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Tagged As: Behringer Mixer Review

Question:
I don't like Mackie or Behringer particularly. What you get: For 200 sinking US dollars you get a small, fairly solid looking unit with 8 preamps, two ADAT in-out, a word clock and some silly lights. The mike pres are XLR and there is ALSO a line in TRS on the same gain pot. Plug your eight mikes in and hook it up to an 8 channel recorder and away you go. Plug the ADAT out into the Behringer and you can monitor out the back, XLR only. In short, 8 pres, 8 channels AD/DA. 44.1 or 48 kHz, 24 bit only. Global phantom power, didn't measure it. Yes, I opened it up. Inside is mostly empty space *gasp*. There is a printed circuit board which is mostly surface mount but you could yank out some the colored thingies without a meltdown. Doing so would probably void your warranty, BTW. Behind the knobs is a hidden circuit board that I did not take out. This one is smaller and looks to control the pots & knobbies. Oh yes, there is a TORROIDAL in the corner. No kidding. Yes, there are some chips that said Alesis on them. Other than that, they didn't say much. Test setup: Two matched Sennheiser MKH 20 mikes (omni, VERY quiet) Canare stereo snake An audio upgrades preamp A custom made with custom transformer more quiet than anything preamp A Mytek 8x96 converter for reference A French double manual harpsichord based on Ruckers/Goujon A Fostex D2424 (not the Low Value) A pile of connectors and a fostex optical/coaxial converter I tried out a bunch of acoustic instruments and settled in the harpsichord as the instrument that was going to really put it to the test. Pipe organ was runner up. The harpsichord produces a very consistent sound from take to take as the volume is nearly identical if the keystroke is kept at a reasonable speed. Four setups: Behringer pres, B converters My pres, B converters--through the line jack, turned lowish My pres, Fostex built in converters My Pres, Mytek converters Note that I could not test the Behringer pres by themselves And the winner is...... Gee I wonder. I was very intrigued by the Behringer pres as I had heard that they were A. Bright B. Dark C. Noisy D. quiet. Obviously a lot of Rashomon fans out there. First off, the gain, while sufficient, is just not cranking. 10 am on my transformer preamp equalled 2 pm on the B. Won't crank a ribbon. Sorry. Anything else, just enough. If you use the line in WHICH YOU SHOULD, however, you are more than fine. The knobs have little clicks in them which is nice. I would describe the sound quality as on the dark side, with an undertone of cough syrup. I actually like cough syrup, but only a few spoonfuls. Dark but not revealing perhaps, a tad thick. Not unpleasant; not bright. Perhaps not quite as soothing as the best cough syrup. There are those who might say tooby, not me. Would I use the preamps? No. Er, well, maybe. OK, I hook up my preamps to the line in, set lowish. Plenty O' gain now. And the result? Very nice. Yes, it is very nice. Smooth, quiet, semidetailed. Nice treble, nice bass. Good converter. And better than a lot of very expensive boxes out there, no question. (Ye shall remain nameless, ye overpriced preverters.) At least, if you have a good preamp. Not very colored--the color comes from the pres! OK, fine. I hook up the pres to the Fostex converters. The behringer is a tad better. A little smoother. A very slight difference. OK, getting majorly bored AND there is just a collosal mess in the house. I hook up the Mytek. The Mytek is better. More transparent. Tighter bass, whatever that means. Difference is slight, as you would expect when comparing reasonably built converters. Treble is similar, perhaps not as accurate on after-ring tones. Well, geez, it should be better. But ya know, it was not a lot better, it was just a bit better. But it IS better. BTW, the mytek is a fine converter for orchestra work or just about anything else. Is it quiet enough? Yes, it is. The sennheisers should know. Is it as quiet as the Mytek? It is quiet, but there is a frisson of junk in the sound that probably comes from the gain stage. You will not hear it unless you crank the volume ALL the way, which you shouldn't anyway. Could be if you fussed with it there would be a sweet spot between line in and gain. If I had to record an orchestra with 24 tracks 12 of which were Mytek and 8 were Behringer, would I do it? Yup. Would I rather have 3 Myteks or two Myteks and a Troisi? Yes, but it would be heavy to cart around. Will I keep it? Can't decide. Like the converters, don't like the pres. The pres aren't bad, and they are quiet enough, they just aren't for me. It occurs to me if you have bright mics, which I do not, this might be the thing. The pres sound way better than whatever is in the cheesy little Behringer mixer I bought and then returned, BTW--even if it is the same circuit it isn't going through the Styrofoam EQ section. I do a lot of Orchestra work, and I need the pres to be better for the vast array of sounds. Plus transparency. Will it break? It is more solid than most. Could you mod the preamps? Hard to say. Looks like there is room for some audio upgrades cards, benchmark cards or something similar. The ICs would be a beast, IMHO. Conclusion: A nice box limited by somewhat muddy pres. Nice converter. Converter quiet due no doubt to the excellent power supply and probably the Alesis chips. A real bargain. Recommended with reservations noted above. Converters have come a long way.

Answer:
> Conclusion: > A nice box limited by somewhat muddy pres. Nice converter. Converter > quiet due no doubt to the excellent power supply and probably the > Alesis chips. > A real bargain. Recommended with reservations noted above. Converters > have come a long way. could it(4 of them) be used to create a a to d snake feeding a yamaha Dm series mixer for live sound?