Behringer Mixers?

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Godsguitarist

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Hello everyone!! My band and I are just about ready to start playing small gigs, the only thing is, we need equipment, and we need decent stuff at decent prices, because we are running on an extremely low budget, mainly because, for now at least, non of us have cars or jobs(we're all sophormores in highschool), and for this reason, we were considering Behringer mixers, specifically a MX2004 (I think it is). We'll probably be using Carvin power amps and speakers, but we're not positive. If anyone has ANY information on any of these products, specifically how "good" the Behringer mixers are and whatever pros and cons they may have, I would be EXTREMELY grateful if someone could give any input or suggestions, even if it's not pertaining to these products. I really, really appreciate any input and I thank you in advance.

Brandon

P.S. If you happen to have some extra money, no matter the amount, contact me for donation info. :D j/k, but if you happen to actually have some extra money, don't hesitate!!
 
A lot of people here don't seem to care for Behringer mixers too much, but they are inexpensive. I bought the MX802 for $120, and while it may someday be my weak link, I can use it for recording and I have a small mixer for practice/live use. It should be fine for a band starting out. BTW - how many inputs do you need? If you have to go cheap, don't buy any more than you absolutey need - less money thrown away if you eventually upgrade. You can get the (602?) for about $100; I believe it has 4 inputs. Good luck.
 
Most people on this board hate the Behringers. I use it for recording, although I wish I didn't have to. For live I couldnt be happier, it isn't that crucial to have a great board to play live since a) you probably aren't even going to have anyone to run it and b) you are just starting out. The 2004 I think is the one with the 8 mic pres right? It's the best one you can get without moving into ones that don't even sell in the US for the Euroracks. I'd go for it, it has a great cost-to-performance ratio, no matter what anyone tells you. I am also a sophmore in high-school and know how you feel on the no car deal. It sucks. Especially when you're parents think it's a god given gift when you get in their car to go ANYWHERE. I end up doing a LOT of walking, just so I don't have to deal with them holding the rides they give me against me. Good thing the singer and guitarist in my band are both 18 and drive.

Jake
 
Sounds cool. I appreciate everyone's input. I'll probably end up getting the 2004 sometime in the future because we found a nice Mackie Powered Mixer with 1200 watts at 2 ohms (I won't be running much on 2 ohms, but still :), so that should work for a little while. It has two 600 watt amps, so we'll be running one with four 16 ohm Fender monitors and 2 I have no idea what yet probably 8 ohm mains on the other. We are a 4 piece band with three of us singing, so we will need at least 8 inputs, and if nothing else I'll use my 424 MkIII as a mixer if necessary to add 4 more XLR's. Thanks for the suggestion, England, I love harmony-central and have been there many times. Do they have reviews on PA's and the like? I've not seen them, I'll have to go back and check it out, I need to look at some stuff on POD's anyways. Yeah, Chester, that's the cool thing about Behringers, they're relatively inexpensive, of which is a big factor for us. I unfortunately live in a rural part of America so walking anywhere would be a multi-day task!! :) One cool thing is that we're kind of considered a youth band at our church, so we can get discounts on gear at local music stores, specifically Rik's Music, I highly suggest this place to anyone, they're website is http://www.riksmusic.com, kind of a no brainer, but it's a really cool place with really cool, nice people working there and they have good prices as well. Anyways, thanks to all who replied!!

Brandon
 
Based on experience........

...unless you're playing a large venue (small arenas or stadiums), where you're essentially dependent on mic'ing the entire band to be heard - for the typical clubs, bars, and church-basements, you DON'T have to mic the entire band up. As a matter of fact, if you do, you'll probably end up with a very crappy sound since the PA gear you've described so far will not be up to the task of handling a full band's spectrum of instruments.

To run an entire band thru a PA requires high-powered amps, and segmented mains (speakers) to cleanly handle everything from bass/drums to vocals. And Bass and Drums suck up A LOT of PA power.

BUT... it's ok, 'cos like I said, you don't need that kind of power/setup to play the small clubs. It's a given that each of your guitars/bass/keyboards have their own amp (of at least 100 watts). These would be plenty powerful to be heard in the club without being mic'd. In most cases, it is not at all necessary to mic the drums - if some more power is needed, you can mic the kick and snare, maybe overheads for the bigger places.

That means all you need the PA for would be vocals and possibly some of the drums, not to mention a monitor mix (which a lot of bands starting out forget all about until they get on stage and realize "hmmm - the speakers are pointed AWAY from us and facing the audience, how are WE going to hear ourselves???")

Good luck - enjoy gigging... it's a real rush!

Bruce
 
Bruce is absolutely right...

I don't have alot of recording experience, but I'm about the only roadie/soundengineer of a local band I know that gets paid. (Fix the problems of a bass and guitar player that end up with no sound 5 minutes before the concert, and you're there, it's quite easy, actually... :) )

A good thing to do when playing small gigs is setting up the guitar and bass amplifier almost behind the drums. Looks bad, but this way you don't need monitoring for drums. The same for vocals, but you have to be carefull for feedback here...

Don't point your amps straight to the audience, the guy at the other end of the stage won't hear you. Don't point them at that guy either or the audience in front of you will get a bad mix. Somewhere in between...

If you're getting monitors, you could make a little guitar-bass-keyb-voc mix for the drummer (using an aux). But a seperate monitor mix does require an extra amp... Really small gigs could do with one speaker for the audience and one for monitoring.

And one more tip: there is only one way to learn how to play together if you can't here one another... That's doing it. And in the meantime, you also learn the tricks for making sure you do hear eachother. And you'll find out for which guys in the band it doesn't really matter if they hear you or not... :D

One more thing, if you're doing alot of concerts, make sure you hear vocals when singing, or you'll get voice-problems. And get some earplugs.
 
Man, guys, thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't know hardly any of that and it would affect me. We won't be playing large gig's with our pa, most will not even have 100 people probably. The largest thing we'll ever play in with our PA will probably be our high school gym, and I live in a rural part of America (not a negative comment :)) and the gym is decently small. If it means enough to us, we will rent subs to go along with our PA and will probably add subs later on as we get more experience and more money. I appreciate the advice on gigging and the like so much, guys. If anyone else has any comments or advice, PLEASE pass it on!! Thanks so much again!!

Brandon

P.S. Unfortunatley, Bruce, my amp is only 25 watts...lol...I can just hear you now "Why in the world are you doing using a 25 watt amp to play gigs with??!!" I don't have a job yet, but do play to get a POD and, if nothing else, a small power amp and a small guitar cabinet. We are running on really low budgets, and, yes, I most definitely should have a larger amp, but in recent years, I have instead vouched for a Dremel, an acoustic and a 424 for the last three Christmas's, and the one before that was the one I got my FIRST guitar on!! :D
 
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