tools 3_12
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1. i 5 T i E E E EE M Ls bir z i a aa Muti i miei f m w wun E l The USB driver as so often is not quite as efficient as FireWire Pedant in terms of latency but also runs stable the ASIO error display as a guide for the optimal latency setting is also very good to receive signals in the DAW which manages 32 channels simultaneously in duplex mode On the Mac the card runs directly under Core Audio Windows users install two drivers one for USB and one for FireWire Important During installation the FireWire or USB mode must be selected in the set up menu of the X32 depending on which driver is cur rently installed www tools4music de TEST E E E 0 1 Hz 67 10 2030 50 100 200 500 ik 2k3k Sk 10k 20k 40k Hz Figure 2 The total THD at 1 8 dBu output level with a maximum of 0 04 percent and at 19 dBu output level lower curve is shown above Generally and as expected the measurements also yielded very low distortion values at various input and output levels The fundamental measure is thus the inherent noise of the output stage with closed channel faders in the FFT analysis Figure 3 resulting in 87 dBu under the A measurement 102 106 7110 amp 114 H 118 122 126 13 67810 20 30 5070100 200300 500 tk 2k 3k 5k 7k 10k Hz Figure 3 With all faders closed X32 produced only 87 dBuA noise at the output Even with the2. channel and master faders positioned at 0 dB and a preset gain of 0 dB the BEHRINGER X32 still achieved a very good signal to noise ratio of 85 dBuA resulting in an overall dynamic of 106 dB At 30 dB gain the measured value was 83 dBuA and the output noise only rose to 57 dBuA with 60 dB full amplification in the preamp www tools4music de Sua ca S656 Se FEE g mE s T Ti Tau i bncabaiaatataiel a The fader of the DCA bus section can also be used to drive the internal GEQs the LCD displays thus show frequency gain and channel to the selected GEQs The Operation Since all theory is gray the console will have to prove itself in practice The author and his colleague Kosmalla were on their way to various events with the console With dimen sions of 90 cm wide 55 cm deep and 23 cm high 35 x 22 x 9 and a weight of only 20 kg 44 Ibs one can lift the console alone in a TransFlex case The left and right grips are helpful on the sides On the live site we will prove that you can navigate the X32 without the aid of a user s manual This console can be used intuitively but this is obviously a subjective judgement so the user will have to determine if it meets the operational concept for his her personal workflow Only a few functions require a longer study phase until the aha effect starts The console feels sood faders buttons and encoders make a strong impression as does the metal housing In
3. er re ree teres getter esse ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee eet ee eee ee a ee ee r uF 15 20 25 a0 a5 ao Ber lechmoog wae pooch cor Figure 4 The BEHRINGER X32 has a basic latency of 0 8 milliseconds between the input blue and output signals red The calculation time is added to a total latency of 1 5 milliseconds only at switched insert points for example with a graphic equalizer in the master channel The low system latency is an example what was considered in the process architecture to cover all the calculations in all channels and buses in a fixed processing loop within a DSP This is of particular advantage on the X32 because all filters gates EQs and compressors are always part of the same routine with extremely low latency 62 5 microsecond latency is added by definition to the AES50 at 48 kHz per end point for a total of 250 microseconds between the stage box for X32 input and X32 output back to the stage box So the real total latency for a singer between the mic stage box X32 stage box outputs and the analog monitor system lies at almost exactly 1 millisecond It would be hard to beat this value In the area of the channel equalizer there is little to report by measurement The frequencies shown in the display as well as the gain values were closely observed A final note from the measurement laboratory concerns the voltage range of the power supply which we could operate from 90 volts AC Thus the conso
4. on Fader feature By pressing the Sends on Fader button the input faders send the signal to the desired bus with the input fader displaying the bus for that channel If you select an input channel the eight group faders can be used to set the bus sends from this channel and vice versa if you select a mix bus the 16 left input faders are used to set the right mix for this bus To avoid confusion the channel numbering appears in red at the top left of the display by the Sends on Fader button Immediately adjacent to the main display you ll find the USB recorder and Main Bus section where the stereo Pan of the individual channels and mono bus can be sent separately though the Main Bus encoder The USB recorder is for recording and playback of stereo mixes in WAV format an easy way to play in termission music or record your gig In addition the USB port allows the import or export of mix files and future firmware updates Below the channel strip there are sixteen channel faders each with its own Mute Select and Solo but tons plus a dedicated 6 digit LED meter display Each channel also gets its own backlit LCD display or Scribble Strip which displays the channel number and instrument icons along with customizable chan nel names in 8 high visibility background colors The 32 Input channels are distributed in two layers 1 16 and 17 32 Layer three controls 6 Aux Inputs the 2 channel USB player and 8 FX Returns La
5. surface The channel strip is arranged so that it follows the signal flow begin ning with the microphone preamp controls at con sole top left Gain LED VU meter Phantom Power Phase switch and an encoder for the tuneable Low Cut are directly accessible by the operator Built in visual support is robust and available at 11 points on the X32 via convenient View buttons Once a button is pressed the screen displays all the essential parameters of the selected function EQ Dynamics Scenes etc This is especially helpful in the Dynamics section since there are two encoders for the threshold of noise gates and compressors available in the channel strip a very workable compromise These parameters can be set from ex perience before the sound check or the engineer can load a preset and then adjust thresholds during the sound check Active dynamics processing are represented by LEDs above and below the channel meter display allowing you to see at a glance which channels have dynamics processing engaged We then come to the channel EQ designed with four bands and full parametric control Additionally either High and Low Cut High and Low Shelf plus two filter options for the parametric can be selected all adjustable via buttons and encoders X32 pro vides two ways to send channel signals to monitor buses and effect units including four dedicated channel Bus Send encoders in addition to the chan nel EQ or the Sends
6. the channels which are very clean and provide many parameters e g hold time at the compressor so you should be able to cover all the everyday sound requirements The X32 dynamic section does not provide an auto function That means less experienced users must go snuggle up with the flood of parameters or go back to the appropriate presets The XUF recording card deserves great praise Its Bridge Co chipset with drivers from the Swiss com pany Archwave works well both in terms of stability and latency The USB driver cannot come up with ex tremely short latency because of a larger security buffer but the FireWire driver easily processed our test track with a total latency of 8 ms with an old ASUS A6 laptop The author has also succeeded in transferring four tracks in a stable way with 48 sam ples on the same laptop Thus one could send spe cific individual tracks from the X32 into a computer if needed then add effects for example trigger a bass drum and replay this without much latency in the X32 The ASIO error indicator in the control panel of the driver shows how far you can drive down latency in each individual case www tools4music de Finale Friends of magic I must disappoint you Even Uli Behringer cannot really perform magic but what the user receives for barely 2 500 Euro is very close The BEHRINGER X32 is a digital console with no serious weaknesses scoring high points for its price class and grand feat
7. TEST E E E j Bohringer x32 l Digital Mixing Consol By Christian Boche measurements by Stefan Kosmalla a e Willich on the Lower Rhine spring 2012 I can practically see it before me as they open the nondescript ardboardibox in the development department before the as sembled team The head of the X team carefully removes the protective film from the i object born from an idea and subsequent endless hours of developmeit worki in the R amp D department of the German BEHRINGER head office Bathed in bright neon lights the scenery is somewhat unreal With firm pressure on the reary mounted power switch he a ai brings the in house creature to life All present know this moment marks a significant milestone in the long standing company s history Ladies and gentlemen The time for speculation isfover the new digital console from BEHRINGER goes by the name X62 e F and will break into the market this July oe _ www tools4music de First of all This test is more like an expedition since at the time of testing neither technical data nor a user manual were yet available So raise the curtain First Tour Within 15 seconds of pressing the power button the console is operational The X32 relies on a combi nation of channel strip and menu driven mainte nance Thus the essential tools of a mix are always in focus managed by the display rather than static elements cluttering the
8. addition the processing is flawless and shows evidence of professional production The same holds true for X32 s audio quality as documented by our own measurements 20k 30k 50k The same applies to the internal effects in particu Another very important aspect is the duration of the signal between the lar the reverb department comes up with a reverber mixer console input and output signal We performed these measurements ation that in this price range is probably the way at 1 kHz with duration of exactly one period We then read the delay directly forward The Quantec QRS emulation is great the off the time axis Figure 4 which is a very low 0 8 milliseconds EMT reverb is close to the original and I also like the other effects by their distinctive character Time of the gated reverb regardless of the reverb time can be set allowing the author to celebrate his personal 80s revival Keyword set The Assign en coders of the UDC Assign section are a great help for the workflow If the delay time is on a tap button meanwhile almost any digital console can be used But with the encoders completely different things ze mee ee ee ee es e are possible For example one can determine the re verb time or the speed of a modulation effect rate T ESNA DET Recckeeties 2 DEEE eee SEES A of an encoder and modify this on the fly without having to access the menu of the effect om eeri ret eee cepts rte pe steep
9. d by the console max imum of 96 in x 48 out With the designers inclusion of a proprietary ULTRANET connector the X32 be comes a total sound technology package merging the console with BEHRINGER s P16 Personal Moni toring System see test in issue 1 2012 Designed primarily as a live console the BEHRINGER X32 can also be used for studio applica tions thanks to the included Control Room outputs and XUF recording card More on this later The inner values The X32 uses 40 bit floating point technology which offers the advantage that the signal flow inside the console cannot be overridden this keeps the signal quality at a high level from the start MIDAS designed the onboard mic preamps in both the console and the S16 stage boxes And if you look closer you ll find even more features courtesy of MIDAS and KLARK TEKNIK for example the S16 stage boxes use the KLARK TEKNIK s SuperMAC networking technology Keyword effects The X32 also offers 8 stereo effects slots which can be controlled as either a Send or In sert effect The FX selection covers many standard ap plications and consists of 7 reverb algorithms for example a replica of the EMT 250 Space Washing Machine and the Quantec QRS Space Simulator two BE HIGH PERFORMANCE 32 CHANNEL FIREWIRE AND USB 2 0 AUDIO INTERFACE delay effects a modulation section with Chorus Phaser Flanger plus a handful of rather unusual ef fects Transient Enhance
10. e range between 80 Hz and 10 kHz www tools4music de mixers Below the display section is the Main output fader plus 8 motorized faders with four layers DCA Bus 1 8 Bus 9 16 and Matrix outputs LCD displays addressable scribble strips are also used here To the right of the main display are the controls for Monitor and Phones Levels Since the headphone jacks are located in the left and right handholds it is important to order a case that provides easy access to the headphone jacks The rest is quickly enumerated control buttons for Scenes and 6 Mute Groups a smartphone rack 4 user assignable encoders includ ing LCDs and 8 customizable buttons on three layers The user can program quick access to frequently used parameters up to a maximum of 36 buttons encoders As the name suggests X32 s back panel features 32 XLR inputs plus 16 mix bus XLR Outputs 6 Aux In puts and Outputs TRS and RCA AES EBU profes sional digital output and a MIDI interface In the era of iPad and Tablet PCs the candidate with USB and Ethernet jacks for future remote control is also in good shape At the time of testing X32 s Software Ed itor and iPad app were not yet available but they were demonstrated at PL S in Frankfurt and should be forthcoming In addition to the console s traditional inputs and out puts two AES 50 network jacks are provided for dock ing with the BEHRINGER s new S16 digital stage box three of which can be addresse
11. e system taken in one pass Beginning at the preamplifiers we established a maximum input level of 23 dBu before clipping the input stage The gain controller provides from 12 dBu all the way up to 60 dB The maximum output voltage is a whopping 21 dBu which shows the fine resolution 1 dB master LED display At 0 dBFS the con sole starts to show the first deformation of the measuring signals which clearly indicates the end of the scale The normalized level of 0 dBu is achieved with an LED display of 21 dB The frequency response of the X32 is aimed precisely to the preset sample rate of 48 kHz and as shown in Figure 1 reaches exactly 24 kHz at the end of the transmission behaviour 67 10 2030 50 100 200 SOO ik 23k Sk 10k 20k 40k Hz Figure 1 The measurement at 19 dBu output voltage shows a frequency response up to half the sampling rate exactly 24 kHz cut off frequency at 48 kHz sample rate The distortion behavior and the resulting harmonic and non harmonic distor tions are critical to the assessment of sound In addition to the THD total har monic distortion we also measured the harmonic proportions K2 and K3 between 5 Hz and 24 kHz The values were consistently below 0 02 and thus demonstrated negligibly low distortion components We consider the total distortion behaviour in Figure 2 very low THD values less than 0 04 at 1 8 dBu output voltage which is reduced even further at 19 dBu output voltage in th
12. le is suitable both in countries with a voltage different from the 230V German standard as well as in festival situations with a voltage level that is often not entirely sufficient or constant The built in power factor correc tion of the power supply provides continuous efficiency optimization through which the relationships between reactive and active power can be optimally adjusted Tribute of the Zeitgeist the X32 offers a storage space for smartphone www tools4music de TEST E E E ttt Sound quality Measured values Can be used also in the studio Features Three year warranty Operational by remote control iPad app in development Good surface feel Clean processing Very good value for money Software runs stable UFX recording card with stable drivers and low latency Workflow operation Changes of PreDelay or the room size lead to a short muting of reverb effects dsame i Euey EYE PA CANE q l f m Ieee seer see ee eee mn j a eee j m mla kets Subit Sohma peet Subas isin DE E j OG M The built in BridgeCo chipset with Archwave FireWire driver gives a good performance 32 tracks with a total latency of 8 ms could be played in practice via FireWire There is a noticeable brief muting of reverb effects when the Pre Delay or the room size is changed In practice this point would not bother further There is praise for the dynamics in
13. r Limiter Exciter Guitar Amp Tube Preamp etc The author himself has missed only a de esser but as we learned from a reliable source in this regard a so lution is in sight In addition we still note two differ ent 31 band octave equalizers GEQs respectively in stereo or dual mono Since the 8 effect slots can be used freely up to 16 mono GEQs can be used If the X32 should be used as a monitor console any mix bus with a 31 band EQ can therefore be provided and the master fader can be converted as level control for the wedge The author prefers however parametric EQs and rejoices in the fact that each bus also has a 6 band EQ with full parametric and dynamics controls And what about a line delay asks the discerning user Thumbs up the X32 has a line delay on each physical input and output up to 500 ms or 171 me ters 561 feet In the Studio X32 supports both the Mackie Control and HUI pro tocols It might even be possible to implement trans port functions such as play stop and record over the UDKs Assign section Headphone mixes can be cre ated via the mix buses or the optional P16 Personal Monitoring System We used the XUF recording card The back with full input and output section HRINGER X SERIES EXPANSION CARDS ONLY or FireWire The XUF recording card is included and offers 32 channels in duplex mode in amp out either to USB eo J
14. ures It also comes up with profes sional readings audio performance and its broad concept in which many application scenarios live and studio are taken into account It is surprising that with this great flexibility ease of use does not fall by the wayside So congratulations to the R amp D department of BEHRINGER they should rightly be proud of the X32 The extension of the warranty period to three years also testifies to the legitimate self awareness of the quality offered What remains after this test is the following assurance you simply cannot get more console for the money from anyone but BEHRINGER E Incidentally The X32 is screaming for more In the next tools edition we look at the recording card more accurately under the hood test optional supplied accessories and release the X32 into the audio world as FOH console at various live gigs ed itor s note
15. yer four con tains the Master faders of the 16 mix buses The Display The visual center of the X32 is the 7 backlit day view able color TFT display non touch which features layer up down and page select keys as well as 8 func tion keys that lead to sub menus The user can make parameter changes via the 6 rotary encoders with push feature for input confirmation beneath the dis play similar to the principle used on the Roland V www tools4music de TEST E E E LABORATORY TIME Measurement data for BEHRINGER X32 Digital Mixing Console By Stefan Kosmalla In a digital console there are two major analog interfaces that have a signif icant influence on the overall performance of the system On one hand we pay particular attention to the microphone preamps on the other the output stages The standards here are the maximum overload resistance the so called headroom the proportion of distortion not to mention the signal to noise ratio of the circuit It is important to note that in spite of BEHRINGER X32 s surprisingly low retail price world renowned British manufacturer MIDAS de signed the mic preamps The measurements conducted on the BEHRINGER X32 were carried out as an entire measuring chain starting with XLR input 1 all the way through to the XLR 16 analog output right master with the NTi FX 100 analyzer Therefore the interpretation of distortion noise and frequency response shown here refers to the entir
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