Notice a lot of unfair Behringer bashing, what's up?

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jeff0633

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Hey dudes. Guitar player here (one-man-band), been playing for twenty something years. I have seen so much Behringer bashing, it's hard to comprehend. I have heard fine recordings from the mic 2200 preamp, I have heard fine compression from the composers, and I own an RNC. I have owned a Great River pre, and a Peavey VMP2 Tube pre. I use a UB series mixer on stage and for recording. The efx in the mixer are from the newest Virtualizer. Putting the headphones on and listening intently, I think the reverbs are very nice, so are the delays. I ahve also owned a lexicon reverb unit in the past. When I purchased my UB mixer, I also had a 1202 VLZ pro with xDR pres. I later decided to sell one of them. The UB had more feeatures, but I wanted to compare the IMP pres against the VLZ pres. I set my acoustic up, with and miced with two Marshall 603's I would record one thing with each pre, and simply unplug from the UB direct out and then use the Mackie direct out. I found the UB IMP's to sound MUCH better to my ears. The top end was airy and clean, and the Mackie's wasn't. I went over this for three days, hours and hours of testing trying to decide which to keep, and I ended up selling the VLZ. In my opinion, the ImP pres simply sounded better. In fact, I didn't even want to come to that conclusion. I TRIED NOT TO COME TO THAT CONCLUSION, BUT I DID!!! I tried to convince myself that the VLZ's sounded better, but the clear sparkly high end on the UB was simply better, and I knew this after the first few tests on the first day, but I kept testing anyway, not wanting to accept what I knew my ears were hearing. They sat side by side for three straight days of comparisons, and the UB kicked ass.

Now, just to give an example, I have a recording of me with a 12 hundred dollar Great river preamp, using a Marshall V67G condenser. All three tracks were recorde with it, but it was in my shitty little bathroom, with a blanket hung over the tub area. To me, it sounds like shit. It was recorded straight into my Echo Mia 24 buit card. Here is the link.


Now, here is a song buy a guy named Charlie Glascow. I met him on the 4 track news group. I have a few of his songs, and I still remember what he used to get this song and the others. It sounds way better than mine to me, yet, here is his chain. He used a cheap condenser, into a Behringer Mic 2200 tube preamp, then into a 20 bit Echo Gina card. Then, he mixed it down to a Panasonic VCR, then back through a Behringer dualfex pro enhancer (which is why I am writing this, I was looking at the reviews of the new ultrafex Behringers on harmony central, and saw glowing reports, but here a few called them total shit) and back onto the computer. here is the link



It is amazing that I can still remember his recording chain, cause it's been over two years ago since I talked with him. That's how much it effected me. What it shows me is that, if I had a thouseand dollars to spend, and I could choose between a Behringer preamp, and spending 800 dollars on room treatment, bass traps and studio foam, or choose a Great River preamp and have a shitty recording space, I would clearly choose the Behringer pre, and some good studio foam and bass traps. Charlie recorded this song in his bedroom, and he had matress foam pads all over the walls. My song had no foam or bass traps, but it did have a 12 hundred dollar Great River, and was at 24 bit. It tells me that the room is a VERY VERY important part of a pro sounding recording, maybe four or fives times as important as a preamp. So, every time I see people bashing Behringer, I laugh, because I know that if you have a good room to record in, then you can make fine recording with Behringer pres. Now, I know that Great Rivers are much better, but that doesn't mean a whole lot if you are trying to record in a fucking bedroom with bouncing wavs and muddy frequencies all over the place. Soon, I am going to call the loacal studio and see if I can take my Zoom 1044 16 bit recorder down there, and I am going to record in the space using only the built in zoom preamps, but it will be in a quiet, soundproof, well-tuned studio. When I do, I will post the results. By the way, I think Carlie also used a composer on his recordings. Anyway, the Dualfex and mic 2200 really stuck out in my mind. His songs sound way better than anything I have ever recorded. I wish I could get results like that.

Well, I have my flame suit on, so let's hear your comments.

Jeff
 
Jeff . . .

For the love of all that is holy and for the 1 millionth time . . .

No one's bashing the sound of Behringer gear in general. It's basically pretty good / decent sounding entry-level budget stuff for the most part.

It's just not very reliable. And there is more reliable stuff you can get for around the same price range with a better quality-control track record -- and usually somewhat better sounding, too. But if you like the shit, then buy it to your heart's content. Just try and be considerate when recommending it -- in other words, don't try to tell anyone it's got a good chance of lasting more than a few years before stuff starts hissing, cracking, falling off, etc. :D

That's it. No one's belittling your little Behringer stuff, so get over it.
 
I bought a pair of their headphones today and all I can say is
FUCKING WOW!!!!!!!!I'll never use my radioshack headphones again.
 
I haven't heard any remarkable behringer stuff, I haven't heard any offensive behringer stuff, come to think of it, I have never heard ANY behringer stuff, Is it any good?
In His Name
BK
 
Big Kenny said:
I haven't heard any remarkable behringer stuff, I haven't heard any offensive behringer stuff, come to think of it, I have never heard ANY behringer stuff, Is it any good?
In His Name
BK

You can hear Behringer stuff by checking out the song link above. I have never had any quality problems as of yet with my Behringer stuff, though I realize that it is made at a far cheaper cost, so I would expect some problems sooner or later. If my 1622FX UB series last another two years, I'll gladly spend $180 at that time for a nother three years of service.

Jeff
 
chessrock said:
Jeff . . .

For the love of all that is holy and for the 1 millionth time . . .

No one's bashing the sound of Behringer gear in general. It's basically pretty good / decent sounding entry-level budget stuff for the most part.

It's just not very reliable. And there is more reliable stuff you can get for around the same price range with a better quality-control track record -- and usually somewhat better sounding, too. But if you like the shit, then buy it to your heart's content. Just try and be considerate when recommending it -- in other words, don't try to tell anyone it's got a good chance of lasting more than a few years before stuff starts hissing, cracking, falling off, etc. :D

That's it. No one's belittling your little Behringer stuff, so get over it.

Damn dude, don't make me go back through all the postings over the last year and start pasting all the horrible shit that's been said about Behringer, cause the post would be VERY LONG. I agree with most of what you said, but obviously many others don't. My main point is that fine recordings can be made with Behringer pres and other gear. If you have a good room, then I would imagine that a good recording guy could get a real good sound out of just about anything. Of course he would love to have a 12 hundred dollar pre, but if he was in a shitty room, that pre really won't help all that much. That's why I was suggesting to the other "bedroom Studio" guys out there that if they have a thousand bucks to spend, they will probably ugrade their sound ten times better by fixing their room into a quiet one, with proper bass absorption. Don't worry about your pre until you are first recording in a good, pristine environment. So, I think I was steering them in the right direction.

Have a good one.

Jeff
 
But will you be so cheerful about it, when it drops dead in the middle of a live performance?

I think not.

Behrenger is well known for ripping off other designs and issuing cheap copies... hardly "fair" to the holders of the intellectual property that was ripped off. The latest case in point is their B5 mics which appear to be a huge ripoff of the Studio Projects C4 series. No sympathy from me.

I don't bash Behrenger, but I don't buy any of it, either.
 
jeff0633 said:
If you have a good room, then I would imagine that a good recording guy could get a real good sound out of just about anything.


There ya go. Don't forget to include "good instruments and talent" along with that.
 
bgavin said:
But will you be so cheerful about it, when it drops dead in the middle of a live performance?

I think not.

Behrenger is well known for ripping off other designs and issuing cheap copies... hardly "fair" to the holders of the intellectual property that was ripped off. The latest case in point is their B5 mics which appear to be a huge ripoff of the Studio Projects C4 series. No sympathy from me.

I don't bash Behrenger, but I don't buy any of it, either.

A good point, and I am trying to get a backup together for all of my equipment, not just the Behringer stuff. I use a laptop and Cakewalk on stage, and it is the laptop that I most worry about. I also use a JV-1010 as well. I would love to have a backup for all my stuff, or some other way to get through a night, no matter what happens.

As for the design thing, I couldn't disagree more. I feel that my transaction is with the music store I am buying from. If the store I buy from is selling a legal product in my country, then that's all I need to know. If Behringer rips off other designs, there are courts to handle that, and then someday my music store won't be selling these items, and I won't be able to buy them. When I do business with a store, part of that business is my trust in that store, and that they will follow the laws of my country. I couldn't give a rats ass who they buy from as long as they follow law in doing so. They are the ones responsible to me, not anyone else. I trust the music stores I buy from, and if they have no problem selling a certain piece of gear to me, then I have no problem buying it if it does what I need it to do. I am not doing anything at all wrong in a moral way by buying what my music store sells, Period!! If my music store is breaking the law, then their ass will get in trouble, and if the company they are buying from is doing something against the law, then their ass will be in trouble, and the whole chain will come to a halt. It's not my job to protect Mackie designs, unless they want to pay me to do that. They have a court system to do that. They can pay me to do it by giving me options to buy gear at a comparable price that does what I want it to do. If they do that, then I'll buy a Mackie every time. But if I find a Behringer that does what I want, and it's a legal product being sold at a legal music store in my country, and it cost $150 dollars less than the Mackie, then I have no obligation to buy the mackie. Quality is part of it, and if my Behringer breaks down tomorrow, then I might decide the Mackie is worth the extra money. As of now, my Behringer stuff is holding up nicely.

To each his own, though.

Jeff
 
jeff0633 said:
As for the design thing, I couldn't disagree more. I feel that my transaction is with the music store I am buying from. If the store I buy from is selling a legal product in my country, then that's all I need to know.

If the store you bought from started selling dead kittens, but you knew it was legal to do so . . . would you still think that selling dead kittens is right? The beauty of the free market is that we can vote for what we feel is right or wrong with our pocket book. When you buy Behringer, you're basically giving your support to their business practices and saying you agree with them in not so many words. And your dollars help them to continue such practices -- ethical or not.
 
I was going to buy some dead kittens today, but Behringer have released a Dead-K unit which has the same smell and taste, but is way cheaper. They copied the basic RNK design (the RNK = Really Nice Kitten), but created the units in China where cat foot is cheaper. Now the Dead-K has flooded the market, and the RNK company is going out of business, because their design costs were too high - they could never recoup once Behringer flooded the market with cheap copies.


Miaow.
 
chessrock said:
If the store you bought from started selling dead kittens, but you knew it was legal to do so . . . would you still think that selling dead kittens is right? The beauty of the free market is that we can vote for what we feel is right or wrong with our pocket book. When you buy Behringer, you're basically giving your support to their business practices and saying you agree with them in not so many words. And your dollars help them to continue such practices -- ethical or not.

Hmm, this analogy just makes no sense to me. If selling dead cats was legal, and a normal store in our society did that, then they would only do it were it a normal part of our lives and culture, and therefor, we wouldn't think anything strange about it. A mixer is a normal thing to sell. Mackie sells mixers the same as Behringer does. This analogy simply doesn't hold. Again, I am buying a legal product in my country, and I do business with my music store. I depend on my music store to do things legally. If they do that, and they have products to sell, and those products meet my needs, then I am not morally bound in any way to refrain from buying those products. In a free market, you can spend your money anyway you want to, but that doesn't mean that everyone is morally bound to do the same. So, I don't mind if you refuse to buy Behringer gear. If you think depriving yourself of a useful tool, and paying more for something that does the same, all in the name of helpng Mackie, or some other company, then that is your business. What I can't accept is telling anyone else that your decision is founded in universal morality. Your decision is not right, or wrong, it just is what you want to do. Like i said, I believe in the laws of our nation, and if my music store is selling a legal product, then I do business with them. The laws will take care of the rest. If Behringer gets away without getting convicted, then what they are doing IS legal, and therefore, I have no problem with it. Maybe Mackie is unjustly charging more for their mixers than they should. That's no better than what Behringer does. If you can show me that all buyers should avoid Behringer products for universal moral reasons, then that's one thing, but unitl then, I can buy their products legally from my trusted music stores. I thrust them to follow the law and sell me products that suit my needs. I can't see any reason that it should any further than that on my part.

Jeff
 
The fact of the matter is that the Behringer stuff is overpriced for their true quality, and I think most Mackie stuff is to. If you are truly looking for great quality at a budget Soundcraft makes some of the best stuff around, and the fact that you can get used Soundtracs, Soundcraft, DDA and other such companies boards on ebay for $1 - 2,000 in the mid budget range for many project studios it just doesn't make sense that people own Behringer equipment. It's just not good enough to demand the price they ask. But if given a board I would use it. Maybe as a large paper- weight, or to keep my car from rolling on an incline :)

Later,
musik
 
Can you tell us about Mr Behringer, who copied your products without licence ?

He was found guilty by the German Federal Court in 1992, he was copying exactly the Type B Aural Exciter, Type D, and then Type F. He copied so exactly those products, same face blade, used the same arguments in his brochures, and so then we started pursuits in 1987. And he put on so many arguments to the Court that it took until 1992 to find him finally guilty. In the meantime, he kept on using and using our technology. Then the next product he copied was the 612, a noise gate, and he copied everything so exactly, but from an earlier version, that he even copied the mistakes we had made ! But he was hard to argue we didn't have a patent on the 612, but we went to Court because he had copied our manual, page for page, illustration for illustration. So we could show the Court exactly what he did, and were able to bother him for the copyright. He's an unbelievable thief, and then he says that he developed all this on his own, so people think he's a good engineer, but all he is is a copist. Each product is a copy.

Did he copy products from other manufacturers ?

Among others dbx, Bristow, Rockon, Mackie. He comes out with a console exactly like the Eight-Bus. So he's a very dangerous person. And it's not allowed in America to form a cooperation to go in trial against a manufacturer. It's a problem because I play with rules above the table, he plays with rules under the table : he has no morality, he laughs, he makes a mockery of business ethics, and it makes me crazy because I could go home and I could sleep, the problem is what he's doing is confusing the market by telling them "Oh, that product is perfect, it works great", but when you analyse the product it's a bad copy. But he's that kind to make great advertising : that's easy for him, because he has no engineering expense. So that's why each one of the products we do now must have patents.
 
rats ass

whats the difference it's all put together by some starving chinese kid nailed to a splintering table for five cents amonth. there is no moral high ground. there is only greed and the dollar. I'll buy whats cheap and useful. except NIKE..... I won't buy nikes...or shop at wallmart........or.....eat veal (thats notcoolman) and declawing cats is really cruel other than that.......oh yeah , won't eat at Chik Fil A, they're owned by christians.
 
jeff0633 said:
If selling dead cats was legal, and a normal store in our society did that, then they would only do it were it a normal part of our lives and culture, and therefor, we wouldn't think anything strange about it.

You mean to tell me that if you saw a dead kitten being sold at your nearest Guitar Center or Sam Ash store . . . sitting between the Microphone cord isle and the keyboard section . . .

with a big, fat price tag around it's dead little neck . . .

. . . that you wouldn't find it in the least bit strange?

See, that's the problem with you. You just figure "hey, the cat is sitting there, and they're selling it at a public joint . . . it must be normal."

You're a sick puppy.
 
although there are always exceptions...

... behringer stuff doesn't usually last long. something breaks. some of their stuff sounds "fine", but ain't usually around for the long haul.
peace - jv
 
GO AHEAD - buy Behringer or other budget gear if/when it works for you....

Assuming you keep improving your recording skills, your ears will tell you when it's time to invest in better gear anyways.........

The fact that you lump the sound of a Great River pre in with the sound of a Behringer mixer means your ears aren't quite there yet!
 
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