SOUND ON SOUND

[owengleeson]

Hi

Might be a stupid question but here goes - I’m looking at getting one of these XR18 units as it looks like a good ‘jack of all trades’ for home & location recording. My question is that once I’ve recorded through it into Reaper - can I access the units onboard fx during mixdown to save processing power on my laptop? If so how?

Cheers

[Sam Spoons]

I have an X32 Compact (bought for live use but now in my project studio). I mix down through the X32 and record the stereo mix to the USB recorder on the desk. I suspect that is not what you want to do though. I'll try to have a look later and see if I can route the channel inserts in Reaper through the USB I/O to the desk. If to can be done on the X32 I'm pretty sure it'll work similarly on the XR18 (I have an XR12 to test the theory).

But, while the XR18 is a great little mixer you can probably get better fx using plug-ins in Reaper, to save maxing your CPU you can print the fx to a track.

[The Elf]

It could certainly be done, with the appropriate routing matrix set up in the XR18... but do you really want to? It seems much more trouble than it's worth IMHO. Every effect you could ever wish for is either already in Reaper, or available as a free plug-in.

[owengleeson]

I’ve got some good vst plugins alongside but it only takes a few of the bigger ones to start getting my daw coughing like an asthmatic. It’s a clean laptop with a spec that should run them fine... but there’s clearly an issue there also which needs resolving. Are the fx on the Behringer a bit crap?!

[Wonks]

Not bad, but they are on the lighter side of processing in order to keep the live use latency down. So you are far more likely to get better results by using plug-ins within Reaper.

[The Elf]

I’ve got some good vst plugins alongside but it only takes a few of the bigger ones to start getting my daw coughing like an asthmatic. It’s a clean laptop with a spec that should run them fine... but there’s clearly an issue there also which needs resolving. Are the fx on the Behringer a bit crap?!

Well don't forget that you only have so many effects in the Behringer too. The effects are OK, but you're swinging a sledgehammer at a hazelnut.

It sounds like you may need to spend some time figuring out why your laptop is struggling so badly. Maybe if you put the spec up here, together with what AI and driver you are using (and stuff like buffer settings) you may find people can help.

[James Perrett]

Sounds like you are probably using third party processing intensive plug-ins with Reaper. If you are then try replacing them with Reaper's built-in effects. I find that there is very little that you can't do with Reaper's own effects if you spend some time learning how best to use them. Take a look at the JS folder too - there are plenty of hidden gems in there.