Better for home studio: Studio32 or a Behringer MX3242X?

[JFogarty]

The studio32 and the MX3242X have the same basic set up. Which one do you guys think is better? The Behringer ( http://www.behringer.de/eng/products...ck/mx3242x.htm ) is like $150 or so more exspensive, but has the built in effects processor. Which would be better, in terms of sound quality and usefullness? I would probably use the direct outs to go to an Aark 24 http://www.aardvark-pro.com/aark24_lit.html or 2, which would give me 8 1/4 in. balanced or unbalanced inputs to my computer. Is this a good setup? Thats a lot of questions, but I just got on a roll.

Joe

[MISTERQCUE]

See above icon for Behringer mixers.

Check out a Mackie VLZ series (Not the CFX)
Alesis boards are decent,middle-of the-road mixers with some plusses and minuses. 2 1/2 steps better than the Behringer.
Got Milk....er....more money.....look into a Ghost by SoundCraft or the Allen&Heath line of mixers.
Both of these brands are much better than both the
Alesis and the Behringer. AS a matter of fact, ANYTHING
is better than Behringer mixers (including the "mix" function on my daughter's BARBIE compact stereo!)

[JFogarty]

I am a newbie, as my rank or whatever would imply, but why does everyone hate,nay, loathe, Behringer mixers? I know a few people with great sound studios that use Behringer.

[MISTERQCUE]

From the top! I attended a a jazz concert last year that
Featured jazz guitarist/legend Eric Gale and his group.
Long story short,Eric constantly signaled the sound man,to adjust the levels,tweak the EQ, cut gain,raise trim,roll-off freq's below 75hz,increase mid-range by this,do that etc,etc,etc. After the concert ended (it was on 1 of those 3 hour yacht-type cruise vessels where we were up close and personal with the band) I asked the sound man why was Eric constantly requesting some sort of audio adjustment and he simple stated (Oh,he used the Behringer EuroDesk 9000) that Behringer mixers are noisy,EQ is not geared for precise
low to mid-range freq adjusting as it seems to be in incrementations. And the faders are not true 60mm and loses some clarity at unity-gain. In other words,poorly constructed mixers.That's the pro level.
On the consumer level,I prev owned the MX2624 and ;
1)The board blew out after only 2 weeks of purchasing
brand new.
2)Unintelligble Customer Service. Took 6 weeks for some-1 to simply tell me where the nearest Repair location was.
3)Extremely Hi-heat buildup with no venting for disappation.
4)MIC PRES!!?? They offered no distinguishable gain.
5)EQ??? to d@mn colored,no roll-off switch,and increasing mid-range freqs above 90hz induced noise.
6)No got-D@mn on/off switch!!!!!
Just a few reasons why Behringer mixers suck!
I presently own a Alesis S32,ok but it's lacking certain features I need ,like more busses and auxes which is why I'm tryying to upgrade to better board with at least
24 channels (Only the Lord knows where I'm going to get this money!)
Any how,stay away from Beh mixers and again,at least check
out a Mackie. Way better circuits! Just my own,honest opinion and experience!
Good Luck!

[JFogarty]

I'm begining to think that this whole message board is sponsered by Mackie..............

[RWhite]

Well here's my 2 bits -

When I was shopping for a mixer about a year ago it came down to the Studio 32 or a Behringer MX3208. I have a Gadget Labs Wave 824 card (8 ins and 8 outs) so the Behringer with its 8 subouts seemed ideal. I went to Guitar Center and took a look at the only one they had, it was sold and was being packed up. Couldn't try it out for obvious reasons. Decided to wait for another one to come along...
....and two months later bought the Alesis because there were still no Beheringers available. It seems they have a very strange production policy, they ship out product to Guitar Center based on what they feel like rather than what product has been sold or ordered. So the cheaper mixers are in plentiful supply but the high end stuff is spotty.
I liked Mackies rep but the lack of tape returns on their mixers unfortunately ruled them out. I wanted to be able to have 16 inputs plus 16 tracks of playback without repatching and that ruled out any affordable Mackie.
Anyways I like the Studio 32, I have no complaints with it. I am using the direct outs more than I thought I would and the sub outs less. The mic pres are decent and its very quiet.
And later on I decided I wanted a small mixer for my upstairs computer room. Bought a Behringer 802 for about $130. Works fine, it is quiet and is amazingly compact. And MUCH cheaper than a comperable Mackie.

My only problem is that I appear to be under a curse - I buy Gadget Labs and they go out of business. Now it looks like Alesis is going down too. I just bought a Rode mic - can they be next?

[JFogarty]

Wow, that set-up is exactly what I am looking at too. The Behringer MX3242X is just about wthe exact same set-up as the Alesis, but it has better features, like the on board FX and that sort. It has the 16 direct outs that i want. But I've also seen the Allen and Heath mixwizard that is almost identical to the Behringer, but a little less expensive, and it seems to get better recomendations on this message board. If you need a new computer interface, the Aark 24 and the Layla 24 both have 8 analog I/O balanced or unbalanced, and have midi in/out.thru. What recordiing sortware do you use? I was looking at pro tools, but its very proprietary, and emagics logic audio platinum seems better.

[RWhite]

I use Cakewalk Pro 9. I chose it because I had bought version 5 (long time ago!) and was able to upgrade. I have checked out Cubase and it seems a pretty comperable product. If I used both Macs and PCs I would probably pick cubase, bit I am strictly a PC guy.

I intend to keep my Gadget Labbs until it dies. Just wish I had bought a second one before they died. I had planned on buying two eventually but I'm getting along fine with one.

When I checked out the Behringer mixers I do not recall that mixer having on-board effects. They may have upgraded it - you might want to double-check that.

I know nothing about Allen and Heath so I wont even speculate.

[JFogarty]

The MX3242X definatly has an onboard FX processor
http://www.behringer.de/eng/products...ck/mx3242x.htm