XR Mixers - How to set up & use aux sends 

Thank you for your kind words, and thank you for watching. Happy Mixing!

@@QuickEZ also wanted to thank you for another video where i FINALLY found the source of my regular feedback issues related to fx. you pointed out not to send your fx returns back to the fx send blocks. KEY!

This specific feedback loop is incredibly common on these mixers. I'm happy to have helped!

You’re very welcome. Thanks for watching. Happy new year and happy mixing!

Glad it was helpful. Thanks for watching, happy mixing!

You're welcome. Glad you found it helpful. Thanks for watching and happy mixing!

You're very welcome. Thanks for watching and happy mixing!

Thank you for your kind words. And thanks for watching. Happy mixing!

You’re welcome. Glad you found it interesting. Thanks for watching!

Glad you found this helpful. And you’re in luck…My very next video is about FX and busses on the XR mixers. I’m hoping to have it done today, or tomorrow latest. Thanks for watching and happy mixing!

Just wanted to let you know. My video on FX to busses is now up.

I’m glad this was helpful to you. To answer your question: Post-eq will take your input signal AFTER it has gone through your EQ, but BEFORE it goes through your compressor. For instance, if you have a vocal microphone in channel 1, and you’ve eq’d it to sound great and then you add some compression to even it out, when you change the send on your aux to POST-EQ, the signal to the aux WILL have eq on it but will NOT have any compression. That same signal WILL have compression going to your main Left/Right outputs. So for most people, using PRE-FADER is ideal. POST-EQ is an option if you’re trying to accomplish something specific. For example, maybe you want the signal to have compression for your main house mix, but you do not want compression on your monitor or in-ear mix. This would be a good time to use POST-EQ. I hope that’s clear and helpful. Thanks for watching, and happy mixing!

Hi Chris, unfortunately I’m away from my computer all day today. I’ll open up my XR tomorrow and check some other possibilities to try and assist you with this further. There is the possibility you have cross-talk on your inputs. When you have the issue with your channel, is the fader for either adjacent channel turned up? If so, try pulling that down to see if it eliminates the problem. If it does you know you’ve got a channel cross-talk problem.

@@QuickEZ James, Thank you for the reply. Even you need to take a day off. I will let you know after tomorrow's rehearsal.

Hey Chris, nothing is jumping out at me that could have your signal behaving the way it does without some kind of channel issue. would you mind sending your show file over to me? If you open XAir on your computer, and click the "SAVE" icon, you can click "SAVE AS SCENE" which will then prompt you to save your show file on your computer. You can then send it to me here: email@quickez.ca I'll load the session up on my XR and see if anything weird is going on.

James, I was running sound at rehearsal yesterday via the iPad. Could not see where I could send the Scene file to you. We do have a PC connected to it as well but could not get to it as it is on the rack behind the drummer. I didn't do the original mixer connection. It is really strange. I move all the faders down and I am still getting sound (vocal & instrument) out of the front of the house speakers. I even went to the Output and turned the LR off and on, which I would thought have muted anything from the channel I had selected. Perhaps I am showing my ignorance of the mixer. We will have a slightly different setup at the dance tonight. As I mentioned in the other message. We will be connecting our XR16 LR output to two input channels (CH 8 & 9) of the in-house XR18 using its amp and not the band's amp. We have done this in the past with some success.@@QuickEZ

Hi Chris, I do no believe you can share a scene from the ipad interface. It needs to be from a computer. If you are getting multiple instruments and vocals out of FOH while your faders are down, then you are almost certainly sending them somewhere else within the mixer (and very likely pre-fader) that is then feeding the signal to the FOH outputs. This is why I was hoping to have you send me a copy of your show file. It will be much easier for me to quickly jump through your settings to see what is going where, and then give you an explanation on why it was happening, then for us to go back and forth and try to figure out what might be going on. That being said, if you aren't able to send the file over, we'll keep muddling through until we find a solution for you. Now that I know that you are looking at an iPad to mix and not a computer screen, please try the following: If you select a channel that is currently experiencing the problem. Then at the top of the screen, click on the INSERT tab. You will see a box with a small button in the top-left and the word INSERT just below it. To the right of that, is a larger box you can scroll through, that houses all your FX units. If you have an FX inserted, the small box above the word insert will be highlighted blue, you might almost call this white depending on your screen colours or contrast. If it is indeed highlighted blue, then this is probably where your issue is stemming from. If you are unsure, try clicking that box and see if your problem goes away, PLEASE START WITH YOUR CHANNEL VOLUME LOW FOR THIS TEST and bring it up slowly as required.

Hi Chris, thanks for the patronage! My name is James. I don't say it often on the channel so it's no surprise you didn't hear it. I have been considering referring to myself in the third person to create some additional mystique...whadda ya think? ;) To answer your question; the Gain stage is wholly dependent on the input, so setting your input gain on the actual channel meter is key. If you are using the XAir app on your ipad, a disappointing fact is that the meters (under the meter tab) don't have any numerical indicators on them and even their colour spectrum for Signal/pre-clipping/clipping aren't very clear other than RED is bad. What I will say is that the channel strip itself gives a SLIGHTLY better colour view of your signal level, where it's a bit easier to distinguish pre-clipping as yellow into orange and I would use that as a better indicator of initial level. Then setting your Main L/R fader to unity and checking the level on that meter as well. All things being equal, you should have the same readout. The way I like to start is to have my channel strip fader set to unity, with the channel gain down significantly. Then, while feeding signal into the channel I bring the gain up until my fader meter is hitting around "- 18'ish". On the iPad app, this has the channel strip meter just tickling yellow. I try to get as much clean signal with no noise-floor as I can before I start to hit any pre-clipping and I generally stop there. Just saying "set it to xxxx" is an ok way to go but it doesn't take into account the differences between microphones or their proximity to their sound-source, which is why I start as indicated above. I don't like to start with any significant gain on the channel as I never know what any performer is going to give right off the mark and I don't like seeing full-clip right away on a channel. I'd rather see little to nothing and bring it up until I'm happy. Shooting to have that happy-place land around -18 is a very good start. Once you have your channel strip meter, and your L/R meter matching, dial signal into your aux and try to get your aux meter to land on the same rough mark. Once you're there, you should be good to make your adjustments as required. If you have access to a computer running Xair edit, the meters on that are much easier to read, and under the actual meter tab, they have numerical indicators. It might be useful to you to have that running during a soundcheck as a quick visual reference to assist you with getting your gain right before you move into a performance. Remember, everyone has their own way of working and the more you do it, the quicker and more efficient you'll get. Regardless of how anyone tells you things must be or should be done, I think as long as you arrive at the end-result your looking for, then whatever path you took to get there is the right way for you! I hope that answer helps, Thanks for watching and happy mixing!

Thank you for your response James. I will continue to watch.@@QuickEZ

Thank you Johnny! If you make the IEM sends post fader then any change you make to the level of an instrument in the main mix will change that level in your IEM mix. Generally that isn’t something people want. So just be aware of that. If you want to duplicate the mix in your IEM’s you can open your I/O window and then you can assign each bus to copy eother the Left or Right side of the main L/R output. For instance; - bus 1 (aux1) assign to main out Left -bus 2 (aux2) assign to main out Right - bus 3 (aux 3)assign to main out Left - bus 4 (aux4) assign to main out Right And so on. You can also choose pre or post fader when you do this. Hope this helps! Thanks for watching and happy mixing!

@@QuickEZ Thank you for your reply! This is great insight I will subscribe to your channel as well. One more question. So I get the importance now of pre fader and post fader ... If I copy the main mix L/R to my aux send will I get the same mix as front of house gets? This is more referring to FXs. Im trying to get the same mix as front of house with the FX giving the vocalist the opportunity to get more "into it."

Thanks Johnny, welcome aboard the QuickEZ sub-train, happy to have you! :) Yes, if you copy the mix it should have EVERYTHING that the house does including the FX.

Hi Chris, Do you have access to their XR18 in the rack backstage? If so, absolutely have a look at the gain settings on those first 10 channels so you know what you're dealing with before you even send signal out of your XR16. Are you using all your Aux outputs for the IEM's / wedges or do you have some available still ? Also, are you using all your inputs, or do you have any left that are empty?

Yes, I have access to the XR18. We are using all the inputs and outputs on the XR16 (looking to get a XR18). We are going to use floor monitors at the dance. My original approach is to check the gain on Channels 8 & 9 of the XR18 which are the closest floor inputs to where we will have the XR16 setup at. I will be using my iPad for the XR18 with Mixing Station. That will allow me to see the meters on the Channels 8 & 9 faders. Allowing me a better view of where my gain is at. I will start with a low fader setting on the XR18 as I want the XR16 sending a strong signal to the XR18. Your thoughts?@@QuickEZ

You seem to be on the right page with this. If you are able to access the XR18 settings as you state, then start with the XR18 faders down completely, and adjust the gain coming in (from your XR16) until it sits at a reasonable value on the meters. Then you can bring up the faders on the XR18 to satisfy your house sound. I feel like you were already heading in this direction anyway :) Have fun!

Hi Chris, is there a chance you've inserted an FX on channel 16? If you have an FX inserted instead of doing a "send", and that FX channel is set to pre-fader, you could still be getting signal through the FOH speakers even with the fader down. And the mute on the channel would work in this case, so that could be a strong contender for the issue. If you open XAir and select your ch 16. then click on the CHANNEL TAB at the top, in the channel input section there is a little FX button. if you have that button turned on (it would be pink) and you have one of your FX channels listed instead of the word "OFF" then it means you have indeed inserted an FX unit. Then under the SENDS tab you can see your pre/post settings for each of your FX units. Start there and let me know what you find.

Thank you James. I will let you know what I find on Thursday when we rehearse again.@@QuickEZ

Standing by to hear your results...

If you select one of the channels that has compression on it, and then select the SENDS tab in the edit software, what is your tap point set to? Pre-eq, post-eq, pre-fader, post-fader?? If it’s a monitor mix, you should likely have it set to pre-fader unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise. If you’re set to INPUT, PRE-EQ OR POST-EQ options, those may bypass the dynamics/compressor. I know that INPUT bypasses it, and I’m fairly certain pre/post eq bypasses the compressor as well, so any of those choices could be your issue.

Setting each channel to PRE did it. Thanks!

You’re welcome. I initially read your question in the car so I glossed over the part about sending to a speaker and the FX issue. If you’re happy with using pre-fader then obviously don’t change. But if you want the remote speaker to follow your main PA speakers mix/volume, then set your tap point to POST-fader. Then, any mixing you do for your mains will be reflected in the remote speaker as well. As for your stereo fx issue, using one side isn’t a big deal in and of itself. You’re basically using a mono effect at that point which is fine. The concern is if you are summing both sides of the stereo effect to mono, you could have some interference or phasing that gives you an undesirable sound. If it sounds good to you, you’re probably ok👌 If you have an effect open you should be able to see if it’s stereo right away as it will have two insert points listed instead of one. Thanks for watching. Happy mixing!

Hi Ulisses, sorry for the late reply. in your xair edit software... go to your IN/OUT tab at the top right of the software. click on the AUX tab in the window that opens. for the aux that is giving you a problem, make sure it's DEFAULT SIGNAL TAP: is set to POST FADER. if it's set to anything other than that your bus master won't do anything. hope that helps. Thanks for watching and happy mixing!

Unfortunately no. 1-16 are inputs only. You can send audio to your main L/R, your busses, Auxes, headphones and recorder. No sorry required. If you don’t know, ask. It’s what I’m here for. Thanks for watching!

Can you please explain how to send two different mixes to main L and R?. I would really appreciate that.

Hi Fernando, I assume you mean sending one mix to Left, and another mix to Right. There are two ways to accomplish this: #1. You could mix together all the channels you want to go out of the Left speaker, and then pan the inputs HARD LEFT. Then do the same thing with all channels you want to come out of the Right speaker. Any channels you want to come out of both mixes, keep the channel panned to the center. The obvious downside to this is that you can't properly control the mix if you have some of the channels panned to center. #2. don't use the main Left/Right outputs for your speakers. Use 2 of your aux outputs to drive your speakers. In your first Aux, make whatever mix you like. and then do the same for your second aux. If your two mixes are going to be completely different and you don't want one mix effecting the other, then make sure your you have those two auxes as PRE-FADER. Then you can control all the channel levels to each mix independently. The downside to this is that you will have to switch between the two auxes to make changes to the mixes. Which will take extra time and could be an issue if you are having any feedback or other troubles with your mixes. I hope that helps you accomplish whatever you're trying to do. Let me know if you have any follow up questions. Thanks for watching and happy mixing!

@@QuickEZ Thank you so much. I’m trying to to set output main L for a fourth monitor (inears) since I’m already using all AUX buses for the rest of the band. And I’d like to set output main L, for broadcasting. Since we play with backing track, I’d like to do different mixes for the two channels. Which of the two options you think it’d work better for me?.

If you've already used up your Aux busses, then you're left with panning stuff. But that panning can affect your aux busses too. Are you currently using your Auxes for in ears or floor monitors, and are you running stereo or mono mixes through those Auxes? If you're running stereo mixes to your Auxes, any panning you do of your channels will change the panning in those stereo mixes. If you're running mono mixes, then you're panning shouldn't matter. I don't know how many channels you're using up, but you also have the option of duplicating channels to avoid any panning issues. For instance, lets say you have a vocal mic on channel 1, and you want pan that into your Main Left mix. But you also want some of that vocal mic in the Main Right mix, maybe a different amount, you could use an empty input and change it's ANALOG INPUT tap point to be channel 1 (select your empty fader, then click on the "channel" tab, then under the "analog input" drop down menu, select input #1. This way you have a duplicate of your original signal that you can pan and mix at different levels into a different bus. This can start to get complicated as your going beyond the general use case of these mixers. But it's totally doable. You just have to be mindful of how you have things routed, and remember to keep your inputs set to "PRE-FADER" so that changes in each of your mixes does not affect any other mix. By the way, which model are you using, the 12, 16, or 18? just curious. Hope this helps.

Hi. Yes, you can do this. You need to make sure that ALL the input channels you are using are being sent to your chosen Aux output as POST-FADER. You can set this on the sends tab of each channel. Once you set your inputs this way, any changes you make to your mix will go out to that Aux just like it would go to your Main Left/Right. If your Main Left is working but your Right is not, you could continue using the Left output and then only use 1 of your Aux outputs to take the place of your Right channel. Just keep in mind that regardless of how you choose to do this, you will need to use multiple faders to control the output level. When you normally change the Main Left / Right output it is one fader, but if you are using Auxes, you will need to control those output levels independently, unless you link your two auxes together (for this you have to use either aux 1&2, 3&4, you cannot link aux 1&3 or 2&4). To do this, select your first aux and then click the link button. Also,. Once you have your main level set you won't really have to worry about that and you can just mix with your channel faders as you would normally. Hope that helps. Thanks for watching and happy mixing!

@@QuickEZ thanks for your answer, very clear. Maybe I shoud also change the setting in the "aux out" tab in the software?

Yes, you could do that in the Aux out tab as well. And I just realized, I forgot to mention, that you can use a DCA to control your multiple outputs with a single fader. Control of two Auxes this way might make your life easier. To do this; 1. Click on the UTILITY tab in the main window 2. Click on DCA Spill 3. in the DCA spill window, click on the SELECT button 4. choose the two Auxes you want to use 5. Click the SELECT button again to close the selection window Now, your DCA fader will control the output levels of the two Auxes you have assigned to it. You can control the DCA from the spill window you already have open, or; 1. you can click on the UTILITY tab again and choose the DCA button to open a window that only shows your DCA faders. It will not show the Aux faders that way you won't accidentally move one of those higher than the other and mismatch your output. 2. you can click on the UTILITY tab again and choose one of the USER buttons and build a control window that shows whatever you want. Hopefully that makes sense to you, but if you're unsure about it, I'm going to make a video on this in the next couple of days. Stay tuned!

@@QuickEZ thank you :) I tried and found a very easy solution: in the "aux tab" section I set aux 5 and 6 as "MAIN". That's all :) you don't need to do anything else, aux 5 and 6 will behave like "main", this means that it is useless to send all the channels to aux 5 and 6

I actually replied with this same information the other day. I thought I was replying to you, but obviously I was replying to someone else by accident. So someone got information they weren't looking for on another video. Lol Whoops! Now I have to try and find where I posted that information :) Happy Mixing Sebastiano!

Unfortunately, no. The XR 12 is limited to 2 Aux outputs The XR 16 is limited to 4 Aux outputs The XR 18 is limited to 6 Aux outputs No additional hardware will increase these numbers. For more Auxes you need to look at more expensive mixers. I'm sorry my answer isn't what you wanted... but thanks for watching!

@@QuickEZ Thank you for your reply.

Hey Jason, go into your in/out settings page and under the USB sends tab, assign your AUX3 to a USB channel instead of one of your inputs. Now that aux will go to your DAW. If you're using all 18 USB sends, then you can't do it, you have to give up a channel. Hope that helps.

Hi Dan, the way to do this properly is use one of your FX units. Set it to an EQ and INSERT it on the aux bus. Once you do this you'll have a completely independent EQ for the bus. Hope that helps. Thanks for watching and happy mixing!

@@QuickEZ Thanks for you prompt reply. I am using two FX units for Reverb and Delay. This means I only have two FX units left to insert on say Aux 1 & 2. Does this mean I can only EQ 2 aux buses?

If you put the DUAL TRUEQ into your 3rd FX unit, it will have an A and B side, you can insert one side on bus 1 and one side on bus 2. And then you could do the same with FX unit 4 and insert it on Bus 3 and Bus 4. Or whatever busses you need them on... only DUAL TRUEQ has an A and B button. So you can switch between the two sides of the eq unit and have an independent eq for two separate Auxes. Just for transparency, I have never acutally run anything like this. So I'm working off of "good on paper" possibilities here. You will have to try this and see if actually suits your purpose. And if you do, please let me know how it works out for you. I'm genuinely interested! QuickEZ edit: Dual TruEQ or Dual Graphic EQ will both work this way

Hey Dan, I was thinking more about your question and realized I may have made some incorrect assumptions about your intended purpose. I just want to make sure you know that each bus already has it's own EQ. I assumed you were looking for additional EQ on each bus which is why I jumped straight to using the FX as an insert. But if you select one of your Aux busses in the XAir edit software (or any other software that is compatible) then the master fader that pops up for that bus actually has it's own EQ (and compression). And just to make sure, if you were talking about having a separate EQ for each input that is independent from your main mix, that you cannot do unless you duplicate instruments across multiple channel strips. For example, set the analog input of channel 2 to actually receive it's input from channel 1, and so on. Of course that takes up channels and if you've got a full band then you probably haven't got the channels to spare, but doing that would give you the ability to eq one channel for FOH and the other for your IEM. This may be way off what you're looking for but I thought I should throw all that out there to you anyway.

Thanks for all the possible scenarios. I will try the most promising first. Even if that works, I may try the other things just to know how to do it. Again, thanks so much. I'll let you know how it comes out. We have four singers, three acoustics, 1 electric guitar, sometimes a bass, and sometimes guest singers. We are just old retired guys having fun.

Lol. You bet, Joe!

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