Played an outside gig yesterday

[bennyray]

I decided to bring my whole rig for this job including mixer and Eq. I have been just plugging keys into EV's without mixer. I have a Roland ME-12 rack mount mixer and Dbx Eq. I did a test out at home to make sure everything was working properly because i haven't used the mixer in awhile at least since i got the EV's. The mixer and Eq blew me away at the difference it made in the overall sound. The piano was especially much better sounding. The guys in the band were like you have made the band sound so much better. The piano was really crisp through the EV's. Gonna get a five space rack and use it all the time now. Thing is i have a rack but it has wheels and is to big to transport in car and not really practical nowadays. Anybody had experiences like this or comments?

[Mr. Nightime]

You should be able to find a rack that is the perfect size for those two items. SKB makes some good racks, and I'm sure there are others.

 

Try to keep the size down as much as possible, for the schlep factor, but don't compromise on your sound. If the mixer and EQ improve your sound that much, by all means bring them to the gig.

[hardware]

I use shock ATA and regular ATA when I don't fly anything.

XSPro from Sigler Music are well built and cheaper than anyone else.

I use thier 14" depth models.

Most units inside are 9" deep.

But the lids add depth so I can mount 1U 15" deep Supermicro Servers for sample streaming.

[J. Dan]

I worked hard to eliminate my rack just because it's extra space on stage and another piece to carry. But if it makes that much difference, bring it. For that kind of stuff I like the little plastic SKB ones with a butterfly latch front, and just a small removable panel in back that has wheels and telescoping handle. You can get them fairly small, and they are shallow and light weight. Heck for those small pieces, even the nylon racks with the Velcro flaps could do the trick.

 

Monitoring through my K10, adding the Behringer little 4 channel brick line mixer made a big difference in getting a hot enough signal through my monitor without having to resort to the Mic Level setting.

[agitato]

What model evs are you using?

[Hoochie]

My 0.02,

 

If you can swing it, get a Behringer Xair12.

Don't even bother with a rack. Just set this little box on the floor.

 

You'll have to use an iPhone or an android to get at the interface.

But the wireless is built in. Yes. Its part of it.

Each channel has 5 eq's that you can easily draw whatever eq curve

you want. (Each eq can be 4 or 5 different types too)

You can pair channels if your running stereo. So one change does both channels.

 

There are effects up the wazoo. 4 at once I think. Paralleled, chained together, whatever you want. And they are mostly very useful. No meh stuff.

I haven't used the guitar input and amp models yet. But there's that too.

 

Compression and gates on all inputs.

 

Sound like too much?

There is an easy interface that does broad stroke changes that most users

would probably never go past.

Still too much? No it's not.

An ok rack will set you back about half what this costs.

Its the size of a Velveeta brick and has a real power supply inside.

 

Somebody put a lot of thought into this.

I just put in on my pedal board.

But it's all steel with fat bumpers.

There are grab bars on the front.

All the connectors face front.

except the IEC power and off/on switch on the side.

 

Well, you want it in the rack? Wings includes in the box. 2 spaces.

 

It will serve you very well for anything.

It remembers all your setting so it could be set and forget.

I have had zero issues with it.

I've used it for my 2-3 keyboard rig for quit awhile now.

 

If you want to know how I use it, read on. It's a little complicated.

All keyboards are mixed to the main outs that go to a DI for the mains in stereo.

Aux 1 goes to my single JBL for stage noise.

You could feed your speakers via

the thru on the DI.

I'm using aux 1 because it allows allows separate volume control.

Or feed your monitor(s) from aux 1 and 2.

I have my in ears being fed back to me via 2 of the inputs.

Then I solo those inputs to the headphone out of the mixer through

a console headphone amp under my keys.

So I hear myself via the monitor board.

And mix the rest of the band in along with that.

That monitor board is a Behringer x32. Once again. Zero issues.

 

John

 

[Hoochie]

I forgot to add,

 

If you do have an iPad, the app just works. Exactly like you think it should.

 

You can resize stuff to get it all in one glance.

 

You can use all the faders for sends. So you pick aux 1 and just go across the screen and turn up what you want etc. it's pretty slick.

 

If you select the effects box you get a screen that makes sense to adjust all the

effects for that virtual LA2A style limiter or Lexicon style reverb.

 

Ok. I'm done raving about this little wonder but it's more or less an x32 in

a teeny box.

 

Dang it. One more huge thing. If you use it for live mics.

Built in RTA. You can see where it's feeding back and throw a notch on it.

It's not super fine but you can easily see what's going on.

My guess is 128 bands in a view. Just touch an eq and drag it on top. Gone.

 

 

John

[KeyMoe]

My 0.02,

 

If you can swing it, get a Behringer Xair12.

Don't even bother with a rack. Just set this little box on the floor.

 

You'll have to use an iPhone or an android to get at the interface.

But the wireless is built in. Yes. Its part of it.

Each channel has 5 eq's that you can easily draw whatever eq curve

you want. (Each eq can be 4 or 5 different types too)

You can pair channels if your running stereo. So one change does both channels.

 

There are effects up the wazoo. 4 at once I think. Paralleled, chained together, whatever you want. And they are mostly very useful. No meh stuff.

I haven't used the guitar input and amp models yet. But there's that too.

 

Compression and gates on all inputs.

 

Sound like too much?

There is an easy interface that does broad stroke changes that most users

would probably never go past.

Still too much? No it's not.

An ok rack will set you back about half what this costs.

Its the size of a Velveeta brick and has a real power supply inside.

 

Somebody put a lot of thought into this.

I just put in on my pedal board.

But it's all steel with fat bumpers.

There are grab bars on the front.

All the connectors face front.

except the IEC power and off/on switch on the side.

 

Well, you want it in the rack? Wings includes in the box. 2 spaces.

 

It will serve you very well for anything.

It remembers all your setting so it could be set and forget.

I have had zero issues with it.

I've used it for my 2-3 keyboard rig for quit awhile now.

 

If you want to know how I use it, read on. It's a little complicated.

All keyboards are mixed to the main outs that go to a DI for the mains in stereo.

Aux 1 goes to my single JBL for stage noise.

You could feed your speakers via

the thru on the DI.

I'm using aux 1 because it allows allows separate volume control.

Or feed your monitor(s) from aux 1 and 2.

I have my in ears being fed back to me via 2 of the inputs.

Then I solo those inputs to the headphone out of the mixer through

a console headphone amp under my keys.

So I hear myself via the monitor board.

And mix the rest of the band in along with that.

That monitor board is a Behringer x32. Once again. Zero issues.

 

John

+1 I use this as well and in the past have always used some sort of small footprint mixer!!!! I have mine mounted in a small SKB rack.....

[EscapeRocks]

+1 I use this as well and in the past have always used some sort of small footprint mixer!!!! I have mine mounted in a small SKB rack.....

 

I, too, am now using the X-air XR12. I love it! It's in a Gator 3 space rack with my in ear monitor transmitter, and wireless mic receiver.

 

 

I use the fully functional X-Air Edit program on my Macbook to make all the setups on the mixer, then simply take my iPad to the gig in case I need to make any adjustments at the venue.

 

The Main Out XLR L+R go to FOH, and I use Aux 1 and Aux 2 as my left and right monitor sends to my Rolls PM352 monitor mixer that sits on my FA08.

 

Anyway, back to the rack: it sits on it's back end in front of my pedals under may Z Stand. No extra real estate on stage.

That's the joy of having wifi control of the mixer. No need to have it in hand reach.

 

A couple pics:

 

Setting up the XR12 when I first got it

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh58/escaperocks1/br3_zpslyngqaky.jpg

 

On stage under my stand:

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh58/escaperocks1/br_zpse0xpec8i.jpg

 

 

[KeyMoe]

+1 I use this as well and in the past have always used some sort of small footprint mixer!!!! I have mine mounted in a small SKB rack.....

 

I, too, am now using the X-air XR12. I love it! It's in a Gator 3 space rack with my in ear monitor transmitter, and wireless mic receiver.

 

 

I use the fully functional X-Air Edit program on my Macbook to make all the setups on the mixer, then simply take my iPad to the gig in case I need to make any adjustments at the venue.

 

The Main Out XLR L+R go to FOH, and I use Aux 1 and Aux 2 as my left and right monitor sends to my Rolls PM352 monitor mixer that sits on my FA08.

 

Anyway, back to the rack: it sits on it's back end in front of my pedals under may Z Stand. No extra real estate on stage.

That's the joy of having wifi control of the mixer. No need to have it in hand reach.

 

One other point but pretty important one. This little mixer can be had for a little over $200 which is a bargain for what you get!!!!

[EscapeRocks]

+1 I use this as well and in the past have always used some sort of small footprint mixer!!!! I have mine mounted in a small SKB rack.....

 

I, too, am now using the X-air XR12. I love it! It's in a Gator 3 space rack with my in ear monitor transmitter, and wireless mic receiver.

 

 

I use the fully functional X-Air Edit program on my Macbook to make all the setups on the mixer, then simply take my iPad to the gig in case I need to make any adjustments at the venue.

 

The Main Out XLR L+R go to FOH, and I use Aux 1 and Aux 2 as my left and right monitor sends to my Rolls PM352 monitor mixer that sits on my FA08.

 

Anyway, back to the rack: it sits on it's back end in front of my pedals under may Z Stand. No extra real estate on stage.

That's the joy of having wifi control of the mixer. No need to have it in hand reach.

 

One other point but pretty important one. This little mixer can be had for a little over $200 which is a bargain for what you get!!!!

 

Absolutely great point! The greatest thing I am enjoying is the X-Air edit program makes it easy for a non engineer like me to figure out all the setups.

[roygBiv]

Sorry to be OT but you guys are killing me, so I have to ask - I've been thinking about getting one of those X-12 for some time, hoping that all the anticipated benefits noted above would be real.

 

However, a couple of things have scared me off buying one, so I'd be curious what those of you who have one think:

 

1. When PA's or other amplifiers start getting wonky, I like having a readily accessible volume knob to kill all sound going out. I know the XR12 doesn't have individual physical analog volume pots for each channel, but does it have them for the Master volume, and have you ever felt that to be an issue?

(I just hate being in front of people all jazzed up with adrenaline, and then have some ghost in the machine starting making loud sounds I can't immediately silence.)

 

2. Can you use the XR12 as a USB interface for the iPad and use the latter for sound effects, iPad synths, etc?

 

3. Can you make a hard-wire connection from an iPad/tablet to the XR-12?

 

OK, that's it, Thx

[J. Dan]

I have the presonus version, which is much more expensive but I got the dealer price. One thing I like on that is that it has a dedicated "mute all" button you can always hit in an emergency. It uses FireWire instead of USB which complicates things but you have a whole bunch of additional channels in and out via FireWire.....so no iPad direct connection, but I've plugged into a MacBook and recorded 16 track. It also has the virtual sound check feature where you can play and then have the laptop play it back while you go out front and mix from the iPad. Of course I'm using this to mix whole bands, not for my keyboards.

[SteveQB]

I have an X-AIR XR18 which is similar to the 12 and echo all of the above. The answer your questions roygbiv: -

 

1. No there is no hardware control for main outs which is a shame. I have overcome this by 1) having a pad on my controller assigned to midi panic so all notes are killed on all my boards (via mainstage) if something held and 2) assigned a hardware control on the controller which is connected to the X-AIR via midi to serve as a mute button

 

2. You can with the XR18 which is what i do (18 in, 18 out). You cant with the XR12 or XR16

 

3. You can make a hardwire connection to a laptop via ethernet. I havent done this but have connected an Airport router to serve to join the mixer to my home network so I can get internet and access to the XR18 via the same laptop