Behringer X Air XR18 4-stars Reviews

Best Mixer for small bands

Great quality, after using it for more than 100 live concerts still reliable unit with great features and flexibility for the price. Recommendation: use a external router for controlling the mixer, the built in wifi is ok only if one person is operating the unit and stays nearby.

My new favorite tool for live sound

This is my first digital mixer. I ordered this unit to push a dad-rock cover band I run sound for into the 21st century. I have experience zero buyers remorse since deploying this thing, the only thing I regret is not making the change sooner.

I won't harp on the built-in wifi, which is abysmal in anything beyond an emergency backup capacity. Once you hook it up to a reasonable network (I used a $6 thrift-store dual-band router), and get over the digital learning curve, it's a dream.

Sound quality is fantastic. It has more than enough presets onboard to run my entire show from internal memory. Built-in FX are mostly versatile and useful, as well as sounding great. As far as features and sound quality goes, the XR18 punches well above it's weight class.

My singular gripe is on the quality of the physical connectors. XLR locking is hit or miss (as-in definitely triple-check), and wobble more than I'd like even when locked in.

Your UPS Courier is NOT GOOD!

The UPS Courier is not that efficient. They should call the customer when they can't find the location.

Amazing Value, but totally dependent upon the software..

Firstly, this box is all that most small gigging bands will ever need in a mixer. 16 individual inputs, the feature set is extensive and well documented. Sound quality is great for the price, it's pretty well built, there is an extensive FX rack - it's incredible for the money!

But - how they manage to make this affordable is to remove almost every hardware control interface, and that's really my only concern. You are completely reliant on the (albeit free) software app in order for it be useable, without that, it's just a big paperweight - and be aware that Behringer have not updated their control app for over a year now. There are 3rd party apps which do a better job in any case, but understand that at some point, app development will certainly stop, ultimately rendering the mixer useless. Who knows when that will happen, but it's important to bear in mind if you are going to keep this for any length of time.

Software reliant tech has been around for a while and always eventually comes to the end of it's "product cycle" as the manufacturers call it. At that point it's junk.

So to sum up, fantastic value as long as the software app is maintained. The box cannot be considered without the software, so that's where the stars are lost.

Good to have

pros:

price - performance = excellent

easy to use

cons:

very weak wi-fi signal, should think of an extra router

Best value for the money

I'm quite happy with my mixer, I know that there are many audio engineers that are better than me in describing it's pros and cons in normal application, so I will focus on atypical ones as described by a musician:

PROS:

-I run mine in home rehearsal setup 24/7 for last 3 months and it just works! I did not have to reboot it all that time.

-While playing with a small band I control my XR18 via midi footwsitch on stage to engage fx, mute channels etc, it's great

-The included FX are nice, the amp simulators are decent

-The usb connection allows you to use it as 18/18 audio interface, I use it with a laptop as a digital fx rack / playback / ableton live and for recording rehearsals.

-There are 2 hi gain inputs for direct guitars, no di-boxes needed

-There is a cheap alternative ipad app called mixing station that is even better than the original one.

-It's small, lightweight and there is a perfect gator bag for it for the travellers

-The connection is way more stable than with the soundcraft UI mixers that I used before.

-The network setup are changed by a switch in the front, it remembers the config with passwords, ip/dhcp setup so I have a "home" and "stage" setting.

CONS:

-Behringer promised a firmware update with new FX, that never came.

-The internal wifi is good if you are on stage next to it, if you plan on using it as a foh mixer invest in an external wifi solution.

Solid system for a big band.

This mixer brought our band into the 21st century. I lead a 12 person band and this makes organization of sound so much easier. Worth the investment. Sell your old analog mixer and get this. Simple.

Call back mic feature is lacking though. Figure I will need to buy a wireless mic just for the sound engineer at shows.

A solid 4 stars all around

First, it is by no means a bad mixer. In fact, probably the best for the money. But, I bought it as an alternative to a Behringer X32 Rack and I have to say, I still prefer the X32 Rack to almost all gigs.

It sounds the same as the X32, has the same excellent FX selection, but the features are limited: no delays on outputs (the biggest deal for me), less FX slots, limited input/output, lack of USB player and many other smaller grievances. The iPad app is also worse than the X32.

The built-in wi-fi is downright unusable with the default antenna. changing the antenna to a stronger made it at least usable, but you will still be better off with an external router.

But what it has going for it is the size. It fits in any backpack and is sufficiently light to carry around by hand or on your back. So for smaller gigs where you only have to bring a mixer or sound interface, this is perfect. And of course, the price. There is also the more expensive Midas version, but in my opinion, considering the jobs this mixer is aimed at, the Midas is not worth the money.

So in conclusion, a perfectly adequate mixer that sounds good and still has a good feature set. Recommended if budget and/or portability are a big concern. Otherwise, I would say get the X32 Rack.

fantastic mixer at the price.

i've been using this at gigs for nearly 2 years (that's about 200 shows). 2 mics, 1 acoustic guitar, plus various keys and guitar processors, so typically 12-14 channels in use. i've also used it in a home studio periodically.

good points: 1 - sound quality is fine; 2 - reliability has been perfect; 3 - functionality and features are quite good; 4 - very easy to set up and use.

bad points: 1 - the built-in wifi is nowhere near good enough for use at gigs (a good dual-band router is a must if you want to take it on the road); 2 - i've used various control devices, and their GUI implementation varies between ok and poor, but i've found using an iPad or other tablet is the best option.

it's a fantastic mixer for the price, but when i can afford to spend more i will invest in something with better audio specs, more reliably functional user control interface and with a better set of recording options.

Good product Easy to control and use

Good product

Easy to control and use

As expected

A good item. Just what you would expect. Very easy to understand fro a beginner and lots of fun stuff to do if You have experience with this stuff.

We are using this for our in-ear monitoring systems. And there have been no problems up to now.

Very Good sound and option

Very Good sound and option

it's my choice number one

Very nice!

Lots of features, effects, good sound, perfect for smaller bands.

Although I wasn't really a Behringer "fan" (one of the worst analog mixer I ever had was a Behringer :) ), I got it because of the very good reviews and the recommendation of a colleague of mine, who also has one and only had positive experiences!

Nice mixer for a great price

I know this is a PA mixer, but I've purchased it for my small home studio setup after having read up on the extensive samplerate debate ;)

I'm doing every processing in the box (Harrison mixbus) and all I need is enough preamps and an easy way to control them.

I like the fact that you can just save several presets and recall them with the press of a button. This in conjunction with using templates in your DAW gets you on your way and recording in no time.

Figuring out how to setup the device to be used as a usb interface sending the signal back from the box wasn't without hassle though, but after I got it working I couldn't be happier with my choice.

As for how it would perform in the intended environment (as a PA mixer), I can only assume it does more than fine. The feature set is great (compressor, eq, sends, aux busses...) everything you need is there.

So in short, if you need something compact, versatile and clean sounding, look no further. :)

Good mixer for the price.

Check out the features in the XR18 description. The built in router is not so great. Better buy external router. Everything else worked great. Mixer is easy to set up and control. For rehearsals, small concerts and a project studio it does everything.

Almost perfect

We use this mixer for silent rehearsals, 6 buses perfect for personal monitoring for each band member.

Pros: many, many options, flexible routing and separate channel effects. You can save the full setup , and channel setups separate. You can use other users setup, you can change setups on internet.

16 channel recording.

Cons: the internal wifi router is very poor quality. I suggest to use an external wifi router.

all is nice, but dificulte to understand, how to adjust setings... Information is poor, maybe for specialists is good. Mixer works exelent.But dont possible adjust on ipadad equalising