Hi. This is an FYI success report. I was having multiple problems recording 18 channels simultaneously from a Behringer XR18 mixer with my private ASIO compilation of Audacity 2.3.1. I was getting inconsistent behaviors from Audacity. Sometimes Audacity would crash. Sometimes all four of the “Save Project” options would be grayed out and I would be unable to save the project. Sometimes the recording would save OK, but Audacity would later report a damaged project file. But about half the time, everything would seem to work OK. And sometimes, something (in Windows?) got screwed up as I could not get Audacity to restart without rebooting my PC. I did not report my varied problems as I suspected a simple horsepower problem and I first wanted to compile with the latest Audacity (2.4.2), so I needed to find time in my schedule to do that.
Anyway, I just happened to notice that the Behringer Clock Rate was set to 48kHz (X AIR Edit => Setup => Audio/Midi => Clock Rate). I changed this setting on the XR18 to 44.1kHz, and now I am no longer having any of these difficulties.
If for any reason you actually want to work in 48 kHz, I expect it will work if you set everything to 48 kHz - it’s most likely the mismatch that was causing stability problems rather than the specific sample rate.
I stumbled upon this forum post in an effort to look for a suitable solution. I am using REW (Room EQ Wizard) and am looking for an interface that will allow me to connect 15 mics in order to take 15 simultaneous measurements from one sweep tone. REW is capable of doing that as long as the XR18 uses an ASIO driver. Would any of you know if this will work in conjunction with the XR18?
Right. As Audacity does not provide ASIO out of the box, you will have to compile your own private version with ASIO. Or switch from Windows to MacOS, where ASIO is not required.
Thanks @jademan - I am already using MacOS. Do you think the XR18 would work well with REW? The XR18 is quite an old system and from what people are saying, the interface is not great.
I don’t need sophisticated features, all I need is to be able to connect 15 XLR based condenser mics and take 15 measurements with a single sweep signal from REW. The only thing I will need to adjust are the levels of the mics and possibility the ability to mute or unmute each channel. Each mic interface needs to be able to provide phantom power for the mics.
Any suggestion of an alternative, good and cost effective audio interface that will let me do that. My knowledge on these audio interfaces is limited but I continue to research and read about them. Most have so many additional features that I don’t need and will never use.
I read that Steinberg makes good audio interfaces but they are limited to 8 mics and I would need an additioal ADAT device for more mic interfaces. I’d rather have one unit that has 16 mic interfaces with phantom power.
You’d need 15 calibrated measurement mics. It’s probably not worth buying all of this specialized equipment unless this is your business and you do it every day.
And, I’m not sure it this will be any easier than 15 separate measurements. It’s going to take some time to set-up the microphones and to make sure they are all routed correctly.
I’ve never used REW but I’ve heard of the “moving mic method”.
I am not familiar with REW. I have hooked 16 channels up to the XR18 and recorded them in Audacity via USB. For Windows you need ASIO. For MacOS it works right out of the box. There shouldn’t be any problems as long as the clock rates are the same.
Note that Audacity cannot be used to control the XR18. You will need preferably a router and I believe X-Air to setup the unit. There should be videos online. It is not straight-forward. Nor will it be with any other interface. You have to do the leg work.
I’m interested in experimenting and love trying things out. When it comes to audio interfaces, it seems there are no plain vanilla versions. My interest is mic-inputs, phantom power per input and pre-amp levels control - that’s it. However, I understand that such a basic audio interface is not available.
Thank you @jademan - That gives me confidence that the XR18 is capable and will most likely work with REW. By the way, I do use Audacity out of interest and love it but in this case I will be using REW.
I understand about the control and don’t mind using the X-Air app at all. One challenge is that the app requires MacOS 11 or higher with an Apple M1 chip or later. I have an older Apple Laptop (MacBook Pro). However, I could probably get a cost effective Windows based laptop or Android Tablet for this purpose.
I don’t mind putting the XR18 in Ethernet mode and hard-wiring it to a Windows laptop for connection and control reliability. It’s good to know that you’ve recorded up to 16 channels simultaneously via USB. Is it a USB 3.0 interface?
I carried out a bit of research in terms of whether the input channel interfaces provide phantom power and this is what I found which works for my needs:-
The First 16 channels are equipped with phantom power to drive ribbon/condenser microphones or DI boxes. Channels one and two accept high impedance sources from instruments without a DI or phantom power.
