My band just got a Behringer x32 rack. One of the cool features is that it appears to have an app that can be used to wirelessly control it. I've been trying to understand the manual regarding getting the internet set up to use it...does it need to have some sort of continuous connection to the internet to be able to use wireless control? Or does it just need to be connected to the internet once and then could be moved to a different venue and still have devices connected to it? Thank you for any help you can give!
Behringer x32 rack wireless control in live sound situation
- Thread starter Chuck Galaviz
- Start date
All you need is a good Router and it doesn't need to be connected to the internet. I use a AC1250. Plug the Router into the Ethernet port on the back of the Rack.. In the Setup Tab in the X32Rack setup the Connection. Connect your laptop/pc/or tablet to the Router. Connect and go. I use low cost Android Tablets with Mixing Station Pro with very good results. There is Mixing Station and Mixing Station Pro that is available. (Mixing Station Pro is well worth the few dollars it cost!) Behringer also has X32 Edit software as well. For me I find it best to have the Router fully booted up and on before turning on the mixer. Again Mixing Station Pro is a great app to start with. ;-)
Just know you may struggle at first to get it all going. May require some updates to the desk and software to get everything on the same page if you will. Here is just one example from YouTube. I'd also recommend spending some time with Drew Brashers videos as well.
Douglas R. Allen
Just know you may struggle at first to get it all going. May require some updates to the desk and software to get everything on the same page if you will. Here is just one example from YouTube. I'd also recommend spending some time with Drew Brashers videos as well.
Douglas R. Allen
Slight correction: You need a wireless access point, which is commonly included as part of consumer routers but is also available as a standalone device (e.g. many of the products from Ubiquiti). You do not need (or want) the routing functionality of the wireless router, which means that if you do use a router (instead of a dedicated access point), you need to connect to one of the LAN ports, not the WAN port.
Also, not only does this system not need an Internet connection, connecting things to the Internet that don't need to be connected is generally considered bad practice, so leaving the mixer disconnected from the Internet is a good thing.
Sure. As the question was at a fairly entry level point and the Ubiquity type products require a bit of setup in the beginning a basic Router is a good way to start. The LAN port connection is covered in the manual and the video I linked. I can't think of any Wireless Router that doesn't work as a Wireless Access Point. I agree the Ubiquiti products are stellar. Do you use a Ubiquiti setup and how do you like it? I believe they have stand alone Routers now too. I looked at the Bullet M2 system for myself if I remember the name correctly. Still requires POE of course. I've had zero issue with my current setup even out to 100 feet or more and as you say keeping a closed system by staying off the internet yields the best results. Enjoy your Wednesday.
Douglas R. Allen
Douglas R. Allen
Thank you all for your replies and the video link! I can't wait to try it out! i'm the singer in my band and we got the x32 rack and IEMs in part because people want a more me mix and the other guys got seriously tired of me asking them constantly to turn down when they can't hear me
Is the X Rack just going to be used for monitor or the main PA as well?
Have the band members download the Behringer XQ app on their phones so they mix their monitor mix.
Once that app is set up their mix is the only thing they can get into and control.
Have the band members download the Behringer XQ app on their phones so they mix their monitor mix.
Once that app is set up their mix is the only thing they can get into and control.
at this point we are just planning on using it for the IEMs when we practice, but I imagine we are going to eventually want to take it with us when we play gigs. This point was somewhat reinforced recently; we played our first gig last Friday and the floor wedges at the venue were not as awesome as I think our IEMs will be once we get them working. Part of this was our fault (at one point our lead guitarist inadvertently hit the mic for his amp and it wasn't pointed at his amp), others were related to the venue I think. So we are probably going to progress to a point where the x32 is going to be involved in both providing the mix for each of my band members IEMs as well as providing a mix for the house.
the focus this week is to get the IEMs going. I got a router that also has an integrated WAP, and going to get everything set up with the info in this thread. For remote control I got an android tablet and bought the mixing station app to try out, may get the Behringer XQ app to try as well to see which is better (since I really don't want the guys messing up the main mix with their more me mixes).
One question I have that's unrelated to the connection stuff: do I have to connect the x32 rack to the internet to update the firmware, or can I do it with my computer using the x32 edit software?
All the advice has been great and I really liked the video. I'm hung up on one step still. I bought a brand new router (TP Link Archer A6 AC1200 Wireless MU-MIMO Gigabit Router) and straight out of the box connected it to the port on the back of the x32 Rack. I waited until after the router powered up to do this (it took a couple of minutes for the green lights on the router to come on). When connected I hit the DHCP button like it says to do in the video. Joy, all the zeros in the fields filled up. So I took my android tablet and tried to connect to the wireless it did find the two wireless networks that were discoverable from the router (they were cryptically named but I did find them). When I selected one of them my tablet took me to the TP Link website to set up the router. I'm not a computer guy...but digging through all the stuff in the software there is a tab for LAN, which shows a MAC address, an IP address, and a subnet mask. These all matched what was on the x32 rack network setup numbers. That should mean I'm good as long as I connect my tablet to the wireless network from the router right? I got flustered when I was with the system so I took a week off and now am back at it. I want our IEMs to work sooooo bad!
X32 firmware is updated via USB thumb drive. Go to behringer.com, find any X32 mixer link and click. On that page find "downloads". Save the firmware file to your computer. UnZip to the root directory of a USB drive. To update, you can either power down the mixer, insert the thumb drive and power up (mixer should find the update and apply it, then reboot itself - hint, remove the thumb drive during the reboot), or you can insert the thumb drive, push the SETUP button, GLOBAL tab, select UPDATE FW in the first column.
It's critical to have the "dcp_corefs_release-x.xx.update" file in the root directory of the thumb drive. The X32 cannot find it if it's in a folder.
thanks for this...i got the update done prior to seeing it but it would have saved me about 10 minutes when I did it because I hadn't moved the update file into the root directory of the thumb drive. I kept trying to use the x32 rack to navigate to the folder on the thumb drive where the update file was (which didn't work), then finally said screw it let me try it with the file in the root directory and it worked like a charm.
Thank you to everyone who responded to help me out! Finally got the darn thing working thanks to all the help! We are now looking at using the whole system as a PA as well when we have to (some of the venues we are playing don't have sound reinforcement). For what it's worth I'm going to list everything we have/did as far as I remember so that if anyone else wants to start from scratch they could use this as a starting point/reference.
Our gear:
ART s8 Microphone splitter (x2)
Behringer x32 rack
TP-Link AC1200 Gigabit Router (Archer A6)
Shure PSM 300 In Ear Monitor System
Lenovo 16GB M8 Android Tablet
Mixing Station app (pro version)
ART p16 XLR balanced patchbay
The cable connections:
In:
mics in via XLR to the mic splitter, then the mic splitter to the x32 rack (XLR); the other part of the splitter was sent to the p16 (the mic splitter and p16 we have for when we go to shows and want to use the IEM but also want to give the venue staff the mics directly)
Out:
XLR outs 1-6 to PSMs 1-3 with female XLR to 1/4 TRS cable (sent two channels to each PSM) (XLR out 7-8 are the default main L/R out and didn't want to mess with that in case we want to use our main mix for PA)
Aux outs 1-4 to PSMs 4-5 (1/4 TRS cables)
Ethernet:
TP-Link Archer A6 connected to ethernet port of x32 rack with Cat6 cable (as I recall the manual says to use a Cat5 cable but all I had was Cat6)
Software setup on x32 rack:
1. Updated firmware with USB stick (required finding a fat32 formatted stick, then going to the Behringer website getting the software onto the stick (make sure it's in the root directory! Mine wasn't at first and it didn't work until it was as I recall)
2. Downloaded x32 Edit software onto my laptop. Used it to configure a scene for the IEM. Which means labeling the inputs, then changing the sends to the mixbus prefaders and linking them (mixbus 1 and 2 for the mix intended for IEM 1, mixbus 3 and 4 for IEM 2, etc.). All of this info is earlier in this thread, the only thing I have to add that I think is important is to LABEL THE MIXBUS PAIRS! This is the best way in my opinion to make sure the individual band members know which mix is theirs to play with when they are doing their own adjustments with the apps that control the mixer! It's not perfect, but it's the best way. As I recall I also had to configure the outputs as well to make sure the IEMs were receiving the correct mixbuses. Then used the USB stick to transfer the saved scene onto the x32 rack (this could also be done using a USB 2.0 cable, but since I already had the stick ready I was too lazy to pull out the cord).
Network setup (note this sets up a wireless network that is NOT connected to the internet, just to the x32 rack):
1. plug in and connect router to ethernet port on x32 rack. must use one of the LAN ports, NOT the WLAN port
2. must make sure that all the lights on the router are on
3. go to setup - network on the x32 rack
4. as I recall I had to push the DHCP option on the x32 rack. This changed the network settings on the rack from all zeroes to something else (actually gave it a network address essentially)
Connecting wirelessly:
1. Downloaded mixing station app (pro version) to my android tablet. Behringer also has an app but I chose mixing station because of all the good reviews
2. Connected android tablet to the network for x32 rack (this part was a bit of a problem because when I first tried it looked like I needed to configure the router first, and it always asked to be connected to the internet to do it)
3. An annoying problem I had is that the password I set on the router was not the one that I needed to connect with the tablet. Once I figured out what the password I was supposed to use is (the PIN for initial setup) I was able to connect.
4. When my tablet was connected I opened mixing station. There is a search function and it found the x32 rack. Once I selected it I was connected and it worked like a charm for controlling the mixer
All we had left was to pair the PSMs with the packs and we were good to go...at first.
Quick troubleshooting tips:
1. After everything is working...make sure if you turn everything off that all the components are turned ON before you try to use it (multiple times something was off and people would get mad and the simple dumb fix of turning stuff on works)
2. For some reason sometimes when we turn off the x32 rack some of the output settings will get changed. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this. But if someone isn't getting the mix they had been getting in the past the first thing I do after making sure everything is turned on is to check the outputs for that person.
3. I always force stop and restart my app if I have left it open since the last time I used it to control the x32 rack. It seems that if my tablet has lost the connection to that network (either because it was turned off or I went out of range) the mixing station app will appear to be open but none of the sliders will change anything on the x32 rack. I don't know if this applies to the Behringer app
that's it. I hope this helps somebody if they need it, and everyone who answered questions in this thread made it possible for my band to get our IEMs working.
Our gear:
ART s8 Microphone splitter (x2)
Behringer x32 rack
TP-Link AC1200 Gigabit Router (Archer A6)
Shure PSM 300 In Ear Monitor System
Lenovo 16GB M8 Android Tablet
Mixing Station app (pro version)
ART p16 XLR balanced patchbay
The cable connections:
In:
mics in via XLR to the mic splitter, then the mic splitter to the x32 rack (XLR); the other part of the splitter was sent to the p16 (the mic splitter and p16 we have for when we go to shows and want to use the IEM but also want to give the venue staff the mics directly)
Out:
XLR outs 1-6 to PSMs 1-3 with female XLR to 1/4 TRS cable (sent two channels to each PSM) (XLR out 7-8 are the default main L/R out and didn't want to mess with that in case we want to use our main mix for PA)
Aux outs 1-4 to PSMs 4-5 (1/4 TRS cables)
Ethernet:
TP-Link Archer A6 connected to ethernet port of x32 rack with Cat6 cable (as I recall the manual says to use a Cat5 cable but all I had was Cat6)
Software setup on x32 rack:
1. Updated firmware with USB stick (required finding a fat32 formatted stick, then going to the Behringer website getting the software onto the stick (make sure it's in the root directory! Mine wasn't at first and it didn't work until it was as I recall)
2. Downloaded x32 Edit software onto my laptop. Used it to configure a scene for the IEM. Which means labeling the inputs, then changing the sends to the mixbus prefaders and linking them (mixbus 1 and 2 for the mix intended for IEM 1, mixbus 3 and 4 for IEM 2, etc.). All of this info is earlier in this thread, the only thing I have to add that I think is important is to LABEL THE MIXBUS PAIRS! This is the best way in my opinion to make sure the individual band members know which mix is theirs to play with when they are doing their own adjustments with the apps that control the mixer! It's not perfect, but it's the best way. As I recall I also had to configure the outputs as well to make sure the IEMs were receiving the correct mixbuses. Then used the USB stick to transfer the saved scene onto the x32 rack (this could also be done using a USB 2.0 cable, but since I already had the stick ready I was too lazy to pull out the cord).
Network setup (note this sets up a wireless network that is NOT connected to the internet, just to the x32 rack):
1. plug in and connect router to ethernet port on x32 rack. must use one of the LAN ports, NOT the WLAN port
2. must make sure that all the lights on the router are on
3. go to setup - network on the x32 rack
4. as I recall I had to push the DHCP option on the x32 rack. This changed the network settings on the rack from all zeroes to something else (actually gave it a network address essentially)
Connecting wirelessly:
1. Downloaded mixing station app (pro version) to my android tablet. Behringer also has an app but I chose mixing station because of all the good reviews
2. Connected android tablet to the network for x32 rack (this part was a bit of a problem because when I first tried it looked like I needed to configure the router first, and it always asked to be connected to the internet to do it)
3. An annoying problem I had is that the password I set on the router was not the one that I needed to connect with the tablet. Once I figured out what the password I was supposed to use is (the PIN for initial setup) I was able to connect.
4. When my tablet was connected I opened mixing station. There is a search function and it found the x32 rack. Once I selected it I was connected and it worked like a charm for controlling the mixer
All we had left was to pair the PSMs with the packs and we were good to go...at first.
Quick troubleshooting tips:
1. After everything is working...make sure if you turn everything off that all the components are turned ON before you try to use it (multiple times something was off and people would get mad and the simple dumb fix of turning stuff on works)
2. For some reason sometimes when we turn off the x32 rack some of the output settings will get changed. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this. But if someone isn't getting the mix they had been getting in the past the first thing I do after making sure everything is turned on is to check the outputs for that person.
3. I always force stop and restart my app if I have left it open since the last time I used it to control the x32 rack. It seems that if my tablet has lost the connection to that network (either because it was turned off or I went out of range) the mixing station app will appear to be open but none of the sliders will change anything on the x32 rack. I don't know if this applies to the Behringer app
that's it. I hope this helps somebody if they need it, and everyone who answered questions in this thread made it possible for my band to get our IEMs working.
Interesting… I just had my first gig since before Covid. With the new firmware, I also had issues with routing just randomly changing mix busses on the XLR outputs. Happened twice on different mix busses. Never had it happen on 4.04!
I had read a review of the latest update and though I don’t recall the exact issue, I just remember thinking “Don’t do it!” Personally, I always stay an update behind. Nothing worse then your mixer freaking out on a gig.