Each of the 16 channels on Ultranet is mono. Obviously, if you have a stereo source, just as with most mixers, you can plug it into two channels on the mixer and pan them left/right.
Incidentally, the XR18 allows you to lock adjacent channels together to act as a stereo pair. You can also do this with analogue output busses too:
As I said, each of the channels on Ultranet is mono. If you have a stereo source the left and right will be on separate mono channels. For example, in my screen shot above, I have my SD-50 synth connected to channels 3 and 4 so these will appear on Ultranet as channels 3 & 4.
Note, you can remap these if you want, but you probably don’t need or want to:
Where the stereo mix comes into play is on the P16 itself. This allows you to set the levels and panning of each of the 16 tracks on Ultranet. The initial setup of each will assume they are mono, but, if you want a stereo mix, you just pan them left and right. So, in my example above, I could pan channel 3 left and channel 4 right.
You can either use this to support true stereo instruments, or you can use it to help with instrument separation for monitoring by, for example, panning all the other instruments slightly left and your guitar slightly to the right.
Absolutely. But the XR32 version @Boris1565 references is the rackmount version with no faders. You would need to purchase something like the X-Touch to get the faders.
By the way, the cost of the router is negligible: about £40. It’s also not a hard requirement on the XR18 unless you want to use wireless control. In that case, I would suggest you would want a router on the XR32 as well.
Thanks, that makes sense! I just realized that the P16 should be thought of more as a full (stereo) mixer than something that received a monitor mix, as setup on the console. So the “P16 channels” are their own thing, and does not relate to mix busses…
The price point on the P16 seems great with this in mind, so perhaps I should just try one and see how it goes
The other thing to consider is that Ultranet and convention analogue monitoring can be used at the same time, so it’s not the case that everyone in the band has to use the same setup.
In one of the bands I did sound for, we used the XR18 for years with wedge monitors connected to the analogue busses.
When they changed drummers, the new drummer had a full eKit and a P16 and, when he saw we were using the XR18, requested a connection from the Ultranet port. Over time, the other members of the band started to adopt this approach with IEMs until everyone in the band was using them.
They are called “ASI Audio 3DME”.