I've now done a number of gigs with the aforementioned XR-18 + 2-in-1 laptop/tablet rig and discrete router. No major hiccups so far.
The most difficult test was a 5 piece band gig with full PA+subs, 2 monitor mixes, 4 vocals, 2 gtr, keyboards, bass, 4pc. drums. The FOH speakers were some active JBL EON 15" old school cabinets, along with a pair of active subwoofers, of which I don't recall the manufacturer. This FOH gear is owned by a very talented fellow musician. I was running the hard-wired network connected laptop along with an iPad2 for wireless (audience) mixing by a sound guy I know who is very familiar with the remote control tablet apps for Soundcraft, Midas, and Mackie, but less so with the Behringer stuff. He had things up and running smoothly with relative ease. With some tweaking to the iPad app fader layout, I'm sure this could have been made much easier.
Other than my laptop trying to do system/program updates during the last set (I'll have to shut down automated updates! DOH!), and a couple of brief instances where the ipad lost connectivity, generally things ran without issue, and sounded really good. In fact, the guy who owns the FOH speakers/subs commented a few times that he'd never heard his system sound so good, loud, clear, and full. He has always been 100% using analog mixers, which is fine, but I think he's starting to see the light now as to sonic benefits of having all of that digital processing available in such a small package.
As it stands right now, my Mackie 1608 is fully on the back burner. I'll be using the XR-18 100% of the time and unless there is a major catastrophe or incident that leaves me lacking confidence in the XR-18. I'm going to give it a few months of gigging, and we'll see.
The most difficult test was a 5 piece band gig with full PA+subs, 2 monitor mixes, 4 vocals, 2 gtr, keyboards, bass, 4pc. drums. The FOH speakers were some active JBL EON 15" old school cabinets, along with a pair of active subwoofers, of which I don't recall the manufacturer. This FOH gear is owned by a very talented fellow musician. I was running the hard-wired network connected laptop along with an iPad2 for wireless (audience) mixing by a sound guy I know who is very familiar with the remote control tablet apps for Soundcraft, Midas, and Mackie, but less so with the Behringer stuff. He had things up and running smoothly with relative ease. With some tweaking to the iPad app fader layout, I'm sure this could have been made much easier.
Other than my laptop trying to do system/program updates during the last set (I'll have to shut down automated updates! DOH!), and a couple of brief instances where the ipad lost connectivity, generally things ran without issue, and sounded really good. In fact, the guy who owns the FOH speakers/subs commented a few times that he'd never heard his system sound so good, loud, clear, and full. He has always been 100% using analog mixers, which is fine, but I think he's starting to see the light now as to sonic benefits of having all of that digital processing available in such a small package.
As it stands right now, my Mackie 1608 is fully on the back burner. I'll be using the XR-18 100% of the time and unless there is a major catastrophe or incident that leaves me lacking confidence in the XR-18. I'm going to give it a few months of gigging, and we'll see.
Last edited:
. My latest thinking is to just have it control the mute groups for more versatility? Maybe I should do a kickstarter LOL.
?
