Behringer XR12 Air Digital Mixer Tips and Tricks

[martingitdave]

I'm starting this thread as a place where we can share lessons learned with these XR digital mixers.

I'll make a post in the near future about configuring your XR mixer to include many of the TC Helicon Voice Live (Play Acoustic) features.

For now, I'll share what I've learned about operating the mixer.

1. For the mixer's WiFi AP to work well, you need to be close to it and not in a congested wireless area. It's not a high frequency WiFi AP.

2. The iPad app is attractive and works, but it's not the best way to do the initial programming. I spent two hours with the iPad the first night. I used the PC software tonight. I connected both the mixer and my laptop via Ethernet to my home router. Much more stable and low latency. I think WiFi and the iPad app are find for quick changes and moving faders after it's properly setup. I wouldn't take a laptop to a gig, for instance. But, to get it in fighting shape, use a real computer. The most critical feature missing from the iPad app is cut and paste for channel parameters. That, alone, is worth using a PC.

3. Update your firmware. I did last evening's initial setup and it worked great. Then, for some reason, it started acting funny tonight. After scratching my head, I shut it off to go to bed. Then it hit me... When hardware acts strange, check the firmware. I decided to connect with the laptop, per above. The firmware was 6 revisions old. Oops. Should have done that first. Fortunately, no setup data was lost. I'll test the programming out again tomorrow.

I'll add more as I learn. Please share what you've learned.


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[martingitdave]

I created a fair approximation of the TC Helicon Play Acoustic (baseline) settings with the XR mixer.

Here's the plan I laid out for myself:

The mic mechanic "tone" processing consists of:

1. Adaptive parametric EQ. They seem to use an impulse/response filter (IR) to adapt your vocal EQ to an "ideal" model. The MM2 pedal offer two "ideals", the Play Acoustic product offers 4 or 5 models. This is nifty stuff kids!

You can't replicate IR with the mixer, as far as I know. But, I think I'm consistent enough to use a para EQ on the mixer. I'm finding that a boost in the mid/high (I'm a tenor) really makes my voice project against the rosewood/spruce guitars I play. "Ideal" probably depends on what guitar you play, or who you play with. TC Helicon seems to do a nice job of knowing what needs to be boosted or cut. I'm not surprised because this is their forte!

A mixer does have some advantages. In some cases you might need to make a "hole" for your vocals. The pedal can't visualize that easily, like a mixer.

2. De-ess. This is a built in effect in the XR mixer. No difference except the XR can filter both high and low sibilance. Nifty. Yeah - something easy!

3. Gating. This is a default built into every XR channel. And, they have presets for vocals and acoustic guitar built in. Yeah - something else easy! Gate threshold needs to be experimented with. For guitars, I'm using -70dB.

4. Compression. This is also a default built into every XR channel. And, they have presets for vocals and acoustic guitar built in. Yeah - something else "else" easy!

I don't use the harmony or pitch correction features in live situations. Otherwise, the XR mixer has all the other effects you could ever want, or not want, including doubler. So, that seems like a pretty easy way to approximate the mic mechanic 2, for all your singers, for the price of a mixer.

Next up... Bodyrez. This is not overly complicated but, but seems to be a bit tricky. The XR has a 4 band para EQ for each channel. Conveniently, the Play Acoustic uses a 4 band para EQ too.

1. High and low shelf EQ. I can read the parameters right from the unit and apply the shelves in the XR interface on the high and low.

2. Parametric EQ for the middle. The XR still has 2 more mid bands to apply para EQ, as does the Play Acoustic. Just pick your favorite sounding preset and go to advanced mode to copy the frequency, width, and gain settings. Done.

3. Basic Compressor. I mentioned that each XR channel has a compressor with an acoustic preset. If you want to dig deeper, you can copy these settings from your Play Acoustic over to the XR by using the advanced setting for the channel compressor. You need: threshold, attach, makeup gain, ratio, and release.

4. Ambiance. Ah ha! Now, it gets interesting and tricky. This is the special sauce - a timing filter. It's the "rez" in the BodyRez. I don't have an answer because I don't have the XR unit yet to try.

5. Anti-feedback. All of this is available in the XR mixer. Phase invert, low cut filter, manual notch filter,

The rest are just guitar effects, which are common. I know audiophile types get hung up on the magic in some of these effects. I'm not quite as picky. Good reverb is good reverb. Bad reverb is easy to hear and avoid.

Here are my follow up notes:

As far as the tricky "ambiance" component is concerned, Cuki was right about it being a subtle reverb tail. Even better, the XR comes with "Ambiance" reverb effect. I thought to myself "nah, it couldn't be that easy, could it?" It was. My "home made" BodyRez feature works very well. I ended up modeling BodyRez 1, which is the default version for the stomp box.

Actually, I made two versions. The original, which has a flat low cut shelf. And, a second one with the enhanced bass and low cut filter. You see, the pedal actually applies adjustments to the parametric EQ curves in the form of "High gain" and "Low gain" settings. This does not change the base para EQ curves, but super imposes another set on top. I can't do that with the mixer, so I just adjusted the low end with a 5dB/1.5Q/around 100Hz. To prevent feedback, I adjusted the high pass filter to 60Hz, on the enhanced bass version, to be safe. Bye bye piezo quack!

For the vocals, I added the components above. The para EQ for vocals was the hardest part. I ended up referring to a few websites for sound engineers. I created two "ideal" models for male and female singers from their instructions. I made the male a Tenor voice part model. The female is Mezzo Soprano. Besides para EQ, I added the rest of the TC Helicon vocal "recipe" including gate, low cut, compressor, sibilance filter, hall reverb, and a touch of doubling.

The obvious questions are "why bother?," and "why not just use the pedal you already have?"

I'll use the TC pedal when I'm by myself going into a PA. I'll have the basic foot switch control handy. And, I might dabble in harmonies. However, if I find myself playing with one or more people, I now have 4 virtual "mic mechanic 2" pedals available, and at least 2 (high z input) virtual "BodyRez" pedals. Each with a couple of options programmed in. The other 6 channels can be whatever they want. However, other instruments will need an impedance matching DI, because this unit comes with only 2 (high z) channels that I am dedicating to acoustic guitars.

[tgaume]

Please keep this updated. I have one on the way that should be here tomorrow.

This should replace several other pieces of equipment in my usual gigging setup (Fishman amp that I only use for it's reverb & chorus, pedals for the guitar, huge 12 channel non-powered mixer).

Hope being a computer guy also helps with the learning curve that I've read much about.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by tgaume

Please keep this updated. I have one on the way that should be here tomorrow.



This should replace several other pieces of equipment in my usual gigging setup (Fishman amp that I only use for it's reverb & chorus, pedals for the guitar, huge 12 channel non-powered mixer).



Hope being a computer guy also helps with the learning curve that I've read much about.

Good luck. If you get adventurous, you can look into MIDI foot switch controllers to automate the effects switching. I'm not sure I'll dive that deep. I hope someone else takes the plunge. I read some snippets from the XR user forums. But, it would be better done by someone using it in our application.

As a computer guy, I can trust you won't forget to update the firmware! :-)


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[martingitdave]

Ok, I need help! How does one apply a notch filter in the XR environment? The para EQ is too wide, even at it's highest Q. Do I add a 32 band equalizer effect? If so, which one and how? Didn't seem to work the first time. My guitar resonates wildly at B2 (123hz.)


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[jstegeman]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

Ok, I need help! How does one apply a notch filter in the XR environment? The para EQ is too wide, even at it's highest Q. Do I add a 32 band equalizer effect? If so, which one and how? Didn't seem to work the first time. My guitar resonates wildly at B2 (123hz.)


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Mine resonates wildly at A2.

I guess the solution: play everything in the key of Bb :P

[Wyllys]

Dave...

Make sure you have the PEQ actually turned on for the selected channel. A Q of 10 should be narrow enough. The filters on 31 band EQ's are much wider, probably 10x wider...

W

[midwinter]

Oh yes. Very helpful! My XR16 arrives tomorrow.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Wyllys

Dave...



Make sure you have the PEQ actually turned on for the selected channel. A Q of 10 should be narrow enough. The filters on 31 band EQ's are much wider, probably 10x wider...



W

Thanks! I'll try that again.


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[lkingston]

Updating the firmware is especially important if you want to do any USB stick recording. The old firmware will crash and burn, but the new code seems to have fixed this.


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[martingitdave]

Thanks Wyllys! It worked. I had made a mistake the first time loading the wrong preset. The Q of 10 did the trick. Better than inserting a 32 graphic.


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[Dave L]

I have the XR16. It's not bad to learn but there isn't any real official source. Its seems like its just videos on random features. No step 1, step 2....

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Dave L

I have the XR16. It's not bad to learn but there isn't any real official source. Its seems like its just videos on random features. No step 1, step 2....

That's my take too. There are so many app platforms and they are developed differently. They should at least provide a help screen in the software explaining the features and parameters. Of course if they did, the price would be higher, and we wouldn't buy it. :-)


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[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by jstegeman

Mine resonates wildly at A2.



I guess the solution: play everything in the key of Bb :P

Ha! I be flat all da time.


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[martingitdave]

So I programmed in the TC Helicon Body Rez settings. Then, I decided to calibrate the EQ between pickup and microphone. That took a long time. Sort of a manual IR process. :-). I was able to get very close. I used all 4 parameters plus the low pass filter to shape the EQ. I was using the spectral analyzer on screen.

What I determined is that the Trance, while the best I've used, is still a pickup. It just reinforces that pickups are nowhere near accurate without major EQ. That doesn't mean it doesn't sound good. It just doesn't sound like it would through a microphone.

Makes you think about how much investment to make in pickups. Probably, just enough to get past the quack and then EQ the rest.

This also gives me more appreciation for James' Tondexter product, coming out shortly. With a decent pickup, it will be the best possible option for reproducing your sound without a mic. The downside is the amount of stuff we're all going to have to dump once we get the Tondexters humming.


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