Any thoughs on the Behringer X1204 usb mixer?

[Rusty Nuts]

I think I got a good price on a Behringer XENYX X1204usb = $90.00 x 2yr old and it works . Are these fair for a small home & some Church recording? Had it for a couple weeks and being a old/newbie kind of slow for learning but got about half welded in my head.

 

[Bobbsy]

It'll work but it's nothing to write home about.

For the church it might be pretty suitable if you have to mix a few mics and other sources into two tracks to make a CD or whatever. However, don't forget that despite the 4 mic inputs plus other line sources, it only outputs two tracks (i.e. a mix) to your computer recorder. For a lot of home recording stuff, 4 mic inputs mean you want to keep all four tracks separate for later mixing.

The second thing to watch is that the mic pre amps tend to get a bit noisy if you turn them up too high...say about about 3/4 level. This doesn't seem to be consistent (some people report good performance, others have the noise problem) but this shouldn't be an issue unless you're mics are pretty lacking in sensitivity or your sources very quiet.

 

[mjbphotos]

Check out Ebay, you can usually see better deals on USB mixers wiht more mic inputs and features for less money than that.
As Bobbsy mentions, the mic preamps can be noisy on the Behr mixers BUT the biggest issue with these mixers is the noisy USB output. The Behr mixers do not have a USB 'volume'/signal level control - and there is a high-pitched whine in the signal when volume gets to a certain level. This happens with other USB mixers as well (a function of the inexpensive A-D 16 bit converter) but some mixers have a USB volume control (my Packie ProFX does), so you can keep the output level down so the whine doens't happen. If you want to use this as aboth a live mixer and USB interface for recording the stereo ouput to a computer, look at another brand, like the Allen & Heath Zed series.

 

[Rusty Nuts]

Thanks for reply & info I will look around but not much time... Jerry

 

[Bobbsy]

The "whine" noise on the Behringer USB outputs also varies from unit to unit--some are pretty well unusable while others sound okay. If you can try before you buy that's your best bet.

Mjbphotos is right though...a used Soundcraft or Allan and Heath would be in a different quality league if you can stretch your budget.