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Anyone have any experience with any units from the new(ish) Behinger XR12/16/18 X Air digital mixer line (Avid

I know Behringer had a bad rap, but the XR18 has exactly the features that I'm looking for (it's essentially a digital snake that you can put on the floor in the middle of the stage, and mix if from an iPad anywhere in the house using the built-in Wifi).

Comments

pcrecord Sun, 07/19/2015 - 14:08

I don't have experience with it but yeah it's a digital mixing board without the actual board..
The preamps are said to be the same as the X32 which are usable but not yet up to the WOW factor...
For the price, it's a very interesting unit... I'm curious how it will old up through time of uses.

If you can deal with always going into menus to mix your band.. Digital mixing has it's own aproach that you need to deal with (not having a knob for everything)
Give us some feedback if you decide to go forward with it ! ;)

DonnyThompson Mon, 07/20/2015 - 02:00

pcrecord, post: 430835, member: 46460 wrote: The preamps are said to be the same as the X32 which are usable but not yet up to the WOW factor...

FYI... The Midas preamps that Behringer started using are not the same preamps that were used in the Midas consoles which became well known and well - liked.

Recent articles have mentioned that no one from Midas is even there anymore working for Behringer after the recent acquisition, and that the pre's that Behringer began using are far different - they are of the budget class ( and substandard) to those that built Midas's reputation with their various consoles.

pcrecord Mon, 07/20/2015 - 02:54

I know Donny, I said same as X32, not same as Midas ;)
They may share the design but I would never say they are just Ok if they were real Midas pre (who are much better..)

Copying design with lower price parts is a recurring modo at Behringer. Nearly all of the analog tools they made were known to be very noisy.
To me the X32 was their first unit that could be used on pro job (at least live)

DonnyThompson Mon, 07/20/2015 - 04:16

pcrecord, post: 430869, member: 46460 wrote: I know Donny, I said same as X32, not same as Midas

Sorry pal ... I misread your post. :oops:

From a business perspective, I understand that there needs to be someone who can make products that are geared more towards hobbyists who do this for demos, or even just for fun... I have a good friend who has an extensive recording history as a pro session drummer, and over a period of 30 years, he's been recorded through some of the best gear available ( and by some of the best engineers around) but, when he records at home with his kids, he uses cheap gear because it's just a hobby... they are only doing it for fun, so for him, and for others like him, it would be a waste of money to step into pro class gear.

Enter companies like Behringer - and others like them - to fill the need for hobby-caliber recording gear. I don't have any problems with that. And I don't have any problems with people who eventually want to become serious starting out at this level, either... entry level gear that doesn't cost them a second mortgage, to cut their teeth on, hone their chops with, to see if this is what they really want to do. That's not a problem for me. We all have to start somewhere.

The problem as I see it, is with companies who are selling this budget level gear but who are claiming it as being professional gear, and to be catering to the professional echelon, and misleading those who are new to the craft but who are wanting to seriously pursue it - and who are in the beginning stages of putting their rig together; and many of these entry level recordists end up falling for these company's marketing strategies and adverts, that claim that their budget-priced gear has "stellar sound", "pristine sonics", "rich and warm", and my favorite (not!) .. "professional-level equipment". Those who are new to the craft simply don't know that this isn't true... because they don't have anything else to base it one....they don't have any idea that truly professional gear... like (audiokid ) Chris's Millennia, or Bricasti , or your Focusrite, or UA, or ( vibrations1951 ) Namaste's Folcrum, or (Davedog ) Dave's Vipre ...this is real professional gear - (and is priced accordingly, too).

They are either led to believe that they can get the same results out of their $200 Behringer 8 channel preamp/ i-o as they could with any of the gear that is owned and used by the pro's, or, they've fooled themselves into thinking that this is true...

Again - I'm not against budget-level gear. I think it serves several purposes... one of which is that it allows the user to see if this is what they want to do without breaking the bank. Another is that it gives them a reference as to just how good truly pro gear sounds like, once they finally get a chance to work with it, because they've spent some time on gear that didn't have that sonic fidelity.

IMHO of course.

pcrecord Mon, 07/20/2015 - 05:28

I have a band coming to the studio sunday. Going through their Facebook page, I figured that one of the girlfriend recently finished audio school.
I went to her page and saw a 90$ mic and a 150$ mixer in her home pics.. So I understand why they are comming to me to record..
I just hope she won't want to control everything and that they will let me mix the songs... ;) I hate it when bands decide to mix themself if my name is associated to the project..

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