Behringer RX-18 and The Oasis.

[GoldenVulture]

Last year a group of townspeople here in Rainbow got together and obtained a govt. grant for furthering community Arts and activities. They also did some fund raising and bought the now empty Primary School. [ It was moved to adjoin the High School ] They renamed the old school The Oasis and this became the new Community Centre and Arts Hub. As part of setting up the centre a PA system was recently purchased.
About a month or so ago , I was asked to unpack and set it up.

The system consists of an XR-18 Mixer and two sets of powered speakers and four Microphones.
- http://www.musictri.be/Categories/Behrin...18/p/P0BI8 -
It's also controlled by an ipad or laptop wirelessly or directly connected. The people who ordered the system didn't realize it needed such to control it, until I pointed it out. I used my laptop to set it up and in the meantime an ipad pro was obtained, which has been used to control it from then on.
The speakers are ; One pair for front of house and a smaller pair for fold back.
The microphones are Sure SM58's X 3 and one SM57.
The Mixer has a Main Out  which sends a line signal to the powered monitors.
You can use the Aux/line outs to send custom mixes to the fold back speakers.

Last Thursday night there was a small show there featuring two local brothers that perform Country Music under the name The Lazy Farmers Sons, and  an Aussie Artist Neil Murray. Neil is known for penning the song " My Island Home " that was recorded and made famous by the Warumpi Band and later reworked by Christine Anu.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Island_Home -

I was asked to do the mixing for the night which I did. I also set up a Laptop that belongs to the Oasis to record the LFS's. I used Reaper for this, which worked well. Fairly easy to set up and it made a fairly good recording. It's all done via a USB connection. I managed to Fuck up and recorded over the first three or four songs but I did get the rest of the set. The LFS's perform their own material as does Neil Murray. Neil Performed for around an Hour and half finishing with a rendition of my Island Home.

The only other fuck up was when the LFS's finished and one of them unplugged a guitar from the DI box. He hit a +/- pad that had been down  [ -20 Db ]. Neil plugged in and the moment I un-muted it there was screeching feedback that I immediately muted. It did give the audience a momentary fright though. I quickly figured what had happened and switched the pad back and everything was alright.

Using the ipad is different and not quite as user friendly as a hands on real desk but it's passable and in some ways has definite advantages. Overall the XR-18 is a good performer and Audio tool.

Here's afew pics I took. [ Not the greatest ].

[Oinkus]

Always fun to deafen a couple hundred people for a minute or 5. Had nothing but but bad results with Behringer so I steer away from it always. Good that it worked well and you got to pick up some new gear experience that is always fun too.

[LesStrat]

I’ve seen some good feedback from churches that use behringer digital mixers. Yet I still have reservations, like Oinkus.

[Oinkus]

I have 100% failure rate in the products , not reservations at all complete refusal to purchase or use. Reverb unit , power amp and a small board. None of them lasted more then a few months and a couple uses playing out.

[LesStrat]

I had a small mixer for a couple of years. it worked okay for me.

I have no personal experience with their digital mixers. I have seen multiple positive reports from folks who use them.

[GoldenVulture]

I've had a small Behringer mixer for over ten years. Its switches and faders are a bit flaky but there's lots of dust here which is likely a cause for the switches and faders dropping out. I hit it with contact cleaner periodically. Apart from that it still works well.
Behringer stuff of that era was a bit trashy and had plenty of breakdowns. The new range of gear appears to be a lot better made and so far reliable. The powered monitors are very sturdily made. The pair we have for front of house are 1000 watts per box. The fold back pair are 600 watts [ I think/not sure ].