X32 Discussion

another live recording

Here is another recording of a show I recently mixed:
https://www.box.com/s/ash4n8fsef0w3tej3edr

The band is called "Brutus". They are from Norway and play some "beer dripping blues rock". 8)~8-)~:cool:
Recorded with the X32 and mixed in Cubase.
I hope you enjoy it!


By now, my biggest wish for a future firmware update would be the possibility to link two channels that do not start with an odd number. I think that is very restricting.
 
Re: another live recording

By now, my biggest wish for a future firmware update would be the possibility to link two channels that do not start with an odd number. I think that is very restricting.

For me, vertical pairing, or the ability to pair with any other channel would be handy. That would enable me to put the second fader of a stereo device on another layer freeing up a fader on my main layer (I use 5 stereo devices and could do with getting 5 faders back for other instruments). It would also put a stop to users who experience their faders jamming or fighting when they try to move both at the same time.
My $0.02.

Karl.
 
Re: Message to Behringer re XiControl

Thanks for the latest version of the iPad app. I think I have spotted a problem with the way the eq mode control is working...QUOTE]

Dear Nick,

Please note that the X32 console also allows using all 6 filter modes for every band. You can access the additional modes from the main display EQ page / layer 4, where the modes of all 4 or 6 bands are put on the rotary controls. This might in some cases make sense where specifically steep filtering is required, i.e. using 2 low-cuts at the same frequency to form a 24 dB/oct filter that could be used for setting up an x-over application.

However, since we completely agree with you that the average user might get lost with too many options in this area, we had limited the choice of the MODE button in the channel Equalizer editing section to just the most relevant ones. Therefore, pressing the Mode button with one of the inner bands selected woould only toggle between PEQ and VEQ.

Actually XiControl 1.2 is already working correctly with regards to the MODE selection, but we will consider if a preference should enable/disable the additional modes. Of course, whatever is done in the channel EQ settings may have a quite dramatic effect, and it is worth considering what you do before altering EQ modes in a live situation.

Best,
Jan
 
Mute Group Behavior

Noticed that when I assign channels to mute groups, unmuting the group will unmute channels I had individually muted. Ex: Channels 1-6 are vocals, and are all assigned to a mute group. Since only mics 1, 2 and 3 are being used (for this set), 4-6 are muted individually. When I press the mute group button, all six get muted, as desired. However, when I unmute with the mute group button, all six get unmuted. In some cases, I can see that being desirable, but in others, I really only want the same three to get unmuted that were changed when I first muted the whole group.

The setup we have at church, an iLive setup, mutes and unmutes only the channels that were not already muted, but I think it's being done with DCAs, not actual mute groups.

Is my observation with the X32 the generally accepted behavior?

On the X32, does a DCA's mute button mute the channels in the DCA separate from the individual channel's mute, so that muting and unmuting the DCA would not change the channel's own mute status?

Thanks,
Mitch
 
Re: another live recording

For me, vertical pairing, or the ability to pair with any other channel would be handy. That would enable me to put the second fader of a stereo device on another layer freeing up a fader on my main layer (I use 5 stereo devices and could do with getting 5 faders back for other instruments). It would also put a stop to users who experience their faders jamming or fighting when they try to move both at the same time.
My $0.02.

Karl.



Hello

I work with a band with 5 stereo keyboards played by two musicians. Then there is a stereo sampler at drums. I have connected all those 12 channels on page two along with tom toms and overhead. Then I use 4 DCA faders to control them.
- 1 for drums - exept for BD and snare
- 2 for first set of keyboards
- 3 for second set of keyboards
- 4 for sampler
This way I have page one for 16 most important channels like vocals, sax, guitars, bass, bd, snare etc PLUS I have the rest of the stuff handy at DCA faders

rest of DCA faders control effects etc

not too much layer-jumping during the show.
 
Re: Vertical pairing

For me, vertical pairing, or the ability to pair with any other channel would be handy. That would enable me to put the second fader of a stereo device on another layer freeing up a fader on my main layer (I use 5 stereo devices and could do with getting 5 faders back for other instruments). It would also put a stop to users who experience their faders jamming or fighting when they try to move both at the same time.
My $0.02.

Karl.


I believe most of us would be adequately served if the VLink option was kept simple as in 1 and 17, 2 and 18 etc. Would make for easy connection of stereo devices in the basic routing configuration, and when the need arise to pair off other sources, we can easily reroute to fit the scheme. Wouldn't be too confusing either :)~:-)~:smile:

On a related note, it would be good if the DCAs could be assigned to any channel, so one could use the DCA layer exclusively instead of having to change layers to access channels not assignable to DCA (I know you can get weird results when you are allowed to assign the same dca to more than one point in the signal chain, but to climb a mountain you need enough rope to potentially hang yourself ;)~;-)~:wink:
 
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Re: New version of XiControl

I have the iPad 1 and also notice a considerable visual lag.
Closing any Apps running in the background may help somewhat.
Maybe the iPad 2 or 3 would be more responsive?

Dear Bob,
Nick is accurate in his observations, the processing power of iPad 1 is in fact an issue, depending on the preferences chosen. That's why the app at its first launch deactivates mini-meters and mini-faders for iPad 1 by default. The performance on iPad 2 and New iPad is much better.

Another possibly limiting factor might be found in the wireless network infrastructure, as wifi routers occasionally may take a time-out, which is limiting the throughput in real-time data transmission. Our X32 network client operates in a way that all changes are fed back from the server inside the X32, and only then the corresponding controls on the iPad would be updated. This ensures 100% sync of multiple clients and their server -- XiControl will never show a parameter change that wasn't confirmed to be effective by the X32 console. When the wifi router takes a time-out and is being choked with metering data of 73 signals in addition to the controls on the respective page, updating the fader position or displaying the mute button status may have a lower priority and might be delayed slightly.

Best,
Jan
 
Re: Message to Behringer re XiControl

Of course, whatever is done in the channel EQ settings may have a quite dramatic effect, and it is worth considering what you do before altering EQ modes in a live situation.

Sure - but I expect the majority of time that I will be wandering the house with my iPad will be pre-show or during a sound check where having all modes available will be the most important. I think that's why you are seeing such a strong desire for all functionality. An "expert" mode that is not the default is a clean way to handle this. Also being able to have different logins with different levels of access or access only to certain features would be nice too while we are talking levels of functionality ;)~;-)~:wink:
 
Re: Mute Group Behavior

When I press the mute group button, all six get muted, as desired. However, when I unmute with the mute group button, all six get unmuted. In some cases, I can see that being desirable, but in others, I really only want the same three to get unmuted that were changed when I first muted the whole group.

I saw earlier where this behavior is alluded to and it's definitely not desirable :(

In our analog desk, the individual channel mutes, once set, have to be unset manually, whether they are in a mute group or not (mainly because they are physical buttons!). The mute group acts like a "mask" but doesn't change the status of the individual mute states on each channel. A mute group will mute any unmuted channels if activated, but once the mute group is turned off if an individual channel was muted at the channel level, it remains muted (because the physical mute button in the channel is still engaged). That's a good thing in live mixing for exactly the scenarios you outlined.

There definitely needs to be an option to toggle this behavior!
 
Re: New version of XiControl

Dear Bob,
Nick is accurate in his observations, the processing power of iPad 1 is in fact an issue, depending on the preferences chosen. That's why the app at its first launch deactivates mini-meters and mini-faders for iPad 1 by default. The performance on iPad 2 and New iPad is much better.

Another possibly limiting factor might be found in the wireless network infrastructure, as wifi routers occasionally may take a time-out, which is limiting the throughput in real-time data transmission. Our X32 network client operates in a way that all changes are fed back from the server inside the X32, and only then the corresponding controls on the iPad would be updated. This ensures 100% sync of multiple clients and their server -- XiControl will never show a parameter change that wasn't confirmed to be effective by the X32 console. When the wifi router takes a time-out and is being choked with metering data of 73 signals in addition to the controls on the respective page, updating the fader position or displaying the mute button status may have a lower priority and might be delayed slightly.

Best,
Jan

Good information.

Thank you, Jan.
 
Re: X32 Discussion

OK, So this was the "Final Answer" I discovered with regard to why my X32 would not update Firmware from the USB stick as described in the manual. For me, the key was FAT! Not FAT32, Not Ex-FAT, Not NTFS! I needed a USB Stick that would format as FAT! Then everything else everyone says about how easy this is to update was true.

Power Off > Insert Stick > Power On and viola!
Also could change sample rate to reboot and update that was as well as pushing reset button to update while the stick was already inserted.

So while I had 4 USB sticks that didn't work, bought 2 more that didn't work, I finally found an old 1GB stick that would format as FAT and it worked. I'd also recommend doing a Full and not Quick format and putting the file (unzipped) directly at the Root of the drive.

Hope this helps someone! I went through a lot of brain cells getting here... :)
 
Re: X32 Discussion

Hey guys,

Question about the AUX inputs:

I realize that with the AUX inputs the X32 does not offer full channel features (gate, compressor, etc). I would like to be able to use the 3rd layer (aux ins, effects returns) to house my PC inputs as well as CD player inputs to free up space on the 1st and 2nd layer. However, I need FULL channel features on these inputs. How can I use full channel features on the PC and CD inputs while still having them under the 3rd layer and not the 1st or 2nd layer? I hope this makes sense.

Thanks!
Paul
 
Re: Mute Group Behavior

Regarding using peqs or geqs to ring out a monitor, i just did a smaart run to analyze em...these are 2 pics of the behavior of:
peq (highest q, highest reduction) GREEN TRACE
geq (highest reduction) BLUE TRACE
trueq (highest reduction) RED TRACE

picture one is only 1 band @ 200 hz
picture two is both 200hz and 315hz

hope you like it :)

cheers,
Luigi.

200hz-15db.jpg200+315hz-15db.jpg
 
AUX inputs with full features

Hey guys,

Question about the AUX inputs:

I realize that with the AUX inputs the X32 does not offer full channel features (gate, compressor, etc). I would like to be able to use the 3rd layer (aux ins, effects returns) to house my PC inputs as well as CD player inputs to free up space on the 1st and 2nd layer. However, I need FULL channel features on these inputs. How can I use full channel features on the PC and CD inputs while still having them under the 3rd layer and not the 1st or 2nd layer? I hope this makes sense.

Thanks!
Paul



Hello

In case you have some microfone lines, that only need four-band eq without dynamics, perhaps you could switch them with your AUX inputs. This can be done on "config" page on every channel.

Unfortunately this would put those microphones in layer 3 - perhaps not a problem...

I can see the need for dynamic control for pc - but definitely all microphone channels do not need to be compressed.

Another option is to route all stuff connected to AUX inputs into two groups and insert compressor there.
 
Re: Mute Group Behavior

I saw earlier where this behavior is alluded to and it's definitely not desirable :(

In our analog desk, the individual channel mutes, once set, have to be unset manually, whether they are in a mute group or not (mainly because they are physical buttons!). The mute group acts like a "mask" but doesn't change the status of the individual mute states on each channel. A mute group will mute any unmuted channels if activated, but once the mute group is turned off if an individual channel was muted at the channel level, it remains muted (because the physical mute button in the channel is still engaged). That's a good thing in live mixing for exactly the scenarios you outlined.

There definitely needs to be an option to toggle this behavior!

Ooh, nice. Hadn't equated it to an analog board, but that's (of course) a perfect comparison! The mute button there is a switch that remains in place regardless of the mute group's position. That is the behavior I was expecting.
 
Re: X32 Discussion

OK, So this was the "Final Answer" I discovered with regard to why my X32 would not update Firmware from the USB stick as described in the manual. For me, the key was FAT! Not FAT32, Not Ex-FAT, Not NTFS! I needed a USB Stick that would format as FAT!

That makes sense - FAT is freely available and useable, FAT32, Ex-FAT and NTFS all require licensing or other gyrations from Microsoft. Nice catch and nice distinction for folks!
 
Re: Mute Group Behavior

Thanks so much for this. I've always meant to do this. I've always used peq to ring and eq my monitors. It's more natural and musical to my ears. Now I can show my friends who say geq is smoother...


Regarding using peqs or geqs to ring out a monitor, i just did a smaart run to analyze em...these are 2 pics of the behavior of:
peq (highest q, highest reduction) GREEN TRACE
geq (highest reduction) BLUE TRACE
trueq (highest reduction) RED TRACE

picture one is only 1 band @ 200 hz
picture two is both 200hz and 315hz

hope you like it :)

cheers,
Luigi.

View attachment 5354View attachment 5355
 
Re: Mute Group Behavior

Thanks so much for this. I've always meant to do this. I've always used peq to ring and eq my monitors. It's more natural and musical to my ears. Now I can show my friends who say geq is smoother...
In fact i'd like a dual-peq (maybe with 8+ bands) in the effect rig of the x32 rather than the geqs...
that way one could make tonal adjustment with the eq of the mixbuss, and ringout with a peq as an insert.

not to mention that with a peq you can shoot the offending frequency with much more precision rather than with a geq