Multi track song to XR18 - No sound

Jooobs

I'm having an unpredictable issue...
I have a set list of multi-track songs that I send to an XR18 via USB cable from an iPad running Stage Traxx.
The multi tracks have 3 tracks in them:

Click Track
An intro with cues, and
The original song (for us to un mute when rehearsing if need be)

The tracks also send midi commands to the XR18 to load scenes (basically set delays on effects). The scenes only target the effects though (so they don't reload many settings).

This all works very well at home, I press play and can here the click tracks and song, and I watch the FX load. Occasionally I won't hear anything and I have to kill and re-run ST3 which seems like a bit of a bug, but only happens one in 20 maybe.

Then we had a rehearsal with this setup on the weekend (first time with ST and the XR18). The audio just refused to work, the tracks played but there was no audio. I spent over an hour trying to troubleshoot. Interestingly, the midi commands worked at the correct moments in the song so it was running through the song but no audio.
Eventually, after much time sanity checking the config on ST3 and the XR18, trying a different iPad (same behaviour), in desperation I reset the XR18 back to an old snapshot and it worked for one song, then next song it was back to no audio.

At this point I gave up we played without the click track.

What makes it very curious though, is that when I got home I set it all up with the same iPad, same USB cable, and it worked straight away! I even ran through a bunch of songs thinking it might have been caused by one of the midi commands but it all worked.

Very strange behaviour. We have a gig this weekend, and we were meant to be trying ST3 and click tracks for the first time, but the band are not in a position to have faith in the solution.

I'm definitely not saying this is caused by Stage Traxx, but this has meant that currently we can't put it in play.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Thanks

peter

Are you sure your snapshots don't modify the internal routing in the XR18? What does the routing page in ST3 say when there is no sound? Are the tracks still routed to the correct XR18 channels?

Jooobs

Thank you for the reply Peter,

The snapshots only restore the FX settings, everything else is unticked.

Although I did make changes to the routing page when troubleshooting the issue but I usually have it on default settings (and have on default setting now). So the tracks are routed to the correct channels, because it works at home (but at the rehearsal the XR18 Meter page showed no activity on any USB return, previously and since, at home, it showed activity on the correct channels - 14, 15 & 16).

Again, curiously, when I took it home, it started working again without any change. I even restored all of the snapshots, via midi and manually, and audio still worked.

A few screenshots below…. Input 4 seen ticked in the snapshot is my vocals, that sets the fader level (this part worked really well via midi commands in the lyrics)

An interesting side note on the above screenshot… I have set the Stereo Song Output to disabled many times but it always immediately reverts to “MR18 01/02”

peter

Hm, routing looks fine both in the MR18 and ST3. Maybe there is a problem with the usb adapter, cable or even socket?

Jooobs

I’m starting to think perhaps my understanding of the MR18 is flawed (and thank you, Peter, for helping on something that is likely not ST3 related).

It seems it may not be possible to have some inputs as USB returns and some as analog on the MR18…. If I set the MR18 inputs to analog I can hear the microphones and guitars and bass but not the click tracks and cues on inputs 14, 15 and 16, or if I set the inputs to ‘USB Plugin’ then I can hear the click tracks and cues but not the microphones and guitars.

Does that sound right? What about bands that use click tracks and backing tracks and other tracks sent from ST3 to XR18…. How do they get multiple USB inputs playing alongside multiple analog instruments?

I still don’t understand why\how it worked for one song at our rehearsal!

peter

That sounds right. Each channel can either receive a signal from the analog input or from the usb input. You have 18 channels in total and need to decide which should be fed from usb and which from the local inputs.

It seems you are using channels 14-16 for usb and the rest can use local inputs.