How to multitrack record a Behringer X32

Last checked 2026-11-07

Short answer. Fit an X-USB or X-LIVE card, set Setup > Card to 32/32, put Local 1-8 to 25-32 on ROUTING > card out, and record the card's USB in any DAW. With an X-LIVE card, the X32 can also record up to 32 channels to SD cards with no computer.

Quick start

1. Check the card. A card with two SD slots is an X-LIVE. No card in the slot means no USB multitrack. (Ways to record)
2. Set Setup > Card to 32/32. (Recording settings)
3. Send the inputs to the card. On ROUTING > card out, turn encoders 1 to 4 to Local 1-8, 9-16, 17-24 and 25-32, and press each to confirm. (USB routing)
4. Plug the card's USB port into the computer and open your recording app. An iPhone or iPad is not tested yet. (Mac, iPad and iPhone)
5. Record a 30 s test and play it back before the show.

This guide covers every X32 with the expansion card slot: the full-size X32, Compact, Producer, Rack and Core. The card in that slot decides what you can record:

• X-USB: USB only. It was the factory card for years and is no longer made.
• X-LIVE: USB, plus two SD card slots for recording with no computer. The current card.
• X-UF: an older card with USB and FireWire. Discontinued. What little is known about it comes from a retailer, not Behringer.

Without one of these cards, the X32 sends no multichannel audio over USB. The console's own rear USB port is for remote control only. Facts come from Behringer's documents unless a line says otherwise. The sources are at the end. Other mixers are in the mixer recording guides, and the words used here are in its glossary.

Ways to record an X32

To a computer over USB

Plug the card's USB port into the computer and record in any DAW.

• Channels: up to 32 in and 32 out, at 44.1 or 48 kHz, 24-bit (Behringer).
• Connector: the X-LIVE has a USB 2.0 type-B port. The X-USB guide doesn't name the plug type.
• Mac: no driver needed. Behringer says both cards are CoreAudio compatible. Its lists of supported Mac versions are years old, though, and name no current macOS.
• Windows: install Behringer's ASIO driver from behringer.com.
• Latency: the X-USB guide gives about 14 ms round trip, typical.

With no computer

• X-LIVE card to SD cards. It records 8, 16 or 32 channels to two SD or SDHC cards (FAT32, up to 32 GB each). SDXC cards are not supported. Each session is one multichannel WAV file at 44.1 or 48 kHz, 32-bit PCM.
  • A 32-channel session at 44.1 kHz runs up to 200 min (3 hours 20 minutes) on two 32 GB cards. A session can carry on from card 1 to card 2. Behringer gives "more than 12 hours" for 8 channels.
  • Use class 10 cards for 32 channels. Class 6 is enough for 8 or 16.
  • You can set up to 100 markers. An optional CR123A battery protects the files in a blackout.
  • To mix, split the multichannel WAV into one file per channel in Audacity or your DAW.
• The top-panel USB stick port on every X32 records stereo only, as a 16-bit WAV at the console's sample rate. A file stops at 2 GB, about 3 hours of stereo.
• X-USB and X-UF cards can't record by themselves.

To an iPhone, iPad or Mac with an app

A Mac works like any computer above. Behringer doesn't document iPhone or iPad audio from either card; see Mac, iPad and iPhone below.

X32 recording settings

• Sample rate and clock: Setup > Config (an older manual calls it Setup > Global). Changing the rate needs a console reboot. A red square at the top of the screen means a sync problem (Behringer manual).
• USB channel count: Setup > Card. Choose 32/32, 16/16, 32/8, 8/32, 8/8 or 2/2. The first number is the channels sent to the computer: Behringer suggests 32/8 for many inputs with only a few returns for monitoring, and 2/2 for recording just the main stereo mix. There is no separate class-compliant mode switch.
• X-LIVE options, on the same Setup > Card page: the SD channel count, whether playback comes from SD or USB, which SD slot records, and the Channel Routing preset (Record, Play or Automatic).
• Bit depth: fixed. USB is 24-bit, X-LIVE SD files are 32-bit PCM, and the USB stick recorder is 16-bit.
• File format: the X-LIVE writes multichannel WAV only. Over USB, your recording app sets the format.

Only 8 or 2 channels? Check Setup > Card

A card left at 8/8 or 2/2 sends only 8 or 2 channels to the computer. Set Setup > Card to 32/32 (or 32/8) for a full multitrack, then check the recorder again.

X32 USB routing

What goes to each USB channel is set on the card out tab, in blocks of 8. Method A below works on every firmware. Firmware 4.0 and later can also pick single slots, per user reports; that is under Advanced at the end of this section.

The words on this page, also in the glossary:

• Local: the inputs on the console itself.
• AES50: the inputs from a stage box on the AES50 ports (A or B).
• card out: the routing tab that picks what the USB card sends.
• P16: the 16 personal monitor outputs. Each P16 slot has its own tap point.

Behringer doesn't state a factory default for card out. Its manual says only that input channels 1-32 start on the first 32 inputs, which is the channels' source, not the card out. Check ROUTING > card out before a show, and listen to a short test.

Method A: blocks of 8 on the card out tab

1. Open card out. Press ROUTING and go to the card out tab.
2. Pick four blocks. Turn encoders 1 to 4 to pick the block of 8 for card outputs 1-8, 9-16, 17-24 and 25-32.
3. Confirm. Press each encoder to confirm.

The blocks you can pick: Local 1-8 to 25-32, AES50-A 1-8 to 41-48, AES50-B 1-8 to 41-48, Card 1-8 to 25-32, Out 1-8, Out 9-16, P16 1-8, P16 9-16, and Aux 1-6/Mon.

The Local and AES50 blocks are the raw inputs, after the preamp and converter but before any channel processing. The channel's EQ, dynamics and fader don't touch them. Neither does the channel's own source choice: re-patching a channel strip doesn't change what a Local block sends to the card.

Main mix, buses and tapped channels: stage them in Out 1-16 or P16

To record the main mix, a bus, a matrix, or a channel at a chosen tap point, put it in an output slot first, then send that block to the card.

1. In ROUTING, open the analog out tab (Out 1-16), the p16 out tab (P16 1-16) or the aux out tab.
2. For each slot, pick the source: Main (LRC), Mix Bus, Matrix, Direct Out (any of the 32 channels), Monitor, Talkback and so on.
3. Pick the slot's tap point (see Tap points).
4. On the card out tab, pick Out 1-8, Out 9-16, P16 1-8 or P16 9-16 for a card block.

Which method to use

• 8, 16, 24 or 32 inputs in order, untouched by processing: Method A with Local or AES50 blocks. This is the simplest.
• Fewer than 8 from a block, a mix of local and stage-box inputs, or a different track order: user routing, below.
• The main mix, buses, matrices or a different tap per track alongside your inputs: stage them in Out 1-16 or P16, then send those blocks to the card (Method A), or pick the staged slots one by one in User Out.

Advanced: user routing (firmware 4.0 and later, per user reports)

Firmware 4 added User In and User Out tabs under ROUTING. In them you pick a source for each single slot, which builds your own blocks of 8. Behringer's 4.15 release notes name "User Routing", so the feature exists, but no Behringer manual describes it. The details below are from user reports on forums and a third-party copy of the 4.00 release notes, so check them on your console.

• User Out has 48 slots and User In has 32 ("32 in / 48 out" in the third-party copy of the 4.00 notes).
• A User Out slot can take a single physical input (Local, AES50-A, AES50-B or Card) or a slot from Out 1-16, P16 or Aux Out.
• Then, on the card out tab, pick a block such as User Out 1-8 instead of a fixed block.
• Example from a forum: User Out 1-8 = Local 1-3 plus AES50-A 1-5, then User Out 1-8 on card out.
• User Out has no tap points of its own. For the main mix, a bus or a channel at a chosen tap, patch it into an Out 1-16 or P16 slot first (as above), then point the User Out slot at that slot.
• The physical outputs, including the card, still work in blocks of 4 or 8.

X32 playback for virtual soundcheck

1. On the ROUTING home tab, set a channel input block to Card 1-8, Card 9-16 and so on.
2. In 16/16 mode, Behringer's suggested overdub setup puts the 16 live inputs on channels 1-16 and the card returns on channels 17-32.
3. With an X-LIVE, Routing home also has Record and Play input presets. Pick Record or Play with the 6th encoder, then switch between them at Setup > Card under Channel Routing, or set Automatic to follow the transport.

When a channel's source is the card, its gain knob becomes a digital trim of plus or minus 12 dB, and phantom power and preamp gain move to Setup > Preamps.

X32 tap points

Which tap to record, and why, is in Pre or post fader. On the X32:

• For a multitrack you will mix later: Local or AES50 blocks on card out, as in the quick start.
• Local and AES50 blocks on card out are the raw input: after the analog preamp and converter, before the channel. You can't pick a tap for them.
• Out 1-16, P16 and Aux Out slots each have their own tap point. In Behringer's manual, the numbered steps list Input, Pre-EQ, Pre-Fader and Post-Fader for the analog out and P16 tabs, and a screenshot in the same manual shows Pre EQ, Post EQ, Pre Fader and Post Fader. Later firmware may name them differently, so check what your console offers.
• Mic gain and phantom power sit at the preamp, so they reach every feed, even the raw Local and AES50 blocks. The channel's low cut, EQ, dynamics and fader don't reach a raw block.
• Behringer warns that when the preamp gain is controlled from the front-of-house console, "Gain changes during the show can be heard in the recording".
• Shared stage box (an S16 or SD8 on two consoles): whoever controls the stage box preamp gain changes your recorded level. We found no gain compensation feature in Behringer's X32 documents.

X32 on Mac, iPad and iPhone

• Mac: works with no driver, for both the X-USB and the X-LIVE (Behringer).
• iPhone and iPad: not documented, and not tested yet. No Behringer document lists iOS or iPadOS for audio from either card. The X-LIVE page mentions iPad apps only for remote control. The cards work on a Mac with no driver, which suggests they may work, but that is not a confirmation. We will say it works once someone makes a real recording from an X-USB or X-LIVE card into an iPhone.
• Power: the X32 has its own mains power; we don't know of a way to charge a phone from it. For a long show, use a powered USB-C hub.

ShowRecorder (the app this site makes) records every USB Channel from any class-compliant mixer. On the X32 and M32 it also reads channel names and colors over Mixer Link, which works only on the XR18/MR18 and X32/M32. Its X32 support has run only against an X32 emulator so far, not a real mixer. If you try it, the X32 and M32 page has the setup, and we'd like to hear how it goes.

Runs on a USB-C iPhone (iPhone 15 or later) on iOS 26, or a USB-C iPad on iPadOS 26. Mac: join the TestFlight beta.

Your mixer not listed, or not tested? Ask us

Sources

Behringer:

• X32 preliminary user manual: routing, card out blocks, tap points, sample rate, the USB stick recorder.
• X-USB Interface Operation Guide and the X-USB product page.
• X-LIVE Quick Start Guide V3.0 and the X-LIVE product page.
• X32 firmware 4.15 release notes: "User Routing".
• X32 product page.

Forums and other third parties (not Behringer):

• behringer.world: Routing, again (the card feed is before channel processing), X32 ADAT Tap Points (taps only in Out 1-16, P16 and Aux Out), User Out, what's it for (48 User Out slots) and physical outputs still in blocks.
• Survive The Gig, X32 Firmware Version 4.00: a third-party copy of the 4.00 release notes ("32 in / 48 out" user routing).