Home Recording Views wanted please

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nathanfox

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Hello,
I'm new to this forum but I thought I'd get some good answers so I decided to sign-up. I am looking for away to get my voice and keyboard into the computer to record. Now my set-up is a keyboad that has stereo line outs and so ideally top get the best sound I'd like to feed it into the computer in stereo. I then have a Shure SM58 with the xlr lead so I would need a xlr input on the audio card. Ideally it should be USB and this is one I have found;
http://www.behringer.com/BCA2000/index.cfm?lang=ENG

Anybody had any expereince with this as it looks ideal for what I'd need it for. If anybody knows of any cheaper alternatives that would be great but this one is good because I can simultaneously record one stereo input and one mono input which is great because this means I can record the stereo pianoa and my voice in all together,

Please can someone get back to me and tell me whether this desk will suit me or if there is a cheaper alternative,

Many thanks,
Nathan J Fox
 
Dont buy that!!!

They make crappy products. For the same price you can get something from M-audio, presonus, Yamaha etc that would be a LOT better.
 
So DavidK, why don't you link us to these MAudio/Presonus/Yamaha products with the same feature set at the same price?

This actually looks to be a fairly cool little solution at a pretty decent price.

Nathan, you are going to find a LOT of people here who have NEVER used even one peice of Behringer gear in their whole life who are going to bash it simply because of what they have read. If not them, then guys who had ONE peice of Behringer gear, and something was wrong with it.

I have owned MANY Behringer peices over many years now. The only problem I had with any of them was a used one that I bought where one of the output jacks needed to be resoldered to fix a crack on the solder joint on the PCB board. This can happen on ANY pcb mount jack, and have had high dollar gear do the same thing.

My advice if you are going to buy something new from Behringer is to NOT order it online. Buy from a local shop. What tends to happen with Behringer stuff is that it either works, and will work for years to come, or, there is something wrong with it right away and you will need to take it back and get a new one. No biggie if you buy locally.

There are MANY people who are very happy with their Behringer purchases. Don't be swayed away from buying this unit if it fits your needs at your price point.

Let me tell you some stuff I know from EXPERIENCE using some of these other brands DavidK mentioned:

MAudio tends to have power supply problems! Not only have I seen it first hand, but have read many testimonies about it.

Presonus: I have seen too many peices of their gear with burnt out light, and scratchy pots.

Yamaha: Yamaha has NEVER gotten a switch right in the history of the company! :) Plan on any button from them going bad WAY too soon! Also, their preamps are some of the most horrid sounding things I have ever heard!

;)
 
FordVan, do you by chance work for Behringer?? :D :D :D Granted, a lot of people bash Behringer here without good reason, but you are the first to insinuate that Behringer is somehow superior to M-audio, Yamaha and Presonus. :confused:


So DavidK, why don't you link us to these MAudio/Presonus/Yamaha products with the same feature set at the same price?
Click to expand...

This entire forum is one giant link to stuff, simply go look it up. Midi is nothing, 50 bucks takes care of the midi. plenty of other audio solutions for 225, the price listed on his link is $279.

I indeed tried a Behringer last NIGHT: I have no allegiance to anybody, I have medical bills and a budget: It was noisy and crappy. The Yamaha was the same price, it was quiet, solid build and is residing currently on my desktop :cool: If the Behringer was better, I would have bought it HANDS DOWN on the spot. There was no contest, different leagues.

THis is not a case of " I read this and that", I just came from the store.

MY experience as a pro musician who is on major records:

I have owned maybe 20 pieces of Yamaha gear. Never a problem ever. Zero, zip, zilch, nada, in 20 years of using it.

I own an M-audio interface. Zero problems, none.

Dont buy crap.
 
I cant think of a better post to persuade you NOT to buy a Behringer than FordVans:
My advice if you are going to buy something new from Behringer is to NOT order it online. Buy from a local shop. What tends to happen with Behringer stuff is that it either works, and will work for years to come, or, there is something wrong with it right away
Click to expand...

Thats gotta be a pretty strong influence on you: Either it works or it doesnt :D :p





Here is a link to a product to check out:

Tascam

This thing is 200 bucks. It has what Nathan wants and needs. No, it doesnt have ADAT, Nathan doesnt probably need it or even know what that is. This is a nice unit: as I said, presonus and M-audio also have similiar products at that price.

The Behringer does a lot of stuff: looking at it, the main feature seems to be for monitoring. I doubt you need that, nor do you need spidf, adat, etc.
 
DavidK, no need to boost your achievements to me. I was around here a couple years before you, and already have read it all.

Blah blah, on a different site, my username is a type of circuit for amplifiers. ;) So, shutup. :)

If this guy doesn't have anything to do monitoring on, then indeed the Behringer is the ticket! Also, the Behringer would allow him to recording his keyboard in stereo WHILE recording a vocal mic at the same time! The Tascam unit doesn't have that many inputs it would appear.

I never said the Behringer was "superior" to MAudio/Presonus/Yamaha. I am only saying that in my many years of audio work, I have used products from all these manufactures, and KNOW for a fact that these other companies have their own QC blues too!

Personally, I have never had a problem with any new Behringer gear. The sound company I used to work for ordered 20 Composer Pro's, 4 MultiGates, 2 of their digital eq thingies, and 2 of their effect processors. Personally, I have owned 2 different Composers, 2 MultiGates, 1 Quad Gate, 2 AutoComs, and currently have a UB802 mixer. NONE of them have had a problem, except the used AutoCom I bought KNOWING that an output jack needed to be resoldered to the PCB. I have personally used over the years a polethera of Yamaha gear, much of it had a variety of problems ranging from major (channel strips that just plain ol' quit working) to annoying (LCD back lights going out/scratchy pots). I watched a MAudio power supply go out on a Delta 1010, and fumbled thru insane driver crap over the years. I have used MANY Presonus peices in live work, and listed those problems above.

DavidK, I don't talk shit. I don't do mocking bird recommendations. I have been around gear long enough to have used a LOT of it.

So, whatever...........I don't need to work for Behringer to give their products a thumbs up. For the price, it is hard to beat what they make!
 
Nathan, before this turns into a pissing match :rolleyes: ,

read the reviews on the link omtayslick has provided. They say more than anyone here can tell you: these people bought the product. Half of them apparently took it back to the store already.
 
Ford Van said:
Blah blah, on a different site, my username is a type of circuit for amplifiers. ;) So, shutup. :)!
Click to expand...

Discrete Class A Monobloc Hand-selected NOS KT88 LCD HDTV MP3? Is that you?
 
But, read WHY most of them took it back. Typical "It didn't do what I thought it would do" stuff. EVERY manufacture get's that.

David, YOU turned this into a pissing match. Fuck, you were low enough to start try throwing around the psychedelic band recordings you have done. ;) I am STILL trying to figure out what that has to do with anything! ;)

My experience as a studio owner and long time live sound engineer is that I HAVE had problems with every kind of gear (hell, we had to recently take in a $2400 Focusrite preamp to have the Attenuation knob on channel 1 replaced. It was only maybe 6 years old when that happened...:()

Behringer is some of the most used stuff out there. Funny thing about products, you usually see the people that have problems speaking up. The people who it works well for are usually too busy using it. ;) Behringer outsells most of these other companies products by a fairly good margin. I bet their percentage of duds are about the same. You are just going to see more problems listed for Behringer mainly because they sell so much more gear than anybody else.

Anyway, I still think because of the monitoring options of this interface, AND the fact that he can record his keyboard in stereo while recording a mic at the same time, it is going to be hard to beat this product! The product DOES fit his needs that he STATED in the original post, and he is asking for anything cheaper (or even the same price). I haven't seen a similar interface (feature wise) listed yet at anything close to that price point.
 
OK, this has actually gotten kinda fun :cool: I will play along,

Ford Van said:
done. ;) I am STILL trying to figure out what that has to do with anything! ;)
Click to expand...

It means I was being an asshole :) , people pay me money because I am a good musician... or it means I am actually a male prostitute who is working his way up the casting couch :eek: :p . I can hear noisy products: I tried a Behringer mixer and a Yamaha mixer last nite, same price, guess which one made a whole lot of noise? :rolleyes: That's right, it was the Behringer. As I said, I didnt give a shit who made it, I just needed a lil mixer for my keyboards, the Yamaha was quiet and clean, the Behringer was really NOISY.

Behringer outsells most of these other companies products by a fairly good margin. I bet their percentage of duds are about the same. You are just going to see more problems listed for Behringer mainly because they sell so much more gear than anybody else.
Click to expand...

MacDonalds sells the most food.
Pauly Shore movies did better than Meryl Streep films.
People actually watched the Jeffersons.
Behringer sells a lot of products.

:D :D :D

But, read WHY most of them took it back.
Click to expand...

OK.......

i dont know. and dont know what else to try to fix the problem after 40-50 hours of system tweaks in the past week.
almost 2 weeks i have tried to use this thing without results.

the rotary knobs are a little cheez and the faders seem cheez,

I must say Behringer was easy to get ahold of tech support (no waiting) but they really did not seem to know how to fix my problems. I RETURNED THE UNIT. 3 dayz gone. I just wish this thing worked.

I'm replacing it immediately! Don't buy one! (unless you're a really mean person, in which case you deserve one)

I've never see such a bassackward set of drivers and software even the jerry-rigged DOS to Windows stuff that I worked on about 10 years ago was vastly superior to the 'pure-T-S***' that Behringer supplied with this jewel.

I OWN ONE. THIS REVIEW IS FROM REAL EXPERIENCE WITH THIS PRODUCT. DO NOT BUY IT, AND RETAILERS, DO NOT SELL IT UNLESS YOU LIKE PROCESSING LOTS OF RETURNS.

One one computer there is no sound. On the other, sound comes in 2-3 second bursts followed by a loud click and then silence.

My emails to tech support have not been answered. From the bcontrol forum I gather that this is standard.

tech support is apparently not returning anyone's support requests.
Click to expand...

OK, I read the reviews. Now what??? :D :D :D :D :D

No hard feelings Ford, I have a day off and am just playin the fool, peace :cool: HOWEVER, you gotta admit: those reviews arent really helping Behringer a whole lot.
 
More than half the reviews are great reviews by people that are VERY happy with their purchase!
 
DavidK

so davidk can you give me all the links you can find to decent alternatives?

Many thanks for everyone's replies

Nathan
 
DavidK said:
The Yamaha was the same price, it was quiet, solid build and is residing currently on my desktop :cool:
Click to expand...

What is the model number for this? Could you perhaps give me a link?

Nathan
 
Hey Nathan,

Here's my 2 cents. I used to own a small Behringer mixer. MX602, I think it was. I had no problems with it operationally, but replaced it with a DMP3 preamp from M-Audio, because I liked the sound of the DMP3 better. My father is happily using the Behringer mixer to this day, with no reliability issues.

I did not like the MX pres on the Behri, but the general consensus is that the newer Behringer IMP pres are better sounding.

It sounds like your set-up needs are fairly uncomplicated. If you can buy the Behringer piece from someone with a good return policy, try it. You don't have much to lose by trying it as long as you can return it.

If you have firewire, the Presonus Firebox will give you 2 mic pres and 2 line ins for your keyboard.

If you are married to usb, then the Edirol line of interfaces has a reputation for doing usb reliably.


I have been using a usb device for several years with no significant problems. But many people complain that usb will not do audio as well as Firewire or PCI interfaces. Just depends on the variables in your set-up and computer. Hope this helps.
 
Here's a bunch of USB stuff in your price range:

usbthingys

OK, I have had my nap, I am not so grumpy:

The Behringer product does a LOT of stuff. If you want it and want to risk it, take a chance if the store has good return policies.

As omtay asked, are you married to USB? There are lots of firewire alternatives around. The one I use is this:

M-audio firewire

That one doesnt do midi so I use this with it: midisport

total is $269. If you only have one keyboard you can get a midisport 1 for 39 bucks.

WARNING: My system is not for everybody, I work alone due to my various hygiene problems :p The m-audio I have has XLR, another for guitar/mic, and two line inputs (stereo) on back for you keyboard. It also has spidf which is a digital input. It only has two outputs, so if thats not enough get something with more.



PS. I like Weezy ;) And Florence too :)
 
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