The Behringer mixer and monitors are certainly "beginner".

You can make decent recordings with them, but it is not easy. You will do better imho to get a different console (no, not a Mackie either... Allen & Heath or Soundcraft), and maybe even different monitors (such as Tannoy low-end or M-Audio).

Unless you have a need for all of those channels on the console, get an 8-channel A&H and you'll be a lot happier with the sound after you spend enough time to develop a good ear for it.

I personally don't hear the difference between any of the small format mixers in terms of better or worse.. they all sound like ass but in different ways.

Often mic pres that are percived as "warmer" and "fuller" are really just slower (slower slew rates can make a mic pre sound less harsh) and when compared to a great console or mic pre it can sound as if a blanket has been lifted off of the source.

The Mackies are built like tanks and have fast mic pres but the summing bus's run out of headroom quickly and the eq's suck. I personally don't care for the "accurate" thing, but Mackies do it pretty well... just watch the levels and don't use the eq.

Behringer gear has a very bad track record in terms of reliabilty and build quality and in most cases is a knock off of a Mackie design.

If all you are going to do is dink around as a "hobby" then what you have selected should be fine. That gear should last for quite a while if only used ocasionally.

If your goal is to learn as much about recording as possible, in spite of your statement that all you want to do is " buy these things to start my own studio, just for hobby " and if in the back of your mind you are really thinking that you will squeeze great sound out of the gear in spite of it's limitations, then I advise you to forgo all the cheap stuff and spend your money once by purchasing great mics, pres, monoitors etc. Otherwise you will be frustrated in a years time and be looking to upgrade it all...

Kurt is absolutely right. If all you want to do is to play around a s a "hobby" the gear you list is a-ok for that. If you are serious at all though, get some quality gear that will last you a life time- Otherwise you will spend now, then spend again later- that's how the gear companies make their money- you spend first on cheap sh**t then when the recording bugs bites you hard you spend again but this time a lot more and then can the cheap sh**t! Good luck!

You can get surprisingly far with your money if you go with Behringer. Which I do. I'm a musician, music is not my hobby, it's my profession. I have a small home studio which I mainly use for composing music and working with my own little projects, and for that purpose my Behringer mixer and Behringer monitors are great. None of them have caught fire, none of them are howling, humming or making any significant unwanted noise.

If I had the cash, I would love to spend thousands on a better mixing console, interfaces, preamps, microphones, monitors - but I don't happen to be in that situation, so instead I try to get the best out of my two pieces of Behringer gear as I can.

And besides, I've heard music made on the best available gear sound much worse than stuff recorded with a single China mic/preamp into a cheap M-Audio soundcard. What's important is WHAT you do with your gear, and althogh I'm sure we can all agree you're not going to get professional studio-standard results with a Behringer mixer, you can get pretty damn close if you're talented.

Ellegaard wrote: What's important is WHAT you do with your gear, and althogh I'm sure we can all agree you're not going to get professional studio-standard results with a Behringer mixer, you can get pretty damn close if you're talented.

I agree with much of this. Talent comes first. I have to temper that with this antidote ... I recorded several albums on a small Phonic mixer, a Soundcraft Spirit Studio mixer, Fostex 450 mixer, with Shure 57 & 58's, Beta G4.0 and ATM 11's and was very pleased with the results.. I still play these recordings to my friends proudly. But the First time I got a chance to use a real console, a Trident, I stood back and said to myself, "Ohhhh, .... now I get it."

If you are going to pursue a serious recording career, then start with good gear and don't waste your cash by purchasing pres compressors and mics more than once ... Buy your gear once ...

Kurt Foster

What is a Buy-It-Once mixer, 16-channel, for live performance?

That sounds like an answer on TV's Jeopardy, to the question, Mackie 1604?

the carvin studio mate sm162 is an awesome easy to use mixer for under 300US. very clean and un-hyped 8 channel mixer. it doesn't have faders though so not as great for mixing down but most everybody i know automates their mixes in cubase/logic/whatever anyways. this is just something to get sounds into your comptuer.

One man's trash is another man's pot of gold.

Go with what sounds best in your price range. If nothing sounds good in your price range, well, then you have to decide whether to save up some money or compromise. It's as simple as that.

I would keep an eye on classifieds, ebay, etc. You may just find some good products drop into your range.

There is a lot of junk being sold out there. Just shop carefully.

I would recommend staying away from the Behringer monitors. They just rub me the wrong way. I find them very fatiguing. Check some Event TR series speakers. Those should be fairly affordable. Also the M-Audio speakers aren't bad. Mackie even has some cheaper monitors in their new Tapco line that are worth a listen.

The thing that bugs me about the Behringer mixer are things like pan pots not being centered when their in the center. Intermittent pots. That type of stuff. I guess all cheap mixers are probably like that though.

Definitely give a listen to some other monitors though.

Yes, listen to everything you possibly can. There really is not comparation between the monitors in that price range and the 2000$+ minotors. In my store, the other monitors in the price range were M-Audio BX5, which had no bass and sounded more like a ghetto blaster, the Tapco S5's which I absolutely can't recommend because of their completely awful boost of the lower mid ends that give them a horrific boxy-boomy sound, and the Alesis M-1 monitors that sounded fairly nice but were hyped in the brilliant highs and the bass. The Behringer were more linear, to my ears, and since most stores are selling out right now you can make a scoop. They've been pretty expensive once actually...

I haven't had a chance to listen to Event monitors unfortunately. But give it a shot! Bring some music you like; I recomment bringing some different classical music as well, some symphonic and chamber music. If you know the instruments just a little bit it's easy to hear how natural the reproduction is.

I have some Edirol monitors that I use at home, I ca'nt remember the model #. They aren't the greatest, but they sound pretty good, and if you just sit and listen to familar music for a while to get used to them you can get some good mixes out of them. They are fairly cheap (I think I paid $150 for them or something) and I've gotten some decent mixes out of them.

I have some Edirol monitors that I use at home, I ca'nt remember the model #. They aren't the greatest, but they sound pretty good, and if you just sit and listen to familar music for a while to get used to them you can get some good mixes out of them. They are fairly cheap (I think I paid $150 for them or something) and I've gotten some decent mixes out of them.

This is the minimum recording chain I recommend:

M-Audio DMP3 dual preamp $150
M-Audio Audiophile soundcard $150

Tried and true bang-for-the-buck.

For monitors I'd look at the new KRK ST-8 and the Event TR-5.

forget the Behringer stuff.