Interoperability of the new Behringer digital products?

[Kevin Maxwell]

Interoperability of the new Behringer digital products?

So looking at the new digital mixer X32 based products. Does anyone have any information as to how it works or can work together? Are any of the devices meant to expand the number of channels one can mix on an X32? Can an X32 be combined with for example the X32 rack or core and control them with an X32?

Have shipping dates been announced?

 

[brian maddox]

Re: Interoperability of the new Behringer digital products?

Interoperability of the new Behringer digital products?

So looking at the new digital mixer X32 based products. Does anyone have any information as to how it works or can work together? Are any of the devices meant to expand the number of channels one can mix on an X32? Can an X32 be combined with for example the X32 rack or core and control them with an X32?

Have shipping dates been announced?

shipping dates have not been announced. rumor mill says April, but that's totally unsubstantiated at this point.

as to interoperability... much as i'd like it to be the case, there is at present no way to control an X32 product with another X32 product that i know of. there is also no dedicated cascade feature. there is, of course, the ability to fairly easily and freely share inputs and outputs via AES50. there may be some way to use say an X32 core as a backup unit and have it track an X32s in a one for one manner, although that is not currently documented that i know of.

i'd love to see more ways to combine these products myself. i'm using 2 X32s to mix 48 channels at FOH at my church, but i'm basically doing it through brute force. it's working fine, but i'd love to find slightly more elegant ways to do it.

an X32 control surface that could address multiple X32 racks or some such would make me a very very happy camper....

 

[mark anderson]

Re: Interoperability of the new Behringer digital products?

I'm watching with great interest the extension of the X32 line but it doesn't quite make sense. The whole thing seems ill-conceived.

I like the smaller format of the Producer. A 19" desk seems like a great idea but they could have easily changed the layout to provide a bigger screen or maybe add an hdmi out so you could hook up an external monitor. The biggest short coming seems to be the lack of programmable channel strip indicators. How do you deal with fader pages with a small screen and no strip indicators? Additionally, I think I'd gladly trade four of the group faders for four extra channel strips.

The Compact is small but not THAT much smaller than the X32. Once you're bigger than a standard rack you're dealing with a case and finding room in the truck. Is the Compact's smaller size enough to make up the lack of faders? The Compact looks like it has features that could have fit in the Producer if it was a little better designed. With a little work on the Producer they could have dropped the Compact and the line would have made more sense.

I don't understand X32 Core at all. It has a 1/4" talkback and a stereo monitor. I suppose in a static install with an S16 or two you could remotely control a few conference rooms or something but the processing would be overkill. How else is this thing useful? The auxiliary 1/4" ins and outs that are on the boards would have made this thing more flexible. As it is, I don't know what it does that the X32RACK doesn't do better.

The X32-Rack is cool and used in conjunction with a S16 it could be useful but 32x16 would be cumbersome on an ipad or that goofy little screen that tossed on the front. I can't imaging how you'd use the front screen without mounting it in an angled cabinet. Even with the useless screen, it seems like the winner of the new family.

I guess what I was hoping to see is a Producer sized mixer with channel strip indicators, hdmi out and a few aux in/outs. The mixer wouldn't need pre amps but would be used as a big mouse controlling an X32-Rack and S16 combination. It could have been a sweet, flexible, cost effective rig.

Maybe next year?

 

[Chris Clark]

Re: Interoperability of the new Behringer digital products?

I almost wonder if the Rack and Core are meant more for an install "preset" market, almost a worship market? There are churches out there (one connected to a school I went to many years ago) where despite having a bunch of mics (and most of them seeming to be open at all times with no gates) there was no mixer, it was all preset. (If there were gates at that church, they were set to an extremely low threshold because standing under a speaker you could hear people in the choir area breathing).

Just a thought. As I mentioned before I think the Producer seems to be geared for a video studio perhaps? It would be interesting to hear from someone at Behringer what their intended targets for these other products actually are though.