Behringer?
are you kidding? That stuff is crap.
Yup...that's all I ever hear. That bad reputation has kept me from buying their gear.
The few items that I have played with were never unsatisfactory to me. Cheaply built...but not bad sounding..which is where it counts.
a year ago, I purchased a new model mixer from them..can't remember the model. It had a built in SD recorder that would dump all of the channels to individual PCM tracks. Very handy...but I ended up returning it because the build quality was junk (it did sound nice though) and I figured I'd break it within months of use on the road. It was $700..so I opted to keep my money instead.
So now they have a new family of digital mixers that incorporate WiFi access points in the mixer itself. Free software to control it is available for MAC/PC/Linux/Android.
Again...$700. I shopped around and got one for almost $100 less.
quick specs / observations.
- TINY...smaller than a shoe-box. 16 x XLR inputs and two aux inputs for a total of 18. It's about the size of your standard XLR snake head.
- USB 2.0 18 in x 18 out for recording (came with a copy of Traktor)
- WiFi access point allows 4 devices to connect. I'm using my android phone and tablet.
- slick ass software. no burps, no latency. Easy to figure out.
- a zillion effects, emulated "classic rack mount gear" going back 40yrs.
- super easy routing of signals to mains / USB / AUX / BUS
- set it up.....and SAVE the config. play that venue again...load the previously saved setup and you're off and running.
- mix from stage, or have someone mix for you by handing over your phone for a few minutes.
- solid construction. Metal chassis...rubber mounts on the edges. The only moving part is a headphone amp volume pot.
My first impressions are very favorable.
the preamps (designed by MIDAS...and their logo is stamped on the box), sound fantastic. Super quiet and clean.
The effects are all HQ. not crappy at all.
Recording / mixing / routing is easy. I can set it up for a live performance and route spot mics or ambient mics to a separate BUS and send it to the USB out and not the mains....or route to the AUX outs and multi-track w/my DR680.
The software didn't crash at all in 10hrs of running time. In fact, it hasn't even hiccuped once.
I envision that after owning this for a few months, I'll have all my regular venues and studio setups "saved" where I can just turn it on, load a setting and go.
So far, so good. No...in fact, this thing is quite literally FUCKING COOL.