X Air XR18 : Great overall but the Windows app could be better

I bought the mixer at a ridiculously discounted price which makes it difficult to criticize anything about it because the quality to price and features to price ratios are almost insane. However I allow myself to add two remarks to the XR18?s short list of cons you can find here and there in other reviews.

1. Two first channels labeled ?Hi-Z? right above the input socket make it possible to plug a guitar of a bass directly without a DI box and while the idea is great and the sound in signal to noise terms is identical to the one you get using a nice DI the high impedance affects somehow the performance of these channels when you plug in a typical dynamic microphone whose low sensitivity requires a solid boost from the preamp. In such a case the level of noise vs. the signal seems higher than in case of the other 14 channels with the same mic plugged in. The first two channels seem to produce a slight noise even with nothing plugged in if you don?t mute them. According to a manufacturer?s representative who explained this phenomenon at a web forum it?s normal as those two Hi-Z-capable channels have no impedance switch built in so the ?Hi-Z? feature remains active even with an XLR cable plugged in and hence the extra noise. I know nothing about electronics but this speaks to my imagination somehow as well as the promise of extended lifespan of such a switchless preamp but still it seems weird that the noise just resides there nonetheless. My first thought was that the first two channels were defective and I almost sent the unit back as the main purpose of the mixer for me is to do multichannel recordings including those of acoustic instruments and voices so the signal to noise ratio is a key factor to me. Now that I know the truth I just remember to use high sensitivity condenser mics with those two channels to reduce the preamps? drive and improve the noise performance.

2. The Windows app, while easy to use and generally clear, lacks a full screen fader only view I know from another manufacturer?s app. Big, tall faders are sometimes the only thing you need to set your levels properly and you could easily forget about other features of a selected channel like compressor or eq settings that you always see in a window over the row of faders whose scale remains reduced to less-than-half-window-tall. On the other hand, the row of meters above the faders in the ?mixer view? could have been easily integrated with the then magnified faders. And while the app?s GUI allows the user to scale it as a whole, you can scroll the magnified view only horizontally so the faders and MUTE buttons disappear behind the lower edge of the screen and remain invisible until the ?standard? scaling is restored. Maybe it?s not something you would hate the app for but in some situations during live mixing you may get confused while in that very moment you?re supposed to react quickly.

That being said I?m very satisfied with the mixer as well as the quality of recordings I?ve made with it. The driver is stable with the DAWs I use (Reaper and Bitwig Studio) and mixing the DAW output with the mixer?s input signals is also seamless which is important when artists need tailored monitor mixes for overdubbing.