Some reflections regarding the recording function in WING

[angr77]

I recently bought and had the opportunity to test the Behringer Wings mixer with my recording application Z-LiveRec.

The USB port found in the WING sends out 48 channels with 24 bits, 48 KHz. Just perfect for DAWs and recording apps.

I made some tests with the internal recorder found in WING. The mixer has two SD card slots. It is able to record up to 64 channels at the same time using the W Live card installed. To record 64 channels, The WING stores the content over the two SD cards, where the first 1-32 channels go to the first SD card and channel 33-64 goes to the second SD card. (To be able to do this stimulatingly you also need to mark the 'link' between the cards) The recorder always records in wav file format – meaning that each multitrack wav files will be split after reaching 4GB. This is a limitation of wav and 32 bits hearders. (There is no big issue here, the mixer will handle all these files when replaying automatically – so you don´t need to select each wave file when replay the recording / they are seen as one recording when inside the WING.)

Also, the fact that 32 channels are split into each SD card, will maybe add some complexity, if taking the files out to an external DAW for postproduction, where each card will have their split wav files. You need to be a bit organized to succeed to move the files in to a DAW.

Something that I saw, if you want to make longer recordings directly on the WING…the maximum recording size is set be 32GB for each card. If trying to use bigger SD cards like 64 GB or bigger, the WING will say that it is not supported. (The WING follows to the official FAT32 limitation, where 32GB is the maximum partition size of the SD card) This means 32GB with 32 channels will give you about 1 hour recording before you need to change SD card. Problem? Maybe not!

It was a bit tricky to understand how to map each sound source with the W Live or the USB output when first trying – but when you get the logics, it is a walk in the park to map it all. It is extremely nice that they kept the mapping USB and WLive as separate entities.

Something which I liked was the session mapping function when recording – where you could set recording markers during playing or recording…and quickly jump between these positions afterwards when replaying.

Ok, when attaching a Raspberry PI (a smooth inexpenisve solution - if you don't want to carry a complete PC&MAC with a DAW) and the multitrack based recorder Z-LiveRec, it will capture up to 48 channels over the USB bus from the WING. Z-LiveRec is using EXFAT on the Raspberry PI against an attached USB Stick…and through this you will get unlimited partition storage space. So ”TB” sizes are not a problem. Using the W64 or CAF file format instead of wav on Z-LiveRec – the 4GB limit is gone …so Z-LiveRec will record a 4 hours session with 48 channels without any problems from the WING and you will get one single multitrack file including all content in the end. Just to drag and drop into Logic Pro etc or any other DAW – and the session will show up with all 48 channels.

Finally, what a nice and great mixing console the WING is, Behringer!

Best Regards

Anders /