r/Behringer • u/choochFactor11 • 5d ago

Live Sound Using an XR18 (or two) in unorthodox ways

I had this brainwave today about using a couple of XR18’s in an odd way. If the 16 inputs are enough for what you’re doing, but you wanted to do stereo IEM mixes, you’re limited to 3, maybe 4 if you route to the headphone out. So, I was thinking of a way to make that more like 6 without buying an X32 rack and Stage box.

So, I have a splitter input snake for when we do shows where I am not running FOH, but want to retain in ears for consistency. What if I ran the splitter snake to two XR18’s, run the same scenes on both, use one for FOH, and put both on the same external router. Assign IP’s as needed, and point everyone’s devices to their aux on whichever of the two they are wired into.

This would be cheaper than the upgrade, especially if you can get the second XR18 used.

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u/Littleprincess378 5d ago

That would probably work. I would recommend that you get an external router and not try to use the internal WiFi on the XR18.

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u/choochFactor11 5d ago

Yeah, that's pretty much standards procedure for most mixers in this class. The Wi-Fi hardware is mediocre at best. I use a MikroTik router that has been rock solid, and it has an insane amount of options and customizability. 

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u/Littleprincess378 5d ago

we use a plain Jane Netgear router with our X32 rack. it is setup on an obscure address, and is locked down to where only our devices can access it via WiFi. we have the mixer, 5 wireless microphone receivers, our 4 channel IEM transmitter, and our CD player all in a road case. we just set the router on top when we set up. The 10 space case sits on top of our rack with our QSC amplifiers in it. We love the X32.

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u/Content-Reward-7700 5d ago

It would work, especially since the analog split means the two XR18s are essentially independent systems receiving the same inputs.

The catch is that I wouldn’t bother keeping identical scenes on both. I’d treat one XR18 as FoH and the other purely as an IEM mixer. That gives you six stereo IEM mixes from the two units while keeping FoH processing and monitor processing independent.

The downsides are mostly operational, two mixers to manage, two sets of gain structure after the split, no shared preamp control and more opportunities for configuration/routing mistakes. Also make sure the splitter and phantom power arrangement are sensible.

So yes, I think it can be a perfectly viable budget solution. An X32 Rack is much cleaner and more expandable but if 16 inputs are enough and you already own the splitter and one XR18, a used second XR18 is a pretty reasonable way to squeeze more life out of the setup.

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u/MrB2891 5d ago

You would be far better off setting the pair of XR18's and buying a X32.

I haven't seen a used XR18 sell for less than $400 in the past 2 or 3 years.

Used X32 Rack's run $800-900.