X32 DAW Transport Controls

MacOS: The X-USB is CoreAudio compatible and thus works with low-latency on Mac computers without any additional driver installation. Windows ASIO Driver. Download the X32 ASIO driver installer files from behringer.com. Double-click on Setup.exe in the corresponding unpacked folder and follow the instructions on the screen. Driver Control Panels.

How to use your X32 as Control Surface – Transport Controls.

X32-Mix harnesses the power of BEHRINGER’s award-winning X32 digital mixing console by allowing you to control mixing and routing functions right from your iPad®. X32-Mix Version 3.1 delivers major enhancements, allowing you to tap into the new features available in the X32 firmware release 3.0.
Aug 21, 2012 Replicates the X32 control surface with all faders, display screens and major controls. The new XControl application, available as a free download, provides near-complete control over the Behringer X32 digital mixer from a wired or wireless computer. XControl also adds several important new features to the list found on the console.

One of the most dynamic and workflow enhancing implementations is to use your Behringer X32 as a control surface. All the midi you need is built-in to the Behringer X32 to enable it to work with virtually any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation. In this instance, you will learn how to connect your X32 as a control surface with the popular DAW; Reaper with DETAILED coverage of the transport controls. Yes! Use your Behringer X32 to play, stop, record, loop and more. So much easier than moving your mouse around in search of elusive screen controls. Simply punch the appropriate assign button on your X32 and you will be working quickly and seamlessly. What a time-saver!

IN THIS VIDEO.

Brief review of how to download, install and set up a terrific utility created by Patrick-Gilles Mailot Behringer X32 Utilities which will make getting your X32 to communicate with Reaper a breeze! If you missed the detailed instructions, CLICK HERE.
Detailed instructions for implementing your Behringer X32’s as a control surface by assigning buttons as transport controls.
Live Example X32 control surface transport showing Play, FF, Rewind, etc.
Behringer X32 Transport Controls
Live Example showing how to isolate a section of your music using your X32 as a control surface to create a loop and repeat to analyze the characteristics of the specific section you are wishing to isolate.

I’m often asked what input options we have with the Behringer X32. So today, I am going to dive completely into ALL of the input options that you can use with the Behringer X32.

Inputs

All of the X32 family has the ability to adjust 38 channels of inputs. That is broken into 32 channels of XLR and 6 channels of Aux. I first want to talk about the specific processing which can be utilized in the console inside of the ‘Channels’. Then I will talk about how the ‘Channels’ get the audio from the ‘Inputs’. After that, I will go through how to get the ‘Inputs’ from either the Local X32 or a remote I/O on stage over a digital snake.

Channels 1-32

These are the main channels of the Behringer X32. They can pull audio from any of the inputs on the console. The benefit of these channels is that they have the ability to adjust all of the channel parameters of the channel strip.

Config Section: Preamp Gain, Low Cut, Input Delay, Polarity, Insert Options
Gate Section: Gate/Expansion
Dynamics Section: Compressor/Expansion
EQ Section: Low Cut + 4 Bands of EQ
Sends Section: Ability to send to all 16 Mixbusses
Main Section: Ability to send to LR+Mono Buss or LCR Buss

Aux Channels 1-8

The auxiliary channels of the Behringer X32 can pull audio from any of the inputs just like Channels 1-32, however, we have limited channels parameters which we can now adjust. The Aux channels do not have Low Cut, Input Delay, Insert Points, Gate Section, and the Dynamics Section.

Config Section: Preamp Gain, Polarity
EQ Section: 4 Bands of EQ
Sends Section: Ability to send to all 16 Mixbusses
Main Section: Ability to send to LR+Mono Buss or LCR Buss

FX Returns 1-4

The FX Return channels are the returns out of the Effect Racks 1-4. These channels can only be sourced from the effects rack. The return has no ability to adjust polarity, gate, or dynamics. However, we do still have the ability to adjust 4 bands of EQ.

EQ Section: 4 Bands of EQ
Sends Section: Ability to send to all 16 Mixbusses
Main Section: Ability to send to LR+Mono Buss or LCR Buss

Routing to the Inputs – Blocks of 8

One limitation of the Behringer X32 line and Midas M32 line is the routing blocks which is labeled ‘Channel Processing Block Patch‘. As you can see in this screenshot of the routing options, they are in blocks of 8.

By default, Input 1-8 is sourced from Local 1-8 so if you plug a microphone into XLR Input 1 on the X32, it will arrive in the Input 1. The default routing options of the channels will also pull from the corresponding number, so Channel 1 will pull from Input 1. We can make the statement that if you plug a microphone into XLR Input 2 on the X32, it will arrive on Channel 2 on the X32.

If you change Input 1-8 to be pulled from AES50 A1-8, you will not be able to access any of the Local 1-8 unless you take up a ‘Block’ from Inputs 9-16, Inputs 17-24, Inputs 25-32, or the Aux In Remap to source from Local 1-8.

Let me give an example of this. We are going to connect a Behringer S32 digital snake into the AES50A port, and swap all Inputs 1-32 to pull from the AES50 A Blocks.

Input 1-8 > AES50 A1-8
Input 9-16 > AES50 A9-16
Input 17-24 > AES50 A17-24
Input 25-32 > AES50 A25-32

We now have the X32 pulling all audio inputs from the digital snake. If we were to plug a microphone into the Local XLR Input 1 on the back of the X32, we would be unable to access that microphone unless we change one of the ‘Blocks’ back to Local 1-8.

We can use the Aux In Remap to access some of the Local I/O, but that would remove the option to pull from the 1/4 Inch TRS Inputs.

The channels on the board can source from any of the ‘Inputs’ that you choose. So you can have Channel 1 pull from Input 24, but the limitation is that you have the blocks of 8.

If you want a way to circumvent this and have the ability to do 1 to 1 patching, you would need to check out the Behringer X-DANTE or the Klark Teknik DN32-DANTE card along with Dante enabled I/O stage boxes. Which would allow you to 1 to 1 patch through Dante Controller, however remote gain control would be more difficult.

Consoles of the Behringer X32

Behringer X32 Full Size Console

Behringer X32 Full Size Console – This has 32 XLR inputs and 16 XLR outputs built into the console. This is our most commonly found X32 out in the market. The X32 is a great audio console for the pricepoint that it is. It gives us an audio console which has 4 band fully parametric EQ, compression and gate on all 32 channels. There is an Effects Rack which has 8 slots to put everything from reverbs to emulations of classic compressors.

There are 16 mixbusses which can be used as aux sends (16 mono or 8 stereo) with a choice of pre-fader or post-fader, or you can use them as sub-groups. The console also has a Left Right Main Buss and a Center/Mono Buss which can be configured as a LR+M (Left Right + Mono) or an LCR (Left Center Right).

If you route channels into multiple busses and compress those busses differently and then place them back into the LR buss (parallel compression) there will be no time delay issues. You will only fall into an issue if you insert an effect from the Effects Rack on one of the groups where you will find some phasing issues with added delay from the Effects Rack.

The full size X32 has:

38 Inputs (32 XLR, 6 1/4 Inch TRS)
22 Outputs (16 XLR, 6 1/4 Inch TRS)

Behringer X32 Compact Console

Behringer X32 Compact – The compact version of the X32 removes 8 channel faders still giving us access to the 32 channels, however, it is spread over 4 layers of channels instead of 2. The XLR inputs drop to 16 inputs and the XLR outputs drop