Midas MR18

The Midas MR18 is an 18-input digital mixer in a stage box chassis, built for iPad and Android tablets. It has 16 Midas PRO mic preamps, a stereo line input pair and six XLR aux outputs. It also has four stereo effects engines and an 18 x 18 USB audio interface. Since it has no control surface, you mix it from the M AIR apps over Ethernet or Wi-Fi. Showcaller AI adds voice and chat control to the Midas MR18 through the Showcaller Bridge App. The Behringer X AIR and Midas MR integration page lists every function.

How Showcaller works with the Midas MR18

The Bridge App connects to the mixer over the network and sends OSC on port 10024. Then Showcaller turns plain requests into Tool Function calls. For example, you can say mute the audience mic or more presenter in aux 3. You can also say load snapshot 12. When you connect, choose the MR18 model. As a result, Showcaller offers all six mix buses, as on the XR18. The MR12 and XR12 get buses 1 to 4 in Showcaller.

Tool Functions by plan

On Starter, Showcaller sets and reads channel faders and mutes, and renames channels. It rides and mutes the main LR output and buses 1 to 6. It also sets each channel’s send to a bus for wedges or in-ears. Pro adds the four DCA groups, plus preamp gain and 48V phantom power on XLR inputs 1 to 16. It also adds polarity, the high-pass filter and the four-band channel EQ. Gates and compressors are part of Pro too. Then Enterprise adds sends into the four built-in effects, plus FX return and aux return levels. Enterprise also adds channel colors and snapshots 1 to 64.

Midas MR18 and Behringer XR18

The Behringer XR18 shares the MR18 layout. Both are Music Tribe brands. Each mixer has 16 mic preamps, two line inputs and six XLR aux outputs. Each also has ULTRANET, MIDI and an 18 x 18 USB interface. However, the MR18 uses Midas PRO preamps, while the XR18 has preamps designed by Midas. The MR18 also weighs 3.9 kg, against 3.2 kg for the XR18. In Showcaller, both get the same Tool Functions and buses 1 to 6. See the Behringer XR18 page for that model.

Network setup is the one thing to plan. The MR18 REMOTE switch selects Ethernet, Wi-Fi client or access point mode. For Showcaller, a wired Ethernet link to the Bridge App computer works best. That is because each read waits at most 0.3 seconds. Also, Showcaller asks you first before it loads or saves a snapshot, switches phantom power or changes an effects send. For full specs, see Midas’s MR18 product page.