a vocal with FX versus a sep track for the vocal and 2 tracks for each reverb/FX you want to use (if stereo FX are used).
Hi Alan, tks for all your videos. really useful as I own an XR18 (V1). Unfortunately, I face an issue considering the USB interface. I see only outputs 1-8 on the Windows sound control panel instead of 1-18. As a consequence, I can only have routing on USB I/O 1-8 from/to my DAW (BandLab Cakewalk). Any idea why only 1-8 ? (PS : XR18 firmware = 1.22 ; windows driver = 5.12.0). Any idea why ? Répondre
It's been a while since I tried Cakewalk, but it definitely did see all 18 sources from the XR18. But it's been so long since I had it set up and working, and it was only just a test even at that. So I didn't have to troubleshoot much that I can recall. Hopefully, somebody reading the comments can chime in with some ideas.
Alan, how would you set up X-Air and Reaper if you wanted to record the stereo main FOH output signals from our XR18 only? We want to do this to see how the worship band mix sounds.
From X-Air Edit (PC or Mac) you want to open In/Out in the top right. Then open the USB Sends tab. Then just move the USB 1 and USB 2 from channel 1 and channel 2 over to the Main L-R boxes on the graph. Just click in the boxes you want them to be (Main L and Main R (USB 1 and USB 2)) and it will automatically move those points. The red ring for the tap point is the default and should be fine. Now, in Reaper, your mains will be going to track 1 and track 2, assuming your Reaper is setup normally. Technically, you could make the LR USB outputs from the X-Air be any USB sends you want, and adjust accordingly in Reaper for them to come in on different tracks... but USB1 and USB2 is the default for a lot of software, so if you connected your X-Air to OBS for streaming for example, it would already be ready to feed the L-R via USB to OBS (the initials are adding up in this post! ;) LOL!! ). In fact, it has no way to record from any other USB sends except USB1 and USB2. And about any recording software will default to record on what you send from USB1 and USB2. So, USB 1 and USB 2 to Main L-R in the USB Sends graph in X-Air Edit is probably the best and easiest way to go, for Reaper or anything else.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio We run the XR18 from one Windows computer. Can I connect a second Windows computer to the USB out just for recording purposes? Or, will the two computers conflict with each other? Be nice if we could use a different computer for recording direct from the XR18.
@@stevelamm2366 Yes, I do it both ways. You can connect two different computers... one via Ethernet for mixer control, and another via USB for recording/DAW. Works fine.
@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks for another great video!! I followed all the steps in your vid to get my XR18 connected to Reaper, and have a backing track in Reaper coming back through the Aux-in to the XR18 and it all worked like a charm! I have one problem, the mic signal is weak. I have a mic on Channel 3 (the only thing I have plugged in) and I have the gain configured to -18 like in your other tutorial on this, and in my headphones connected to the XR this signal is strong, and actually the mic pics up a lot, like even just touching it, but the signal that gets recorded in Reaper is weak. You can see in the wav form it is very thin. What am I doing wrong to get such a weak signal? The same thing happens when I connect to my iPad running Garageband.
Just to be sure, you mean your gain is configured to be hitting -18dBFS on the input meter of the console, correct? Not that the gain control itself is set at 18db? I want to make sure we're on the same page on that point. It's the meter setting we're concerned about, not the position of the gain control itself. It'll be wherever it'll be to make sure the input level is hitting -18dBFS. With that said, -18dBFS should be the average... not the peak. The signal can and should PEAK higher. Just not to the point of clipping or threatening to clip. Usually, when someone doesn't see enough level into their DAW the problem will be related to the gains being set to PEAK at -18dBFS versus AVERAGE -18dBFS. So it could be as simple as needing more gain on your channel... and just turning your headphones down to compensate for hearing too much in them. For a wired SM58 vocal mic and a 'normal' vocalist, I'd expect to need to set the gain 'knob' (slider/fader on X-Air Edit) to about +30dB (give or take). Of course, for a soft voice, that might not be enough. And if a voice takes much more than that, then the mic will definitely 'hear' more surrounding noise (said better... that ambient noise will be heard in your headphones or speakers better). Loudest sound at the mic wins. Conversely, a 'loud' singer might not even need that much. So, with the mic gained down a bit, you'll hear less ambient noise in the mic in your phones or speakers... But these things are "all else being equal" scenarios. If you gain the mic down, but turn your headphones up, then that ambient noise will be there all the same. IOW, gain down 3dB, headphones up 3dB... It's all a wash in what you'll hear level-wise. Or gain UP 6dB, headphones DOWN 6dB... still a wash. It's just a matter of level balance. The mic itself doesn't actually change its characteristics.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thankyou so much for the response mate. Yes it is the meter that is -18. Here is a link to a google doc with screen shots of the entire configuration for both XR18 and Reaper: docs.google.com/document/d/1yiPhtDy3FvjbRx5umjIVcTWIJYe60eI5rIsZg2HxCyI/edit?usp=sharing You can see in the doc that my gain mic gain is +34, and I am not singing with a soft voice at all. With the mic noise I can see it in the signal when just handling the mic. If I turn the gain down then I can handle the mic fine and there is not signal on the meters. But having the gain where I have it now at 34, there is mic handling noise in the signal, when I am not singing if I change my grip in the mic, but the signal in Reaper is so low it's practically unusable.
Hello Alan, I have another question for you. I would like to register WITH usb from XR18 to Reaper maintaining the Gate, EQ, Comp and maybe FX. I guess the way is to set the IN/OUT USB Sends assigning the channels to usb on a "pre-fader mode" and not "Analog". Am I correct? I'm asking you because recently I tried but it was going in high distorsion. Probably thre is something wrong in my configuration.. Thanks
Yes, pre fader mode to get all of those to the DAW. The distortion was the DAW tracks clipping? If so, assuming your input gain is right on the channel (average of -18dBFS on channel meter), it could still be too high if you have added makeup gain on the comp and/or heavy boosting (especially low end boosting) on the channel EQ's. Or maybe that coupled with being aggressive on the channel gain to begin with (going for a higher average than -18dBFS or allowing peaks above say -12dBFS).
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thank you. It is probably the gain too high. I tuned it on XR and works well on Analog mode. I’ll retune it directly on Reaper after putting the pre fader mode. Thanks
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Hi again Alan. Unfortunately I cannot manage to solve the matter. I tried to bring down GAIN (it gets to -12) and also the USB TRIM (it gets to -18) however it keeps going in high distorsion in Reaper. Are you sure XR18 allows a multitrack recording post EQ? As my goal is to avoid compex post-production editing a possibility could be to put a 2 channels audio interface after the XR utilized solely as mixer, this way I can benefit of EQ, Comp and FX, correct? Thanks again.
@@robertoferrarini7153 By default, the XR18 sends USB pre-everything except the preamp. The preamp still comes before sending to Reaper. But in the routing section, you can set up the USB sends to be post-EQ, post Fader, etc. If the gain structure is correct and signal flow is correct/normal, there's no reason to be overloading Reaper without some other wildcard in the situation that is being missed.
I'm trying to think what wildcards there might be... makeup gain being cranked on the compressor is a possibility. If you set the channel input meters to avg -18dFS, it would be pretty hard to boost so much on the EQ that it's possible that could overload Reaper (and the XR18 itself even) without it being obvious. Your EQ GUI would look like a LOT of orange above the 0dB line. OTOH, the makeup gain control on the compressor might fly under the radar. Of course it would take less of both in a combination to overload Reaper if you're going post EQ or post fader into Reaper. Add in faders going above unity. Once again, I don't think even a post fader USB send and the fader all the way up, with proper input -18dBFS gain structure on the XR18 would probably overload Reaper (it would likely just get you a lot closer to that...) but mix in a lot of EQ boosting and/or then maybe the compressor makeup gain... and now we could be talking about that wildcard situation. But that is still signal flow and gain structure overall. Just taking more into account than just the input gains.
Thanks for posting this a second time. I’ve used Reaper to run FOH for my church in the past, but I wasn’t certain how-or if-I could do the same since switching from the Presonus FP10 to the XR18. Now, will I see a difference in performance after leaving FireWire behind for USB?
Thanks. Yes, between people wanting a background music free narration track, and part 3 (now chapter 3) getting some more details and overall re-edit (since it was an add-on originally)... it gave me the chance to update the editing on all of it, tweak the pacing, and put it all into one video rather than breaking it apart. As for USB vs Firewire... You shouldn't see a performance hit at all. :)
Hi Alan, How are you Sir? What I need to livestream and record my channels at the same time. The Livestream will use USB sends 1/2. How can I record channels 1 and 2 simultaneously please?
I'm not really sure since I haven't needed to do that. You could always do it via a physical out (or two for stereo) from the mixer and into an USB interface feeding a streaming computer/setup.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio I am very sorry about my question. Even though I did not word it correctly you got the idea. I meant to say how can I record my channels live while livestreaming. X32 provides a way to reroute channels. I did not know if the XR18 has that capability. Thank you so very much for your response. I'll give it a try.
You can connect the PC for control software (X-Air Edit software) with a single ethernet cable. You don't need a router. ...But you also have to use a USB cable for the audio portion. On the XR18 the Ethernet handles control but doesn't pass any audio, while the USB passes audio. ua-cam.com/video/gTM7IdkCprk/v-deo.html
Yes... Assuming you have an open channel or aren't using the aux in (ch 17/18). You have to make sure your click is routed to that open channel, and on the X Air channel itself, UNASSIGN it from L-R so it doesn't have a path to the mains. Now you can adjust aux 1-6 on the click channel just like you would for any mon mixes on any of the channels. If you're using Reaper I have a video that explains how to route the click/metronome. ua-cam.com/video/wA7S91iw2lM/v-deo.html
Yes. The wifi (or direct ethernet connection) only sends/receives control information to the mixer (fader position, EQ, etc...) but no actual audio information. Meanwhile, USB has audio information, but no control information. So to get audio back and forth from a computer you need the USB connection. And to setup mixer routing, adjust levels, etc. you need the ethernet connection too. Although, these can be on two separate computers... or control can be via a tablet/iPad. IOW, both things don't have to be on the same computer... but they can be. But no matter what, both connections are needed. You don't need the USB connection to mix a live gig on the XR18, unless you're recording to a DAW or taking trax from the computer... You just need the wifi/ethernet connection to give the mixer its instructions. But for recording, you'll need both connections in order to share audio with a computer and the XR18, and have a way to route and control that audio from the XR18.
Alan, does this setup work as described thru chapter 2A if I want to be able to adjust the mix from each channel in my home studio? With this setup, will Reaper recognize all the channel settings set by the sound tech during live performance? Also, I assume that setting up the XR18 usb as you teach here will not affect the live FOH mix, correct?
Should be fine. The only thing that will affect the FOH mix are your gain levels. And you should be setting gain for optimum levels for the preamps in the first place (regardless of live or recording) so that should be the same and set before you play anyway.
You mean the gain levels set in XAir or in Reaper? I plan to use a 2nd computer hooked to the X18 USB port to record the service and to set the gain levels in Reaper at unity so I can see what our FOH really sounds like and compare that to our UA-cam stream. That should not create a conflict with our Sound computer which runs the X18, correct? I'm going to post mix the service in my home studio for training another sound tech. We use one of the Aux outs for the UA-cam live stream. Any potential conflicts there we need to be aware of? I also plan to mute the separate channels in Reaper on my recording computer. Don't want to create any feedback or latency echo problems for FOH or the livestream.
Hi Alan..thank you for doing these videos...really helped me a lot with improving our sound at church! I have this problem though, when I playback recordings from Reaper it is much louder than the actual live performance...how do I set it so that live and the soundcheck match level wise? Thanks in advance!
can you help me do this by using the tablet? I got it to work this way and using X-AIR on my PC, but how do I configure the recorded tracks to come back out of the MAIN L/R in the interface so I can mix from my tablet?
On Mixing Station app (Android), open the app, select a channel, on the left of the top option bar is OVERVIEW, the next option beside that is 48V LC. Select that. That will open a new tab where you can select A/D or USB as your source. To listen to individual tracks from Reaper, select USB. You need to do this for each channel you want to return tracks on, and then you can save the scene to have it as a preset for the next time. I'm not sure if Mix Station already has a preset for this or not. I'll try and remember to look later. If you just want to hear the Master L-R mix from Reaper, it defaults to being on USB1 and USB 2 (as explained in the video) so you'd just need to change the source for channel 1 and 2 if you didn't want to mess with routing. Or.... also explained in the video, switch the L-R default Master out of Reaper to be 17 and 18 so it comes in on the Aux channel of the XR18. Then on Mix Station, do like I explained above except just do it on the Aux input and change the source from A/D to USB.
Never mind I just figured it out! If anyone needs to know: plug your xr18 into your PC, open Reaper and your recorded tracks, set the xr18 ASIO preferences in Reaper, set your outs for each channel just like Alan did in this video, then open X-AIR on your tablet and go into each individual channel and select CONFIG, then select USB. Make sure that each channel is set to USB 1, 2, etc corresponding to the channels. After that make sure you adjust the Trim for each channel just like you would the gain. Then you should be able to route the channels to any Bus or Main LR.
Good tutorial, is it possible to route the Reaper master through a network (using some virtual cable) to OBS without having to return it to a channel on the XR18?
I like Reaper. I had Tracktion too, but I just know my way around Reaper so much better. I guess I really started using both around the same time, but I just gravitated more to Reaper.
Thank your very much for the video. I have set up the XR18, windows PC and Reaper according to your instructions. The problem I have is that I can't hear the audio on my laptop (recording or playback). Laptop speakers are the chosen device. When I unplug the USB cable, Reaper displays 'error opening the audio hardware'. Any advice would be appreciated.
Off the top of my head, I think in the Audio settings of Reaper you'd want to set your Input Device as explained in this video (with the XR18 connected), but your output device would be set to your laptop (or laptop soundcard... however they denote it). You can get to the audio device settings window by clicking at the top right of the main Reaper screen where it notes your audio setup in brackets [..... ] ... Or thru OPTIONS/PREFERENCES/DEVICE.... So the input needs to be listening to the XR18, but the output needs to be your laptop. At least that is how it seems to me it would need to be set off the top of my head. Normally, you'd have the XR18 being both the input and output device and either use headphones connected to the XR18 for track monitoring and mixing, or some powered studio monitors connected to the XR18 left and right outs. Or the secondary method of recording the tracks from a live show or tracking session to the laptop, and then transferring the files to a USB stick or HD and loading them to a dedicated studio computer and mixing in the box from there. Or connecting the entire laptop back into a studio environment which doesn't use the XR18 as the studio interface. This might be what someone would do that uses the XR18 as their live console and has a dedicated studio at home and doesn't want their XR18 doing double duty.
Dear Alan. I am looking at chapter 3 in this video... I wonder if it is possible to use the X-Air Edit for IEM-mixes out through AUX 1-6 while SIMULTANIOUSLY sending channel 1-16 unprocessed to Reaper via the USB for editing of channel 17+18/MAIN/FOH-mix as you describe in chapter 3. Thereby basically using the XR18-mixer-software for the IEM-mixes and Reaper for the MAIN/FOH-mix simultaniously? If yes, that would be much easier/lighter than bringing both a splitter cable snake box and two mixers (IEM-mixer + MAIN/FOH-mix) when I have to mix both IEMs and FOH on a gig
You can send to Reaper simultaneously, but why not just use the main L-R XLR outs to feed your FOH mix? What do you need Reaper for, at least as far as mixing FOH? The XR18 can do 6 monitor mixers, a stereo L-R FOH mix, and output 18 channels via USB to a DAW. Or are you trying to get more than 6 mon mixes?
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks for the answer... No, I was thinking more in the lines of having an IEM-mix that always stays the same from gig to gig, and then use Reaper to mix FOH. In the FOH mix I would eliminate the frequecies that creates resonance etc in the specific venue/gig. That way I could use Reaper to apply room specific reverb and identify and eliminate the bad frequencies of/in the room, without intefering with the IEM-mix
Soooooo I see the xr12 16 & 18 all have midi in and out.. I know that will allow you to use a controller to change scenes and other functions on the mixer.. but what if I don't want to change anything on the mixer but use the midi in to send control messages thru xr12 to reaper to change playback and recording parameters in reaper? Would that be possible without sending those control changes to the mixer?
I'm afraid I can't be much help on that. I've not used used any of the MIDI implementation on the X-Air stuff. Hopefully, someone with experience will see your question and answer that for you.
It's been a while since I've used MIDI on the XR18. I believe you can set the MIDI channel and just don't send anything on that channel. For the scene changes to work you need to send a program change to that given MIDI channel. The MIDI out should be working like a THRU out.
@@zerix01 ah ok. I'm actually trying to use the midi connection as a way to go thru the XR18 as a junction to have a controller send CC messages to a laptop session to trigger sounds and playback.. because the unit is older and doesn't have midi over USB..
@@christopherheadcase6886 Looking at the manual, it appears MIDI channels 1 - 3 are locked and will respond to certain CC events. However on the Android app I can see you can enable/ disable MIDI Din Rx and Tx as well as MIDI over USB and passthrough. It's not obvious, but I think if you disable everything but the passthrough option, then the X18 should just act as a MIDI thru box and should not respond to anything on any channel.
Why would you use two of the 6 AUX outs to your studio monitors when you have the two Main outs? Wouldn’t you just plug your studio monitors into the main outs of the XR18?
I've been sitting here thinking about your question and wondering where you were getting that, or what I was thinking about when/if I said it. It's been a while since I made the video... but I think we're talking about two different things. So, yes, your studio MIXING mons, would almost certainly be connected to the main outs in just about any normal circumstances. I think what you heard me talking about was musician monitors. Like connecting a headphone amplifier(s) to one or more of the aux outs to set up a monitor mix, or even multiple monitor mixes, for the musicians during recording. So the engineer might be monitoring off the L-R mains connected to their studio monitors (or the mixer's headphone output), the musicians could have up to 6 independent mono monitor mixes via the aux outs, or 3 stereo monitor mixes via the aux outs. I know I've used the wired Behringer beltpacks to create headphone mixes for the musicians when recording. The drummer doesn't necessarily want to hear what the singer wants... or guitarist... For example, the drummer might be the only one wanting the click, while the other musicians want the drummer, but not the click. So I think that is what the video was talking about... Sound right? TL:DR version - Connecting musician monitors to the Auxes, not the main mix studio monitors.
Well, after bashing my head trying to get reaper to see my asio x18 drivers for a few hours, I am going to try asio4all. Recording two channels is better than recording none if I can make it work. Any tips? I am a windows 11 user which I think might be causing the issue. The XAir app works fine, and I can hear output through my system. Reaper says that there is a problem initialising audio device. I tried with the two current versions of driver from Behringer. 4.59 and 5.12. Online searches haven't helped me so if you have any tips, I would appreciate it. Subscribed.
Ok.. just to reply to myself. Turns out that the xr18 drivers are different to the mr18 drivers. I actually have the mr18, and since everything else seems to be the same, it didn't occur to me to look for separate drivers... there goes 3 hours I'll never get back
@@JohnWilkinsonMusic I'm glad you figured it out. I've seen it be as simple as a wonky and/or too long USB cable, and at least one person had a balky USB circuit in the XR. They returned it and got a replacement and the new one worked perfectly fine. So, as frustrating as it was to get to the bottom of it, at least your problem wasn't that.
Do you have a tutorial on how to set up the XR16/18 and using it for live use? Im looking to have all the tracks i have in my daw (synths, Ambience and click) going to the IEM system, however i just want to send the Synths and Ambience to Front of house (Splitter is in the rack) if you or anyone knows how to achieve this id be very grateful. Cheers.
The XR16 doesn't have a way to connect to a DAW does it? I thought it could only record 2 tracks to a USB stick. And play back from the USB stick. I don't have a 16 so when they diverge from the XR18 side of things, like USB implementation, I'm not really up on it.
Alan - good video but I'm running into a couple of problems (that may well be related) 1) In X-Air Edit, when I click on In/Out>USB Returns and click on the Off (Analog) button it doesn't pop up and give me the option to Load Presets - clicking the Off (Analog) button appears to have no impact/action 2) When I open Reaper and go to Options>Preferences>Device and I choose ASIO in the dropdown I don't get X18 ASIO option. I only get X-Air ASIO Driver (or Realtek ASIO). I select X-Air, but then the Enable Inputs and Output Range doesn't give me anything in the dropdown - all 4 dropdowns are blank. There is something at the bottom saying ASIO outputs are enabled by default. I follow the rest of the instructions for Preferences and select OK I then get Error initializing ASIO driver. So something isn't working there. I'm running X-Air Edit version 1.8, with Firmware version 1.20. For Reaper it is v7.11. Any help would be appreciated.
In the Mixer Setup - Audio/MIDI is USB interface set to 18/18? Have you tried reinstalling the drivers from Behringer and even downgrading and installing older drivers? ...and rebooting each time? Probably before getting too far in the weeds a lot of problems people have had have turned out to be USB cable related. Either trying to use a long cable that was longer than spec, or an older cable that was apparently damaged or worn out connector not making good contact. Or wonky USB port on the computer. So it never hurts to try a new and short USB cable, and different USB port if possible (and skipping any USB hub while testing too). Once you know the configuration is right and CAN work (assuming a cable or port issue), then you can start throwing other variables back into the mix to see where it goes off the rails. Definitely they can be finicky if you're using a USB cable longer than the spec (which I think is 12 or 15' but I don't exactly recall off the top of my head).. or even just getting in that ballpark.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks for the response. Yes on 18/18. USB cable is short - only 3' and is brand new. I'll try reinstalling drivers including the older ones.
@AlanHamiltonAudio Turns out it was the older driver that was the problem. I had initially installed 4.38 after I had installed x18 v5.12.0. So when I started over and installed x18 v5 (and didn't install 4.38) everything worked. Thanks for the advice.
Slowly getting this! For anyone having ASIO driver issues. Try this. Try removing the USB from your computer and reattaching it. I did this and noticed for a few brief seconds I could set the inputs in reaper. But then it was as if reaper and XR18 lost connectivity. Turns out my USB cable was too long. I switched cables and had no problem setting everything up. Hope this helps someone!!
I need to do a video about troubleshooting, because it seems people try to use USB cables that are just too long, and either the XR18, their computer, or both just don't like out of spec cables. Which is understandable, but some things let you get away it, and places sell cables that are longer than spec, and extensions are also available, so that all adds up to a potential driver/USB problem because of the length of the USB cable. And then there's also the quality of the cable to be considered, and any damage it might've suffered, etc... Sounds like you're getting it figured out. :)
X-Air is where you set your gain. The X-Air should average -18dBFS and peak higher. Some people read that wrong and set it to peak at -18dFS on the X-Air input meters and end up with the signal too low. You can easily peak at -12dBFS... -10dBFS... without any problem.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio So we are having issue that when we adjust the Xair, it is also changing the Front of house sound (mains). Is there a way to separate this so that a different xair interface controls the FOH while the laptop only controls the recording inputs? We are trying to record our rehearsals.
@@alexedwards9566 You should be able to set the gains and leave those alone once set. Gains that are right for the DAW should also be right for the X-Air. Nothing else should impact the house sound. Or vice versa... unless you've changed the default USB out tap point. By default, the only thing that goes to the DAW is the preamp signal. Now.... if you're RETURNING anything from the DAW and blending that back in... then that could create problems. What is changing in the house mix?
Hello, good friend, I follow your cool videos, I just wanted to take a doubt the headset we take it from where even from the table (PHONES) because when I hear the sound comes out more it is strange some noise, you have some video under. this one, thank you very much
I’ve done everything as far as setting following your instructions. But I have no signal in reaper. I don’t know if it’s because I have the trial version. Or that shouldn’t matter. Any help is much appreciated
The trial version shouldn't matter. Let's take Reaper out of the equation and just make sure your computer can see your XR18/MR18 via USB and play audio. Can you follow the instructions in this video and just see if you can send audio from your laptop, via USB (not the headphone out), to your XR18? ua-cam.com/video/v0MC76qB0j8/v-deo.html
Yes follow this and got signal from mixer to pc. I finally figured on how to get signal from mixer to reaper. But one thing. I did a short vocal recording but it barely show the waves. Not sure if the levels are not high enough or there was something I was supposed to do be fore recording. Btw you videos has help tons. Please keep these helpful content on the xr18 going.
@@catchandreleasetrout Once you're getting signal into Reaper there shouldn't be anything on that end wrong. You can "normalize" your Reaper tracks later if you have weak signals, but to avoid that from the beginning it sounds like your input gains on the XR18 might be too low. -18dBFS is what you want to see on the channel input meter when you are setting gain in the XR18. BUT that is AVERAGE level. You should be peaking higher. So if you set the gains to only peak at -18dBFS in the XR18, that would definitely be too low and you need more gain. More gain at the XR18 will be more level into Reaper. Of course, you don't want too much gain either. There should be a happy medium between enough level for Reaper to see your waveforms, and still have plenty headroom in the XR18 to not be clipping or even coming close to clipping your inputs. Try being a bit more aggressive with your input gain on the XR18, definitely making sure it at least averages -18dFS, and letting it peak above that. Even 6db-9dB above that.
Alan, I'm using my laptop to record via reaper. I'm also using the laptop to play music into my XR18 via Input 17/18. I followed your steps and everything is working. However, now, I can only hear the music in my Main LR if I've enabled recording in Reaper. I don't want to record this music. Basically, I want to play the music through my Main LR so I can play guitar with it, but I don't want to record the music i'm playing to. I only want to record my guitar. How would I fix that? THANKS AGAIN for the great videos and being so responsive!! Truly appreciated!
It has to be between the routing in reaper itself (what USB channels Reaper is taking for each track it 'hears' from the XR18) and the USB input and output routing of the XR18. Make sure that whatever routing you set up in Reaper matches with what you're sending from the XR18. It doesn't have to match 1 to 1 necessarily, if you have some reason to skip around, but for troubleshooting and basic routing it generally works best to patch things one to one... USB1 out to Reaper Track 1 (USB 1 in on Reaper), USB2 out to Reaper Track 2 (USB 2 in on Reaper)...
@@AlanHamiltonAudio yes, did that. my laptop's audio goes into 17/18. it is in reaper on 17/18 as well. all good there. just wondering if there's a way to have 17/18 not go to reaper but instead only go to the Mains LR?
@@cardp17 As long as Reaper doesn't have anything 'listening' to USB 17/18, or the main out of the XR18, then it can't go to Reaper. For it to get to Reaper, you have to send it on a USB out that Reaper 'listening' to. So, you can stop that by either making sure you're not outputting anything to from those sources inside the XR18 to USB at all... or just make sure Reaper isn't assigned to 'listen' to them if you are.
I guess it's cool when it works. I use a Roland TD27 module. When I plug in the Behringer x1204 the only option is the TD27. Doesn't matter if the drums are on or not.
I'm using Reaper 6.21 on a Mac using OS 11. When setting up Reaper, the first menu (Preferences>Audio>dropdown and ASIO) is different and does not have the dropdown at all. So I'm stuck at square one. I suspect this is because I'm using the latest version of Reaper for OS 11, but who do I do?
Since I'm not a Mac user, I don't know if I can get you flowing in the right direction or not. When translating this info from PC to Mac, there are parts of the Mac setup that you have to have some Mac experience to navigate. You won't, I believe, have to deal with ASIO on a Mac and that's just a PC step... related to PC driver install. The Mac doesn't require any driver download and should support the X-Air natively. It should work with Mac's CoreAudio and be plug and play on this part. So, can you just bypass the ASIO step, as it's part of the PC/driver process and get to the next step in the process? ...Where you tell the Mac that you want to use the XR18 for the audio interface? ...Or CoreAudio. Beyond that, is there a security or permission setting that is not letting the Mac see the XR18? Do you have to 'allow' an external device somewhere else in you OS? Since I don't have a Mac it's a little hard to duplicate and troubleshoot those steps. And of course this is the main place there will be any difference between the Mac and PC in the setup. Does this information have anything to do with anything?: www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/how-do-i-make-an-aggregate-device-on-mac-os-x/ support.apple.com/en-us/HT202000
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks Alan. Reaper and the XR18 are definitely communicating, and I was able to manually set up all 18 tracks. The problem is that I'm not getting any signal on the channels. I'm wondering if this has more to do with the way the XR18 is set p than with Reaper. It may be that I have to set up the USB outputs in the XR18 differently than they are set up now. Does that sound reasonable? I also noticed that just under the Devices option is MIDI Devices. Should those input and output devices also be set for the XR18 and enabled?
@@johnricci7264 Do you mean you don't have signal on the XR18 channels? ...Or on Reaper (tracks?)? If it's your XR18 channels not getting anything, it sounds like you have your channels set to get signal from USB instead of the preamp. That part is in the video, but maybe you missed a step... Of course if you mean you're not getting signal to Reaper, then this isn't the issue... Here's a quick way to check... If you open your X-Air Edit software (connected to the XR18), and you choose any channel (1-16), then click the "Input" tab at the top, You'll see "Channel Source" just below that. And there is an option for "Mic/Line A/D" or "USB". If USB is highlighted, then the channel is listening to Reaper for its signal (back from Reaper), and not the preamps. A/D should be highlighted when you are playing and recording through the XR18. Beyond that, below the A/D button, there's the "Analog Input" dropdown. Make sure it's not set to "Off". This is where you softpatch channels, but the default should match whatever channel you're looking at... .Channel 1 should be INP 01, Channel 2 should be INP 02, Channel 3=INP 03.... You could even just set the one channel you're looking at here, if it's wrong, and see if that corrects the issue on at least that one channel. Ok... since I'm not 100% sure whether you meant signal to the XR18 channels... or signal to Reaper.... Or I guess you could mean signal back from Reaper... I'll stop on this part and make sure I'm on the same page you are. But if I am on the right track, re-watch the part of the video about the In/Out setup of the Behringer. I don't think the problem is in the MIDI setup stuff.
@@johnricci7264 In the In/Out screen... USB sends... Do they all look like they should? Default should be red ring in a 1 to 1 patch. There's even a button to recall that if it gets changes (Ch 1-18), and a 1-16/LR option. So, I'm guessing that part is OK and you've probably checked it. ..probably 100 times already ;)
Hi alanhamiltonaudio I use mr18 I used you tutorial step by step but it refused to play back Am ysing reaper on windows Everything is set as you instructed in this tutorial
I'd try a different USB cable (and keep it around 10' or less... especially when testing and having problems). Also, try loading older drivers... rebooting... and see if the older drivers work (you'll probably need to go back into Reaper and redo your audio settings). And whether they work or not... then try the new drivers again to see if they now work after a reboot. And again, you'll probably need to check your audio settings in Reaper after this. This assumes that IF the older drivers DO happen to work, you even want to mess with success and not just leave it be. There is the new variable of the Mk2 version of the XR18 and MR18 now... But AFAIK, everything should still work like shown in the video, even with the new iterations.
If you set the Aux in channel(s) (17-18) inputs to be USB 1 and USB 2, I'd think you might be able to then play back music from the laptop from Windows Media player (or whatever music playing software you use). I've never really tried it though. I'm sure you could if you actually shutdown the DAW on break and eliminated the possibility of any software conflicts... But I'm not sure there'd be a software conflict in the first place. But truthfully... I don't know... Never tried it and can't recall anyone ever saying they did it.
Step by step tutorial for connecting the XR18 or Midas MR18 to Reaper DAW.
Use the XR18 as a USB 16 mic pre audio interface. Updated version (Jan 2020).
I had several requests to remove the background music tracks from the original version of this video series because it was distracting. So, I finally finished that project, but, with quite a bit of re-editing to address flow and pacing, and making it into 1 video with 3 chapters, and an overall update of the entire video. Chapter 3 was totally redone to make it fit better with the other parts (the original part 3 was an add on and did not flow well when watching all 3 videos together).
And most importantly, the background music is gone! ;)
Hopefully, all of this work makes for a better viewer experience. There are a lot of steps to keep track of for the viewer, so better flow and no distracting BG music tracks throughout the entire video can't hurt.
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Great video Alex, you were easy to understand and you moved quickly and accurately through the process. Thanks
@@stevethompson7059 Thanks!
You are a godsend! Thank you for laying out this tutorial so simply that the complexities aren’t missed.
2024 and still on point! Great video, thanks
Thank you!
Man, this video is a miracle. I've been trying to configure my reaper to the XR18 for months till I found your video. Thanks a lot, brother
Cool. Glad it helped!
I watched your video more than 10 times last year to remind how you make it. Perfect explanation, thank you VM. You help me a lot!
Great to hear!
Alan you are such a good teacher, very gifted love you bro.
Awesome tutorial! I just installed Reaper and I'm waiting for my XR18 to arrive, but this already gives me so much confidence in setting everything up. Thank you! Your instructions are concise and yet explain everything perfectly. As a newbie I feel like I just graduated from a master class in setting up routing channels on a mixer!
Thanks!
amazingly helpful, ive been struggling with getting them to work, but you give the answer about instaling the old drivers too and that has fixed it all for me!
Glad it helped
Thanks!
Thank you!! :)
Thank you! I just successfully used this information for my church mobile setup!
Glad it helped! Thanks for watching and commenting. :)
Fantastic tutorials all around. Including this very informative one. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks!
Great video. No extra BS and straight to the point.
Thank you! :)
Thank you for putting this up here Alan! We have a little different setup at our church. The streaming media uses a full X32 Compact mixer for the sounds coming in. Your video also provides the almost exact same set up for an X32 to use in Reaper. I would also point out that you can use the 32/32 USB setting in the X32 for Reaper and then have each of those audio inputs ALSO available as an individual audio source for OBS if you're using it for streaming (of course grouping them would make life easier....). Of course, you will want a decently powerful enough machine to do this. Thanks for the video!
Thanks! At some point I need to do a video specifically on the X32 and Reaper. People searching for info on the X32 and Reaper will likely never see my XR18 to Reaper video, even though there's a lot of crossover in the two platforms.
I've not connected Reaper to is since the V4 Firmware, so I need to run thru it all myself and make sure I'm not missing anything in the changeover.
And, I put the Live card in one of the X32's (the card that takes two SD cards and lets you mutli-track directly within the console) so I have really had the need to user Reaper since FW4.0 anyway... which has put me a little behind the curve on navigating Reaper and the new FW on the X32.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Well, if you want a suggestion for a good video, talk about connecting an X32 through its USB 32/32 to Reaper and then connecting/accessing those audio channels in OBS. And as an added bonus, also include a quick comment about using the USB 2/2 channel option as an audio source in OBS. Again, thanks for the reply and the videos you do!
@@ThomasLoyd There are plans in the works for doing a USB 2 channel connect to OBS for the X-Air that might happen soon. And I was talking with someone about getting together on a future X32 video that would be a streaming deep dive that would really delve into how to connect it, options for the feed, mixing, and even touch on some stream video too.
But, that's would be a fairly adventurous video to plan, make, and edit... so whether it reaches fruition is a question mark.
Another brilliant vijo Alan ♥️
Thanks! :)
Thank you! Now i can send my backing tracks to FOH! You saved my life and a couple of bucks haha
Glad I could help!
Awesome man! Learned some new things about the routing. I got the XR18 to work nicely with my outboard gear. What I do is turn off the master send. Then send a individual track to channel 1 on x air. Then channel 1 to aux out 1. Aux 1 out to outboard gear and back into a input channel. It works great. I know there’s a plugin called reainsert that’s supposed to help with this but the latency was bad.
Cool deal! Latency can quickly be a PITA so anything adding latency can be trouble. Obviously, there will always be 'some' but it has to be manageable. I hadn't heard of reainsert.
Alan Hamilton reainsert is a plugin similar to the in/out menu on the x air. It’s a stock plugin in reaper. Say if you have a interface with 2 outs and 2 ins. Reainsert can route the 2 outs to say a axe fx. Then you route the axe fx back into the 2 ins and reainsert will route it on a different track. I do this with dry recorded tracks. If I want a particular effect on that track later I’ll use this method.
@@outdatedgear5036 I figured by the name 'Rea'insert that it was a Reaper plugin. I'll have to mess with it one of these days. Thanks for info.
Alan Hamilton no problem. Thanks to you I was able to figure out a lot of stuff on the xr18. Keep the videos coming.
You’re the best! Exactly what I was searching for. Big thanks!
Glad I could help!
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Hey, I have a question you might know. I followed all your steps and I think all settings are correct. I am sending audio (Spotify) from my laptop (where I have Reaper and am recording from) to my XR18 through a jack, and both Reaper and the XR18 show a signal when I play that audio/music. However, when I want to record in Reaper, nothing is recorded. In the track line I don't see any graphs (or how do you call this). Do you happen to know what's wrong?
@@thomasgulikers When you go to record, are you changing the channel inputs to the XR front panel or are they set to USB inputs?
On X-Air Edit "Input" tab the Channel Source can be set to 'listen' to Mic/Line A/D or USB. If you're connecting a mic or mics to the XR18 to SEND to Reaper to record, then that needs to be set to Mic/Line AD. Otherwise it's 'listening' and receiving whatever Reaper would be sending on that USB channel. So... IOW... nothing to record would be sent to Reaper.
You can also make this change globally by going to In/Out USB Returns tab, and clicking he OFF(Analog) button. That turns the USB sends OFF and turns the Analog inputs on for every channel.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Found the issue and fixed it! The inputs in the XR18 were fine. It was the routing in Reaper that I had set wrong. Turned out I didn't pay close enough attention to your video. 😅 Working like a charm now! Many thanks!
@@thomasgulikers Cool!
Thanks for this tutorial. i found it so helpful.
You're welcome! Thanks for the comment.
Thank you Alan your videos are really helpful
Thanks for watching! :)
This was a great video...very helpful! Thank you!
well done, great video!
oh my god! I know this video like the bible already! you are the best man!
🎉
Thanks!!
0:00 Intro
0:25 Chapter 1: Setting Up XR18
6:00 Chapter 2A: Setting Up Reaper
8:45 Chapter 2B: Advanced Settings For Reaper (Typical of Virtual Soundcheck)
13:00 Chapter 3: Mixing "In The Box" With Reaper and Using the XR18 as a 2 Channel Feed For Studio Monitors or Headphones.
Also, a Quick Listen Method Without the Need in Routing Changes.
Alan great video very helpful, I learned alot from your instructional material. One important setting to be aware of, is the Audio/Midi Tab @(2:30) of the video
Within the menu screen, USB Interface (18/18 ch) or (2/2ch)
Make sure (18/18) is selected in order for Reaper to Recognize all 18 channels from the X-Air Mixer.
For some reason my XR18 was set to (2/2) as a default & drove me crazy when trying to setting up Reaper & it wouldn’t recognize more than two channels to load. (18/18) was the key.
@@andyramirez9481 Good point. Yes, 18/18 for multi-track recording and that should be the default in the console. I wonder if that changed in the FW at some point? It's definitely that way in the last couple of FW's, but maybe that wasn't the original default...
FWIW, I've never had any issues sending/receiving 2 track audio with the console in 18/18 mode. I'm not sure if there's a reason to even use anything but 18/18. Maybe somebody knows and got stung by being in 18/18 mode and couldn't do something that required 2/2.
Great video, thanks mate!
Glad you liked it!
Thanks for listening to us whiners about the music
You're awesome
Thanks! It took me a bit, but I got it done. I had to clean up some background noise from the narration track that all of a sudden mattered, and I had to do some pacing edits since there was some dead air points that stood out without the background music. Plus, just to make the 3 parts flow together better. The 3rd part was almost entirely redone.
And then, since I was already in the editor, some visual embellishments/enhancements while I was at it. And the transition pieces between part 1-2-3 had to be built.
Also, I had to resync the audio and video, since the sep audio tracks were in Reaper and not the video editor.
I think it all made for a better video/tutorial and viewer experience. At least I hope it did! :)
Great video. Do you a similar video with the x32 edit software for the x32? Also how do you get the global icon to show on the main x32 edit software page. Thank you.
Thanks! I haven't done any recording software videos with the X32, several X32 videos about mixing in general on the channel though.
The Global icon on the X-Edit software is there on X-Edit the same as X-Air Edit... EXCEPT they move it to the LEFT side of the Sends window.
When you're in the SENDS tab, it'll be between the large channel fader at the top left and the 1st of the SENDs faders.
Same icon too... just a totally different location. Same tab, same icon, almost opposite location ;)
At least on the version of X-Edit I'm using and I THINK it's the newest version... 4.2?
Am a new XR18 and Reaper owner/user and new subscriber to your channel. Glad to have come across your content, it has been most helpful. At approx the 8:10 time point when you are checking for a signal, is there a way to monitor? Thanks for the input up front!
Yes, but how you do it would depend on some setup decisions and where you are in the process.
In the video I mention the default output routing of Reaper is for the Reaper Main L-R to be USB 1 and USB 2.
So, with that in mind, you'd want to either change that to be 17/18 and then in the mixer, go to the Aux in channel (which is 17/18) and on the 'channel' tab after selecting the Aux channel, change the input from Analog to USB.
Now you can solo 17 and 18, or just bring them up, and any tracks playing back/thru Reaper will show up in the headphones (or studio mons) connected to the XR18.
If it's just a quick "is this thing working?" test... then you could leave all that alone, and connect your test mic into channel 3 (or any channel except channel 1 or 2), arm the corresponding track in Reaper (so, assuming 1 to 1, connect to input 3 on the XR18 and arm track number 3 in reaper.
Now.... In the XR18, select channel 1 on the mixer, tab to CHANNEL, and select USB instead of Analog... That will enable monitoring of the left side of Reaper. Repeat for channel 2 and that will enable monitoring for the right.
You can also LINK the channels for stereo linking. Now when you solo 1/2 they will feed your headphones connected to the XR18.
But this is more of just a test setup kind of thing, because you lose you channel 1 and channel 2 as inputs for your XR18. At least as long as they are set to USB you do.
...Whereas when you do the method with 17-18, you don't lose any preamps for direct 1-16 one to one connection to Reaper.
In part 3 of the video, this part is described more.
There are so many options that there are several ways to get somewhere, just depending on what might be best for a specific use.
I hope that made sense. It gets kind of convoluted until you dig in and just see how it's working, and then it should click in.
Thanks for watching and subscribing!! :)
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thank you for that detailed explanation...it's much appreciated. I have some limited experience with an Allen & Heath SQ-7 at Church and when I think about how it's configured, it sounds similiar to what you describe, so it does make sense. Thanks for expanding the knowledge base!
@@michaelboyer561 Thanks!
Great, great, great!!!
Great. Thanks!
Thanks for the comment and thanks for watching!
Thank Alan, one question: is posible to usb return just 8 tracks, from repear, like an electric drum with a plugin, and the others resting on xr18 could be vocals. Bass and guitar but those connected by line?
Thank you for this
Thanks for watching and commenting! :)
Very well done (again!). Thank you so much!
Thanks!!!
thank you so much!!
You're welcome!
Hi Alan. Seem to have everything working and signal looks good everywhere, but the mic sounds robotic and highly reverberant at phones out on xr18.. Tried to follow your instructions as accurately as possible. I've run out of ideas, could it be the ASIO driver or firmware? There was only one driver available on Behringer website. Any help appreciated and thanks for all you do!
Everything is fine now, turns out it was some reaper settings I wasn't aware of. This is all very new to me.
thnx for the useful vid.
Thanks! I hope it was helpful!
Hi! Thanks for the video. How can I put al the chanel's in one track?
In the Mixer, you can go into routing (IN/OUT from X-Air Edit) and then into USB Sends and change every channel to the same USB output (whatever track you want everything on). That's assuming you only want everything recorded and not individual tracks PLUS everything.
Otherwise... for that possibility of doing both...
You could just assign the main output of the X-Air to one track (or two tracks for the main stereo out if you're mixing in stereo).
You could alternatively create a mono subgroup and assign EVERYTHING (or everything except anything you DON'T want there inside X-Air Edit on the mixer, then UNASSIGN that subgroup from the mains (since you don't want the channels double assigned to the mains) and then set that subgroup bus to the USB Send in X-Air routing that you want going to the one track.
These last two methods would let you both have individual tracks PLUS an overall mix recorded (if you wanted).
Just do it from the USB Sends section of routing IN/OUT in X-Air edit. Or the similar method that the other software uses to assign USB sends.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thank you very very much for your time and help!
so, that's the only thing you need to do to use the XR18 as an IEM and to record your show? sounds good to me! or did i get it wrong?
I think you have it correct.
Is there a way for me to send effects like Reverb and a compressor from the xr18 and record with said effects into the Daw?
There is... BUT... you are maxed out with 18 outputs from the XR18 into the DAW. So it depends on if you have unused channels that aren't already going to the DAW. The In/Out tab has routing in the USB sends part that lets you move each channel's send to something else to record... like the main-LR, or a bus... and that includes FX which can themselves be routed to USB sends (and thus to DAW tracks). Keep in mind that FX are stereo, so they technically take two tracks per FX to fully capture the effect (if you're trying to be 100% accurate... if it's just to capture some reverb you 'could' just capture it mono).
You could also route all of your FX to a stereo subgroup and then route that subgroup via USB to the DAW. That would just need 2 tracks. But you'd be stuck with the overall mix of FX, at least as to how they balance with themselves. You could still turn the entire FX mix up or down in post.
As for compression/gates... you can just tap the USB send after the compression/gates on the channels or busses. Which would be pre-fader to capture the channel comp... but that also captures the gate and channel EQ. You can capture the gate, but not channel comp (or channel EQ), by tapping the USB send pre-EQ.
Hi, Many thanks for your excellent video! I have followed all your instructions and then discovered that for some reason, I have something that sounds like static coming back from the output of reaper back to the XR18. Any suggestions as to what this could be or how I could get rid of it. I tried testing with one channel and the sound appears to come from the XR18 but when I play it back I can hear it but with a lot of (what sound like) static.
That sounds like an over-taxed CPU. Are there any plugins running on Reaper? Any other programs running in the background?
Clock settings should match, but I'm not sure it would work at all if they didn't.
You might need to go into Reaper and try some more conservative settings in the setup page(s) and see if that corrects things.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Hi Alan, thanks for your quick response. I'll keep an eye on that in future. As a last resort, I tried swapping the USB cable this morning so (touch wood) that seems to have resolved the problem.
Hi Sir
Excellent video and thank u...I have a quick question..does the computer for reaper and the computer for xr18 have to be different or can both be done on the same computer?
You can use the same computer for recording and control, but you need to use both the USB connection (audio) and the Ethernet (or Wifi) for control.
Audio is only done over USB and system control is only handled over ethernet.
Hi Alan, great video, love your content :)! Question for you, I remixed our band last gig, essentially doing a virtual sound check at home, adding eq, compression, etc, and now I want to show the band. Is there any easy way of exporting/saving the sound coming out of the virtual sound check? The only thing I can think of is to, in USB Sends, set USB 17/18 to Main L/R, and then hit play, and record the whole show in real time.
Yeah, real time and a couple of tracks like you describe recording the 'virtual show' would be the way.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Appreciate the reply, thanks!
Please tutorial about
XR18 to Studio One to OBS using Restream. For livestreaming
I have a routing question... I use the xr18 as an interface to record to my DAW... and would like to know how to route each channel so the internal gate/eq/compressor that have presets can actually be recorded... i can hear them in my monitor mix...but they don't seem to on the playback once recorded...specifically the kick and snare gate preset .... thanks
That would be the "pre fader" pick point in the In/OUT window, USB Sends. That is the pink colored ring you'd want in the graph on any channels you want sending those things to the DAW to be recorded.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thank you Alan
My advice to you would be to record as Alan says, directly from the preamps. Once you record gating etc, you cannot go back. You are better off adding compression etc in your DAW 😎
Great tutorial…..thanks. However I have one question - can the pc be connected directly to the cat5 port for control, or must mixer and pc be connected to a switch/router?
The PC can be connected directly via the Ethernet port. I do it all the time when I'm making the XR18 videos.
Hello thanks for all your content. It has helped me so much. I do have a question. I'm using an x18 to live stream via USB from a stereo linked bus. I am wondering if there is a way to multitrack record and live stream at the same time.
There definitely is, but I haven't done it so don't necessarily know the best way to do it or describe it.
Now does this record the effects from the XR18 also?
Or is this recording the dry clean signal?
Also I saw a video you were doing a show in Bedford, Indiana.
I’m from Jasper, IN and now live in Carmel, IN.
It can. You have to either dedicate a track or tracks for the FX you want to record and route them in the USB sends to your tracks, or send the FX to a subgroup (mono or stereo) instead of straight to L-R and then dedicate 1-2 tracks (2 for stereo) and route that subgroup to either 1 or 2 USB sends. Either of those methods would capture the FX (assuming we're talking time-based FX like reverb, delay...).
Hi, many people said that only gain affects the recorded sound the DAW?
so even if we set EQ, fx, or whatever that have been set up in the mixer, those will not affect the recorded sound?
I was hoping to use the EQ etc for live streaming purpose, and may be also for recording.
You can set it up in different ways. In the USB sends section on the X-air there are options for where you can tap the USB send. By default it's just after the preamp (red ring), but you can also change that tap point to several other points all the way up to (and including) post fader. Pretty sure that is mentioned in the video, but just skimmed over because most people will be recording just after the preamp to be after to re-mix and do things in post. But the option is there to record/present your mix exactly as it is being mixed live.
I might be doing a more in-depth video on the USB sends soon to explain this better.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks for the response. yeah I saw it in the video... just currently dont have the XR18 to test it :D
actually I want to buy it, but before that I want to make sure it will fulfil my needs (and this is one of those).
@@png-startwitharightunderst1210 Yes, it'll definitely work.
Am I correct in thinking that you can use the XR as the PA desk, via a laptop, and use the reaper to record the show at the same time?
Yes. Definitely.
XR18 or MR18 can do that.
Thank you.
Hi Alan! Love how educational your videos are, quick question: When recording to Pro Tools I get mic levels too low even if the gain is properly set in the mixer software ,is this so something related to the sends settings (pre or post fader) or a setting within routing? I would like to record a live concert with pro tool with the same computer but keep getting low gain levels coming into pro tools. Thanks in advance!
I'd make sure you're being aggressive enough with the input gains. It should average -18dBFS, but can and should peak higher. If you're only peaking at -18dBFS then that could hurt the waveform sizes/levels in PTs. Or if you're being conservative and barely allowing any peaking above -18dBFS.
But, other than that, assuming your pick point is right after the preamp (which is the default), you should be able to get a workable level into PTs.
Many thanks for this tutorial.
However, I am planning to use my laptop (hardwired via ethernet to the XR18 for system control via de X-air software) for FOH mix of a live band. Which means that my laptop will be at the back of the venue for live mixing. The XR18 will be on stage with instruments and mic's plugged in. I will therefore not be able to multitrack the band via USB connection on the same laptop (Studio One is my DAW)... Any suggestions to get around this?
Have you looked into 'active' USB cables that extend the useable reach of a USB cable quite a bit?
Fantastic video thank you!!!! Any chance you have one that woks with Logic Pro x? :)
I only have Reaper installed on my computers. I'm too deep into using Reaper to try and manage another DAW now. ;)
I'm afraid I'd just forget some of the Reaper shortcuts and just not know how to do something on both platforms if I switched at this point! ;)
Thanks for watching and the compliment! :)
great video. I got completely lost between all the in/out routing for USB and the charts what left hand and top of them mean.
could you make a video talking about how to route things to a bus and then send the bus out to a USB left and right to a PC?
I do drum lessons online and would like to send my Superior Drummer (which I can route to any channel via USB) and my mic to skype/zoom while while hearing myself, their mic (skype output), and Superior Drummer but I don't want them to hear their mic coming back at them.
I'd like to monitor one bus and send another to skype.
I guess I'm asking how to set up the behringer xr18 for a zoom call
I haven't tried Zoom, but I suspect the routing and setup are pretty similar to setting up the XR18 for OBS. Have you watched that video to see if it helps?
ua-cam.com/video/aNlBOOhWbZw/v-deo.html
Hi Alan,
I am a subscriber to your channel I have learned so much and I love the content. I have an XR18 and followed your instructions on this video to a tee (at least I think so). Everything got recorded, all was good. But I then realised that the songs recorded were a full tone below the original key that we played the songs in Ie,... the song was originally in A minor, but on playback it sounded closer to G minor. Can you shed any light on this,...and what I may have done wrong?
I'm guessing they aren't recorded wrong but are instead playing back wrong. A sample rate mismatch with the computer maybe? I'm thinking this is a computer issue, not Reaper or the XR18.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thank you,.... I will take a look at the sample rate playback.
@@warrenbass7350 Warren, did you have any luck with this? does it seem a bit slower too on playback? I know initially i had an issue where i unknowingly changed the tempo of my reaper project (default is 120) and had a similar issue as yours. Maybe something to check
Hi Alan, I have 2 questions for you if you have time. I am using a XAIR18 as an interface with Reaper on my laptop to record live tracks at band practice so we can play them back and share them with one another to work on and make tweaks before our next practice. The problems I am having is I have channel 17/18 Aux as a play back slider like you have show in the video but the fader on the XR18 will not do anything I have to hit the SOLO button to make sound play back in the headphones, but then I have no control of the volume.
The next problem is when I unplug from the XR18 because it stays at the practice place when I get home and open reaper it says missing device driver and I can not playback anything that was recorded.
I loved your video I followed it step by step and as far as recording from the XR18 into Reaper it works fantastic so thank you.
Part one sounds like on the Aux channel(s) (17-18) in the XR18, that you don't have it assigned to L-R. If you select the Aux channel, tab over to MAIN at the top and click it, and then look in the Main Output section that opens up, you should see Main Stereo with the "L-R" button highlighted (orange). If it's greyed out, then that is the problem.
For the second problem... It sounds like you need to try reinstalling the driver on your computer and rebooting. If that doesn't work, last time I looked, Behringer had 2 revisions of the driver on their download site, so try the older driver and install it. Or see if you're on the older version and update to the newer driver. It almost has to be a driver problem, though you could always try a different USB cable and port on the computer. And, if you're using a long USB cable, that could cause troubles. I had problems with that at one point when I wanted to connect to my desktop and it gave me problems. Though I don't remember the exact symptoms. I just remember it wouldn't work until I moved the XR18 closer and switch the USB cable.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thank you so much for your fast reply but unfortunately neither one of those fixed my problems. The Aux channel LR Mains is Orange, and I have tried to install and uninstall and install the drivers like 3 times. It's a brand new computer so maybe I am just missing something. Again thank you so much for taking your time to respond and I love your video's they are very easy to follow.
You probably still have your ASIO driver selected in Reaper to communicate with your XR18. You must change the audio driver back to your native computer driver in your Reaper settings to send audio to your computer.
very good tutorial. thank you! I'm currently set up this way to get all my raw tracks Pre EQ , Pre Everything apparently, into Reaper.
is there a way to get the FOH- Master LR - post EQ post everything, into Reaper so I can have a down and dirty recording of what the FOH was like after the show? I dont want to have to EQ in Reaper or turn around and send back to my Xr18.
if not, what is the best and simplest way to get the FOH recorded?
thanks again!
Yes... In the In/Out (routing) section of X-Air Edit you can go to the USB Sends tab and move any two available USB sends over to the MAIN L-R section of the grid.
Keep in mind that since it's your house mix with all your channels feeding it, then it will get all your channel EQ (comps/gates/etc... also)... It doesn't matter how the channels are configured to individually feed the USB send because the L-R is already getting the fully processed versions of the channels sent to it before it sends those to your USB outs.
So, then the only choice to consider is whether you want your overall main house EQ and compression also included in the recording. Probably not (since the house EQ is likely for your overall system/speaker EQ and you probably don't want that in your mix recordings), and in that case, the default red ring is fine. Otherwise, you can change it as needed but just keep in mind the only thing that the USB tap point is sending from the MAIN L-R USB send is the actual EQ you use on the main L-R and nothing to do with your channel EQs that are 'cooked' into the mix by that point.
At the least, when recording the main out you likely at least want it PRE FADER, which captures everything except the main fader moves. If you put it POST FADER, you capture the overall house EQ, but you also capture any main fader moves up and down as the night goes on. Normally you wouldn't want that so just keep that in mind... And if you DO want that, there's no option to capture the master fader moves and NOT capture the main EQ, house comp, etc... Once you tap POST Fader on the main L-R in the USB Sends grid, then it's everything going to the DAW.
Then on the DAW you just need to setup two tracks that match (are listening to) whatever 2 USB sends you assigned to the Main L-R in the In/Out USB Sends grid.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio cool beans! Thanks Alan!
HI Alan i love your tutorial but i connected all as on the video but my ASIO doesn't recongnise the xair 18 driver..what's wrong?
Not sure. I'd definitely try redownloading and installing drivers from behringer. Make sure you're getting xr18 usb drivers and not x32 drivers
Thanks for the video. i have a Question. once i equalize on xr18, how can i record it?. hope you can help me, i'm new in this.
In the USB Sends section of the XR18 (In/Out... Routing...) you have colored (red by default) rings/circles on the graph. The type and color indicate what is being sent to the DAW. Normally, for complete control in post, you want everything picked/tapped just after the preamp. And that is the default setting. That sends an unaltered signal to the DAW for doing full mixing later.
But you can change that by right clicking in the graph and choosing a different tap point.
There's a key under the graph that explains where you're moving the tap point to based on the color of the circle that you choose.
So, for example, Post EQ would capture your channel EQ in the DAW.
Post Fader would capture everything, including your channel fader moves in the DAW, although you probably don't want your recorded tracks changing in level on an individual track by track basis, except for very specific applications.
This video (XR18/MR18 Channel Walk-thru) ua-cam.com/video/xPsSPK6RKzU/v-deo.html
talks about tap points for the bus sends (not USB sends), but if you watch it and grasp the concept, the information would also apply to what the USB Sends tap point changes would mean to the USB Sends being sent to your DAW. Different part of the console, but the concept remains the same.
I have plans to do a video like the Channel walk-thru video that will focus on outputs... both the physical outputs on front and the USB outputs. But it'll be a couple of weeks at best before I can get to this video idea... but it would fit right in directly with the question you're asking.
Thanks a Lot! I'll be waiting your netx videos!!
I was trying this today, got sound inn, but could not get sound out from the Aux out, I'm using Ableton and a mac if that matter.
Hi, i have a problem.
I have a 18 track like in the video and it's work great.
But I wanted to add "pilot song" for the drummer in MIDI format so I added a new track - problem is that REAPER sees the MIDI track but you cant hear it. I can't correctly do the routing of this track. Could you help me?
Quick question: i need to use this in a live rig. In the Daw i'll be sending to the Xr 18 my synths/Backing tracks and the click track. at the same time, i need to connect 2 guitars and bass to the Xr18, and be able to hear everything (both reaper sends and instruments in the xr18) by using the Aux outputs to IEMs. Can i assign like 3-4 tracks from Reaper to 1-4 channels on the Xr18 and then use also the remaining other channels from the Analog input of the Xr18 ??
If I follow, then yes... that'll work. You just need to save a scene with your USB routing in place. Each channel allows you to select either analog (front panel/preamp input) or USB input. And you can softpatch to even which channels these are if you need to. Once you have your channels assigned the way you want, then saving the scene into your laptop or tablet makes it easy to recall each show thereafter. And you can update that baseline scene at each gig as your mix evolves, or keep that baseline untouched and save a new scene for each venue or gig that is based on that original baseline (or based on the previous show that is originally based on the baseline but has evolved).
That way, if you mess something up in the future, you still have the previous week's show that was OK to recall, or worst case, your original baseline. Plus saving multiple shows and naming them via date and/or venue means you can go in a new venue that is similar and start soundcheck with a baseline scene from a similar venue.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks so much for being this fast! That's exactly what i need. I won't record anything atm, but i'll use this setup for in ear monitoring in live shows and to send to the FOH some tracks.
for example I record drum covers how to setup my monitoring through aux channel so I can hear my drums live as I am playing them plus CLICK track and track/song from DAW?
tried rollingback the xair usb driver to 4.59. It worked for about 20seconds. During that time i was able to map reaper's first 5 tracks to the appropriate inputs. Then i got the ASIO driver error and i could no longer map the remaining 12 tracks to inputs within Reaper. Any suggestions?
If anyone is using a USB hub and connecting the xair usb out to the usb hub, i found that reaper wouldnt show anything in the ENABLE INPUTS/OUTPUT RANGE. when i plugged xr18 usb directly to the computer, everything displayed and i could change these sections.
Good day! How can i include the eq and reverb into reaper from xr18? Thanks
I believe this video talks about that (or at least points you in the right direction IIRC): ua-cam.com/video/UNO-dACc7YY/v-deo.html
Essentially, in the In/out routing section, the USB Sends needs to have their tap point changed on the graph. There's a key below the graph to tell you what is the post EQ tap.
That's for EQ... for FX... You need to unassign (some) channels from the USB sends and move those taps to the FX. Which is also in the routing section/USB Sends tab. You have a total of 18 possible USB sends... So, you're ultimately limited to 18 tracks in one pass coming from the XR18.
You can also do things like send the vocals to a subgroup and return the FX to a subgroup and then send that subgroup to the DAW... BUT... you'd be limited to whatever FX balance you record at if you do that. And if you send multiple vocals to that subgroup, you'd also have no way to rebalance the vocals once you've recorded the track. So that method has a giant tradeoff, even though it only requires a track or two (2 for stereo) to record a vocal with FX versus a sep track for the vocal and 2 tracks for each reverb/FX you want to use (if stereo FX are used).
Hi Alan, tks for all your videos. really useful as I own an XR18 (V1). Unfortunately, I face an issue considering the USB interface. I see only outputs 1-8 on the Windows sound control panel instead of 1-18. As a consequence, I can only have routing on USB I/O 1-8 from/to my DAW (BandLab Cakewalk). Any idea why only 1-8 ? (PS : XR18 firmware = 1.22 ; windows driver = 5.12.0). Any idea why ?
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It's been a while since I tried Cakewalk, but it definitely did see all 18 sources from the XR18. But it's been so long since I had it set up and working, and it was only just a test even at that. So I didn't have to troubleshoot much that I can recall. Hopefully, somebody reading the comments can chime in with some ideas.
Hi Alan, this tutorial can be aplied also to Behringer X18?
Yes, same 18x18 USB interface properties with the X18 and XR18. So it works for either
Alan, how would you set up X-Air and Reaper if you wanted to record the stereo main FOH output signals from our XR18 only? We want to do this to see how the worship band mix sounds.
From X-Air Edit (PC or Mac) you want to open In/Out in the top right. Then open the USB Sends tab.
Then just move the USB 1 and USB 2 from channel 1 and channel 2 over to the Main L-R boxes on the graph. Just click in the boxes you want them to be (Main L and Main R (USB 1 and USB 2)) and it will automatically move those points. The red ring for the tap point is the default and should be fine.
Now, in Reaper, your mains will be going to track 1 and track 2, assuming your Reaper is setup normally.
Technically, you could make the LR USB outputs from the X-Air be any USB sends you want, and adjust accordingly in Reaper for them to come in on different tracks... but USB1 and USB2 is the default for a lot of software, so if you connected your X-Air to OBS for streaming for example, it would already be ready to feed the L-R via USB to OBS (the initials are adding up in this post! ;) LOL!! ). In fact, it has no way to record from any other USB sends except USB1 and USB2.
And about any recording software will default to record on what you send from USB1 and USB2. So, USB 1 and USB 2 to Main L-R in the USB Sends graph in X-Air Edit is probably the best and easiest way to go, for Reaper or anything else.
And I'm sure you can do this from Mix Station too... I just don't know how to explain how to get there off the top of my head like I do on X-Air Edit.
Thanks much Alan!
@@AlanHamiltonAudio We run the XR18 from one Windows computer. Can I connect a second Windows computer to the USB out just for recording purposes? Or, will the two computers conflict with each other? Be nice if we could use a different computer for recording direct from the XR18.
@@stevelamm2366 Yes, I do it both ways. You can connect two different computers... one via Ethernet for mixer control, and another via USB for recording/DAW. Works fine.
@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks for another great video!! I followed all the steps in your vid to get my XR18 connected to Reaper, and have a backing track in Reaper coming back through the Aux-in to the XR18 and it all worked like a charm! I have one problem, the mic signal is weak. I have a mic on Channel 3 (the only thing I have plugged in) and I have the gain configured to -18 like in your other tutorial on this, and in my headphones connected to the XR this signal is strong, and actually the mic pics up a lot, like even just touching it, but the signal that gets recorded in Reaper is weak. You can see in the wav form it is very thin. What am I doing wrong to get such a weak signal? The same thing happens when I connect to my iPad running Garageband.
Just to be sure, you mean your gain is configured to be hitting -18dBFS on the input meter of the console, correct? Not that the gain control itself is set at 18db?
I want to make sure we're on the same page on that point. It's the meter setting we're concerned about, not the position of the gain control itself. It'll be wherever it'll be to make sure the input level is hitting -18dBFS.
With that said, -18dBFS should be the average... not the peak. The signal can and should PEAK higher. Just not to the point of clipping or threatening to clip.
Usually, when someone doesn't see enough level into their DAW the problem will be related to the gains being set to PEAK at -18dBFS versus AVERAGE -18dBFS.
So it could be as simple as needing more gain on your channel... and just turning your headphones down to compensate for hearing too much in them.
For a wired SM58 vocal mic and a 'normal' vocalist, I'd expect to need to set the gain 'knob' (slider/fader on X-Air Edit) to about +30dB (give or take).
Of course, for a soft voice, that might not be enough. And if a voice takes much more than that, then the mic will definitely 'hear' more surrounding noise (said better... that ambient noise will be heard in your headphones or speakers better).
Loudest sound at the mic wins.
Conversely, a 'loud' singer might not even need that much. So, with the mic gained down a bit, you'll hear less ambient noise in the mic in your phones or speakers...
But these things are "all else being equal" scenarios.
If you gain the mic down, but turn your headphones up, then that ambient noise will be there all the same.
IOW, gain down 3dB, headphones up 3dB... It's all a wash in what you'll hear level-wise.
Or gain UP 6dB, headphones DOWN 6dB... still a wash. It's just a matter of level balance. The mic itself doesn't actually change its characteristics.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thankyou so much for the response mate. Yes it is the meter that is -18. Here is a link to a google doc with screen shots of the entire configuration for both XR18 and Reaper:
docs.google.com/document/d/1yiPhtDy3FvjbRx5umjIVcTWIJYe60eI5rIsZg2HxCyI/edit?usp=sharing
You can see in the doc that my gain mic gain is +34, and I am not singing with a soft voice at all. With the mic noise I can see it in the signal when just handling the mic. If I turn the gain down then I can handle the mic fine and there is not signal on the meters. But having the gain where I have it now at 34, there is mic handling noise in the signal, when I am not singing if I change my grip in the mic, but the signal in Reaper is so low it's practically unusable.
Hello Alan, I have another question for you. I would like to register WITH usb from XR18 to Reaper maintaining the Gate, EQ, Comp and maybe FX.
I guess the way is to set the IN/OUT USB Sends assigning the channels to usb on a "pre-fader mode" and not "Analog". Am I correct?
I'm asking you because recently I tried but it was going in high distorsion. Probably thre is something wrong in my configuration.. Thanks
Yes, pre fader mode to get all of those to the DAW. The distortion was the DAW tracks clipping? If so, assuming your input gain is right on the channel (average of -18dBFS on channel meter), it could still be too high if you have added makeup gain on the comp and/or heavy boosting (especially low end boosting) on the channel EQ's.
Or maybe that coupled with being aggressive on the channel gain to begin with (going for a higher average than -18dBFS or allowing peaks above say -12dBFS).
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thank you. It is probably the gain too high. I tuned it on XR and works well on Analog mode.
I’ll retune it directly on Reaper after putting the pre fader mode.
Thanks
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Hi again Alan. Unfortunately I cannot manage to solve the matter. I tried to bring down GAIN (it gets to -12) and also the USB TRIM (it gets to -18) however it keeps going in high distorsion in Reaper.
Are you sure XR18 allows a multitrack recording post EQ?
As my goal is to avoid compex post-production editing a possibility could be to put a 2 channels audio interface after the XR utilized solely as mixer, this way I can benefit of EQ, Comp and FX, correct?
Thanks again.
@@robertoferrarini7153 By default, the XR18 sends USB pre-everything except the preamp. The preamp still comes before sending to Reaper. But in the routing section, you can set up the USB sends to be post-EQ, post Fader, etc.
If the gain structure is correct and signal flow is correct/normal, there's no reason to be overloading Reaper without some other wildcard in the situation that is being missed.
I'm trying to think what wildcards there might be... makeup gain being cranked on the compressor is a possibility. If you set the channel input meters to avg -18dFS, it would be pretty hard to boost so much on the EQ that it's possible that could overload Reaper (and the XR18 itself even) without it being obvious. Your EQ GUI would look like a LOT of orange above the 0dB line.
OTOH, the makeup gain control on the compressor might fly under the radar.
Of course it would take less of both in a combination to overload Reaper if you're going post EQ or post fader into Reaper.
Add in faders going above unity. Once again, I don't think even a post fader USB send and the fader all the way up, with proper input -18dBFS gain structure on the XR18 would probably overload Reaper (it would likely just get you a lot closer to that...) but mix in a lot of EQ boosting and/or then maybe the compressor makeup gain... and now we could be talking about that wildcard situation.
But that is still signal flow and gain structure overall. Just taking more into account than just the input gains.
Thanks for posting this a second time. I’ve used Reaper to run FOH for my church in the past, but I wasn’t certain how-or if-I could do the same since switching from the Presonus FP10 to the XR18. Now, will I see a difference in performance after leaving FireWire behind for USB?
Thanks. Yes, between people wanting a background music free narration track, and part 3 (now chapter 3) getting some more details and overall re-edit (since it was an add-on originally)... it gave me the chance to update the editing on all of it, tweak the pacing, and put it all into one video rather than breaking it apart.
As for USB vs Firewire... You shouldn't see a performance hit at all. :)
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Excellent! Thanks for replying.
@@cdrchrrs No problem! Good luck!
Hi Alan, How are you Sir? What I need to livestream and record my channels at the same time. The Livestream will use USB sends 1/2. How can I record channels 1 and 2 simultaneously please?
I'm not really sure since I haven't needed to do that. You could always do it via a physical out (or two for stereo) from the mixer and into an USB interface feeding a streaming computer/setup.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio I am very sorry about my question. Even though I did not word it correctly you got the idea. I meant to say how can I record my channels live while livestreaming. X32 provides a way to reroute channels. I did not know if the XR18 has that capability. Thank you so very much for your response. I'll give it a try.
Can I conne t the pc and xr18 using single Ethernet cable or do I need a router?
You can connect the PC for control software (X-Air Edit software) with a single ethernet cable. You don't need a router. ...But you also have to use a USB cable for the audio portion. On the XR18 the Ethernet handles control but doesn't pass any audio, while the USB passes audio. ua-cam.com/video/gTM7IdkCprk/v-deo.html
Is there a way to have backingtrack playing WITH CLICK on aux 1-6 and WITHOUT click on aux L/R? Dm me pls
Yes... Assuming you have an open channel or aren't using the aux in (ch 17/18). You have to make sure your click is routed to that open channel, and on the X Air channel itself, UNASSIGN it from L-R so it doesn't have a path to the mains. Now you can adjust aux 1-6 on the click channel just like you would for any mon mixes on any of the channels.
If you're using Reaper I have a video that explains how to route the click/metronome.
ua-cam.com/video/wA7S91iw2lM/v-deo.html
Do I have to use the USB if I've connected the xr18 to the laptop via wifi?
Yes. The wifi (or direct ethernet connection) only sends/receives control information to the mixer (fader position, EQ, etc...) but no actual audio information.
Meanwhile, USB has audio information, but no control information. So to get audio back and forth from a computer you need the USB connection.
And to setup mixer routing, adjust levels, etc. you need the ethernet connection too. Although, these can be on two separate computers... or control can be via a tablet/iPad. IOW, both things don't have to be on the same computer... but they can be. But no matter what, both connections are needed.
You don't need the USB connection to mix a live gig on the XR18, unless you're recording to a DAW or taking trax from the computer... You just need the wifi/ethernet connection to give the mixer its instructions. But for recording, you'll need both connections in order to share audio with a computer and the XR18, and have a way to route and control that audio from the XR18.
Alan, does this setup work as described thru chapter 2A if I want to be able to adjust the mix from each channel in my home studio? With this setup, will Reaper recognize all the channel settings set by the sound tech during live performance? Also, I assume that setting up the XR18 usb as you teach here will not affect the live FOH mix, correct?
Should be fine. The only thing that will affect the FOH mix are your gain levels. And you should be setting gain for optimum levels for the preamps in the first place (regardless of live or recording) so that should be the same and set before you play anyway.
You mean the gain levels set in XAir or in Reaper? I plan to use a 2nd computer hooked to the X18 USB port to record the service and to set the gain levels in Reaper at unity so I can see what our FOH really sounds like and compare that to our UA-cam stream. That should not create a conflict with our Sound computer which runs the X18, correct? I'm going to post mix the service in my home studio for training another sound tech. We use one of the Aux outs for the UA-cam live stream. Any potential conflicts there we need to be aware of? I also plan to mute the separate channels in Reaper on my recording computer. Don't want to create any feedback or latency echo problems for FOH or the livestream.
Hi Alan..thank you for doing these videos...really helped me a lot with improving our sound at church! I have this problem though, when I playback recordings from Reaper it is much louder than the actual live performance...how do I set it so that live and the soundcheck match level wise? Thanks in advance!
In X-Air Edit, on the INPUT tab, there's a USB Trim adjustment. That should let you adjust levels to help with that issue.
Is the phones out a copy of the Main LR? or can we route to it differently? I may need to keep watching to see that, I am at 4:05.
Found this in the Setup window Monitor Setup. Cheers.
@@genmce You beat me to it. You found it quicker than I saw the question. ;)
can you help me do this by using the tablet? I got it to work this way and using X-AIR on my PC, but how do I configure the recorded tracks to come back out of the MAIN L/R in the interface so I can mix from my tablet?
On Mixing Station app (Android), open the app, select a channel, on the left of the top option bar is OVERVIEW, the next option beside that is 48V LC. Select that. That will open a new tab where you can select A/D or USB as your source. To listen to individual tracks from Reaper, select USB.
You need to do this for each channel you want to return tracks on, and then you can save the scene to have it as a preset for the next time. I'm not sure if Mix Station already has a preset for this or not. I'll try and remember to look later.
If you just want to hear the Master L-R mix from Reaper, it defaults to being on USB1 and USB 2 (as explained in the video) so you'd just need to change the source for channel 1 and 2 if you didn't want to mess with routing.
Or.... also explained in the video, switch the L-R default Master out of Reaper to be 17 and 18 so it comes in on the Aux channel of the XR18.
Then on Mix Station, do like I explained above except just do it on the Aux input and change the source from A/D to USB.
Never mind I just figured it out! If anyone needs to know: plug your xr18 into your PC, open Reaper and your recorded tracks, set the xr18 ASIO preferences in Reaper, set your outs for each channel just like Alan did in this video, then open X-AIR on your tablet and go into each individual channel and select CONFIG, then select USB. Make sure that each channel is set to USB 1, 2, etc corresponding to the channels. After that make sure you adjust the Trim for each channel just like you would the gain. Then you should be able to route the channels to any Bus or Main LR.
@@bballgod237 Thanks for the update and info!
Good tutorial, is it possible to route the Reaper master through a network (using some virtual cable) to OBS without having to return it to a channel on the XR18?
No idea. Not something I've ever looked into. Maybe someone that has will see this Q and answer it.
Is Reaper your preferred DAW? Behringer gave a free download of Traction when I originally bought the XR-18; is it any good?
I like Reaper. I had Tracktion too, but I just know my way around Reaper so much better. I guess I really started using both around the same time, but I just gravitated more to Reaper.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks Alan! Your videos are better than Behringer’s!
Thank your very much for the video. I have set up the XR18, windows PC and Reaper according to your instructions. The problem I have is that I can't hear the audio on my laptop (recording or playback). Laptop speakers are the chosen device. When I unplug the USB cable, Reaper displays 'error opening the audio hardware'. Any advice would be appreciated.
Off the top of my head, I think in the Audio settings of Reaper you'd want to set your Input Device as explained in this video (with the XR18 connected), but your output device would be set to your laptop (or laptop soundcard... however they denote it).
You can get to the audio device settings window by clicking at the top right of the main Reaper screen where it notes your audio setup in brackets [..... ] ... Or thru OPTIONS/PREFERENCES/DEVICE....
So the input needs to be listening to the XR18, but the output needs to be your laptop. At least that is how it seems to me it would need to be set off the top of my head. Normally, you'd have the XR18 being both the input and output device and either use headphones connected to the XR18 for track monitoring and mixing, or some powered studio monitors connected to the XR18 left and right outs.
Or the secondary method of recording the tracks from a live show or tracking session to the laptop, and then transferring the files to a USB stick or HD and loading them to a dedicated studio computer and mixing in the box from there. Or connecting the entire laptop back into a studio environment which doesn't use the XR18 as the studio interface. This might be what someone would do that uses the XR18 as their live console and has a dedicated studio at home and doesn't want their XR18 doing double duty.
Dear Alan. I am looking at chapter 3 in this video...
I wonder if it is possible to use the X-Air Edit for IEM-mixes out through AUX 1-6 while SIMULTANIOUSLY sending channel 1-16 unprocessed to Reaper via the USB for editing of channel 17+18/MAIN/FOH-mix as you describe in chapter 3.
Thereby basically using the XR18-mixer-software for the IEM-mixes and Reaper for the MAIN/FOH-mix simultaniously?
If yes, that would be much easier/lighter than bringing both a splitter cable snake box and two mixers (IEM-mixer + MAIN/FOH-mix) when I have to mix both IEMs and FOH on a gig
You can send to Reaper simultaneously, but why not just use the main L-R XLR outs to feed your FOH mix? What do you need Reaper for, at least as far as mixing FOH? The XR18 can do 6 monitor mixers, a stereo L-R FOH mix, and output 18 channels via USB to a DAW.
Or are you trying to get more than 6 mon mixes?
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks for the answer... No, I was thinking more in the lines of having an IEM-mix that always stays the same from gig to gig, and then use Reaper to mix FOH.
In the FOH mix I would eliminate the frequecies that creates resonance etc in the specific venue/gig. That way I could use Reaper to apply room specific reverb and identify and eliminate the bad frequencies of/in the room, without intefering with the IEM-mix
Soooooo I see the xr12 16 & 18 all have midi in and out.. I know that will allow you to use a controller to change scenes and other functions on the mixer.. but what if I don't want to change anything on the mixer but use the midi in to send control messages thru xr12 to reaper to change playback and recording parameters in reaper? Would that be possible without sending those control changes to the mixer?
I'm afraid I can't be much help on that. I've not used used any of the MIDI implementation on the X-Air stuff. Hopefully, someone with experience will see your question and answer that for you.
It's been a while since I've used MIDI on the XR18. I believe you can set the MIDI channel and just don't send anything on that channel. For the scene changes to work you need to send a program change to that given MIDI channel. The MIDI out should be working like a THRU out.
@@zerix01 ah ok. I'm actually trying to use the midi connection as a way to go thru the XR18 as a junction to have a controller send CC messages to a laptop session to trigger sounds and playback.. because the unit is older and doesn't have midi over USB..
@@christopherheadcase6886 Looking at the manual, it appears MIDI channels 1 - 3 are locked and will respond to certain CC events. However on the Android app I can see you can enable/ disable MIDI Din Rx and Tx as well as MIDI over USB and passthrough. It's not obvious, but I think if you disable everything but the passthrough option, then the X18 should just act as a MIDI thru box and should not respond to anything on any channel.
Why would you use two of the 6 AUX outs to your studio monitors when you have the two Main outs? Wouldn’t you just plug your studio monitors into the main outs of the
XR18?
I've been sitting here thinking about your question and wondering where you were getting that, or what I was thinking about when/if I said it. It's been a while since I made the video... but I think we're talking about two different things. So, yes, your studio MIXING mons, would almost certainly be connected to the main outs in just about any normal circumstances.
I think what you heard me talking about was musician monitors. Like connecting a headphone amplifier(s) to one or more of the aux outs to set up a monitor mix, or even multiple monitor mixes, for the musicians during recording.
So the engineer might be monitoring off the L-R mains connected to their studio monitors (or the mixer's headphone output), the musicians could have up to 6 independent mono monitor mixes via the aux outs, or 3 stereo monitor mixes via the aux outs.
I know I've used the wired Behringer beltpacks to create headphone mixes for the musicians when recording. The drummer doesn't necessarily want to hear what the singer wants... or guitarist... For example, the drummer might be the only one wanting the click, while the other musicians want the drummer, but not the click.
So I think that is what the video was talking about... Sound right?
TL:DR version - Connecting musician monitors to the Auxes, not the main mix studio monitors.
what is the signal path to playback a recording I can get a signal out of the headphone jack.
Well, after bashing my head trying to get reaper to see my asio x18 drivers for a few hours, I am going to try asio4all. Recording two channels is better than recording none if I can make it work. Any tips? I am a windows 11 user which I think might be causing the issue. The XAir app works fine, and I can hear output through my system. Reaper says that there is a problem initialising audio device. I tried with the two current versions of driver from Behringer. 4.59 and 5.12. Online searches haven't helped me so if you have any tips, I would appreciate it. Subscribed.
Ok.. just to reply to myself. Turns out that the xr18 drivers are different to the mr18 drivers. I actually have the mr18, and since everything else seems to be the same, it didn't occur to me to look for separate drivers... there goes 3 hours I'll never get back
@@JohnWilkinsonMusic I'm glad you figured it out. I've seen it be as simple as a wonky and/or too long USB cable, and at least one person had a balky USB circuit in the XR. They returned it and got a replacement and the new one worked perfectly fine. So, as frustrating as it was to get to the bottom of it, at least your problem wasn't that.
Do you have a tutorial on how to set up the XR16/18 and using it for live use? Im looking to have all the tracks i have in my daw (synths, Ambience and click) going to the IEM system, however i just want to send the Synths and Ambience to Front of house (Splitter is in the rack) if you or anyone knows how to achieve this id be very grateful. Cheers.
The XR16 doesn't have a way to connect to a DAW does it? I thought it could only record 2 tracks to a USB stick. And play back from the USB stick.
I don't have a 16 so when they diverge from the XR18 side of things, like USB implementation, I'm not really up on it.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio no you can connect a laptop to it via the USB and connect a DAW to the XAir edit programme
Alan - good video but I'm running into a couple of problems (that may well be related)
1) In X-Air Edit, when I click on In/Out>USB Returns and click on the Off (Analog) button it doesn't pop up and give me the option to Load Presets - clicking the Off (Analog) button appears to have no impact/action
2) When I open Reaper and go to Options>Preferences>Device and I choose ASIO in the dropdown I don't get X18 ASIO option. I only get X-Air ASIO Driver (or Realtek ASIO). I select X-Air, but then the Enable Inputs and Output Range doesn't give me anything in the dropdown - all 4 dropdowns are blank. There is something at the bottom saying ASIO outputs are enabled by default. I follow the rest of the instructions for Preferences and select OK I then get Error initializing ASIO driver. So something isn't working there.
I'm running X-Air Edit version 1.8, with Firmware version 1.20. For Reaper it is v7.11. Any help would be appreciated.
In the Mixer Setup - Audio/MIDI is USB interface set to 18/18?
Have you tried reinstalling the drivers from Behringer and even downgrading and installing older drivers? ...and rebooting each time?
Probably before getting too far in the weeds a lot of problems people have had have turned out to be USB cable related. Either trying to use a long cable that was longer than spec, or an older cable that was apparently damaged or worn out connector not making good contact. Or wonky USB port on the computer.
So it never hurts to try a new and short USB cable, and different USB port if possible (and skipping any USB hub while testing too).
Once you know the configuration is right and CAN work (assuming a cable or port issue), then you can start throwing other variables back into the mix to see where it goes off the rails.
Definitely they can be finicky if you're using a USB cable longer than the spec (which I think is 12 or 15' but I don't exactly recall off the top of my head).. or even just getting in that ballpark.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks for the response. Yes on 18/18. USB cable is short - only 3' and is brand new. I'll try reinstalling drivers including the older ones.
@AlanHamiltonAudio Turns out it was the older driver that was the problem. I had initially installed 4.38 after I had installed x18 v5.12.0. So when I started over and installed x18 v5 (and didn't install 4.38) everything worked. Thanks for the advice.
@@c5hokie562 Cool! Glad it's sorted out.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Many thanks! I hasnt set 18/18 in my xr18! Problem solved! :)
Slowly getting this! For anyone having ASIO driver issues. Try this. Try removing the USB from your computer and reattaching it. I did this and noticed for a few brief seconds I could set the inputs in reaper. But then it was as if reaper and XR18 lost connectivity. Turns out my USB cable was too long. I switched cables and had no problem setting everything up. Hope this helps someone!!
I need to do a video about troubleshooting, because it seems people try to use USB cables that are just too long, and either the XR18, their computer, or both just don't like out of spec cables. Which is understandable, but some things let you get away it, and places sell cables that are longer than spec, and extensions are also available, so that all adds up to a potential driver/USB problem because of the length of the USB cable.
And then there's also the quality of the cable to be considered, and any damage it might've suffered, etc...
Sounds like you're getting it figured out. :)
Question. We are getting some overdriven channels when doing a multi track recording. Do we use Xair or Reaper to set each line gain?
X-Air is where you set your gain. The X-Air should average -18dBFS and peak higher. Some people read that wrong and set it to peak at -18dFS on the X-Air input meters and end up with the signal too low. You can easily peak at -12dBFS... -10dBFS... without any problem.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio So we are having issue that when we adjust the Xair, it is also changing the Front of house sound (mains). Is there a way to separate this so that a different xair interface controls the FOH while the laptop only controls the recording inputs? We are trying to record our rehearsals.
@@alexedwards9566 You should be able to set the gains and leave those alone once set. Gains that are right for the DAW should also be right for the X-Air. Nothing else should impact the house sound. Or vice versa... unless you've changed the default USB out tap point. By default, the only thing that goes to the DAW is the preamp signal.
Now.... if you're RETURNING anything from the DAW and blending that back in... then that could create problems.
What is changing in the house mix?
Hello, good friend, I follow your cool videos, I just wanted to take a doubt the headset we take it from where even from the table (PHONES) because when I hear the sound comes out more it is strange some noise, you have some video under. this one, thank you very much
Is the recorded sound OK but the headphones when tracking are not OK?
I’ve done everything as far as setting following your instructions. But I have no signal in reaper. I don’t know if it’s because I have the trial version. Or that shouldn’t matter. Any help is much appreciated
The trial version shouldn't matter. Let's take Reaper out of the equation and just make sure your computer can see your XR18/MR18 via USB and play audio. Can you follow the instructions in this video and just see if you can send audio from your laptop, via USB (not the headphone out), to your XR18?
ua-cam.com/video/v0MC76qB0j8/v-deo.html
Yes follow this and got signal from mixer to pc. I finally figured on how to get signal from mixer to reaper. But one thing. I did a short vocal recording but it barely show the waves. Not sure if the levels are not high enough or there was something I was supposed to do be fore recording.
Btw you videos has help tons. Please keep these helpful content on the xr18 going.
@@catchandreleasetrout Once you're getting signal into Reaper there shouldn't be anything on that end wrong. You can "normalize" your Reaper tracks later if you have weak signals, but to avoid that from the beginning it sounds like your input gains on the XR18 might be too low.
-18dBFS is what you want to see on the channel input meter when you are setting gain in the XR18. BUT that is AVERAGE level. You should be peaking higher. So if you set the gains to only peak at -18dBFS in the XR18, that would definitely be too low and you need more gain. More gain at the XR18 will be more level into Reaper. Of course, you don't want too much gain either. There should be a happy medium between enough level for Reaper to see your waveforms, and still have plenty headroom in the XR18 to not be clipping or even coming close to clipping your inputs.
Try being a bit more aggressive with your input gain on the XR18, definitely making sure it at least averages -18dFS, and letting it peak above that. Even 6db-9dB above that.
With this connected to reaper for recording, does each musician still have access to their own mixes via the xr18 app?
Yes, that all remains the same.
@AlanHamiltonAudio thank you! Cant wait to get an xr18, your review on this is heaven sent!
Alan, I'm using my laptop to record via reaper. I'm also using the laptop to play music into my XR18 via Input 17/18. I followed your steps and everything is working. However, now, I can only hear the music in my Main LR if I've enabled recording in Reaper. I don't want to record this music. Basically, I want to play the music through my Main LR so I can play guitar with it, but I don't want to record the music i'm playing to. I only want to record my guitar. How would I fix that?
THANKS AGAIN for the great videos and being so responsive!! Truly appreciated!
It has to be between the routing in reaper itself (what USB channels Reaper is taking for each track it 'hears' from the XR18) and the USB input and output routing of the XR18. Make sure that whatever routing you set up in Reaper matches with what you're sending from the XR18.
It doesn't have to match 1 to 1 necessarily, if you have some reason to skip around, but for troubleshooting and basic routing it generally works best to patch things one to one... USB1 out to Reaper Track 1 (USB 1 in on Reaper), USB2 out to Reaper Track 2 (USB 2 in on Reaper)...
@@AlanHamiltonAudio yes, did that. my laptop's audio goes into 17/18. it is in reaper on 17/18 as well. all good there. just wondering if there's a way to have 17/18 not go to reaper but instead only go to the Mains LR?
@@cardp17 As long as Reaper doesn't have anything 'listening' to USB 17/18, or the main out of the XR18, then it can't go to Reaper. For it to get to Reaper, you have to send it on a USB out that Reaper 'listening' to. So, you can stop that by either making sure you're not outputting anything to from those sources inside the XR18 to USB at all... or just make sure Reaper isn't assigned to 'listen' to them if you are.
Hi Alan, do i have to download the driver if im using mac?
No. Mac shouldn't need the driver.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks
I guess it's cool when it works. I use a Roland TD27 module. When I plug in the Behringer x1204 the only option is the TD27. Doesn't matter if the drums are on or not.
Does it also work with the xr16?
I don't have an XR16, but I think the XR16 only has a USB connection for a USB stick to do 2 track to USB, while the XR18 will connect to a laptop.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio yeah that's why i wasn't sure about it, ill try it tho maybe with a cable usb to usb on my laptop, if not😕 its kind of a bummer🙄
So yeah, unfortunately i guess 800$ wasnt well enough paid to have this feature only work with xr18!
@@xavit281 where you able to do this?
@@pattillo21 nop like i said, need to spend more bucks for it and get xr18 to be able to
👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
I'm using Reaper 6.21 on a Mac using OS 11. When setting up Reaper, the first menu (Preferences>Audio>dropdown and ASIO) is different and does not have the dropdown at all. So I'm stuck at square one. I suspect this is because I'm using the latest version of Reaper for OS 11, but who do I do?
Since I'm not a Mac user, I don't know if I can get you flowing in the right direction or not. When translating this info from PC to Mac, there are parts of the Mac setup that you have to have some Mac experience to navigate.
You won't, I believe, have to deal with ASIO on a Mac and that's just a PC step... related to PC driver install.
The Mac doesn't require any driver download and should support the X-Air natively. It should work with Mac's CoreAudio and be plug and play on this part.
So, can you just bypass the ASIO step, as it's part of the PC/driver process and get to the next step in the process? ...Where you tell the Mac that you want to use the XR18 for the audio interface? ...Or CoreAudio.
Beyond that, is there a security or permission setting that is not letting the Mac see the XR18? Do you have to 'allow' an external device somewhere else in you OS?
Since I don't have a Mac it's a little hard to duplicate and troubleshoot those steps. And of course this is the main place there will be any difference between the Mac and PC in the setup.
Does this information have anything to do with anything?:
www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/how-do-i-make-an-aggregate-device-on-mac-os-x/
support.apple.com/en-us/HT202000
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thanks Alan. Reaper and the XR18 are definitely communicating, and I was able to manually set up all 18 tracks. The problem is that I'm not getting any signal on the channels. I'm wondering if this has more to do with the way the XR18 is set p than with Reaper. It may be that I have to set up the USB outputs in the XR18 differently than they are set up now. Does that sound reasonable?
I also noticed that just under the Devices option is MIDI Devices. Should those input and output devices also be set for the XR18 and enabled?
@@johnricci7264 Do you mean you don't have signal on the XR18 channels? ...Or on Reaper (tracks?)?
If it's your XR18 channels not getting anything, it sounds like you have your channels set to get signal from USB instead of the preamp. That part is in the video, but maybe you missed a step... Of course if you mean you're not getting signal to Reaper, then this isn't the issue...
Here's a quick way to check... If you open your X-Air Edit software (connected to the XR18), and you choose any channel (1-16), then click the "Input" tab at the top, You'll see "Channel Source" just below that.
And there is an option for "Mic/Line A/D" or "USB".
If USB is highlighted, then the channel is listening to Reaper for its signal (back from Reaper), and not the preamps.
A/D should be highlighted when you are playing and recording through the XR18.
Beyond that, below the A/D button, there's the "Analog Input" dropdown. Make sure it's not set to "Off". This is where you softpatch channels, but the default should match whatever channel you're looking at... .Channel 1 should be INP 01, Channel 2 should be INP 02, Channel 3=INP 03....
You could even just set the one channel you're looking at here, if it's wrong, and see if that corrects the issue on at least that one channel.
Ok... since I'm not 100% sure whether you meant signal to the XR18 channels... or signal to Reaper.... Or I guess you could mean signal back from Reaper... I'll stop on this part and make sure I'm on the same page you are. But if I am on the right track, re-watch the part of the video about the In/Out setup of the Behringer.
I don't think the problem is in the MIDI setup stuff.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio I'm getting plenty of signal on the XR18, it's just not making it to the Reaper channels, but I'm not sure why.
@@johnricci7264 In the In/Out screen... USB sends... Do they all look like they should? Default should be red ring in a 1 to 1 patch.
There's even a button to recall that if it gets changes (Ch 1-18), and a 1-16/LR option.
So, I'm guessing that part is OK and you've probably checked it. ..probably 100 times already ;)
Hi alanhamiltonaudio
I use mr18
I used you tutorial step by step but it refused to play back
Am ysing reaper on windows
Everything is set as you instructed in this tutorial
I'd try a different USB cable (and keep it around 10' or less... especially when testing and having problems). Also, try loading older drivers... rebooting... and see if the older drivers work (you'll probably need to go back into Reaper and redo your audio settings).
And whether they work or not... then try the new drivers again to see if they now work after a reboot. And again, you'll probably need to check your audio settings in Reaper after this. This assumes that IF the older drivers DO happen to work, you even want to mess with success and not just leave it be.
There is the new variable of the Mk2 version of the XR18 and MR18 now... But AFAIK, everything should still work like shown in the video, even with the new iterations.
Is there a way for me to play music between sets from the same laptop I am using to record channels 1-16 and the LR FOH mix?
If you set the Aux in channel(s) (17-18) inputs to be USB 1 and USB 2, I'd think you might be able to then play back music from the laptop from Windows Media player (or whatever music playing software you use). I've never really tried it though. I'm sure you could if you actually shutdown the DAW on break and eliminated the possibility of any software conflicts... But I'm not sure there'd be a software conflict in the first place.
But truthfully... I don't know... Never tried it and can't recall anyone ever saying they did it.