X32 Multitrack Recording over USB: All 32 Channels, Step by Step

Every X32 — and every M32 — ships with a 32-in, 32-out audio interface already inside it. Not an add-on, not an upgrade: the expansion card in the back of your console connects to your computer over one USB type-B cable and carries all 32 channels in both directions.

That means you can record every microphone and every instrument from Sunday as its own track — and then play the whole band back through the console on a Tuesday night and mix with nobody on stage. Here’s the full setup, from the routing pages to the DAW.

Prefer YouTube? Watch this video on the channel.

The Expansion Card Is Your Link to the Interface

On the back of the console you’ll find the expansion card slot with a USB type-B port. A detail worth getting right: the card isn’t the audio interface itself — it’s the link to the interface inside the X32. That’s why it’s a card: the default X-USB card can be swapped for Dante, Waves, or recording cards that write to SD cards or SSDs.

Connect the USB cable to the card and to your computer, then check your computer’s sound settings — on a Mac, System Settings → Sound. X-USB appears as both an input and an output device. Your computer now sees the console the way it would see any interface, except this one has 32 channels.

One expectation to set: without specialized software, the computer’s own playback (Spotify, a browser) only sends two channels — one left, two right — down to the console. The 32-channel firehose is for your DAW.

Console Side: The Inputs Tab and the Card Tab

On the console, go to Routing and tab to the inputs page. This is where all 32 channels enter the console from your stage boxes. I suggest setting the four banks — 1–8, 9–16, 17–24, 25–32 — as USER inputs, which lets you mix and match sources freely (channel 1 local, 2–8 from the stage box, whatever your rig needs). If routing is still fuzzy territory, my X32 USER input and output routing guide covers that foundation.

Then the key move: go to the Card tab and select those same inputs there. The distinction is the whole trick —

The inputs tab is what comes INTO the console. The card tab is what gets sent to the computer.

Match them up, and everything the console hears, the computer receives.

DAW Side: 32 Tracks, Armed and Rolling

In the video I use Ableton Live, but GarageBand — free on every Mac — follows the same idea: select the interface, create the channels, assign the inputs, record.

In your DAW’s audio settings, set the input device to X-USB and enable all 32 mono inputs. Then create 32 audio tracks, each with its external input set to its channel number (1 through 32). Two tips from doing this the slow way: when duplicating tracks you can type the input number instead of scrolling the dropdown, and setting track monitoring to “off” reduces latency if you’re monitoring through the console anyway.

Select all 32 tracks, arm them together, hit record. You should see signal on every meter that has a live source — if a track is flat while someone’s talking into that mic, go back and find the missed assignment. And don’t worry about stereo sources: record both sides as mono tracks and they become stereo again the moment you play them back as a pair.

Playing It Back: The Virtual Soundcheck

Now reverse the flow. On the console’s routing inputs page, switch the four banks from their stage-box sources to Card 1–8, 9–16, 17–24, 25–32 — the console now pulls its channels from the computer instead of the stage. (Take a photo of the routing page first so you can put everything back after. Seriously. Future you says thanks.)

In the DAW, flip the config: input device to none — a cheap insurance policy against feedback loops — output device to X-USB, and each track’s output set to its own track number instead of the master.

Hit play, and the console lights up on all four pages exactly as if the band were on stage. Same faders, same EQ, same buses — real mixing practice, empty room. This is the single best training tool a church audio team can give itself, and it’s already in the console you own.

The One USB Limitation (and What Solves It)

That USB connection is one link to one computer. You can’t multitrack to a recording rig and feed a separate streaming computer over the same cable. If you need multiple machines pulling audio at once, that’s what a Dante expansion card solves — 32 channels to and from any Dante-enabled device on the network.

And since good multitrack recording starts with clean routing: if your console’s routing pages are a pile of mystery settings, ShowBuilder builds your entire X32, M32, or WING show file from a few questions about your actual hardware — free to start, from $49 to download your .scn or .snap file.

Related

• X32 USER Input & Output Routing: Send Any Source to Any Channel
• Behringer X32 Routing and Configuration for Church Audio
• X32-EDIT & M32-EDIT: Control Your X32 From a Computer

More X32 training on my YouTube channel: Youtube.com/@CrazyAmazingDesigns.