behringer equipment

jimmy ray · #1 11-11-2002, 10:54 PM

I'm looking at getting a Behringer Eurotrack MX1604A or a Eurotrack UB1622FX-PRO. What I wanted to know was if any of you have have any experience with Behringer stuff. The reason I was impressed was because of the low prices(even in Canadian!) Are these multi-tracks too good to be true? I want to get something with at least 8 but no more than 12 or 16 tracks, and it has to be reasonably priced, my band and I are all university kids, and cash is pretty tight. But any suggestions are welcome. I've used the new digital recorders with all the bells and whistles, and didnt like how it sounded, as well as the price. thanks for any help you can offer.

Johnalex · #2 11-12-2002, 12:05 AM

ok, those are not multi trackers, they are mixers. They have no storage on them. To record you will have to buy something to record to.

But, I have only heard good things about Behringer. But becarefull, as the saying goes you get what you pay for.

Oysterman · #3 11-12-2002, 01:08 AM

I have almost only heard bad things about Behringer. You get what you pay for, I guess.

JMX · #4 11-12-2002, 03:56 AM

I only heard bad things about the mixers, my compressor is very nice.

jimmy ray · #5 11-12-2002, 09:55 AM

Ok, I get the idea that Behringer is possibly too good to be true. But what I'd like to know is, what makes them not so good? are they noisey, poorly made etc?

Oysterman · #6 11-12-2002, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jimmy ray
are they noisey, poorly made etc?

Of what I've heard, yes.

Mark Reccord · #7 11-12-2002, 11:28 AM

Behringer = Poorly constructed, bad sounding, blatant ripoffs of other manufacturers' products. Behringer's never even had one original idea. I'm surprised they've gotten away this long without losing a slew of copyright infringement suits. I've used their consoles and they are among the worst sounding, most poorly made products I've ever seen.

CS · #8 11-12-2002, 11:37 AM

You nearly always get whet you pay for. I know sound engineers who have racks full of the stuff because of the inverse ratio of flashing lights to £ notes.

I personally prefer Spirit mixers but they are a little more money or same money less channels.

jimmy ray · #9 11-12-2002, 01:04 PM

How much noise can I expect to get from a Behringer mixer into a PC? I'm not looking for total perfection, but I do want it to be fairly quiet. And how easily are these broken or fall apart or do they just sort of crap out after a little while?
Does anyone have any other suggestions for a mixer?

Hobbes · #10 11-12-2002, 05:16 PM

I'll have to agree with the majority of people here when as I think that Behringer mixers are not good. I suppose you can't argue with the price, especially the lower end models, but we used to use Behringer's top of the range desk at college and it was just noisy and played up too much. They'll probably be alright for you if you just want to record some demo stuff and that, they're not THAT noisy. However, you can probably get better desks for not too much more money. For example, some of Soundcraft's cheaper desks are not that much more than the UB1622FX-PRO desk you mentioned, it might be worth checking them out as well.

jimmy ray · #11 11-12-2002, 06:43 PM

thanks for your help guys, but I do have one thing to ask. I noticed that all the people that posted a response except Johnalex were from Europe. Is it possible that Behringer's European products are not as good as their american products?

Mark Reccord · #12 11-12-2002, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jimmy ray
thanks for your help guys, but I do have one thing to ask. I noticed that all the people that posted a response except Johnalex were from Europe. Is it possible that Behringer's European products are not as good as their american products?

Well, I live in Ottawa and Behringer's pretty crappy here....

RedV · #13 11-13-2002, 04:58 PM

Nah, I live in the states and I won't use a Behringer mixer again for anything other than light rehearsal

Really, it wouldn't be too bad if you just wanted something to lay ideas down with...I just wouldn't pay too much for any of their mixers.

Again...you get what you pay for

Alex

toasta · #14 11-14-2002, 05:47 AM

HI

I would say behringer equipment is not that bad as some people say. If you want very high quality recording you'll have to take mackie or something like that, but for a demo you can use a behringer especially because of that price. I have a band and we're recording at the moment. First we started with a fostex multitrack 8 channels i guess. And than we recorded through a 1604 into the pc with a terratex ewx 24/96 and logic. And we got a much better quality than with the fostex. Especially because the behringer has a special mic preamp. But a greater mixer than 16 channels I wouldn't buy from behringer. And non of that effects headphones, monitors and other stuff. Because you can't work really well with cheap equipment. The one thing that makes our demo sounds great is the fact that we have some studio monitors (event 20/20bas). I think that's very important, because if it sounds great on em. It will sound great almost everywhere. And if the recording is a little bit noisy you cán reduce it with a great noise reduction in cool edit.

White_Knight · #15 12-04-2002, 11:04 AM

I own one of Behringer's smaller mixers, the MX802A which is an 8 channel model. Contrary to what is being said above, it is dead quiet, even at elevated gain levels. If it colors then sound, it's very minimal (certainly far less than any other mixer in this price range). The pots seem to be mostly well constructed - though the ones they used for the microphone gain controls seem to not be as high of quality as the others.

Overall, I really like the mixer. I have to admit that if I took it to gigs and stuff (currently I use it in my home studio), that I'd be extra careful with it. It seems durable enough, but not so durable that you can abuse it and get away with it.

I'd also note that the few times I've dealt with Behringer customer support (for questions on my mixer) they have been very helpful.

While it's true that you get what you pay for, I don't think that necessarily means anything less than a Mackie or Allen & Heath is crap. I'd put Behringer far above Nady and all the other brands in the same price range, and just a step under Mackie (and yes, I've used several Mackie boards - they were exceptionally nice and well built, but for the huge increase in price I didn't see much better performance except in their larger boards). For a comparison, the Mackie 1202-VLZ Pro is what I was looking at, but I used one and for it's list price of $489 compared to the Behringer's list price of $129, (street prices come down to somewhere in the $300's and somewhere just under $100 respectively) I didn't see anywhere near a difference in performance to justify the cost difference. Without seeing the Mackie and just hearing it, I would have put it at no more than twice the price of the Behringer at the very most.

FretNoMore · #16 12-04-2002, 04:34 PM

IMO select Behringer stuff is good, like compressors and other rack units. I use their headphone amp and feedback destroyer. The mixers are not up to par with better brands - the mic preamps don't sound as good and the build quality (cheaper pots and sliders) will make a difference in the long run. A Mackie or an A&H mixer will function longer in a gigging environment (smoke, beer spill etc) as they have sealed pots etc. If you want a mixer for a cleaner environment (home studio) the Behringers will probably last. A sound/PA guy I trust in my local music store has done practical comparisons and measurements and claim Phonic mixers (similar price as Behringer) sound almost as good as Mackies - still without the longterm gigging capacity though - and a better buy than Behringer.

geshel · #17 12-04-2002, 04:42 PM

I've had a 1604 for years and it's been great. Hard to believe I only paid $175 or something for it. Very quiet. I use it for practice now but wouldn't hesitate to record with it. It's got a hot spot near the main mix LEDs, but I've left it on for 24 hours without any harm done.

Mark Reccord · #18 12-04-2002, 05:00 PM

I've actually got a rather large problem with Behringer's M.O. Getting your hands on other people's products, then reverse engineering them and building them with cheap parts and cheaper labour is reprehensible in my book. This is what they do, just look at how closely the consoles mirror Mackie, or the bass amps Hartke, or the compressors Drawmer and DBX. The PCBs and circuit layouts in the eurodesk are almost exactly the same as the Mackie SR-2404, except Behringer uses worse components and the construction is pretty poor. I've used several Eurodesks and the noise floor was high enough that compressors I had on the main outputs showed signal. They were noisy enough to be almost unuseable even for live sound in a bar. Just my experience, though.

Wounded Paw · #19 12-05-2002, 02:21 PM

I was just reading reviews of studio monitors and came across exactly the same thing. Behringer had taken someone else's design even down to most of the cosmetics and reproduced it shoddily under their own name.
Seems like a cheap ass company to me.

negative57 · #20 12-06-2002, 09:10 PM

I like behringer, it durable i dont know what everyone els is talking about, i have the battery powered one, 10 channels, its has taken a beating, droped many many time, on accident of coarse. its a tank, i dont like how the lower models dont have solo and mute buttons but it was 100 buck so i dont care. i have used some makie mixer, thatwell, they dont even come near my cheap behringer. i addmit this is the only behringer mixer i have used, but for this its preatty nice, but no soundcraft