Bonus: Download the Tap Point Guide
If you are using Behringer P16 personal mixers with the X32, chances are, you have run into volume problems. A majority of people I come in contact with who are using the P16 personal mixers have complained that they are not loud enough.
Good news is, the P16s have plenty of volume control. It is probably just a setting or two that is causing the problem. So, let's go over the four things you need to check.
Gain is the most important knob on your mixer. If it is not set properly, it messes with everything else (including the P16s). So, the first step to solving P16 volume problems is to make sure the gain is set correctly on every channel.
Here’s a post to help you out: How to Set the Gain on Your Mixer
On the Behringer X32, the ‘tap’ setting lets you decide at what point in the signal chain to send that specific channel to the P16. In other words, you can send a channel with or without EQ, with or without compression, etc.
On the X32, navigate to the 'Routing -> p16 out (or ultranet)' tab. Then, check every channel to make sure 'Tap’ is not set to ‘Post Fader’ (unless you specifically want it to be). Basically, if ‘tap’ is set to ‘Post Fader’, when the sound tech adjusts the volume of a channel in the main mix, it will adjust the volume of that channel in the P16s as well.
Bonus: Download the Tap Point Guide
On the P16 personal mixer, there is a button labeled ‘Main’. Press this button and then turn the volume all the way up. As you may have guessed, this is a control for the overall volume of the P16. But, so is the ‘Level’ knob at the top right of the P16.
I have found that it is best to turn the ‘Main’ volume all the way up and then use the output ‘Level’ knob to adjust the overall volume. If the ‘Main’ volume is not all the way up, you may find the output ‘Level’ knob all the way up but the mix still not being loud enough.
If everything is set correctly, the output ‘Level’ knob should be set around 2 o’clock and the mix be plenty loud enough.
The limiter on the P16 personal mixer is there to protect your ears. But, if you have it set too low, it will ‘limit’ the volume of your mix.
Basically, you want the limiter to protect your ears from any loud noises that sneak through, like feedback from a vocal mic.
The limiter knob is a little counter-intuitive. If you have it turned down, it is going to limit more, but if you have it turned up, it is going to limit less.
I have found that having the limiter all the way up, which means it is limiting less, works the best. You’d think it wouldn’t limit at all in the case, but it actually does continue to limit, but only the loudest moments.
Keep an eye on the red light around the limiter, which lets you know when the limiter is activated. Basically, you just want it to flash occasionally during the loud moments. So, if it never comes on, you may need to dial it back a bit to make sure your ears are protected.
When the four things above are all taken care of, you should find that there is plenty of volume headroom when using the P16 personal mixers.
Thank you!!!...we use P-16s now for a few years, and these tips are spot on. Keeping the "main" all the way up, and using the output knob for the overall volume for your whole team can help you have enough "headroom" in every channel.
I would add, when you're happy with the mix, using the store and recall option will be very handy, specially if you have multiple musicians using each mixer...
Be blessed!
Hiw
How can we increase the sound quality of say a keyboard heard through this mixer? I have found it to be rather lack luster and not much better than a cell phone speaker to my ear for piano. Also anytime I finally get one instrument sounding ok with the eq and stuff it ends up distorted when you add everything else in the mix. IMHO these mixers are trash compared to running a headphone amp off of the boards preamps...
Hey Doug - thanks for the comment. In my experience, these personal mixers are absolutely amazing. I get an incredible sound from them week after week. When it comes to the problems you are experience, I am thinking that it is the Tap setting. Navigate to the 'Ultranet' or 'P16' tab on the X32's routing screen. Then set the Tap for all 16 channels to PreEQ. This makes it to where the EQ from the main mix will not affect your in ears. Hope that helps!
Hello, Kade! We have been using the P16's with our M32 for about a year now. I love the M32 desk, but, I have issues with the P16's.. Apparently, the IEM mixes "change" between soundcheck and the worship set. I have kind of dismissed this report as more of a perceived problem than an actual issue. However, it keeps happening, and yesterday with our bassist as well as the worship leader. The mix was fine great for the bass during soundcheck, but after the service, I was told he lost the instruments in his ears and only had vocals. FYI, only about 30 minutes between, and no one dorking with the stage or the m32. Anyone seen these issues?? #askingforafriend
That is strange, Greg. I have never had an issue like that with the P16s. Have you checked the 'tap point' as mentioned in this article? That is the only thing I can think that would be messing with the in-ear mix.
i have a problem with my p16M it does'nt work with my midas m32r,all my direct out are correct and the power is on .
I do not see the light(ultranet light) on the p16m lit.
the cable cat 5e is good.
can you help me to solve the problem.
p.s the p16m work perfect for about 1 h at the beginning et after that never work again.
thank you
Val
Hey Val - Have you tried connecting the P16 to direct power as well, instead of relying on the power over ethernet?
We love using our P16's. However, recently we have run into an issue where not all channels seem to have enough signal to make the individual green light illuminate. For instance, we may have a vocal mic or instrument channel where we hear sound but the light does not illuminate. I'm guessing that is from a lack of signal strength. Ideas? Thanks.
Hey Walter - Sounds like you need to check gain on those channels. Gain on the mixer directly affects signal quality on the P16s. Here is a post about setting gain: https://collaborateworship.com/how-to-set-gain/ - Hope that helps!
Hello, I currently run sound at my church and had a question about what headphones our team should be using. One of them uses a mono ear piece because her previous headphones gave feedback. My first question would be if this can happen? If so, would it be because she has headphones that do not go actually in ear or headphones that create a seal to block out sound?
Unlikely that the headphones would cause feedback. But, you definitely what to use headphones that seal out the outside noise. Here are some great budget options: https://amzn.to/3mpub34
Hello. We are using several P16M mixers in our church. The problem is that every time when the gain is adjusted on a channel of the X32 mixer (FOH, live, during the worship) the gain is changing also in the P16M too, which is not good!
Is there any possibility to solve this problem?
I don’t know is any possibility to set ,, Pre” or ,,Post” Gain...
Hey Lehel - Gain will always affect everything else on your mixer, including the P16s. There is no way around this. That's why having a solid strategy for setting gain is a must. Here's a video to help out: https://collaborateworship.com/how-to-set-gain/
Hi thanks for the tips. Where should I be looking for this particular problem. Just so you know I'm coming from the perspective of the musician just using the P16, and not the sound engineer. I've read your tips here as well as other youtube videos and got a good handle of the functionality of the P16. When I am at one station in my church playing bass it works fine and I can adjust and hear everything as normal. When I am playing guitar over at the guitar station I can here things but can't get anything loud enough to get a good mix. Should I:
1. Reset the device? No one here uses the save functions yet.
2. Is there a dedicated signal for each P16? My thinking is do I tell the sound guy that I need more volume for my P16 or are is the singnal being sent to P16 the same for all P16s.
3. Could the unit I"m on be defective somehow? As I mentioned I can hear instruments but they are not loud enough but when I go to another P16 everything works as is.
Thanks!
Hey Mike. Try using the power supply with your P16 if not already. This might fix your problem. If that's not it, it may be an issue with how your sound tech is setting gain. Here's how I recommend setting gain: https://collaborateworship.com/how-to-set-gain/
I have used these many times as a musician sitting in, but with no control over the sound board. They have never been loud enough to hear anything in the headphones without distortion or over the live instruments and vocals, and I usually wind up just taking off the headphones and trying to monitor the sound "live" which is difficult without any real monitors.
If I run into this again, I will try to have a conversation with the sound tech, but in my experience, chances are: 1) they're a volunteer and have no clue or 2) they won't listen to me because they're the sound guy and they don't know me.
Hello. I had a question about the p16's and the X32. When doing the sound check for my worship group everything works out well and all the inputs are set to their desired levels but when we start to play the track over everything and start rehearsing, the levels get muffled by the track. Is there that can be fixed?
EQing the track on the P16 should clear things up.
Yes, having two "master" volume controls (One rotary and one digital) messed me up as well. I figured the output level control was the master, and did not catch the fact that there was a second master in the way of the "main" digital control. As you might expect, i was sitting there with all the controls all the way up and all I had was background noise and a little bit of volume! The manual was a bit vague about this.