Installing an AES50 Stage Box with the Behringer X32

Adding an AES50 Stage Box to your Behringer X32 system is a great way of expanding the capabilities and sometimes the channel count on your X32. There are many AES50 stage boxes that work with the Behringer X32 system like the Behringer S32, S16, SD16, SD8 and then from Midas we have the DL32 and the DL16, all of these are a great addition to your X32 system.
In this video I go over how to add an AES50 Stage Box, how to cable it correctly, and how to get all of the routing set.
Check out my new course!
The Complete Guide to Mixing Audio on the Behringer X-Air:
drewbrashler.com/x-air-course/
Products Mentioned in this Video:
Behringer X32:
- sweetwater.sjv.io/xkbkQO
AES50 Stage Boxes:
Behringer S32:
- sweetwater.sjv.io/zNo0v7
Behringer S16:
- sweetwater.sjv.io/0Zvn5L
Behringer SD16:
- sweetwater.sjv.io/baMqK6
Behringer SD8:
- sweetwater.sjv.io/6eYx13
Midas DL32:
- sweetwater.sjv.io/oqdnQW
Midas DL16:
- sweetwater.sjv.io/4PvLnG
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:30 Does the AES50 Cable Require a Sheilded Connection?
02:30 CAT6 vs CAT5e
03:58 Connecting an AES50 Stage Box with the Behringer X32
05:20 Digital Stage Box Routing AES50 on the Behringer X32
07:02 X32 Rack, X32 Producer, X32 Compact AES50 Routing
10:42 Do NOT Forget this Step!!
11:56 Behringer X32 AES50 User Routing

[@alissonwilker]

It would be nice a video on sending outputs to the stage box. Thanks.

[@rusinjeff5959]

Easily done through routing. There are videos on that also

[@drewstermusic]

Great video Drew! What would be the perfect companion video is one with a similarly in depth look at output patching if you can please 😊 Thanks!

[@LewisDavieMusic]

Remarkably, I needed this information for the first time ever today, and you've uploaded this six hours ago! Serendipitous. Thanks so much for the informative crash course.

[@Akapickles]

I have an SD8 in my shopping cart, been waiting to pull the trigger, this helps a lot!

[@brennanthompson]

Awesome video! This makes the x32 routing section make a lot more sense!

[@phillippowers6905]

Great video!!!! Thanks so much for putting these out there. You make learning this stuff so easy.

[@dlcarburetor]

Good update video.

[@Vadim3445]

Best tutorial ever! Thanks, bro!

[@gerryjohnson7357]

Thanks Drew!

[@AnilKumar-zo2eu]

Thank you so much sir for your packaged information.

[@dhaggy1980]

Well crap, back to the church I go. Thanks Drew for a very informative video.

[@AllenCavedo]

Excellent video. I like how you zoom in and out on the board. I have a Midas 32 and assume most of what you describe is the same for Midas stage box configuration.

[@ferf]

Thanks for the outstanding content. I have an X32Rack+SD8 and I was hoping for examples of user output routing. I mostly use the SD8 to shorten downstage cable runs and to augment the number of XLR outs, using local out for IEMs and SD8 outs for FOH, Sub matrix, and wedges.

[@smglennon]

I am a school teacher in NJ and have really found your videos very helpful so thank you. I have a spirit fx16 on stage with 16 faders. The first 6 are dedicated to shure wireless. I also have an s32 stage box and the x32 producer. When I hooked it all up I got sound but the faders on my producer had no effect. So I am now coming out of the default 7 and 8 left and right mains on the producer back to my fx16 into faders 15 and 16 and I am able to use my faders on the producer. You do a great job of showing all the routing and directions on the x32 but i would like to see more videos on the actual wiring and physical inputs and outputs. Where cables are coming and going from. I am basically trying to use about 10 shure wireless mics into my s32 then into my producer 32 and back to the spirit fx16 which is the house speakers. We do not use any monitors right now but would love to get those going as well. So videos on the actual conections would be helpful. Thank you! Keep making great content I am learning a lot.

[@vadjrob]

Hi! Thank you for being a teacher! The thing that makes displaying each connection possibility difficult is the sheer number of possibilities… especially when you include all the AES50 devices out there, Dante possibilities, and 1 to 1 user routing. Even describing your particular use case to pose your question took a good deal of consideration. Yet and still your consideration, while detailed and careful, only provided part of the information needed to give you a full routing solution. I’ll take a crack at it, and hopefully you can reply to clarify your use case further so I can offer more to achieve your desired results. First, it’s most likely that you can achieve everything you’re looking for without the Spirit FX16. (If you have some specific need of physical faders at the FX16’s location to control your house mix or future monitors, we can look at how to route that. If someone in your world there has a strong preference for the specific sound of effects on the FX16 and is adamant that the effects on the x32 are incapable of acceptable effects, we can address that as well. If neither are the case, you can easily control levels of every input and output including house speakers and monitors from a tablet or laptop anywhere in the facility without use of the FX16.) Trying to control independent microphone levels from the FX16 AND the X32 is problematic. Those 2 mixers have no way to communicate the level of a microphone in their respective mix. An extreme example would be: say someone anticipated a scream on Mic 1 and muted that Mic, or moved its fader all the way down on the FX16. The X32 or anyone mixing on it would have no way of knowing the level changed. The person mixing on the X32 could then find themselves moving the fader all the way up to try to get something from Mic 1 just before the person mixing on the FX16 unmutes, or raises the fader back to a “normal” position after the anticipated scream. Uh oh!!! Now the X32 is multiplying the “normal” position in its mix since its fader is still all the way up. This same lack of communication could happen with any signal, input or output, that is connected so as to give control to both mixers. Therefore, each signal level routed to both mixers needs everyone involved to understand which specific signals are routed to both, as well as which mixer has been decided upon to adjust each specific signal they have in common. You can see how that can be a nightmare considering staff changes, student operators, etc. all needing to keep them straight. Good news - The S32 can send 32 (or less) signals to your X32 while also receiving 16 output signals (or less) from your X32. You can connect each of your Shure wireless receiver outputs to the S32 inputs (XLR to XLR connection is ideal). You’d then use the routing of the X32 as Drew has laid out wonderfully in the video to place them on whichever faders you prefer. You can also route your main outputs, the default 7/8 you mentioned to output from the S32 directly to the house speakers (Or if you prefer it for physical fader control, you could run them out of the S32 into the FX16 the channels of your choice. The FX16 has 1/4” direct outs on the back that would then go to your house speakers {or amp for those speakers if they aren’t powered}.) If you want to use monitors, you would simply use the output routing referenced in the video to send monitor busses to the S32, and then on to your monitor amps or powered monitors (again, you could run those into the FX16 channels and then out of the channels’ 1/4 direct outs to amps or speakers.) If this is for theatre production, I would refrain from sending microphones to monitor busses to prevent feedback. With all the comments about the inclusion of the FX16 I’ve offered, I wouldn’t recommend going that route unless there’s some reason I’m unaware of in your use case. For most intents and purposes, it could be reserved for a backup, and is otherwise just adding points of failure to your system. Again, with the X32 connected to a well placed wireless router, you can adjust all the parameters on your X32 (mics, music, mains {house speakers}, monitors, effects, etc.) along with their digital signal processing from a laptop or tablet anywhere in the house. Want to dedicate an additional laptop or tablet to monitor levels for crew in the wings? No problem. Any device connected to the X32 through the wireless router will share the same faders. They all communicate together whereas the FX16 can’t communicate at all. Special note: If you’re using snippets, scenes, or cues, designate ONE device (or only the X32 producer) to navigate them. Many of the apps and software don’t play nicely together with that aspect of control. If this is indeed for theatre, and you aren’t already using Cuelabs or TheatreMix, you have another very exciting world of learning ahead of you beyond all the above to super simplify your productions once they’ve been set up and mastered. PLEASE get comfortable with all the other information in the video and listed above first though. If you don’t have a strong understanding of your routing, managing your main mix bus, and managing your monitor busses… those softwares will further overwhelm you and will be extremely difficult to get under control. Once understood and set up properly, they both play very well with the X32 series of mixers. Don’t hesitate to follow up with questions and/or clarifications about your use case. We all started somewhere, and there’s always more to learn. Drew has an incredible library of help available! I’ll try to help with the hardware end as much or as often as I can. I can also direct you to specific videos from Drew or that deftly explain the current point in your journey. The more you learn, the more your students will be prepared for churches, arenas, and even Broadway stages. You’ve got this! If you can find model#’s on equipment, we can get you there! 😊

[@smglennon]

@@vadjrob yeah the only reason I am using the f16 at all now is to get the sound from my x32 producer into those house speakers. They are mounted high on the wall so if I can get up there and see the inputs and outputs on the speakers and see how and where they are wired up then yeah maybe I can get straight to the speakers and bypass the f16. Thank you for taking the time to explain. I do have to still learn alot about mixbusses and getting better at eq. I am also learning that we are probably using too many Shure BLX mics and we are in a high wireless traffic area and thats why the mics keep bleeding into each other. At this time we dont have any monitors but I would like to have at least 1 wedge at the front of the stage. I think we may have an issue with our amps because they wedges no longer work and are passive. Again thank you for your time and I understand why it's tough to show because of all the possibilities.

[@vadjrob]

@@smglennon If you are running to the house speakers out of the main outputs of the main outputs of the FX16 (labeled “R-MIX OUTPUTS-L”), you can simply unplug those XLR cables from the FX16 and plug them into the S32 outputs you choose to route the X32 outputs to. If the present XLR cables don’t reach your S32 location, you can daisy-chain an additional XLR cable, to each of the existing ones to reach it. The outputs of the FX16 aren’t powered, so what’s on the high up end of the cables isn’t too important. XLR cables are very forgiving for long runs. If you have to extend them with another, I’d just be mindful of where you place the connecting ends. You could pick up some interference if those points of the cable run are sitting on power cables. In reference to the number of BLX mics in use, this is directly from Shure’s BLX series page: “SYSTEMS EXPANSIONS - Run up to 12 channels per frequency band* You’ll probably need to find a bigger stage before you run out of channels. *Note: region and environment dependent.” I’m currently using 16 Audix wireless mics in a theatre environment and have had zero issues with interference. Their AP61 and AP62 systems operate between 522MHz-586MHz and are very easy to use with up to 24 mics without getting into advanced tuning of frequencies. Their systems easily scan your environment for interference and sync to each mic without additional software or hardware.

[@brazer4690]

Спасибо! Очень доходчиво)

[@user-js8ib9gk6z]

Great explanation. 😮 Can you make video on latency if we patch beyond or around 90m above using stage box along with normal local inputs…

[@kamaramann]

Nice video! Can you make a video about explaining line arrays?

[@jonellingson3646]

Can you make a vid about how to route the bus outputs to the digital stage boxes?

[@dejanira0151]

I have XDante installed in my X32 expansion card and connected to a laptop running Ableton. My Ableton operator says that when we change the gain on a channel on the X32, it affects the signal strength in Ableton. Is there a setting that I need to change so that the gain is independent of the X32 gains...

[@popoi47asca]

This video is soo helpful. Especially the routing portion. I was looking for a video tho of how to use the SD 16. We have the SD 1-8 connected to our X32, but i not the 8-16 inputs. Is the reason is because of the routing on the x32? Or is there a switch on the SD16? I was hoping you tackled this in your video, how do you use the “output” of the SD16? I cant find a video on KZbin about it? How can i use and control the “Output” of the SD16? I hope you can make a video of the SD16 and how Can we use the SD16 output as a monitor?

[@VogtThomas]

initial helpful video. thx. My Q is if i can attach more than 2 (A+B) AES50 to e.g. X32 rack? i would require to have 3xSD16 by 15+15+11=41 channels (of 48) + 12 (of 16) of X32 rack = 53 channels in total to get all my components connected and recordable into Cubase without re-connecting/exchanging/switching cables. all fixed installed. How is that possible? THX!

[@andreasvinterthun]

I use a s32 stage box with my x32 flagship console in my band. Right now we need about 24 channels in and 9 out. I also have a S16 that I´m not using at the moment. Are there other ways to use the S16 in the future or should I sell it to make room for other stuff?

[@brianapida]

Quick question, on your daw do you have only your mic recording or do you have something else?

[@tssa86]

Tell me, please. If I connect 1 sd16 box, I get a small delay of about 1 millisecond. And if I connect 2 sd8 boxes on 1 cable, the delay will increase by 2 times.?? The delay increases with each box, am I right?

[@PexoGames]

Nope. You will get a sub milisecond delay even if you connect up to two stageboxes together I believe

[@reganroman]

What about if my stage is 150ft. We have a 150 ft cat5 shield and we like to use it. Are we going to have problemwith thedistance.

[@DrewBrashler]

As long as you are using a sheilded cat5 cable, distance can go up to 100m or 328ft. So you should be good!

[@briandice2187]

Now for the outputs...

[@grayancyagra5334]

What about the video on Presonus Studio live III?

[@ionutmoga2123]

Hello. I like yours video. I have a X32 on my church, and i want to put a password or lock the console to prevent power on from other People or Kids that ar not supose to be there

[@Alex-vp4ky]

Holding the “home” button at the top right of the console (roughly 5 seconds) will put the board in a “lock” state. The screen will say “locked” and even tho ppl can mess with faders or knobs, all the settings will return to the last state before being locked. Useful if you need to walk away from the console but afraid of kids wandering near it.

[@sound4uaudiovideorecording927]

You could use a power strip that has a key locking “on” button to keep someone from powering the unit on.