The Patrick Swayze of Mixing Consoles???? Behringer X32

[TimWalter]

Hello everyone.

I subscribe to a handful of blogs on recording techniques and equipment. Killer Home Recording was the first one I found in my journey, and I still get it, although I usually breeze through his stuff. I enjoy his humor as much as anything, he once posted a hilarious video which was to find out if the Shure SM57 was actually bulletproof, and they literally took an SM57 to a shooting range, and with him dressed in his most outlandish red neck clothing, including fake really bad teeth, he proceeded to shoot an SM57 with a handgun to see if it was bulletproof (SPOILER: it wasnt). But I digress.

I have come to respect some of his thoughts, and have learned from him, for one he raved about the Distressor outboard compressor, and since then I have heard other full time pros laud this outboard gear (Ronan had a couple in his rack when I visited him for the Boot Camp.) BUT, this latest post has got me wondering if Brandon has either sold out to Behringer, or having early Alzheimers onset or something. According to his post, the Behringer mixing console has replaced ALL his gear, including all his outboard gear (which would obviously include the Distressors, etc).

Yes, Behringer gets no love, mainly because so many of their gear is made very cheaply to fit a price point. But they are a large company, and somebody must keep buying their stuff, or they would be out of business. Apparently this X32 is not a bad digital console, especially for live work, but to use it for broadcast quality recordings?? its not cheap (over $2000 at Sweetwater), but has a ton of channels. I know a number of folks on this forum are fans of the Apollo, You could get the Apollo Quad for just a little more money ($2500), only 18 ins, but all that DSP power for plugins and some UA plugins included is something Behringer cant touch.

I almost hesitate to post this, I personally would cringe at the thought of bringing clients into my studio and the center pc was a Behringer board, just cant get over it. Its really hard to shake a bad reputation (not that I have a stream of clients, but ok, I do have other folks come to my studio to collaborate or record)..... On the other hand, a company the size of Behringer would have the resources to actually put out a quality and highly desired product, if they so chose to do so.

Anyway, curious as to any other thoughts by Taxi forum denizens.

NOTE: I have no plans to purchase a Behringer, my planned studio upgrade is to go to a new iMac with Thunderbolt, so I am looking at Thunderbolt
interfaces. Apollo is a possibility.
Tim

http://forum.recordingreview.com/f177/b ... 76%2Cd.aWw

[JAMRecording]

First off, I worked for a very large music manufacturer for several years (no names) and I'm very familiar with Behringers products and manufacturing practices. Without bagging on them too much, I would encourage you to spend your hard earned money elsewhere. There's a lot of different routes you could go. I would do some research online. I'm not sure what your set up is or your focus. Do you want a board that is good for live and studio recording? Those are two different animals. If it was me sitting on 2k and was looking to upgrade my recording set up, I would buy a few 500 series pre's. You wouldn't have faders, but mixing in the box isn't so bad when you've recorded through some quality preamps.

[mojobone]

My friends who mix live sound on a budget use and generally like the X32, though most are painfully aware that there's better stuff out there, for a substantially larger outlay. I think most folks tend to over-emphasize gear, generally, but the minimum standard these days is good enough that the talent and where you stick the mics are a bigger variable than the gear itself.

[Russell Landwehr]

the x32 is fantastic for live use... I've mixed two different bands on that thing several times. It is highly configurable.
But for Recording? nah! The best money for recording is spent on a fast processor, quality PREs/ADA, and good plug-ins.

[TimWalter]

Thanks guys for your comments.