Overview
The Behringer XR18 is a powerful digital mixer perfect for live performances or studio recordings. Packed with features, it offers incredible flexibility and control over your sound.
Features
- Wireless Mixing: Allows control via tablet, freeing you to move around the venue.
- Multiple Channels: With 18 input channels and 8 XLR outputs, it accommodates various instruments and microphones.
- Quality Preamps: Delivers clear and crisp sound due to its built-in Midas-designed preamps.
- Effortless Interface: Intuitive app control makes it user-friendly, even for beginners.
- Versatile Use: Suitable for both live events and studio recording sessions.
Mixer Pros
- Easy-to-use interface, making it suitable for beginners.
- Versatile with multiple channels for various instruments and mics.
- Excellent sound quality with quality preamps.
- Wireless control enables flexibility during live performances.
- Compact and portable design.
Mixer Cons
- Connectivity issues reported by some users.
- App interface can sometimes be laggy.
- Lack of physical controls might not appeal to all users.
- Initial setup can be a bit complex for beginners.
- Limited simultaneous effects processing.
Conclusion
The Behringer XR18 is a versatile and powerful digital mixer suitable for both novices and professionals. Despite some connectivity issues and interface lags, its ease of use, exceptional sound quality, and wireless capabilities make it a strong contender in the audio mixing realm.
Taina Jean-Louis –
Size , Quality, sound, appearance
Robert –
Bold move to head to Digital……I was hesitating between buying this or a normal 16- channel Yamaha desk.I have only had it for two weeks.When I first opened it it looked flimsy, light and cheap… Yes it really does.Directly mounted it in a 3 space reinforced rack bag as this needs more protection. You need to protect this thing. Period.The wi-fi aerial is cheap and flimsy. Was seriously doubtful about this.1) Sound quality is really good and clear. Although I am positive the pre-amps on Focusrite and Yamaha (UR44, etc.) devices are fare superior to this MIDAS pre’s. They look and feel very plastic. Only time will tell.2) Lots of inputs. I can Run everything in stereo now.3) used both PC and Android apps. They are quite different in features and setting them up. But once you get to know each control surface it is really easy. Did not use iOS interfacing.4) I am not too clever with WiFi but managed to set up access to 3 different devices using access point feature. For PC you can use Wifi connection or Ethernet cable. Just install the Windows program from Behringer’s web site.5) Download apps: I bough this mixer instead of Pre-sonus and Heath & L models because….. I really do not like apple devices. My bandmates use apple phones and I’m sure they are great. In today’s market you should focus on what your clients want – Behringer did that and grabbed sales from all its competition. Android rocks.Make sure to check all settings on your tablet / phone to prevent it from disconnecting.6) Channel set-up is very easy. I like the Linking feature for stereo vocals7) Saving set-ups is a breeze.8) EQ is excellent you will not have this much EQ control in most high end desks. It is very similar to DAW control. If you are experienced with using software EQ the parametric works really nice. You have to know what frequencies to cut for each instrument or voice, to make sure each one is clear.9) Apps: Important to know Behringer X-air app is for full control of desk. The Xair Q app is only for monitor control. You can assign rights to each user. I use my tablet for mixer and pone for monitors.9) Probably the best feature of any digital desk is the ability to create separate monitor mixes. I read up a lot on this before buying the mixer. These are excellent for in ear monitor mixes.My previous desk had mono mixes. Mono IEM makes you really tired as everything sounds 1 dimensional.This mixer has 6 aux buses.1&2 goes via: 2 x Female XLR to 1/4 TRS stereo cable into input of Behringer Microamp Ha400 Ultra-Compact headphone amp. This then goes to a few 1/4 TRS 20 ft to Male XLR cables that connects to Elite Core EC-WBP-VC Wired Body Packs. This is better than the Behringer dual wire model as you only have 1 tail and no batteries.3 & 4 is set up exactly the same as 1& 2 for second set of 4 monitor mixes. You can control the levels of each channel to the monitor in addition to panning and overall EQ.5 & 6 can be sent to whatever. Floor monitors. Important to note is you can even set up your sub’s from these and filter out high frequencies sent to them.You have to save your setups and play around a lot with this before taking it to a gig… Set up passwords, practise the EQ for each channel and main LR to prevent feedback.Lastly when you gig you need some final control of your volume etc, I bought the DBX goRack Performance Processor (it is ridiculously cheap) to handle this.1) This gives you a great master volume control2) Ability to adjust level of speakers (L & R) individually3) The anti feedback actually works great.4) Managed to get a good EQ sound for my band. Smooths out everything to sound more produced.7) Mute – Yip sometimes after sets you just have to hit that one magic button to kill everything and prevent noise from PA during your break.Dont worry about price it really is a nice finishing touch to the system to have some hardwire control.
superJerry –
Plenty of 5 star reviews, you can read those for all the PROS. I must point out two huge flaws with the XR18.The wireless router on this sucks and blows at the same time – and you can’t do a thing with it unless you’re connected. I found it was worse than I expected. I lose signal from my iPad even while 3 or 4 feet away. How can Behringer put in a wireless access point when you will need to buy yourself a stand alone router to use this in any important event? Crappy wireless may be tolerable at rehearsal or a neighborhood bbq, but if you’re getting paid to play a wedding, don’t even think about using the XR18 wireless.You need to buy and run an ethernet cable to a wireless router which undoubtedly requires a wall wart. More stuff to buy, haul around, set up. Really Behringer?You can forgo a new router if you buy an ethernet crossover cable (and an ethernet adapter for your tablet which you’ll lose at the worst time possible) and stay tethered/wired. And even more you can’t save IP addresses in the iPad app, so you’re going to be typing in 192.168.1.1 every time you start it up. Sure, no big deal until you can to do all this on an iPad touch screen while holding you guitar with your other.Connectivity to the XR18 is a joke. You’re going to have to buy more stuff and work around it. How can anyone NOT subtract 1 star over this?And I really don’t get this one… If you’re not connected to the XR18 and something starts to feedback, good luck… You can hit the power supply and turn it off, of course your powered speakers are going to pop when the power is cut and scare everyone in the room.So now what? if you turn it on again and you haven’t 1. determined what was causing the feedback and 2. fixed it. When you power up here’s comes the feedback again! So now you need to turn your powered speakers volume down and bring things up slowly until you’ve fixed the problem.Hmm… Of course Behringer has provided a solution to this? Maybe a “panic” button to lower all outputs by 20db until you fix the problem? What? No? Well certainly then some sort of passive master volume (there are a few challenges to this approach but they can be worked through). But again, nope…Subtract another star.The XR18 is a great and powerful product that is wildly popular and I will keep and use mine.But two really really really bad design failures and I can only give it a 3 star. That’s still good enough to spend your money on it, but Behringer failed in a few areas (when they didn’t have to) and you’re going to have to deal with them.
Héctor Fierro –
Execlente por el precioVersátil, muy buen precio y buena calidad. Creo que está diseñada más para eventos en vivo, pero para estudio casero, si tuviera un mejor amplificador de audífonos sería excepcional.
Jeff Benson –
Once you try it you will never go back !I purchased this unit of covid closures and learned how to use it. This system works amazing and once you get used to it you will never go back to analog !
Steve –
A must have for any hobby band or hobby studio or small time audio engineer!I’m impressive, let me say that. Behringer is a brand I’ve always avoided with a ten foot pole because of cheap products and typically poor and dull sounding pre-amps. After recently downsizing my home studio and ditching the massive gear rack I didn’t have space for anymore, I figured I’d give this little guy a try as something that meets the needs of where I’m at in life.As usual, I started with a pre-amp test as soon as it was out of the box. I keep samples recorded on all the preamps I own (or have previously owned) so I can get an idea of how new preamps sound when purchasing gear. The Midas-powered pre-amps in this guy are impressive and have come a long way from the cheap Behringer house brand preamps of times past. Preamp sound is very subjective to everyone’s own ears, but in my opinion they were on-par with any good quality hobbyist level preamps (presonus, tascam, ART, maybe even Mackie Onyx too). Plenty good enough for home recording where I know I won’t need to fight with the track to make it sound good afterwards.The software blew me away the most – I can’t believe how much this can do not just in the studio, but for live use too. I have no reason to own any other outboard processing gear – throw this in a bag, and you’ve got easily $20k worth of gear all in digital fashion now that you can control from your computer, tablet, or even cell phone. You can load up effects on channels, patch things around, route things as needed, I’m honestly still learning even half of what it’s capable of – I feel like an old man trying to learn some new fangled technology after being used to all the old outboard gear racks!My primary use is as an audio interface though – it handles all playback from my computer for 8hrs a day, and all recording when working on my projects. For that, it works flawless.They make the exact same unit with Midas Pro preamps as the Midas MR18 (compared to the “Midas Designed” cheaper line of preamps in this XR18), but with supply shortages during the pandemic I went for the XR18 simply because of availability – no regrets. For my level of use, the MR18 Midas Pro preamps would probably be overkill anyway.
Rythel –
Great value for the moneyGreat value for the money been using a lot of this for I do sounds venue intallation weather if it’s for church,club etc. This is a good audio mixer to have.
Sergio Aguilar –
De analoga a digitalManejaba una mezcladora analoga Yamaha de 16 canales y decidí dar el salto a una digital es una belleza pues tienes toda una gama de ecualizadores y efectos internos sin necesidad de seguir cargando analogos , para ser 18 canales es muy compacta y cómoda a para transportar una interfaz fácil de usar , tienes diferentes buses (aux) que puedes conectar monitoreo personal o bien usarlo para transmisiones en vivo teniendo una mezcla independiente de las salidas Main LR , lo que probablemente todos ya saben pero hay que recalcar es necesario contar con algún dispositivo Android/ iOS Windows/Mac o Linux para poder controlarla , para controlarla via acces point es recomendable establecer una contraseña para evitar que otros dispositivos no deseados se conecten a la mezcladora y evitar problemas de conexión