Behringer X32 Snippets Scenes and Cues

X32 Snippets, Scenes, and Cues

The Behringer X32 Snippets, Scenes, and Cues are a commonly overlooked and misunderstood feature of the Behringer X32 and Midas M32 console. Not only do the three work together but getting a firm grasp on how to use these three things can improve your workflow on the sound board!

X32 Snippets, Scenes, and Cues

It is obvious that I love the use of Effects on the X32, you can probably tell because I have dedicated so much time with my X32 Effects Tutorials! However, another one of my favorite parts of the board is the ‘Show Control’ which consists of snippets, scenes, and cues.

X32 Scenes

Behringer X32 Snippets - X32 Scene Screen

The X32 uses Scenes as its main save function. This is the backbone of the ‘Show Control’. When you save a scene, it takes a snapshot of every parameter of the board from routing, to fader position, all the way down to EQ settings, and it saves it to a .scn file. The .scn file has over 2000 items that it saves in an ASCII format which you can view and edit from a text editor (Notepad, TextEdit or my favorite TextMate). We can see an example of this file in the photo below:

Behringer X32 Snippets - X32 Scene File .scn

X32 Snippets

Behringer X32 Snippets - X32 Snippets Screen

Snippets allow for saving of a specific set of parameters on a specific set of channels. This can be useful for saving fader position on a set of channels, or even muting a set of channels. Just like the scenes, snippets are also an ASCII format but it is saved as a .snp file. The .snp file can be as little as two lines of code all the way up to 2000+ lines of code. We can see an example of this below with the muting of channel 1:

Behringer X32 Snippets - X32 Snippet File .snp

Scenes vs Snippets

When the X32 loads a scene, it replaces every parameter one by one starting from the top of the board and going through all of the board. The flow of the load goes in this process:

Configuration > Routing (Input, AES50A, AES50B, Card, Out) > User Assign Settings > Channels 1-32 > Aux In 1-8 > FX Returns > Mixbusses 1-16 > Matrix 1-6 > Main LR > M/C > DCAs > FX Racks > XLR Output 1-16 > Aux Output 1-6 > P16 Outputs > AES/EBU Output > USB Recorder > Global Headamp Gains

With over 2000 lines of code, the scene does take a very slight amount of time to load. Snippets on the other hand, have much less to load. Instead of replacing every parameter, it updates certain parameters depending on the specific snippet. If all the snippet is doing is adjusting fader level, the remainder of the settings (EQ, Dynamics, Gate, etc.) stay unchanged.

When to use Scenes vs. Snippets

Churches will often have a few different types of services or events happening throughout the week. This is where I would be using the scenes function of the Behringer X32. I would be saving a scene for the ‘traditional service’, the ‘contemporary service’, the ‘high school service’, and the ‘wedding/event’. Once you have your base scene week to week dialed in, I would save that AND BACK IT UP! Once I have it backed up, I would save my settings from the practice of that week and save it into another scene slot. That way, when it comes to Sunday service, I can pull up my settings from the practice. And, as long as your musicians haven’t changed anything from the practice, it should be very close to the correct settings for that Sunday!

During those services, you will often have multiple songs. With different songs comes different lead instruments and lead vocalists. Some songs you will want the keyboard and bass guitar pumping in the system, and on other songs, you may want the electric guitar taking the song. In these types of situations, I would be using Snippets. During a song change, the entirety of the board isn’t changing, just little things like volume, maybe even panning.

Scenes would work for saving those changes song to song. However, if during the live service you made an EQ change to say the snare drum, the next scene you load would write over that EQ change. The snippets would be a much better choice as they would retain those changes that you were making throughout the show in the live setting.

Another example of where snippets would be better than scenes, is saving time/tempo based effects like reverbs or delays. You can program the snippet to change just a single effect rack, that way when you are swtiching between songs, you can just load the effect change but not change anything else on the board.

Programming Snippets

X32 Snippet How To

There are a few different sections of the snippet menu, we start with the WHAT: Parameter Filter, Effects and Console. This is what is being saved in the snippet. If you were wanting to save the fader position of channels 1-16, you would first select the ‘Fader, Pan’ box.

X32 Snippet How To

Next section is the WHERE: Channels, Returns, Buses, Main/Matrix/Group. This is what channels you are changing. In our example of saving the fader position of channels 1-16, we would select channels 1 through 16.

X32 Snippet How To

Once you have finished selecting those, you can select an empty snippet slot and then press save!

My Settings!

My settings that I will typically use song to song is this. I want to record the fader position of my channels, FX returns and DCA’s, also I will record the effects racks 1-4 as those I will keep for my time-based effects like reverb and delay. That way between songs I can flip the board to the next song and be ready.

X32 Snippet How To

Where the snippets fail…

One thing I WISHED was on the console is a time selection for the fader flips between snippets. One thing that the Avid SC48 and Avid Profile consoles have that I love, is X-Fade. This gives a set time to crossfade the ‘snapshots’. That way if I have a fade out of 6 seconds I wanted to record, I could! The snippets are immediate, so there is no fade time. The moment you press load, a split second later, it is LOADED!

X32 Cues

Cues is where the X32 brings Scenes and Snippets together! In fact, the Scenes allow you to save 100 different scenes and the Snippets allow you to save 100 different snippets. However, the Cues gives you 500 slots to be able to save!

Cues allow you to build a ‘show’ of recorded settings to be able to load by pressing the GO button.

I can see this being huge in the use of a theatre production. Saving different channels of mute settings in the snippets, or different fader positions. It really depends on how you build your show, but if you saved one base ‘scene’ for the show to run off of and then used snippets for all of the changes throughout the production, if you had one of the talents swap for a backup, you would only have to change the gain and EQ for the base scene, save into a new scene slot, and then edit the cue to pull that single scene. Then the remainder of the show is still the same!

Loading a Scene and Snippet at the SAME time!

One thing that is pretty awesome is that Cues allow you to load a scene AND a snippet at the same time. Well almost at the same time. When creating a cue, you can select both the scene and the snippet independently! If you have a cue that has both, the X32 will load the scene first and then load the snippet. There is a VERY slight delay which I demonstrate on my YouTube video, so make sure to check that out!

Selecting the “Scenes View” button

You can configure what page the console will load when pressing the Scenes ‘View’ button. To do this, press Setup and then tab over to Config. Once there you will see Cues, Scenes, and Snippets under Show Control. You can select the one you want to load through this setting. Next time you press that View button in the scenes part of the console, the setting you have selected in Show Control will load on the screen. Also the Previous, Next, Undo, and Go buttons will work within what you have selected in Show Control.

Next Time!

The Scenes, Snippets and Cues portion of the board is awesome, and next time I visit this topic, I will talk about how we can protect certain parts of the board from being written over with the Scene Safe, Parameter Save, and Channel Safe settings!

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58 Responses

  1. Drew, this stuff is awesome! Keep it coming. I think that because of your passion, more and more people have or will become fans of the X32! I’m a worship leader (ahem, at large at the moment, and also here in Phoenix) but I coaxed my last church into getting the X32 rack, and I just love it. I’m going to miss it, but I’m seriously thinking about talking my new band into getting the X32 rack. It’s a great system to have for in-ear monitoring.

    Anyway, just thought I’d say hi and say thanks for the Snippets, Scenes and Cues education. They’ll come in handy someday.

  3. Hi Drew
    thanks for all the good work.
    I would like to save a snippet with pan data only and think i need to edit out the fader data.. is this correct ?
    Any tips would be very welcome.
    did a search and couldn’t find the .snp file..

    Thanks Dan Spomer

    1. Hi Dan! Thanks so much for your question! The .SNP Snippet file is exported via the Utility button while viewing the snippet tab on the X32 or X32-Edit. So to change only the panning, you would need to remove one line of code for every channel you were saving the panning from. When saving the panning into a snippet, the X32 will save fader position and panning data. Once saved, you will want to export that to a USB drive, load it onto your computer and open the .snp file in a texteditor. It should look something like this:

      #2.1# “Snippet Name” 64 1 0 0 1
      /ch/01/mix/fader +10.0
      /ch/01/mix/pan +0

      You will want to remove the ‘/ch/01/mix/fader +10.0’ and leave only the /mix/pan data.

      Once you have edited the .snp file and removed the fader lines you can save the file into the same .snp file and then load it back into your X32. As long as your don’t resave over that Snippet, when you load that Snippet it will update only the panning settings and not the fader settings.

      Thanks!

  6. hi Drew,

    Recently moved from a first generation StudioLive board to the X32. Your blog is a big help to quickly get my head around it. I’m using the board a lot in theatre settings together with QLab showcontrol and am looking to simplify my workflow. Would be great if you could touch upon the topic of using MIDI to control the board through external MIDI triggers (e.g. scenes, snippets, cues,etc.).

    cheers
    Cees

  7. Drew,
    Thanks so much for sharing all this information about the X32 / M32.
    Something I would love to learn how to do, and can’t find anything about, is how to save a scene from the iPad app. Is this possible?
    -Byron

  8. Hi Drew
    Thank you for all your videos, helps me a lot.

    Could you please carify for me:
    the scene screen shows “scene safes” on the right side.
    Is it saving all this “Routing I/O”, “Output Patch”, “Preamp (HA)” and so on…
    when you “tick” it or when it is not ticked..
    Best regards

  9. Hi Steve
    When I do a theatre production I often meet the snippet limitation of 100. I use snippets when the actors are entering and leaving the scene and during the show I can easily reach 100 snippets. Do you have any idea of what would be the best way of dealing with this issue? Of cause the easy answer would be just to load a new scene but as you describe it yourself the eq settings etc. will be changed. Do you know why the snippets have been limited to 100?
    I hope you have some good ideas ?

  10. Thanks Drew for another excellent tutorial, particularly explaining scenes and snippets. Another option for creating snippets is to export a scene that would include the desired changes and import it into Scene Parser (https://sourceforge.net/projects/x32sceneparser/). This provides numerous parsing, editing, range and scripting tools to create snippets that change only what is required. Also if you find the show GUI of the X32 challenging or cumbersome, an alternative is the Show Manager (https://sourceforge.net/projects/m32x32showmanager/). These apps are all free and open source and are available for Windows, Mac, linux and Raspberry Pi.

  11. Hey Drew,

    I’m practicing programming a theater show and from scene to scene I’m wanting to be able to record

    Fader positions on channels 1-28
    Channel assignment to the DCAs
    Scribble Strip info for the DCAs

    And I want to recall safe
    Fader positions on channels 31-32 (music)
    Fader positions for DCAs so I can maintain control during transitions…

    I’ve tried using scenes and snippets and i’m having trouble getting the separation of control between the DCA scribble stips, DCA fader positions and Channel Fader positions

    hope that makes sense. any thoughts?

  12. Hi Drew, thanks for the info, very helpful. I use the M32 in a small dinner theater doing musicals and the show control is a godsend. So far though, I’ve only been using scenes as the snippet and cue lists were a bit fuzzy. This article has helped clear that up. Question: when trying to save a show to USB drive, it only saves one scene at a time. With 40-50 scene changes in a given show, that’s tedious. Never really used snippets cause I didn’t really understand how they worked and we’re always pressed for time. If I start with a scene, make changes between stage scenes with snippets, then put them all together in the cue list (which will then be the main screen for show control), can I save the entire show at one time to the USB drive for backup?

  13. Hi! Maybe this is silly and I been missing something but, I been using different scenes for our 3 worship teams and in one of my channel in one band I have a electric guitar and in the other band same channel is a cajon, but I save the scene and it saves the same thing on both scenes when the other worahip team shows for practice, always the guitar channel is cajon (name and eq) we change it and vice-versa all the time, any ideas?

  14. Hey Drew I was wondering if you could explain the Snippet naming situation the x32 has. I feel like it loves to overwrite the snippet I’m am naming with the name of the snippet I am currently running. Then sometimes it doesn’t. I have reverted to naming the songs 1-4 so I don’t have to rename every time I save a snippet. Any suggestions?

    1. The X32 does have its quirks! Unfortunately it is something that we just have to get used to. Sometimes I completely mess up and clear out the entire snippet just before saving! Oops!

  15. Once I have saved a specific snippet with a certain channel’s parameter filter, effects, channels, etc., is there a way to load it to a different channel? In other words , if I’ve saved channel 1 and all of its parameters for a specific vocalist, when Sunday service comes and I need to move that person to channel 2 is it possible to do so?

    My dilemma is that we never have the same exact set of singers each week. Certain ones tend to seeing more than others. As I go to setup each service for the singers assigned for that weekend, it would be wonderful if I could figure out how to assign a snippet to a specific channel that’s different from the one it was saved in.

    I guess another simple way of putting it is can I copy a snippet and paste it to somewhere else?

    1. Hey Steve! I would say that the easier way to do this is just reroute that specific singer so that you can continue to use the same channel you are used to. Otherwise, I would say that you should be able to load specific EQ, Dynamics, Gate, etc. via the Library section. That way you can load the settings you need for that artist.

      There is a copy function inside of the snippets which you can get to via the ‘Utility’ button. However, the saved snippet data will recall to the original settings from when you saved the snippet that you copied from.

      Hopefully that helps clear up some things!

  16. Sure appreciate all the helpful resources Drew! I’m having some confusion with how to set up the X32 to save scenes/snippets like I’m needing and I’m hoping you’ll be able to straighten me out. What I’m wanting to do is record a rehearsal with the X-USB card into my DAW, and play it back into the X32 for training and virtual sound check situations. I know how to set up the X32 and the DAW to record the rehearsal and play it back into the original channel. What I’m wanting to do, is have one scene set up with the routing on the board like we use for the show, and another scene that just changes the routing from the board’s I/O to the Cards I/O. This way we can play back from the Card, adjust EQ, Effects, etc, then load the scene that has the show routing without it over writing the adjustments made when playing out from the Card. Is this doable?

  17. I’m going to be using a church’s x32 for a theatrical production. I’d like to be to save all of the church’s settings before i start so that, after the production closes, i can restore the board exactly where it was. I know my x32 has a default myshow name. How do you create a new show and what info does that save/ load. My plan would be to create a scene file for the show and then snippets for each scene makeup. Thanks.

  18. I ran into to an issue with a show recently and have not found a way to address it. We had a mic fail so we pulled one from a person who no longer needed theirs. The problem is that my snippets in cues kept wanting to mute that mic. Is there a way to safe a channel and just run it manual in this situation?

  19. Hi Drew –
    I am trying to utilize snippets to save IEM mixes for each of our musicians to help speed up our sound check & run-through process on Sundays. I’ve created snippet files for each person. E.g.: Here’s our drummer’s snippet:
    #2.1# “Jai-Drums” 0 0 0 0 1
    /ch/01/mix/01 ON +10.0 +0 PRE
    /ch/02/mix/01 ON +8.0 +0 PRE
    /ch/03/mix/01 ON +3.3 +0 PRE
    /ch/04/mix/01 ON -1.3 +0 PRE
    /ch/05/mix/01 ON -7.3 +0 PRE
    /ch/06/mix/01 ON +3.3 +0 PRE
    /ch/07/mix/01 ON -10.5 +0 PRE
    /ch/08/mix/01 ON -10.5 +0 PRE
    /ch/09/mix/01 ON -10.5 -100 PRE
    /ch/10/mix/01 ON -10.5 +100 PRE
    /ch/11/mix/01 ON -26.5 +0 PRE
    /ch/12/mix/01 ON -1.3 +0 PRE
    /ch/13/mix/01 ON -1.5 +0 PRE
    /ch/14/mix/01 ON -11.0 +0 PRE
    /ch/15/mix/01 ON -10.0 +0 PRE
    /ch/16/mix/01 ON -9.3 +0 PRE
    /ch/17/mix/01 ON -1.8 +0 PRE
    /ch/18/mix/01 ON +10.0 +0 PRE

    Every time I try to load the snippet only channels 5 and onwards change. Any idea why this is happening? The same happens for all of the other snippets I’ve parsed and tried to load.

    Any thoughts or help would be appreciated!

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  21. Hello Drew,
    My name is Alberto and i was wondering if there is much on the way of triggering cues,scenes,snippets remotely via midi from either Ableton Live or another DAW? How would I go about it? I have a bunch of snippets saved in my X32R for my backing tracks which I play from Ableton. My idea is to have Ableton trigger the corresponding snippet to each song via midi as soon as I place my cursor on top of the song. What would I need to do in order to have my X32R listen to the commands being sent remotely? I have seen videos where people are controlling certain parameter in their DAW from the X32R, but haven’t found anything for what I am looking for. Is there anyway you can help?

    Thanks and have a nice day,

  22. Hi Drew!
    I’ve read how some people are able to save their in ear mixes. We have 6 wireless in ear packs, but our singers change week to week in which we have to start from scratch on their in ear mix. How exactly do I save?
    Thanks

  23. Hi Drew!
    I know this blog post was made in august 2016, but i´m still asking.
    Does every setting that I have made save in the scene file? Even the settings at the Setup page?

    Thanks for your great videos and explanations about the Behringer X32!

  24. Hey Drew, I am currently putting on a theatre production and am having some difficulties using the snippet feature of the board. Is there a way to save the parameters of un-muting specific channels? If yes, would you mind explaining to me the specific parameter filters necessary for this action to be achieved? This needs to be done through snippets due to restrictions of our board currently. Thank you.

  25. DREW!!!! I cannot tell you how grateful I am that you did all of this work! Believe it or not, my church and I are new to the Behringer x32 and it’s been a struggle! Well, that is until I began studying your tutorials! Now my team and I are working through some rough patches like never before! I just wanted to drop you a thank you!

  26. Can you do a video on how to use midi to trigger the scene or snippet instead?

  27. Hey drew
    Thank you for your videos and posts around the x32.
    Right now I’m preparing some shows for a theatre and I got some questions.
    Do you have a Recommendation for following situation: we have three different shows per week… all with multiple Microports… the actors go very often on and off stage. How would you safe this… snippets/scenes? And is it possible to create and export for each play a own show/cue list?
    Thank you and best wishes from Germany
    Kenneth

  28. What am I doing wrong when I save a scene and then switch between scenes but the channel positions don’t move. Do all the snippets need to be checked?

  29. I saved some scenes but when I switch between the scenes the channel fader positions don’t move. Do the snippet settings also need to be selected? I just selected the options under the scenes tab.

  30. I am saving the scene but when I go to reload it the faders don’t move. I kind of get use to where they are positioned.

  31. Hi Imjust joined this forum. Thanks for this platform. I’m using a M32. How do I use the nect, previous etc buttons on show control to advance to the next snippet?

    Regards
    Jurie

  32. Hi Guys,

    How do I use the next and previous buttons in show control on a Midas M32 to advance to the next snippet. Currently I use the Go on the snipper page

  33. Hey Drew
    first of all thank you for your very thorough and relevant work concerning the X32 mixtape that I greatly appreciate.
    I would like to know if you can help me in my approach, I work on the creation of an instrumental set for the performance scenic, and being percussionist, I would wish to pilot action in my X32 rack from my SoftStep pedalboard Keith McMiller, but having read several times the instructions for use of Behringer, and scrape deep in the parameters of the Rack X32, I’m afraid of not being able to do what I want, but before taking this deduction as the ultimate 😉 I wish to have your professional opinion concerning the actions that I wish to do and thank you in advance for taking the time to read and help me.
    – I wish to send snippets via midi? (but I do not find the function, only Scenes and Cue but not the only snippets 🙁
    – I want to be able to mute and unmute my tracks and my sendings of effects this is the main operation that I wish to control via midi and it seemed to me that during the performance it will be send snippets the best solution.

    Thank you in advance for your help,

    good to you,

    Fabien KANOU
    sorry for my english not very good

  34. Hi Drew.

    I’m a big fan of your videos. Always detailed and very well thought through. Thank you!

    Question: Can you delete scenes, snippets, and/or cues? I have not been able to find anything on this. We have an X32 and our scene lists have grown long, many of the scenes are outdated, and tend to cause confusion with the various users.

  35. Drew. Thanks for doing such a great job explaining these features. I appreciate the quality and content of your videos.

    My question is specifically on deleting scenes, snippets, and cues. Not just overwriting but deleting and clearing off anything we are no longer using over time. I have not been able to find anything on this and assume a console revert to factory then import our backups from USB? Anything simpler than that?

    Thanks again.

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  38. I just want to have snippets that recall channel mutes. Do I really have to filter “mute” and then select all 19 (in my case) channels for each snippet? This is really time consuming.

  40. Hey Drew, I use my X32 for home recording. I’ve reached the 100 scene limit, and I have more songs that I want to create and work with. Which approach would you recommend I do to be able to work with more than 100 scenes? Should I just have 2 scene backups, and swap them out? Say 1-100, then another, essentially 101-200? I was really hoping they would have an update to allow more than 100 scenes! Thanks, Samos.

  41. Is there a way i can get a basic preset for the midas m32.
    4 mics
    2 PC
    1 monitor
    trying to push the board on the institution to purchase.

  42. Hello Drew,
    Love your videos. They have really helped me figure all of this out. I am looking for some clarity involving snippets and a bus channel. I am using bus 9 and 10 for a livestream mix. I use a USB audio interface routed to a separate computer with x32 edit to mix that feed apart from the house mix. I would like to save 2 different snippets, one for the worship service and one for the message. My thought was that when I load the message snippet all of the unused/non-essential channels would be muted. I don’t want to mute the channels for the house mix though. Can you save Sends on Fader for a bus?? I cant seem to find any info on this.

    Thanks in advance for the help,

  43. Hey Drew,
    Not sure if you have covered this?
    Is there a way to trigger a scene or snippet change through Ableton via midi cc?

  44. Very Helpful. Thank you for the time you take and the clear, direct approach
    Will you be doing anything further on this board with the changes the latest Firmware update made? 4.04.1

  45. Drew,
    Thank you for explaining theses features. For someone new to the X32 this is extremely helpful. love the YouTube videos.
    blessings,

  47. Absolutely the best x32 m32 info. I have learned a lot of stuff that I can put into practice immediately.
    My worship team does not have a ‘Click track’ going to their IEM’s. Being new to the X32 I have not found information on how to add a click track. Can you please advise?

  49. This is great stuff. How can I recall eq from a scene and export that to be used in another previously saved scene?

  50. I’m popping back into this, having just moved from an XR18 to an X32 last fall.
    I’m using it for music (6 piece band, multiple vocalists, etc.) and am trying to automate some changes (e.g., when the saxophonist uses his vocal mic for his flute – gain change, eq change, add reverb, ) and then set it back.

    I notices someone asked (2016) if this could be done remotely (they were asking about Live), but I’m thinking there may be a SysEx command to select the snippet that I could use in my DAW or VST Host (Cantabile).