X32 Discussion

re: X32 Discussion

First of all big thanks to Joe and John for the webinar, well done it was really worth the time and I would recommend anyone with questions to register for the next one.

For those of you that couldnt access it here are a few summary points that I noted, Joe/John please feel free to correct me if Ive misunderstood anything.

Mp3 playback from USB - This will probably require some form of licensing so we suggested that the users would most likely be willing to pay an additional fee to be able to use it. I did however notice that one of the slides in there presentation showed a picture of the x32 screen and the filename in the top left hand corner was .MP3 so you never know.

The S16 looks like a release date of mid / end Nov but I was unclear if that was just the date for the US or Europe as well as Thomann are still saying delivery is 22nd Oct

MAC version of Xcontrol coming soon althou it runs quite happily on parallels (in fact thats what they used during the demo)

IPad verision is still the main application being worked on and will eventually have full control of the console.

Iphone / Itouch - Being worked on

Android , no plans at the moment. As a developer I can personally understand this due to the number of different hardware specs and screen sizes of android devices.

The thump at start up and shut down is being looked at but Joe was unsure if this could be cured with a firmware change.

Waves have produced an effects rack that can add external effects to the X32 with an incredibly low latency - Couldnt find details of it on there website but sounded really good.

The P16 with be remote controllable from an Ipad in the future .

There is not way of reseting a single channel back to default, however John demonstrated a work around where he reset the console and saved one channel as a preset called "default" if you want to reset a channel you just load the "default" preset.

The guys did really well for there first ever webinar and I would like to thank them all personally.

Kev :)
 
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re: X32 Discussion

Well.. I'm 99% sure it's the X-UF card -
This evening, I installa another brand new 1394 /400 card into another PC running Windows 7 and got an identical result!... Man this has been a challenge but I have now tried;
4 different 1394 interfaces (different brands and formats)
3 different 1394 cables
2 computers
2 operating systems
Various other techniques such as downgrading patch levels of the windows PCs, reinstallation of service packs etc.
- ALL - with the same identical result.
I'm now trying to find out what is the quickest way to resolve the issue as I'm in Mornington Australia, and have already lost a week trying to get this fixed. I'm hoping I'll be able to get another X-UF card express posted to me to resolve the issue.

Thanks all for listening and I'll continue to keep you updated and the (eventual) resolution - Just hope it's note the desk!

Pauly


Pauly Mel said:
Hi All - Well - I've had no luck but gee I've tried. Below is the results so far - In a nutshell I can get the USB driver to work, But the firwire - NO WAY.

COMPUTER:
Windows xp SP 3 with latest updates
4 Gig Ram
3.4G Intel CPU
Asus P4P800-E Motheboard
Integrated 1394 (firewire) (Via)
2 X 120 Gig SSD Drives (One for software, other for music)
RME 9652 PCI Adat interface/SPDIF etc – Latest Drivers
TC Powerecore Element PCI – Latest Drivers
Matrox Millennia G400 Dual Head Video card
Not usually connected to network or internet (unless upgrading)
The usual olptimisations for Audio recording (as most of our studio PCs are)


SOFTWARE
AVG Antivirus (only)
Cubase 6.XX
WAVELAB 6.0
Protools LE 9.X


Behringer X32 (recently :-))
X32 USB Driver (Yesterdays download)
X32 FIREWIRE Driver (Yesterdays download)


History - Good stable system, No flaky hardware or intermittent issues.




TRIED SO FAR
1/
Installed X32 Firewire driver (only)
DS Firewire Cable
Followed instructions to install X32 Firewire Control Panel
RESULT
can 'See' X32 connected, in X32 Control Panel, but no inputs or outputs displayed


2/ Updated firewire drivers - Same result


3/ Bought another DS Firewire Cable - Same RFesult

4/ Bought a different brand Firewire Cable - Same Result


5/ Bought a Gigabyte Firewire Adapter card - Installed in PC, Disabled onboard Firewire - Same Result


6/ Bought a texas Instrument Firewire Card - Installed in PC - Same Result


7/ Uninstalled Firewire X32 Control Panel. Installed Behringer X32 USB driver - Result - WORKED! Could see all inputs and outputs and was able to record and playback from Cubase.


8/ Reinstal;led Firewire X32 Control Panel, Removed Firewire cards, Reenabled onboard firewire - Result - Same as earlier - IE Can see X32 is connected, but no inputs or outputs.


9/ Have tried various firewire drivers for windows - Most witrh same result.

Guys -
It appears my firwire ports and cables are ok (well 3 separate units can't all be bad!)
I think I have done everything I can - Is there anything someone else can suggest?
Did I mention how discouraging this is?


Thanks -
Pauly
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re: X32 Discussion

Simon Vikokel said:
X32 and Auria seems to work nicely together. I have both and have been making some tests. In order for the x32 to work smoothly you have to configure the card for anything else than 32/32. At 32/32 I get a lot of spikes nomatter what latency setting i use. At any other configuration it seems to work perfectly and you get 24 channels input! You need a powered hub though. Im on an ipad 3.
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This is really cool!

I hope that Behringer can resolve the usb power issue as this is most likley in firmware.

Any tests yet with coremidi?
 
re: X32 Discussion

Forrest Houghton said:
I have actually have had good luck running XControl via Wine on my MacbookPro, and then that way I dont need a whole OS installed just to run one windows program. Not sure what your circumstances are, but just thought I would throw that out there.

View attachment 4994
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Hi all!

As i am not that familiar with wine and how to compile a runtime, I downloaded a trial version of Codeweavers wine app Crossover and managed to run XControl with success :) I also tested to save and load library files and it worked. Now I can try out the x 32 interface further on my mac and decide finally upon ordering a console.

Forrest, have you tried to connect to a real desk remotely or just running virtual?
 
re: X32 Discussion

I must say Kevin, your summary of the webinar is perfect for those of us who missed it. Did Behringer comment on the proposed RRP of the S16? I noticed Thomann increased the price by around 50% a month or so ago?


Here's a couple of console bugs I'm having:
1) When inserting/bypassing an insert onto a channel, there is a very audible digital 'squeak'
2) The first fader of my DCA bank lags behind the rest and also feels gritty. I think I've read on these forums that someone else has had a less responsive fader issue?
 
re: X32 Discussion

David Emery said:
I must say Kevin, your summary of the webinar is perfect for those of us who missed it. Did Behringer comment on the proposed RRP of the S16? I noticed Thomann increased the price by around 50% a month or so ago?


Here's a couple of console bugs I'm having:
1) When inserting/bypassing an insert onto a channel, there is a very audible digital 'squeak'
2) The first fader of my DCA bank lags behind the rest and also feels gritty. I think I've read on these forums that someone else has had a less responsive fader issue?
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave :)

No there was no discussion regarding the S16 price. I ordered 2 from Thomann quite a while ago and my order still shows the original price and not the new price thay have on there website so Im hoping I get it at the original price which will save me a few hundred pounds :)

Kev
 
re: X32 Discussion

Kevin Maxwell said:
Rodney Bates said:
>

Warning - Very long reply.

Thank you for the reply. I will have to check out that software, do you know if it will work with an X32? I still think it might be possible to make an X32 work for musical theater.

I am probably completely wrong but it seems to me that since reasonably priced lighting consoles have been capable of doing decimal point scenes (and a lot of scenes) for a long time I would have thought it might filter over to audio. One can dream.

Since you seem to be asking what my needs are and why I want to do it a certain way I will try to explain.

I don’t recall mutes only fader movements. The only problem with that at the moment with the X32 if I understand it correctly the mutes and fader movements are linked in the recall safe configuration.

I find that the actors I am dealing with have a tendency to be different levels in different scenes. Sometimes an actor is singing lead other times they are chorus. So for one scene I need to push an actor and in another scene I need to pull them back because they are always louder in that scene. Also that way I don’t have to look at the state of the mute or in the case of Yamaha the on. I can see who is up in a scene by what faders are up. And my hands go to those faders to mix that scene.

I used to also mute and un mute the channels but I found that (very rarely but it does happen) if there is a problem with an actors mic or if an actor isn’t on stage when they are supposed to be (and usually talking back stage) I can mute the mic and try to work around the problem (until it can be fixed by the wireless wranglers) and the problem mic doesn’t sudden come back to life malfunctioning in the next scene recall.

You know for initially writing the scenes that way the X32 works (saving to the next scene not the one you are in) can be very handy. It’s just after that where it becomes awkward for me.

I said this before but I will say it again there may be a bug in how the scene recall works. Try it. Recall a scene now go back to the scene you are in and save over it. Now hit go to recall the next scene. Does it move? No it doesn’t because the gray bar is gone, you have to select the next scene and then hit go.

I don’t have the amount of rehearsal time I wish I had before a show to get the cues perfect. But they expect me to hit all of the cues perfectly when they are called. I have someone calling the cues (next to me) that wrote the cue spreadsheet for me. They have a tendency to bury their head in the script and may call the cue at the wrong time. That is where the back button comes into play. Also I have accidentally stuttered on the GO button and needed to jump back very quickly. Recalling scenes on the SC48 is fantastic I can use the snapshot select rotary knob and look at what is about to happen in the next scene so if I see that an actors mic is about to go down and I am told to go but that person is still talking I wait to hit the go. Now if the X32 is really a $20,000 console for $3,000, as Uli himself seemed to say they am I out of line comparing the SC48 to the X32?

Now there are a few things that I would like to see improved with the SC48 also. The SC48 doesn’t allow you to skip scenes like the X32 can, and you have to be on the snapshot page to be able to insert a scene. And an SC48 doesn’t do decimal point scenes either.

So depending on the cue spreadsheet accuracy that I am given that’s what governs how much I need to be making changes, as the rehearsals are under way. The directors I have been working with change the shows enough that I can’t use what might be a standard plot. We generally use 20 wireless mics. The company that I do these shows for has 18 Shure UHF-R with antenna splitter/combiner and 8 Sennheiser G2 systems with its own antenna system. I usually have 5 apron mics and 4 hanging mics to pick up un miced chorus. So if I don’t have to mic the pit band I can usually squeeze it into 32 channels. When I have a pit band that needs to be miced like this summers show I am closer to needing 48 inputs. Sometimes I have backstage mics for various things also. I also use auto mixers on the direct outs for the dialog parts but that is another discussion.

I have wanted to try using DCA assignments (of used mics per scene) but I don’t usually have the time to finesse the cues to that point. I was going to use an SC48 for the last show I did but I couldn’t get it early enough to use it. I did use one earlier this year for a musical. I wanted to do the DCA assign and use the DCA spill feature so that the only wireless that would show on the surface would be the active ones in each scene. I was reading something online about one of the Midas Pro 2 (I think) that if I am reading it right seems to have a feature that will only populate the faders with the channels that are up. That would be great once I have the show programmed into the console.

I hope this helps you to understand where I am coming from on all of this. And I hope I didn’t make too many typos.
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Hi Kevin & All,

Palladium currently works by transmitting appropriate MIDI messages to the target console, so how well it works on a particular console depends very much on the console's MIDI implementation. Typical functions which are available on many consoles are mutes, fader levels, input patches, EQs, DCA assigns, channel names, DCA names, effects processor program recalls, and so forth.

I have to admit that I don't know very much about the X32 at this stage, but from what little I do know, it would appear as though it is intended to be controlled via OSC rather than MIDI. That being the case, use with Palladium would probably require either a MIDI - OSC bridge, or the addition of OSC functionality to Palladium. This is something I would be happy to consider if there was sufficient demand.

Full disclosure: I am the developer of Palladium.

Kind Regards,

Chris Hubbard,
CH Sound Design.
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re: X32 Discussion

Only had it a few hours, but....

Is anybody noticing that if you rub your fingers across the input sockets you hear interferance (like touching an open ended cable)?

It seems worse when you actually touch the metal release plug on the XLR socket, for example if I touch the metal release clip with one hand and the other hand touches anywhere else on the console (metal) it drops out a bit, still get noise though. It is worse the more input gain you put in.

Also fader 24 has the rattle when you change layers and it comes to rest.

Any ideas?

It came with firmware 1.02, I updated to 1.09 straight away.

Nice desk though, looking forward to getting on stage and hearing the quality through my PA.

Craig
 
re: X32 Discussion

Kevin Hunter said:
Mp3 playback from USB - This will probably require some form of licensing so we suggested that the users would most likely be willing to pay an additional fee to be able to use it. I did however notice that one of the slides in there presentation showed a picture of the x32 screen and the filename in the top left hand corner was .MP3 so you never know.
Click to expand...

Any discussion about implementing USB playback for something loss-less and open source (license free)? FLAC comes to mind.
 
re: X32 Discussion

Compatible USB Key???

Hi. Anyone has any example of compatible USB keys they've used so far with the X32? I tried a new Lexar 8GB this weekend but the mixer doesn't seem to be able to communicate with it. I have an old sandisk 1GB that worked no problem so I know the USB connector on the board is working fine.

Tks
 
re: X32 Discussion

Marcel Arseneau said:
Compatible USB Key???

Hi. Anyone has any example of compatible USB keys they've used so far with the X32? I tried a new Lexar 8GB this weekend but the mixer doesn't seem to be able to communicate with it. I have an old sandisk 1GB that worked no problem so I know the USB connector on the board is working fine.

Tks
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First you have to make sure is fat32 formatted. I've had a 16GB fat32 stick that worked fine with the x32, but I couln't update my firmware with it. Tried an old 1GB one and it worked fine (it was a brandless formula-1 style usb-stick). It's a little bit trial and error...

A totally different question: I use the X32 with the P16 monitoring system. Does anyone know how can I add reverb to a single P16 channel? I tried to add reverb to the guitar channel but couln't make it work. I'm a beginner when it comes to mixing so maybe I just overlooked something.

I chose the following for the p16 channel: Dir-out channel 1-->pre-fader
Of course there is no reverb on the channel now

So I tried the reverb effect as a insert on the same channel. But now there is ONLY reverb.

Can anyone help me?
 
re: X32 Discussion

Marcel Arseneau said:
Compatible USB Key???

Hi. Anyone has any example of compatible USB keys they've used so far with the X32? I tried a new Lexar 8GB this weekend but the mixer doesn't seem to be able to communicate with it. I have an old sandisk 1GB that worked no problem so I know the USB connector on the board is working fine.

Tks
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Format the new stick and make sure that all 'strange' stuff/partitions on the stick are gone.

At times new sticks have two partitions, whereoff one is mostly emulating a cd-rom. This usually plays havoc with most non-computer devices due to incompatibility...
 
re: X32 Discussion

Forrest Houghton said:
I used a program called Wine Bottler, which can be found here: WineBottler - Run Windows Programs directly on OS X

Once installed, OSX associates ".exe" files with Wine.



I have successfully connected it to my real X32.
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Tried the WineBottler now and it also works as a charm with XControl. I can really recommend all Mac OS X users to try out Wine if you´re not already run parallells or other virtualization software. At least until an OS X version of XControl is released.

@Forrest, nice to hear that network communication works with the X32 through Wine.

Cheers/Jon
 
re: X32 Discussion

Marcel Arseneau said:
Compatible USB Key??? Hi. Anyone has any example of compatible USB keys they've used so far with the X32? I tried a new Lexar 8GB this weekend but the mixer doesn't seem to be able to communicate with it. I have an old sandisk 1GB that worked no problem so I know the USB connector on the board is working fine.
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Unfortunately any such recommendations are pretty worthless as manufacturers can and will change the "guts" mid production all the time. Luckily USB sticks are plentiful and cheap. I was at Office Depot the other day and in bins near the cash registers they had 8 GB flash drives for under $10 (!) Unfortunately you are probably going to have to try a few drives and then when you find one that works, get a few spares and hope the innards are all the same!
 
re: X32 Discussion

Anyone getting Reaper or other DAW to record to a flash drive? Setting up templates today for the X32 and got a freeze but not sure of the cause. Any parameter adjustments are much welcomed
 
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re: X32 Discussion

John Chiara said:
Anyone getting Reaper or other DAW to record to a flash drive? Setting up templates today for the X32 and got a freeze but not sure of the cause. Any parameter adjustments are much welcomed
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Flash drive - no. BUT, I was able to capture a 3-hour show (stopping between sets) onto a WD Passport drive - it's bus powered, but powers up just fine and ran with no stops/skips, etc, like I experienced with a (el-cheapo) USB stick. Bear in mind, the drive was plugged into the top socket of the X32, and recorded the 2-bus mix. As far as recording DAW tracks to an external drive via a DAW (Reaper, for example) - should be no problem. I record to external drives all the time on location - sometimes eSATA, sometimes USB. It's all a matter of where you store the project and/or media. I'd try to stay away from trying to stream >2 channels to a USB thumb drive - to me, it just doesn't seem reliable, especially considering how cheap other spindle-based media is to use. If you are insistant on using media with no moving parts, I suppose you COULD try a small SSD drive in a bus-powered enclosure....
 
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