behringer sucks?

[freeztar]

I've owned a behringer 6 channel mixer for the last 6 months and I love it. Why do I keep seeing people dissing it in threads? Is it not good for certain applications, or just inferior all around? Any responses are appreciated, fire away!
Keith

 

[badgas]

I think it has something to do with the herd instinct, freeztar.
Some guy says it, cuz he has a new shinny $400 piece of equipment, and of course, it sounds better. But the same guy probably drives a Dodge Omni. I have a Mercedes, but have never owned a Dodge. So I can't say, "Dodge Sucks".
This guy who first said "Behringer Sucks" could possibly have been recording for years and it was time to move up.
And with all his knowledge, the other members of this board listen to him. Then like parrots, they all start cawing in the morning, trumpeting the words of their mentor. "Behringer Sucks".
Pretty soon it becomes slogan for the parrots, letting the world know they are "In The Know" because their mentor said it.
I've always wondered that question too, freeztar. I also wonder how many of these parrots have ever owned a Behringer.
I've posted a few songs here and there and no one ever said, "Hey, I hear a Behringer in your chain. You need to redo it." They begin to squeel like porked piggies only when it's announced that Behringer has been used. See, I never told anyone what I used, besides Sonar.
I have a;
602-A
Two Channel Compressor,
Five Channel Parametric EQ,
and a
Two Channel Graphic EQ with 2 thirty-one bands.
All Behringer. I am as happy as the most experience pro recording engineer on this website with my Behringer gear.

The people who have heard my recent stuff, say "Great".

They don't fucking know what sounds good and what sucks, freeztar.
I'm like you.

I frequent six home recording websites and this is the worst for slamming Behringer.
It suits the purpose of recording your music at home. 99.9% of the people here are never going to get heard by anyone from a label. I'm recording my stuff, WITH BEHRINGER, cuz I'm gonna give it away. I'm having fun. I'm not looking for a $100,000 studio to make CDs that a few hundred people will hear.
Now if I owned a commercial studio, I'd upgrade. But for what most of us here do with our recordings, Behringers is great.

I can hear the parrots coming down from the trees now, to their soap boxes, freeztar. I can't wait to hear 'em start squeeling.

Very good question.

 

[freeztar]

"This guy who first said "Behringer Sucks" could possibly have been recording for years and it was time to move up.
And with all his knowledge, the other members of this board listen to him. Then like parrots, they all start cawing in the morning, trumpeting the words of their mentor. "Behringer Sucks"."

LOL!!!!
Too good!!
I love the analogy badgas!!!

 

[badgas]

Well someone had to say if first.
I hear it too much on this bbs.
Other place I go folks swear by it.
I like my Behringer gear.
I own amps from the 1970s.
My guitars, for the most part are old.
I've heard some songs by a few excellent musicians here on this site that were recorded on tape back in the 60s and 70s. The stuff sounded great.

The more the parrots squawk, the less I believe them or even want to listen to them anymore.

Good luck with your recording, freeztar, and welcome to the HR site. It's still the best site on the web for more info and help than you'll get anywhere else.

 

[Scott Mellish]

I agree,
Often for the buck, behringer aren't that bad!
They're certainly not the best, but for amateur home recordist's they dont do too bad a job!
I have a B2 ld condenser mic, it does a pretty good job on recording my vocals, backing vocals, and acoustic guitar for what i want.

So those sheep out there can continue giving behringer shit, and compared to many products they are inferior! but for many needs and budgets, they aren't all that bad!
Scott

 

[Fishmed]

It is not so much the gear itself that people dislike them, it is the way the company conducts their business and R&D.

 

[muttley]

I have several solid state rackmount items and they do a pretty fair job for the money, the 3242 mixer that I use with my DA-38 for remotes does well enough, not as well as my 2524 mixer from Tascam, thier 195? tube eq I really like, the 195? composer is not that good........ maybe the unit I got was defective don't know.........

Please note: In the wonderful world of studio/live sound, it's hard to respect a company that does reverse engineering..............



da MUTT

 

[badgas]

[BPlease note: In the wonderful world of studio/live sound, it's hard to respect a company that does reverse engineering..............



da MUTT [/B]

Interesting. If we all thought like that, before buying any product from any company, we'd still be living in stick huts and grinding our wheat on two stones. If it's pure honesty and the way the company is doing business, the buyer would be in for a lifetime of constant letdowns.
I have a coke now and then, sometimes a pepsi. I don't condem the companies that make the crap because the sell to Arabia or Isreal.
There's a deeper rooted problem with these guys than the company.

It's the product I'm interested in. The gear still works. It fits it's nitch.
What about those generic guitar strings? I never hear anyone slamming them. Or,,, and,,, and,,, (fill in the ,,,,,).

Most of these "Behringer Sucks" guys are beating their chests and sounding off. Like their mentor did long ago. Probably they record the best track of their life, then they play it back and it sucked. "Grunt, grunt. It has to be that low cost Behringer. Behringer Sucks".
Possibly they should practice their tracks before laying them.

What ever the reason, I don't think they really know what they are squealing about.

Behringer Sucks = I know what I'm talking about.
Behringer Sucks = I have more expensive gear.
Behringer Sucks = I'm mentor material.
Behringer Sucks = I need some attention.
Behringer Sucks = I screwed up. It's got to be Behringer's fault.
Behringer Sucks = I'm a mentor with no one to worship me.
Behringer Sucks = Hee, hee. I got one more post.
Behringer Sucks = My job is stressing me out, I need to vent,,,.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Although I've checked out a number of units, I've actually used 3 pieces of Behringer gear...

Virtualizer -- bad sound - grainy, harsh reverbs -- the only useful thing about it is as a delay unit....

SNR2000 -- one of the earlier noise gates they put out - hasn't been turned on in 2 years or more... worked well enough the odd time I had it in the chain.

Maximiser -- complete crap - not one redeeming quality in this unit at all. A total waste of circuits/components.


Based on my experience with their stuff my overall opinion is that *some* of their products would find use in many novices setups - and it probably works well enough in that role.... but they won't get much attention from more serious users since the sound quality is considerably lacking relative to other gear designed for professionals (and bigger budgets!)

Bottom-line - if Behringer (or any other budget-oriented gear manufacturer for that matter - Rolls, Phonic, Samson, etc.. come to mind) suits your budget to start off, get it and use it. Your ears will tell you when it's time to move on.....

 

[faderbug]

there we go again!

 

[Fishmed]

Interesting. If we all thought like that, before buying any product from any company, we'd still be living in stick huts and grinding our wheat on two stones. If it's pure honesty and the way the company is doing business, the buyer would be in for a lifetime of constant letdowns.
I have a coke now and then, sometimes a pepsi. I don't condem the companies that make the crap because the sell to Arabia or Isreal

The big problem about reverse engineering is that the company that does it, undercut the market from the company that actually did the development. Why is this bad, well for two reasons.

1. The company who's design is "stolen" cannot recoup their full potiential of the financial return from their design. No big deal? Well, if they lose sales they can raise their prices, but then they would only loose more market shares.

2. The other thing they can do is reduce their development costs; hence, less new devlopments. Not only does the company miss out on new products, but we the consumer miss out on them too.

So while reverse engineering seem cool in the short term, they can prevent new developments in the long term.

 

[badgas]

Very well put Bear.
I wish I had the talent to phrase things in a more diplomatic way. Ya know, file of the edges of what I say.

there we go again!

Yeah, and this quote has been used as the whip on dead horses so much it's frayed.

 

[badgas]

The big problem about reverse engineering is that the company that does it, undercut the market from the company that actually did the development. Why is this bad, well for two reasons.

1. The company who's design is "stolen" cannot recoup their full potiential of the financial return from their design. No big deal? Well, if they lose sales they can raise their prices, but then they would only loose more market shares.

2. The other thing they can do is reduce their development costs; hence, less new devlopments. Not only does the company miss out on new products, but we the consumer miss out on them too.

So while reverse engineering seem cool in the short term, they can prevent new developments in the long term.

Well, I hope your as critical of every product you buy as you are with the reverse engineering aspect.
There's no patents being broken. R&D in any industry relies heavely on R.I.
I have trouble accepting what your saying, as a reason to knock a product, or company.
Following your two points, the USA should repay Germany for lost revenue on Jet Engines, Rockets, Electronics, Optics, etc.

Naa, I don't buy that.

 

[Fishmed]

Well, I hope your as critical of every product you buy as you are with the reverse engineering aspect.
There's no patents being broken. R&D in any industry relies heavely on R.I.
I have trouble accepting what your saying, as a reason to knock a product, or company.
Following your two points, the USA should repay Germany for lost revenue on Jet Engines, Rockets, Electronics, Optics, etc.

Naa, I don't buy that.

First off, I do own a couple Behringer products. I am not an R&D engineer nor a lawyer so I can't validate what is actually developed by Behringer. United States' patents are not always enforced ouside of its borders.

Anyway, my rants are in resoponse to the reason why many members here "Bash" the company.

My beef with Reverse Engineering is when it is used soley to reproduce a product that is identical (other than cosmetics) to the original. I have no problem with Reverse Engineering as long as it is used with inovation to make something even better than the orginal.

 

[TexRoadkill]

A friend of mine bought one of the UBFX mixers for live gigs and while it does the job the mic preamps are pretty stale and dull sounding. Using the same mics and speakers through my Ghost was a drastic and obvious improvement. Most Behringer owners aren't in the market for a Ghost but there are much better budget/compact mixers then the Behringers out there.

 

[badgas]

First off, I do own a couple Behringer products. I am not an R&D engineer nor a lawyer so I can't validate what is actually developed by Behringer. United States' patents are not always enforced ouside of its borders.

Anyway, my rants are in resoponse to the reason why many members here "Bash" the company.

My beef with Reverse Engineering is when it is used soley to reproduce a product that is identical (other than cosmetics) to the original. I have no problem with Reverse Engineering as long as it is used with inovation to make something even better than the orginal.

Ok.

 

[badgas]

A friend of mine bought one of the UBFX mixers for live gigs and while it does the job the mic preamps are pretty stale and dull sounding. Using the same mics and speakers through my Ghost was a drastic and obvious improvement. Most Behringer owners aren't in the market for a Ghost but there are much better budget/compact mixers then the Behringers out there.

Very true, Tex. It fills the nitch, along with the other budget mixers. But lets not forget that while comparing the other budget hunks of gear to Behringer, the other budget items are lacking in some way also. If not, they'd be a bit more expensive.

As advised long ago, I bought a preamp.
It helps and Sounds Great. And was cheaper in the long run.

 

[SmattyG]

It is true, that sometimes people go overboard talking shit about B-gear. This can be esspecially frustrating for the type of person who is stuck between the decision finding a setup for under $500 or not finding a setup at all. It would be sad to think that someone decided not to pursue a recording hobby at all, because they decided that their budget was such that the only stuff they could afford was not worth buying. For the newby musician who wants to make a CD, as said above, B is perfect, because there is a good chance that their abilities, and not the gear, will be the bottleneck in their system. As well, even if they are 'better' than that in terms of abilities, there are a lot of people who do not require great sounding recordings for various reasons.

However, to the person who is seriously looking into making some investments into a home studio, it is very important that they understand that Behringer does not make high quality gear. After having used a bit of their gear myself, I can say that I would have been dissapointed on many occasions if I had purchased it thinking that I was getting more for less. I can also say that I'm genuinely grateful for the fact that I was warned of the Behringer pitfall: I could have accidentally created an entire studio out of B-gear without ever hearing the difference that other stuff makes. Again, after testing a number of their products, I'm glad I didn't!

Here's an analogy. I have a camera. It was about $50, and it takes pictures of me and my friends when we get drunk at parties, and help me remember all of the cool stuff I saw on vacation. I'm sure a lot of amateur 'photographers' would say "Why in gods name would you use that piece of crap? The green/yellows are grainy, the browns are muddy, and there is no defenition between hard objects!". My answer would be that taking pictures is not enough of a concern to me that I should spend $500 an a nicer SLR or something. If I wanted super high quality shots of the Rocky Mountains, I would go buy a coffee table book. I'm not a visual artist, I'm not a reporter. I'm just a dude that wants to remember what things generally looked like at one point in time. For that, my Behringer AutoCameraPro2000 (which is really a Samsung ripoff) is just fine

 

[Fishmed]

Good points.

there is a good chance that their abilities, and not the gear, will be the bottleneck in their system.

I know that this is where I started. My fisrt gear was a Boss 550, Yamaha QY10, and a realistic mic mixer. If I had the gear I have now back then, the majority of it would be a waste because I would not have known how to use it. I would have to say that I wish I had a forum like this back then to prevent from buying gear that was crap.

Here's an analogy. I have a camera. It was about $50, and it takes pictures of me and my friends when we get drunk at parties, and help me remember all of the cool stuff I saw on vacation. I'm sure a lot of amateur 'photographers' would say "Why in gods name would you use that piece of crap? The green/yellows are grainy, the browns are muddy, and there is no defenition between hard objects!". My answer would be that taking pictures is not enough of a concern to me that I should spend $500 an a nicer SLR or something. If I wanted super high quality shots of the Rocky Mountains, I would go buy a coffee table book. I'm not a visual artist, I'm not a reporter. I'm just a dude that wants to remember what things generally looked like at one point in time. For that, my Behringer AutoCameraPro2000 (which is really a Samsung ripoff) is just fine

Cool analogy. The ironic thig is when some of these people start questioning why thier mixes don't sound like professional mixes. As long as you engineer to the best of your ability using the most of the gear you have, be proud of your work and learn from it so that you can improve your skills for the next project.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Behringer really isn't different from all of the other budget gear -- what kills me though is the hype that Behringer puts out to try and convince people (novices, especially) that it's identical to the high-end stuff...

And there are many who don't know enough to distinguish and cut through the bullshit....

It's one thing to make a conscious decision to select a piece of gear by reasoning the price/performance/quality ratios - it's quite another to be misled by marketing hype that it's really a Neve under the hood just with "Behringer Pro" stamped on the facia!