themetallikid Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 So in my head this works out right....but not sure.... Been recording some covers myself with prerecorded drum tracks. However if we wanted to record with our drummer (simple 4 piece kit, plus cymbals) I could run that through our Xair18 mixer and then take a monitor send out into my helix to put into my laptop/reaper right? I know I'd have to get the levels right, but being that its sending line level into the Mic input, i'd just keep it as a clean signal patch, maybe LA Comp at the end to smooth it out? I know there is a way to record from the XAIR out to laptop directly, but that seems move involved and just haven't researched it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverhead Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 Not sure how you would be recording into the mixer (4 mics? 1 mic?) but I expect the mixer has audio outputs. I would route them (L/R) into a Helix Return pair so that you could use multiple mics for the drums and mix a stereo signal into Helix. Then, as you say, into Reaper via USB from Helix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunpointmetal Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 If you have an XR 18, use that as your USB audio interface and connect everything to that. You can track everything to its own channel without any workarounds. I have the XR18 in both of my bands' racks for IEM mixers and they make excellent audio interfaces. It's no more complicated than using the Helix except your get 16 channels of XLR and you don't have to do anything weird to get it to sound right or do any routing adjustments or anything. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waymda Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 Agree completely with GunPM - the Xair will give you full separations for all the drum tracks - each mic recorded separately - which is invaluable when mixing down. I recently got an XAir and have been using it as the interface instead of the Helix - with the Helix coming in through XLRs. It was just easier once the XAir was set-up with my computer and DAW, and knowing I can use the Helix as via USB should I need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themetallikid Posted May 2, 2020 Author Share Posted May 2, 2020 17 hours ago, gunpointmetal said: If you have an XR 18, use that as your USB audio interface and connect everything to that. You can track everything to its own channel without any workarounds. I have the XR18 in both of my bands' racks for IEM mixers and they make excellent audio interfaces. It's no more complicated than using the Helix except your get 16 channels of XLR and you don't have to do anything weird to get it to sound right or do any routing adjustments or anything. Hmm, Ill have to try that. I strayed from that as somone mentioned there was something complicated about getting it setup that way. That would certainly make things a little easier on my end to do that as well. Thanks for the advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themetallikid Posted May 2, 2020 Author Share Posted May 2, 2020 this also means that the guys can use their own rigs to record instead of creating sounds through my helix as well. Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaschaFranck Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 18 hours ago, gunpointmetal said: If you have an XR 18, use that as your USB audio interface and connect everything to that. Every bit this. When I had to deal with recording from an X32 for the first time, it's been absolutely plug and play (ok, under macOS, under Windows you'll need to install a driver). Should be every bit the same with the XR18, especially as apparently it's set up for drums already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunedinDragon Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 I'm not sure the XR has the same facility, but I'm pretty sure it does. On my QSC Touchmix I just record the whole band to a USB memory stick which captures all the instruments in individual WAV files which can then be individually imported in your DAW to create a standard multitrack recording so it can be mixed, edited and output to a stereo track (minus the guitar track if you choose) from your DAW. It's pretty simple process and I think I heard it's pretty much the same process on the XR. This allows you to capture autonomously from the DAW so it simplifies the capture process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunpointmetal Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 15 minutes ago, DunedinDragon said: I'm not sure the XR has the same facility, but I'm pretty sure it does. On my QSC Touchmix I just record the whole band to a USB memory stick which captures all the instruments in individual WAV files which can then be individually imported in your DAW to create a standard multitrack recording so it can be mixed, edited and output to a stereo track (minus the guitar track if you choose) from your DAW. It's pretty simple process and I think I heard it's pretty much the same process on the XR. This allows you to capture autonomously from the DAW so it simplifies the capture process. Xr16 and Xr12 have the usb drive recording. Xr18 connects to a daw for multitrack recording. @themetallikid - the only “complicated”part is assigned usb 1/2 to mixer channels 17/18 for playback from the daw and installing the driver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunedinDragon Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 4 hours ago, gunpointmetal said: Xr16 and Xr12 have the usb drive recording. Xr18 connects to a daw for multitrack recording. @themetallikid - the only “complicated”part is assigned usb 1/2 to mixer channels 17/18 for playback from the daw and installing the driver. Yeah...so does the Touchmix, but I just find it easier to capture and import so I don't have to worry about the DAW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themetallikid Posted May 3, 2020 Author Share Posted May 3, 2020 23 hours ago, gunpointmetal said: Xr16 and Xr12 have the usb drive recording. Xr18 connects to a daw for multitrack recording. @themetallikid - the only “complicated”part is assigned usb 1/2 to mixer channels 17/18 for playback from the daw and installing the driver. ok, excuse my 'newb-ness' with this. So I connect the Xair to my laptop via USB.... Im still new what is complicated about the 1/2 to 17/18 thing? And I assume I have to download the driver from the xair site? or will it search/install when connected automatically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunpointmetal Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 21 hours ago, themetallikid said: ok, excuse my 'newb-ness' with this. So I connect the Xair to my laptop via USB.... Im still new what is complicated about the 1/2 to 17/18 thing? And I assume I have to download the driver from the xair site? or will it search/install when connected automatically. You'll need to download it. It's a specialized ASIO driver so Windows doesn't find it on it's own. As far as assigning the tracks, in order to hear the playback from the daw through the mixer you need to send the DAW output to a mixer channel. YouTube has a lot of really good videos on how to set up the XR-18 for recording. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themetallikid Posted May 25, 2020 Author Share Posted May 25, 2020 OK, downloaded the driver, installed and I can get it to now detect XAIR as my input source. I changed the input track to 18 max, outputs are 1 & 2.... however when I arm a track to record, how do I choose which channel it is looking at? With Helix, I could choose which one it was being sent through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themetallikid Posted May 25, 2020 Author Share Posted May 25, 2020 Also, where do I monitor from. With the Helix I monitored via the Helix Headphone jack...I have a headphone jack on the XR18, and I can hear spotify run through it, but can't get playback from tracks in my project. I tried headphones directly out of laptop, nothing. I tried the powered wedge I have on the outputs of the mixer...nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themetallikid Posted May 25, 2020 Author Share Posted May 25, 2020 I think I got the recording/arming of tracks figured out. But the monitoring is still throwing me for a loop.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themetallikid Posted May 25, 2020 Author Share Posted May 25, 2020 got it I think, at least enough to make today useful, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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