Old 12-22-2014, 02:14 AM   #1
Hoodee
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Default REAPER and Behringer's X32

Hi there,
Since august, I've been setting up a new studio, looking to upgrade, I haven't had much choice but to start from scratch, so I'll be moving out from my basement to a new building out of town, on a parcel of land belonging to my father. The construction is nearly finished, We've already started working on the acoustics of the live room and if weather permits (I'm from Poland and most construction works are impossible in winter due to low temperatures) I should start furnishing the place by april, provided I won't be flat broke by this time. While most of my budghet went into the building itself and acoustic treatment, I've calculated I should be left with enough extra cash to finally buy a mixer. After much considerations, I'm 99% sure it will be the Behringer x32...

Now, have any of you ever worked with those mixers ? How does it work with REAPER ? I'm not going to switch to any other DAW, mostly because of the gate and the compressor availible in REAPER. My main concern is will I be able to benefit from the work flow of the x32 without having to compromise on the superiority of REAPER's plugins ? I seriously have no idea how digital mixers work with DAW's, how to set them up, etc. so ANY feedback will be greatly appreciated.
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Old 12-22-2014, 06:03 AM   #2
nolman
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questions:
1.why are you bying a mixer ?
2. what will the studio be used for ?
3. what other gear do you have ?
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Old 12-22-2014, 08:30 AM   #3
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1.Because any type of controllers failed to do the job. Beside it's more about having more inputs, being able to set them up quickly and relying more on hardware than software.
2.Recording, I guess ? But seriously, I have done a lot of "on location" recordings (I don't know how to call it, when you gather the band in a single room) and this is mostly what I'm aiming for, the live room will be big enough to fit a 6-7 piece band with a live drum set. Mostly rock/metal, but sometimes jazz and pop, so live instruments. I've never done commercials, I've never done post-production stuff, if it awnsers your question...
3.Let's consider none since everything I own now will be obsolete (beside my computer and monitors) and I plan on bying as much comps,eqs and other rackmounted stuff as my budget will allow me.
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Old 12-22-2014, 11:13 AM   #4
KevinW
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We use an x32 at our church, and I have used it to record our band many times. The x32 is a great mixer, although I have nothing to compare it to.

One thing I'm not sure it's great at is low latency monitoring. Generally not a problem for recording live music, but if you plan to use VSTi's then you should dig into that before you invest in it. Come to think of it, it lacks midi input for anything other than control, so if you need midi you will need another input method (usb, perhaps).

The Behringer forum is also very helpful and there are a lot of reaper users there, too.

Good luck!
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Old 12-22-2014, 11:35 AM   #5
Hoodee
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And what if that mixer would've been a "slave" to another soundcard ? I won't be looking to sell my RME Fireface, could I daisy-chain those two ?
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Old 12-22-2014, 04:20 PM   #6
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you could send 8 outputs from the x32 trough the rme (line in).
If you buy the adat out card for the x32 probably 16 more channels trough fireface adat in 1+2.

That way you use the rme as audiointerface.

But it would be better to have the x32 with 32 in 24 out as the center of the studio (audio interface) i think. (more inputs,cue mixes,.)

Last edited by nolman; 12-22-2014 at 04:25 PM.
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Old 12-22-2014, 05:03 PM   #7
KevinW
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hoodee View Post
And what if that mixer would've been a "slave" to another soundcard ? I won't be looking to sell my RME Fireface, could I daisy-chain those two ?
So, you said earlier that you want more inputs, so the X32 is appealing. You also said something I didn't quite understand regarding controllers. Are you thinking that the X32 will allow you to control 32 tracks in reaper, just as if they were the 32 inputs coming into the X32? There has been some recent OSC development on that front, but out of the box, the control features of the X32 rely on a Mackie emulation, using only the bank of 8 faders on the right side.

To me, it seems that the RME and X32 would be redundant as an AI. In Windows at least, you can only have a single ASIO driver active at one time, so the way to utilize both the X32 and RME would be through adat, as was suggested above.

I guess you don't like the MCU controller, but just keep in mind that the X32 is not much more of a controller than a plain Mackie.

Check out this thread, though, for some possibly cool things beyond MCU emulation. I haven't tried it myself:

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=152263
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Old 12-23-2014, 12:47 AM   #8
Hoodee
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Regarding controllers : I know the x32 won't work as one, I said that just to rule this option out, so noone would suggest to get something like that before considering a full-on mixer. My goal isn't to operate REAPER via faders and such, it's to have a recording/mixing platform which would allow me to get rid of the mouse at this stage and be able to work outside the box, patch some analog gear in...

Having both the x32 and the Fireface as audiointerfaces makes sense to me in the way that I could switch between them for various purposes if using them at once means it would be only to extend the number of inputs. The way I see it, I could use the mixer for recording/mixing and the RME for editing/mastering since it won't require me to work on the mixer at all. Plus, there are still a few things I will be doing in the box (vst instruments, if any, drum samples...).

One thing I failed to mention is that beside recording, I'll be running a rental service too. The thing I wanted to avoid is making stuff cheap, so money wasn't really an issue when I was building and it won't be so for all the new gear I plan on buying. The x32 will be the core, yes, but there's a whole world of products related to this mixer I will get (that monitoring system looks so sweet I'm gonna get the extension so I will be able to use as much in ears monitors as possible, 8 of them will come right away with the mixer, maybe more later). They sell the x32 bundled with stage boxes, which would be another great thing to have IMO. Many people ask for this mixer just for on stage monitoring, I don't know the pricing yet, but I think it's worth the shot. Beside, the studio itself will be open for rental as I don't believe I'll get enough work myself to cover every availlible time-slot, so if someone will want to rent the studio and come in with "his" engineer, be my guest.
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Old 12-23-2014, 06:37 AM   #9
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Sounds like you have a plan. You won't be disappointed with the x32. Not sure about going mouse less, but give it a try!
The P16 monitoring system is great as well, especially for the price.
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Old 12-24-2014, 07:11 AM   #10
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check this, i tested quickly and seems to work great! x32<->reaper
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.p...13#post1443713

2 layers of 16 channels control+ master, fader, mute, solo ,...
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Old 12-24-2014, 01:45 PM   #11
Hoodee
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Pretty cool !

It's definetely something I'll want to use, althought it's not my primairy object, using the mixer as a control surface for my DAW. But I'm still really impressed, looks like he pull a hell of a job writing that program.
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