Time to stock up on Behringer gear!

[Mustafa Salaam]

I'm looking to buy a Beh MX2624 or something like that!

i'm willing to pay upwards of $850 to 900!!!

Can n-e 1 help me?

 

[Ed Dixon]

For gear, it boils down to what works well for each person. There are thousands of members of this board. Their experience level and use needs vary wildly. Their $ resources vary considerably.

Some percentage of folks are professionals while many, as the name of the board implies, are home users. Others may not be involved in recording much at all, and instead play live music and use the board for info on various gear.

While sound quality is certainly important, there are other factors that are major players in gear selection for some. Much of what Behringer sells is targeted toward live sound use. Behringer has 8 product areas. About half of those include products that are almost totally live use based.

I agree that much of their product line consists of products that are very similar to products originally made by someone else. However the same can be said for almost every sound equipment maker. Dozens of companies make mixers, and they all have similar features.

For almost any given product by any firm, there is almost always someone who makes a better one. Nothing new here. Gear selection boils down to finding a product that meets your needs, not the needs of someone else.

I own a variety of Behringer gear, as well as gear from a dozen other firms. When I get new gear, I try it and see how it does. If it works well enough to meet my needs, I keep it. If not, I sell it. I probably sell about 1/3 of the new gear I buy, as when the dust settles, it didn’t do what I needed. This month I sold gear from Behringer, Line 6, Rockman, and Roland.

Many here commonly bash Behringer gear based on name only. It’s clear they don’t like Behringer. It’s also clear that many such comments come from folks who have never actually touched the specific model of gear being discussed. First hand experience with gear is a good source of information for use, features, and reliability. Second hand, or no hand, information is generally not useful to many.

Ed

 

[scrubs]

I'm looking to buy a Beh MX2624 or something like that!

i'm willing to pay upwards of $850 to 900!!!

Can n-e 1 help me?

I have an MX802a that I would sadly part with for around that price (i got bills, ya know). They are pretty rare now that Behringer has stopped making them. You should probably snatch this one up before they are all in the hands of top recording engineers and become unobtainable.

 

[scrubs]

Any advice given by Brucie Blue Bear Sound must be totally ignored as his so-called "superior recording skillz/techniques/experience & knowledge" are entirely non-existant! His so-called "Blue Bear Sound Pro Studio" is nothing more than a re-built closet with egg-shell cartons as sound diffusers. His recording equipment solely consists of a mono '71 Bell & Howell pop-up cassette recorder w. built in mic, a pair of Lafayette spkrs circa 1974 and a 2 1/2 channel mixer from Archer Electronic Kits.
Blue Bear Sound is no professional whatsoever! He doesn't even realize the fact that Behringer produces top-of-the-line pro equipment at 1/75 the price of others!!!
Ignore those who individuals that ridicule Beh gear (like that foolish & irritatingly supreme Behringer hater, MISTERQCUE) as they know nothing of it's quality,perf and value!!! I mean, what Company makes a 36 chan pro recording mixer (MX9000) with superior pre's that can be purchased brand new for $49.94 plus a turkey,salami and swiss cheese samdwich on whole wheat!!

Behringer Rules!!!

A-Salaam A-Laikum.

Hmmmm... I am intriqued by your ideas. Do you, perhaps, have a blog or some literature I could review about your organization?

 

[noisedude]

Here's a view from a bottom-fed gear user with aspirations ...

I've owned or used a lot of Behringer gear! I don't have most of it now!!

You have to take every single piece on its merit. I had a UB1204 that was flexible in its routing but essentially sounded very thin. It was quiet - it just didn't sound good. The DI100s are the best DI box you can get for that kinda money, and they are very sturdy - I have only occassionally used them for recording but they are in my live rig the whole time.

I had a Blue Devil guitar amp - useful FX for the money but soulless EQ and distortion so I gave it to my brother to learn on.

My bass playing housemate has a bass V-Amp. We thought they were better than the bass POD when we were listening to them before buying.

Wilkee very kindly sent me an MIC2200 to try out, and it has found a natural home DI-ing my Clavinova. Not had a chance to set its pres against my others yet.

Bruce would be wrong to discount every item before trying it, but on the other hand, why should people expect him to use budget gear in his business just because people reckon it's good value?

The reverse engineering thing really winds me up too.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Bruce would be wrong to discount every item before trying it...

I've tried several of their pieces... and didn't like them at all... even their DI box I found quite noisy and colored-sounding compared to my Radial JDI....

If they can't even get a simple DI box right, hard for me to beleive they have a handle on much else!

 

[noisedude]

That's cool ... I don't know that Radial and what kinda price range it sits in.

I do know that I trust your ears more than mine.

I'll continue to try as many as possible becuase I have the time but not the money ... so if I can unearth a gem it's worth it - I got my USA-made 545 and my Soundstar MkII for under £30 each delivered because I spent many hours stalking them on ebay.

 

[timboZ]

....even their DI box I found quite noisy and colored-sounding compared to my Radial JDI....

If they can't even get a simple DI box right, hard for me to beleive they have a handle on much else!

I don’t think it is a fair comparison a $189 DI box with a jensen transformer to a $30 DI box.

 

[SonicAlbert]

I don’t think it is a fair comparison a $189 DI box with a jensen transformer to a $30 DI box.

This is exactly what I'm talking about, money buys quality. Maybe it's not fair, but that's the way it is. But in fact, it *is* fair, because ultimately the only thing that matters is the quality of the audio. Right? So bottom feeder gear MUST be compared directly to the better stuff.

I do own one piece of Behringer gear, the DEQ2496. It has some metering and analysis features I like, but I don't run audio through it. In fact, I *can't* run audio through it because it doesn't work properly, and it didn't work correctly brand new out of the box. But the metering works well, which is what I bought it for.

I've owned one other Behringer piece, and my brother owns some of their stuff in his studio. It's cheaply made, corners are cut *everywhere* in the design and parts, and it's designed strictly to hit price points.

It's good to have somebody around like that, because it serves a purpose for many people, including me from time to time. But please let's not get confused about whether that's quality audio or not. It's not.

 

[Richard Monroe]

Well, I own a pair of ECM8000's (too noisy for any practical use), a VAMP II (a perfectly good live guitar box), a Bass VAMP Pro (jury's still out on that one). I gave my Behringer mixer to a poor rapper, it was of no use to me in the long run.
I will disagree with Bruce on one point, though. I've been using the Rolls RA62 HA 6 channel headphone amp for 3 years now without a hint of a problem. It's entirely adequate for tracking, and isn't in the recording signal chain. It does what I need it to do without any doubt.-Richie

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

I don’t think it is a fair comparison a $189 DI box with a jensen transformer to a $30 DI box.

Why isn't it fair???

You can pay $30 for something that sounds like shit... or pay more for something that sounds good.

What's the point of comparing Behringer to say, Rolls, if you're try to establish sound quality vs. price? Arguing about which sounds closer to "the real thing" seems kind of silly using bottom-feeder gear.... if having it sound "right" is important, then you buy the gear that gives you that - and often, it's not at a budget price...

 

[lpdeluxe]

We all have to start somewhere. My first recording was with a Radio Shack portable cassette deck with a built-in mic and AGC, circa 1971.


...and look at me now!

 

[mattkw80]

I'm fairly new to recording/mixing (2 years experience) and I have a
Behringer B-1 Large condensor mic that I always thought sounded pretty good.

I agree with the comment (I think it was Blue Bear) that basically stated that
new people with untrained ears won't know what sounds better until they hear something better.

So.......

What would a good alternative to my B-1 Large Diaphram mic be ?
(I paid $150 cdn for that, so lets say I'm willing to spend $500 now).

 

[Ed Dixon]

Why isn't it fair???

You can pay $30 for something that sounds like shit... or pay more for something that sounds good.

What's the point of comparing Behringer to say, Rolls, if you're try to establish sound quality vs. price? Arguing about which sounds closer to "the real thing" seems kind of silly using bottom-feeder gear.... if having it sound "right" is important, then you buy the gear that gives you that - and often, it's not at a budget price...

For the same reason that Motor Trend does not compare Mercedes cars to Fords. They are not in the same class, price wise. I think all know that Mercedes is a better car. At four or five times the price of the Ford, it should be better.

A comparison of direct boxes would include a number of units in the same basic price range. Some might be $30, some might be $50 but all would be similar. Adding a unit for six times the cost is an apples and oranges situation.

As far as the DI-100 units goes, they seem quite good. They are low in cost and work well. A year or so ago I was part of a live CD recording with a large group at a church. They hired a professional recording studio to come in and record the source material and then do the mix at the studio. What they brought was DI-100 units. They sure seemed good enough for them.

Ed

 

[Ed Dixon]

When recording audio, there are a number of factors that have significant impact on the final result.

1. The performer
2. The person(people) doing the recording
3. The environment for recording
4. The gear

Some of the best music ever recorded was done on bery basic gear from 40 years ago, before anything was digital. However the environments, artists, and engineers still managed to get very good results.

Ed

 

[Ed Dixon]

do own one piece of Behringer gear, the DEQ2496. It has some metering and analysis features I like, but I don't run audio through it. In fact, I *can't* run audio through it because it doesn't work properly, and it didn't work correctly brand new out of the box. But the metering works well, which is what I bought it for.

I also own one of these and mine works great for audio. My biggest challenge was to get the levels right for guitar EQ, where the unit was used in front of other modeler gear.

Ed

 

[fraserhutch]

For the same reason that Motor Trend does not compare Mercedes cars to Fords. They are not in the same class, price wise. I think all know that Mercedes is a better car. At four or five times the price of the Ford, it should be better.

A comparison of direct boxes would include a number of units in the same basic price range. Some might be $30, some might be $50 but all would be similar. Adding a unit for six times the cost is an apples and oranges situation.

As far as the DI-100 units goes, they seem quite good. They are low in cost and work well. A year or so ago I was part of a live CD recording with a large group at a church. They hired a professional recording studio to come in and record the source material and then do the mix at the studio. What they brought was DI-100 units. They sure seemed good enough for them.

Ed

This statement is valid in some cases, however, in these forums we constantly deal with questions such as "is this class A unit really better than this class C unit?".

Personally, I think it is a valid question, especially in terms of bang for the buck, and along the lines of "exactly how much better is this piece of gear, and is the price difference worth it for me?".

So, IMHO, such comparisons are helpful. Is the Mercedes really 4 or 5 times a better car than the Ford? What are the defferences? Are they worth it for me?

Just my $0.02.

 

[Ed Dixon]

All true.

However many folks here are on a fairly tight budget. Telling them that a direct box for $30 sounds like xxxx and that they need to spring for a $190 unit is not really all that helpful. The reality is that one is probably better than the other, but that both are likely good enough for 99% of folks who frequent Home Recording.com.

There is always better gear. That is not in question. The issue usually is what best suits their needs.

Ed

 

[noisedude]

I think there's a reality for those of us who spend money on recording rather than make money from it. That reality is that there is only so much cash available for hobbies. Sure, I want to know what the best is, but until my wallet can't tell the difference between £30 and £300, I also want to know what the best at my price point is.

That doesn't mean I would advocate Behringer gear in a pro studio environment ... part of the price premium you pay for expensive gear is for reliability ... and for the studio engineer that is worth the money.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

For the same reason that Motor Trend does not compare Mercedes cars to Fords. They are not in the same class, price wise. I think all know that Mercedes is a better car. At four or five times the price of the Ford, it should be better.

True - except that's not what people buying low-end gear seem to believe... many times, they are saying it IS the same as the higher-end because they've swallowed the marketing tripe and the gear fascia that has "pro" silk-screened on it, and their ears don't know any better....