Playing output through Behringer X32

[dkerfoot]

I’m confident that I am missing something basic here. I can record all 32 tracks from our Behringer X32 card via USB.

I can export that recording to a .mp3 file and listen to it over my laptop’s speakers.

What I can’t seem to do is play the 32 track recording back through the X32. I do have X-USB selected as both input and output on my Macbook. I’ve looked through the Behringer documentation and watched videos of people using other DAWs with the X32 and it appears that everything is correct on the mixer side.

I’m not seeing the same kind of routing matrix within Ardour as I do with other software such as Reaper and searching the tutorial and documentation for Ardour has not given me the answer.

Any and all help appreciated!

-Doug

[ccaudle (Chris)]

@dkerfoot

I’m not seeing the same kind of routing matrix within Ardour

If you are just asking where to find the routing matrix:
In the Window menu select the audio connections item.

The Ardour Manual

[dkerfoot]

Thank you, I appreciate the fast response!

That was indeed what I was hoping to find. Unfortunately, I’m still getting no sound through the board… This is my first attempt at connecting a DAW to the board and I know there are gaping holes in my knowledge.

I’m trying to record raw audio off the board (that part is working) so that I can play it back through the system so that I can work on effects/signal chain without needing our musicians present.

All suggestions for playing back through a sound board (especially an X32 or similar) appreciated!

[Majik (Keith Milner)]

I don’t have, and have never used, an X32. However, I do have the Behringer XR18 which is, as I understand it, somewhat similar.

I can show you a few examples of my setup but the big caveat here is that the XR18 is a complex beast and the X32 is at least as complex. If you can’t get it working, then I strongly suspect some issue with the configuration of the X32 itself.

For my current setup, I am not using the Main LR output bus. Instead, I have linked Bus 5 and 6 into a stereo output pair and use that. These are configured to output to the Aux 5/6 outputs. I’m using a cheap pair of active monitors which are connected to the Aux 5 and 6 outputs.

Bear in mind that I’m talking about the XR18 in its context as a mixer at this point. Also note there’s a load of routing flexibility between them inputs, outputs and busses. Here is my XR18 Aux output configuration on XR-Edit showing the bus mapping to the aux outputs:

To use it as an audio interface, amongst other configurations, I have configured USB input channels 17 and 18 to connect to the Aux L/R input channel on the XR18. Here is the matrix from the XR-Edit software showing this association:

Also, the XR18 Aux channel input is configured as a USB input (i.e. from the associated USB playback channel on the computer) rather than the physical input:

Then I have the mix set up so that Aux L/R outputs signal to the bus 5/6 pair (note that Aux L/R is just called Aux in the mixer strip here, colour red, and I have renamed bus 5 & 6 to “SPKR L” and “SPKR R”:

And, of course, I have the main output fader of Bus 5 and 6 turned up. The screen shot above only shows Bus 5 (SPKR L) but they are linked as a stereo pair (the chain icon between them on the right) so the settings for one follow the other.

A reminder that this is my setup where I’m using the physical Aux 5/6 outputs for my monitor speakers. If you want to use the Main L/R you would need to configure the Main LR mix levels.

Now, within Ardour (or any other audio application) if I want to output audio to the monitor speakers, then I just send to USB channels 17 and 18 as left and right respectively:

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Keith

[Majik (Keith Milner)]

Some rationale to why I do it this way.

I use Aux 5/6 for the monitors because I have a plan to use Main L/R for a stereo speaker system which is located in a different part of my “studio”. I’ve not got around to doing this yet. But, now it’s set up, it makes no difference to how I use it with Ardour and I’m not really using the buses for anything else.

Why do I use Aux L/R for the USB input from the computer?

A thing to remember is that this is a mixer first and an audio interface second. It treats USB audio channels which are playback from the computer as input channels. Each of the 18 input channels can either be a physical input, or a USB input. If you configure a channel as a USB input then the physical input is disabled.

On the XR18, Aux L/R is a physical stereo RCA input. All of the other 16 channels are mono combo XLR/Jack inputs.

Channels 1 and 2 are Hi-Z, so any guitars or similar instruments have to be connected to those, so if I use input channels 1 & 2 for USB then I lose the ability to DI my guitar/bass.

I could use any of the other spare input channels for this, but the Aux L/R input channel is naturally a stereo channel, and because I can’t think of a situation I would otherwise use it, that’s the one I chose. It means I can then use any of the combo inputs on the XR18 without having to mess with that part of the configuration.

Incidentally, I have also configured Bus 1 & 2 to be a stereo mix which goes back to the computer over channels 17 and 18. So in Ardour, I could configure this as a track capture if I wanted and it would give me a full mix of all of the other instruments. You may see this on the mixer view I posted above as I have renamed the bus pair to “PC L” and “PC R”. Here’s the XR18 “USB Sends” routing for this:

In Ardour I don’t actually use this as I normally want to capture each channel onto a separate track. It’s main use is for other applications which only take a stereo capture. For instance, if I was in a Zoom call, I could configure Zoom to use capture channels 17 and 18 and then adjust the mix for bus 1 & 2 to include all the inputs I wanted in the mix, which can also include XR18 onboard effects.

Cheers,

Keith

[ccaudle (Chris)]

@dkerfoot

Unfortunately, I’m still getting no sound through the board…

The the first step is to go back to basics, and verify that all outputs are detected correctly.
I just wrote up a list of things to check on a Linux system, then looked back at the top of the post and remembered you are running MacOS.
I do not have a Mac myself, but I would guess there is an OS utility somewhere which displays the devices which CoreAudio detects and the channel count, sample rate and word length.
Ardour can only access the resources which the operating system audio drivers make available, so first make sure that the operating system is detecting the audio capabilities correctly.

[dkerfoot]

Keith,
Thank you for the wonderfully detailed and illustrated reply!

I’m going to try to work through it today. Unfortunately, I don’t always have access to the X32 and Ardour only lets me open the session while I’m physically connected to the board.

I really appreciate the help!

[dkerfoot]

Thanks Chris,
I’ll dig into your suggestion, as soon as I have the X32 to myself again.

Thank you!

[dkerfoot]

Yes! Turns out it was me missing a critical setting on the X32. I needed to change the inputs from local inputs to the matching Card inputs. Makes perfect sense of course, I’d just missed it in my fog from all the options available in Ardour.

Then once I set the Audio Connections up it came through beautifully, just as I’d hoped.

The beauty of this is that I’m capturing the raw inputs to the X32. When I play it back, it sounds just like it did live, because the X32 is applying the same signal processing for each input but using the raw recording as the source.

Now I can record rehearsals and tweak the signal processing/effects of individual instruments/vocals on my own time without annoying the “talent”.

Posting this both to thank Chris and Keith and for anyone in the future that may run into the same problem and search for Behringer X32.

Thank you!