ShowBuilder: Custom X32 & M32 Show Files Built From Your Gear List

A new Behringer X32 or Midas M32 is a blank page. Before the band plugs in, someone has to route every input, name and color 32 channels, build monitor mixes, set up effects, and group it all into DCAs. On the console’s small screen, that can eat a whole weekend.

ShowBuilder is the tool we built to handle that part. You describe your gear and your inputs, and it writes the show file for you, along with a patch sheet and a hardware diagram your whole team can read.

What a Show File Has to Hold

To see why this saves so much time, it helps to know what goes into a working show file. Here’s a short list of what you’d otherwise set by hand:

• Input routing. On the console, the Routing → Inputs page feeds channels in four banks (1–8, 9–16, 17–24 and 25–32). I set those banks as user inputs, then pick the actual source for each channel on the User tab, whether that’s local, stage box or card.
• Names and colors for every channel, entered one character at a time on the console.
• Mix buses for wedges, in-ears and the livestream, with each send set pre- or post-fader.
• DCAs and mute groups, so one fader or one button controls a group of channels.
• Effects, which on these consoles are usually fed from dedicated mix buses.

None of these steps is hard alone. The trouble is that all of it has to be right before Sunday, and one wrong source means a silent channel with no error message. If you want the manual method in detail, USER Input and Output Routing on Behringer X32 walks through it on the console.

What You Get

A finished build gives you four things:

• A ready-to-load .scn show file for your console. Need to make changes later? Come back to ShowBuilder, edit, and download it again.
• A patch sheet showing all of your console inputs and outputs. Each digital stage box gets its own page, so you can leave that sheet right next to the box.
• Print-ready P16 labels if you use Behringer Powerplay personal mixers. The labels are generated with names that match your configuration. Cut them out and add them to each mixer.
• A hardware diagram showing your gear and how it all connects.

The patch sheet and diagram are the parts volunteers notice. The next person to walk into the booth can see how the system is wired without reverse-engineering the console.

How a Build Works

ShowBuilder is a guided wizard. Here’s the path through it, as the video tour shows it.

1. Define Your Hardware First

Start by selecting your hardware: your console, your stage boxes, your expansion card, and any stage monitors, wedges and in-ear monitors. If you use personal monitor mixers, set their type and quantity here too. ShowBuilder handles P16 and DP48 feeds.

Each hardware selection changes the capabilities and complexities of your show file, so define all of it before you do anything else.

The hardware page decides which inputs exist, which outputs you can use and how many monitor feeds you’re building. Get it right first and every later page makes sense.

2. Name Every Input With a Keyboard

If you’ve ever renamed a channel with the console’s knobs, you’ll appreciate this step. You name every console and stage box input with a real keyboard and mouse. On the same pages, you can stereo-link channels so a left/right pair moves together, and pick each input’s channel type.

Take the channel types seriously. ShowBuilder uses them later to arrange your faders and lay out your personal mixer channels.

3. Put Inputs on Faders

There’s no correct order for 32 console faders, and every engineer has opinions. The Auto Arrange button assigns your inputs to console channels in an arrangement we find makes good sense.

Prefer to do it yourself? Pick each fader’s source from a list. You can choose any local, stage box, auxiliary or card input.

4. Set Outputs, Mains, Subs and Monitors

Assign the outputs for your mains, then choose whether your subwoofers run mono or stereo. Rename your in-ear monitor mix buses and wedge monitors so every mix has a name the band recognizes.

5. Choose a Livestream Feed

If you stream, the hardware page gives you two options. You can set up a dedicated mix bus for the stream, or send the main left and right through a matrix to the console’s livestream output. That output can be an XLR, a 1/4-inch aux out, or USB to a computer.

6. Use the Pre-Wired Effects Rack

The show file includes a pre-wired effects rack on four mix bus channels, with two reverbs and two delays. ShowBuilder assigns the channels to the effects automatically, and the effects volume is controlled from DCA fader 8.

7. Build Personal Mixer Feeds

With P16s, you can dedicate mix buses to group things like drums and tracks, then send those groups to the personal mixers. On the P16 feeds page, a dropdown sets the source for each of the 16 channels. A default layout button uses your channel types to organize the P16 channels based on best practices.

8. Name DCAs and Mute Groups

Name your DCAs and mute groups, then assign channels to them by hand or automatically.

9. Preview and Download

The editor shows a watermarked preview while you build. When everything looks right, download your ready-to-load .scn file. ShowBuilder generates the routing, scenes, DCAs and channel labels.

Who ShowBuilder Is For

• Churches and venues running an X32 or M32 that want a clean, professional setup without a weekend in the routing menus. That includes the X32 Rack and X32 Producer.
• Teams adding or replacing hardware, such as new stage boxes, P16s or in-ear rigs, where the routing has to change anyway.
• Volunteer-run booths, where a printed patch sheet and hardware diagram matter as much as the file itself.
• Anyone who dreads naming channels with a knob.

What It Doesn’t Replace

ShowBuilder builds the structure of your show: routing, names, buses, groups and effects. It doesn’t make mixing decisions in your room. Gain staging for each vocalist and tone-shaping each instrument by ear still happen at the console once real sound is coming in.

It’s also built for the Behringer X32 and Midas M32 family. And you still need to load the file carefully, which is the next section.

Loading Your File Safely

A few habits keep this step painless:

1. Save what’s on the console first. Save the current setup as a scene and keep a copy on your computer, so you can get back to it if anything surprises you.
2. If you use X32-EDIT, disconnect from the console, then import the file under Cues → Scenes → Import. When you connect, X32-EDIT asks which direction to transfer. Choose PC to mixer to send your file to the console. Choose wrong and you overwrite the other side, so read that dialog twice. Overview of X32-EDIT / M32-EDIT shows the connection step.
3. Check your scene safes. Safes lock things like routing so they don’t change when a scene loads. If your routing doesn’t seem to change after loading, a safe is the first thing to check.
4. Test a mic on every stage box. Talk into one input per box and watch the meters before the band arrives.

Tips for a Better First Build

• Use real names. “Kick,” “Keys L” and “Pastor Lav” beat “Ch 12,” and they’re what ends up on your P16 labels.
• Set honest channel types. They drive both Auto Arrange and the P16 default layout.
• Stereo-link your pairs so keys, tracks and playback each move as a linked pair.
• Print the stage box pages and leave each one with its box.
• Make changes in ShowBuilder, then download again. Your file, patch sheet and labels stay in sync that way.

If you’re connecting stage boxes for the first time, Using AES50 to Send and Receive Audio on x32 W/Stage Boxes explains what’s happening on those cables.

The Whole Thing in One Picture

• Hardware first: console, stage boxes, card, monitors, personal mixers
• Name inputs, stereo-link pairs, set channel types
• Auto Arrange faders, or pick sources by hand
• Mains, subs, monitor buses and a livestream feed
• Pre-wired reverbs and delays on DCA 8, P16 feeds, DCAs and mute groups
• Download the .scn, patch sheet, P16 labels and hardware diagram
• Save your old scene before loading, then test every stage box

Start building at showbuilder.crazyamazingdesigns.com.

Watch the Video

Here’s the full tour of ShowBuilder, from hardware selection to P16 feeds:

Keep Going

• Learn what ShowBuilder is setting for you in our complete guide to X32 routing and configuration for church audio.
• The manual version of the routing layer: X32 USER input and output routing.
• Stage boxes explained: AES50 stage boxes on the X32.
• Fine-tune your loaded file from a laptop with X32-EDIT and M32-EDIT.

More training is on the YouTube channel: youtube.com/@CrazyAmazingDesigns.