X32’s automated control surface is designed to present you with the control you need, when you need it. A total of 29 programmable LCD Scribble Strips offer channel/bus identification that mirrors what is being controlled. Use them to enter input/output tags, plus add icons you recognize at-a-glance. Press the Routing menu button and select the outputs icon (right of the SD icons). Press the Source Group drop-down menu and select USB Audio to see the 48 output channels. Press the Unlock icon and then select the output sources: Press Source Group to browse sources. Press the None icon to clear a source. Press the Lock icon to complete.
- Behringer X32 Routing Lesson
- Behringer X32 Aux Out
- Behringer X32 Output Routing
- X32 Aux Out
- Behringer X32 Monitor Routing
Something that I always get questions on is the ‘Output Tap’ function on the routing screen on the Behringer X32 and Midas M32. Depending on how you have the channel set up, the output tap can be a burden or an aid to your outputs. Today, I wanted to dive into this and really help give a clear picture of how we can use this to our advantage.
Output Tap Options
Much like the Mixbus sends configuration, with the output tap, we have a few different options, and here they are below:
- IN/LC
- IN/LC + M
- PreEQ
- PreEQ + M
- PostEQ
- PostEQ + M
- PreFdr
- PreFdr + M
- Post Fader
On the mixer and in version 2 of X-32 Edit you will see them listed like this:
In X32-Edit v3+ you will see them listed like this:
- IN/LC – This tap is directly after the Input, Preamp Gain and Low Cut. Being before any of the EQ and dynamics, this would be the cleanest unprocessed audio from each channel available.
- PreEQ – This tap is before the EQ but after the Gate. There is also a configurable option to have the Insert before this tap, so you can have the Insert set to ‘PRE’ and have this tap pull the audio off of the channel after the insert. (This would be beneficial if an inserted effect was desired, but not the EQ).
- PostEQ – This tap is after the EQ. The Dynamics is configurable to be pre or post EQ; when it is set to ‘PRE’, the ‘Post EQ signal tap’ will include the dynamics as seen in the graphic below. When the Dynamics is set to ‘POST’ then the ‘Post EQ signal tap’ is before the Dynamics section.
- PreFdr – This tap is before the channel fader. Any channel fader movements will NOT affect the signal coming out of the output taps up to this point. One thing to note, if you have Dynamics set to POST, this tap will pull audio off of the channel after the Dynamics. You may also notice that if you have Dynamics set to PRE that the PostEQ signal tap and the PreFdr signal tap are the same things. If the Insert is set to POST, this tap will pull before the insert is applied to the channel.
- Post Fader – This tap is affected by everything on the channel including fader movements, mute buttons, DCA levels, Gate, Dynamics EQ and insert.
Pro-Tip: Don’t get the Channel Sends Preconfiguration of a Mixbus and the Output Tap of a physical output confused. You will often times have two different settings between these. A perfect example is a Mixbus that is being used to feed a floor monitor. While the mix bus itself will typically be a Pre Fader configuration for the channel sends, the output tap on the routing screen will be Post-Fader so that if we need to turn the monitor down, you can do so using the mix bus main fader.
What is +M for?
The +M stands for with mutes enabled. “IN/LC, PreEQ, PostEQ, and PreFdr” are taps that are not affected by the mute button due to those being placed before the fader in the signal flow. So, Behringer & Midas decided to add the +M to allow any of these taps to be muted. Where this affects is the direct out of a channel. So if you were feeding the direct out of a Pastor Microphone channel. And you had that direct output tap set to pre fader, if there was feedback and you muted it on the board, it would still be feeding into that direct out.
Set-Up for a Floor Monitor
How would one best set up a feed for a floor monitor? Most of you are going to be running monitors from your front of house desk that is ALSO feeding your Main PA. With this example, you would want to have a MixBus with a channel sends preconfiguration.
To set this up:
- Select the MixBus Master (i.e. MixBus 01)
- Press the ‘VIEW’ button in the ‘Config/Preamp’ section
- Use the 3rd Rotary knob to select ‘Pre Fader’ and depress knob to confirm
- Verify with the ‘Yes’ button
NOTE: This will take the ‘odd & even’ pair of mixbusses and change the channel sends preconfiguration on both mixbusses even if they are not linked. So 1&2 or 3&4 will be changed.
Next, we will take the MixBus 01 and feed that into an output for that monitor. We will want to pick a ‘Post Fader’ output tap so that we can still have volume control over the monitor level. Take note that our output tap and channel sends preconfiguration are different!
Adobe freehand for mac. To set this up:
- Press the ‘Routing’ button
- Tab over to ‘out 1-16’
- Use the 1st Rotary Knob to select the XLR output you would like to use for this monitor. In my case we are going to use ‘Output 01’
- Use the 4th Rotary Knob to select ‘MixBus 01’ and depress knob to confirm
- Use the 5th Rotary Knob to select ‘Post Fader’ and depress knob to confirm
Set-Up for the P-16M – PreFdr & PreFdr+M
Some of you have a setup using the P-16M wired in-ear monitor systems. These are awesome systems to be able to have the musicians on-stage be able to adjust their own mix. This is an example where changing the output tap for these sends can be beneficial for the band.
We feed the P-16 system via the P-16 or Ultranet tab on your X32 mixer on the routing page. Typically we will send direct channels to the P-16 so that the musicians can mix their own mix of 16 channels for their monitor. You would not want to send the direct out of the channel as ‘Post Fader’, because then as you are adjusting things in the house, you would be affecting the volume in the monitors as well.
This is where one would normally pick ‘Pre-Fader’ so that we can still get the channel processing with the EQ and dynamics, but not have the house mix get in the way of the monitors. Typically, PreFdr is the right send for this, that way even if the channel is muted in the house, a vocalist can say “check check” in their microphone and hear it in their P-16.
If you want to NOT have audio pass to the P-16 when you have a channel muted in the house, select ‘PreFader+M’ which will enable the direct output to be muted when the channel is muted.
Take note!
Make sure when you are setting up your console, that you keep tabs on what you are adjusting! I have seen time and time again of people making a mistake and choosing the wrong one.
One last TIP!
Make sure to look at the ‘Sends’ or ‘Config’ tab on the channels, as this will show you how the current channel is set up with all of the pre/post options.
Thanks for reading!
Last week I covered the Meters & Recording Tabs in my X32-Mix App Tutorial series, if you haven’t seen the blog post, check it out here: X32-Mix App Tutorial Meters Recorder Tab. This week we look into the ‘Routing’ tab of X32-Mix.
X32-Mix App Tutorial Routing Tab
The Routing Tab is a very important section as we can do a lot of good and a lot of harm from this very screen. The Behringer X32 has a lot of input and outputs that we have at our disposal including all of these on the Full Size console:
- 32 XLR Inputs
- 16 XLR Outputs
- 6 1/4 inch TRS Balanced Inputs
- 6 1/4 inch TRS Balanced Outputs
- AES/EBU Output
- AES50 A Port (48 input/48 output)
- AES50 B Port (48 input/48 output)
- Expansion Card Inputs & Outputs
- 16 Ultranet P16 Outputs
Here is the screen that houses the Routing Section on the X32-Mix App:
Behringer X32 Routing Blocks
With all of these inputs, the console can handle a total of 38 channels (when we include the 6 aux channels), but the majority of the channels are routed in blocks of 8. The Home tab of the Routing Section corresponds to the channels 1-32 on the physical console and they are broken into Inputs 1-8, 9-16, 17-24, and 25-32. We also have an ‘Aux In Remap’ which allows the routing of channels to Aux Channels 1-6.
Local 1-32
Local 1-32 corresponds to the physical XLR jacks on the X32 unit. Of course, this is referring to the X32 Full Size, if you have other units, you may not have these options available to you.
Behringer X32 Routing Lesson
AES50 A1-48
AES50 allows for 96 channels of audio throughput on a single Cat-5 STP Cable, 48 of which are inputs and 48 of which are outputs. This selection gives you the option of routing the AES50 channels coming into the A-Port on the back of the console.
AES50 B1-48
Behringer X32 Aux Out
AES50 B1-48 is the same as the AES50 A1-48, however, this is the routing of the AES50 channels coming into the B-Port on the back of the console.
Card 1-32
The X32 and M32 series offer the use of an expansion card on the console. Most of us have either a X-UF or an X-USB expansion card installed on the console which allows for a 32 in/32 out USB (X-USB) or USB/Firewire (X-UF) to record or playback from our digital audio workstation, DAW. Selection of the Card 1-32 allows us to route the expansion card channels into the channels of the X32.
X32 Routing Tab – Analog Out
The Analog Out tab of the routing section allows us to select what is being sourced for the 16 XLR outputs on the X32. Output 1 corresponds to XLR Out 1. We have the following options:
- Main L, Main R or Main C/M
- Mixbus 1-16
- Matrix 1-6
- Direct Out Channels 1-32
- Direct Out Aux 1-8
- Direct Out FX Returns 1-4 L or R
- Monitor L, Monitor R
- Talkback
Tap gives us a few different options as to where to tap the source. The +M portion of the options adds in the ability to mute the output if the source is muted. This allows for a Post Fader control with muting, but with the options of Pre Fader.
Delay allows us to delay each output from 0.3ms to 500ms. To engage the delay, click the delay button and use the rotary knob to set the specific delay time.
Lastly, we have the ‘Phase’ button which is incorrectly named. This is more accurately a ‘Polarity’ reversal switch which inverts the + and – wires on the output. Technically, phase is a time and frequency dependent article and polarity just swaps the wires, not a shift in the time domain.
X32 Routing Tab – Aux Out
The Aux Out tab gives us our Aux Out 1-6 however we also can set our AES/EBU output from this page. There is a polarity reversal using the ‘Phase’ button, and we have the same output signals as well as taps as the Analog Out tab. One thing to note is that there is no delay for these outputs.
X32 Routing Tab – P16 Ultranet Out
The P16 is our tab for the Ultranet output on the board. This can either be used for the P16-M monitoring system, the Ultranet speaker distribution from Turbo Sound or a combination of the two. Similar to the Aux Out tab, we have the same output signals, taps and the polarity reversal. There is no delay available for these outputs. Lastly, if you are using the Ultranet to deliver audio to your Turbo Sound speakers, you will want to control that via the LCD screen on the board, as the board will have more options than the X32-Mix App will give you.
X32 Routing Tab – Card Out
The Card Out tab gives us our selection to where to source for the outputs going into the expansion card. If you are wanting to record your 32 channels into your DAW, set these to Local 1-32 if you are using the local inputs. If you are using a stage box, make sure you select the correct AES50 port and channel numbers to be able to record those.
X32 Routing Tab – AES50-A & AES50-B Out
AES50-A Outputs allow you to select the channels to send down the AES50 Port-A.
AES50-B Outputs allow you to select the channels to send down the AES50 Port-B. Street fighter v download.
If you are using a digital stage box and the P16-M’s, the default channels for the P16 monitors come from ‘AES50 Outputs 33-40’ to come from ‘P16 1-8′ and AES50 Outputs 41-48’ to come from ‘P16 9-16’.
Behringer X32 Output Routing
X32 Routing Tab – Preset
X32 Aux Out
The last tab we have is the Preset tab. This allows us to save and recall our output routing. We can see that we have our Recall Patching Scope with a Load, Save, Delete, Copy, and Paste options. To load an output routing preset, simply select the preset and press load.
The Recall Patching Scope gives you the option to not overwrite certain parameters of the routing section. If a box is not lit, it will not be overwritten.
Next time!
Behringer X32 Monitor Routing
That is all for this week’s X32-Mix App Tutorial Routing Tab! Next time, we will take a look at the Monitoring tab of the X32-Mix App!