Behringer X Air XR18

Super good! sometimes it's easier to have an analog desk, but if you can muster a little more complications, you get so much out of this.

Super sturdy. All the effects work well enough (EQ, comp, limiter, reverb, delay). You can have different presets saved on your mobile/computer. If you are a regular at different venues you can get pretty close to plug and play, and it works pretty well considering we do IEM. Everything is saved... sound check takes only a few mins at that point.

A great option for IEM, with 6 AUX outs plus the main L+R. Everyone in the band can have their own mix... That's super super helpful in certain contexts. (we do home practices with an electric drum set, and this is very good for us.)

Super dope as well if you wanna do any live recordings! It works as an interface. It's probably not the absolute top notch studio quality interface... but I guarantee that it's good enough for most bands. You get 16 sperate channels... works really really well.

Also, supppper awesome option for streaming.

But, it's also nice to stash "the box" as my band calls it, behind the drummer at the show and forget about it -Takes up no space. You don't actually have to adjust anything on it, so it can be pretty hidden.

Only complaint is that in one venue we play in, sometime the wifi doesn't connect because that particular frequency is busy... which can be frustrating. But you can connect via cable... It would be nice if that cable and USB cable were the same cable (it seems weird to have your interface hooked up to your computer to record, but then you can only hook into the X-Air app that you use to adjust volumes ect via an ethernet cable) But I assume there is some good engineering reason for that.

Really happy to see innovation on this front! I now just wish I could find a guitar cab that wasn't 15kg....

Loovvveee this product!

Use & Clarity
I'm using XR18 at my own studio for recording/ hearing ourselves at rehersals. Also I'm working as a sound technician, I'am renting this little monster to some pubs. It works perfect, especcially for small bands. With 6 Aux chanels ,I can use IEM setup and all the musicians can hear themselves well.

Pros
-Really cheap!
-Lightweight
-18 Chanel Recording Capabilities
-XLR & Jack Combo Inputs
- 6 Aux Chanels
-Capable of using Mac,Andorid and PC
-Built in Wi-Fi (Works well at studio)

Cons
- You can't record directly to USB Drive.
- At crowded places Wi-Fi lost the connection. Use seperate router!
-Don't have ADAT / AES Port to connect or extend with other devices.

I got this for my home studio to replace my old interface plus a mixing desk and some outboard FX units. It gave me 10 extra inputs and freed up a huge amount of room by replacing all that gear in one small box.

In use everything has been fine. Bit of a learning curve using the software but there's a really handy facebook group for owners and some good youtube tutorials. Once I got used to how everything is supposed to work, I haven't found any needs that aren't covered by this mixer.

I also took it to a band rehearsal so we could get a decent live recording and it coped very well there too, with all inputs in use and running monitor mixes through the AUX outputs.

I haven't used the wireless much. It seemed to work fine in a home setting but I don't know if I'd trust it in a packed venue. I've stuck to using the ethernet and it's been rock solid.

I haven't delved into the phone apps either, but the PC software is comprehensive and about as straightforward to use as you could expect given all the possibilities on offer.

All in all, a great purchase for a variety of uses. Especially so in my case, since this has replaced so much gear that I broke even on the cost of buying it. I haven't missed any of my old gear at all either, which is a huge compliment to the XR18.

This is a fantastic little unit that is very easy to use and amazingly priced for what your getting.

Lets start with the size. It is essentially a digital 3u stage box with all your ins and outs llocated on the front of this box. It comes with its own rack ears if you want to rack mount it in a 19" rack case (which is what I did for easy transportation).

Once you have plugged all of your ins and outs into it, then all the operation comes from a wireless device such as an iPad, laptop or android. The unit has its own wifi router so connection to a device couldn't be simpler.

The free app that runs the unit is fantastic. Very easy to use and logical and contacts some great effects units such as reverbs, delays, compressors, and eq's. It is also very easy to route monitor mixes to any of the 6 auxiliary mixes.

A few negatives not so much about the unit but in functionality and in use. Firstly, because i have a slightly older iPad, it doesn't quite keep up with the app and the XR18 which (I assume) requires a very fast CPU to run it. I would like it to be a bit quicker and it sometimes loses connection and can become a little bit clunky. I don't believe this to down to the actual unit, more about my iPad but it is still an inconvenience when trying to mix live. I would recommend running the app off of a laptop or a newer, faster iPad.

My other comment would be that it is very difficult to get a great easy sound and setup quickly. I, like many run a function band and whilst i do the sound, I also play piano. Before with analogue desks this was easy as you could set it all up in sound check and merely tweak it throughout the performance. This is much harder with this unit. The way around this is to rely on presets prior to your gig. Get the mixer set up as much as you can including auxiliary mixes, effects, eq's and then save that as a preset. Then its much easier to tweak throughout your gig.

Overall, its a fantasict unit that i think is really going to change the live sound game. Bearing in mind its a digital desk for under £1000 and a good one at that, i think this will be a very popular product. The other note I must add is that when I purchased mine, you could not get them for love nor money in the UK. Everywhere was sold out and had unrealistic wait times.......everywhere except Thomann. I ordered mine and had it within 5 days. Very happy!!

If the amount of inputs are enough for the application, then this unit has pretty much anything you might need.
Some of the more sophisticated options the X32 has aren't available, but I guess they did that so there's some incentive to buy an X32 if you're in a more pro setting.

I'll do a pros and cons list.

Pros:

Very compact, especially considering what you get for that tiny size.
Huge amount of sonic control with parametric and graphic EQs, gates and compressors around, not to mention the big collection of effects/outboard-gear-simulators.
Very versatile routing options with Individual channel and bus(aux) settings.
Built in router can get you started or work as a backup in an emergency.
Scene saving and recalling (goes without saying for a digital console...).
Also works as an audio interface.


Cons (most are just minor incoveniences to be honest):

Behringer kinda rushed to put the XR series on the market and to this day there's no official manual to my knowledge, there's a wiki and plenty of stuff online though so you're not thrown in the deep by yourself.
You will eventually probably need an external router.
Some delay options for more sophisticated PA setups would be handy.
Scenes do not recall effects correctly and generally the android app, though quite good, could use some more refining (haven't tried out the iPad app).
Sockets-plugs are not bad, but I would be willing to pay a bit more for some higher quality ones like Neutrik.
No expansion capabilities for more inputs-outputs (I estimate that if Behringer made a 24 channel version of this mixer, it would sell like crazy because 16 is kinda minimal for a typical band).

I leave this for last and outside the list because it must be a personal issue cause I couldn't find anyone else having the same problem online, but for some reason I can't get the unit to work with system sound in my Windows PC (everything related with the ASIO drivers works fine).