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Is this thing worth it? I have about $250 to spend and need a mixer for my band. Is there a better product out there for the price?

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anonymous Wed, 12/28/2005 - 14:42

second hand mackie would be so much more respectable. Probaby sound way better. Will hold its value better too. If you want to do any kind of mixing on the board (live or other wise) a sweepable mid range eq is worth its weight in gold- any mixer. If ya just need the preamps and faders, mackie kicks behringpoo's pooey ass but isn't as cheeeep. Do you need built in fx?

anonymous Thu, 12/29/2005 - 10:26

don't waste your money, none of the behringer gear is worth a penny!

if you only have 250 now, wait 'n' save and buy a mackie VLZ, that you can consider a usefull investment.

even if 1 piece out of hundred behringer gear is not falling straight away apart after it came out of the box, spending 250 dolar on reverse engineering / stealing that is!! is a crime in my eyes.

if you buy cheap you buy twice, shure.

CoyoteTrax Thu, 12/29/2005 - 13:22

Dude, don't let these yahoo's make your mind up for you.

I have owned and used a UB1204FX for almost 4 years now and have never had a singles day's problem with it. Never.

Fact: You cannot get a mackie vlz pro for less than $750. That's a looooooong long way from $250. You can't find one used for less than $550 even.

$230 will get you a Behri board now and if you guys want to upgrade later you can...provided the band is still together even.

As an alternative, you could consider the Soundcraft Compact 10 for like $179 at MF. The Yamaha MG series isn't bad for the price either. Yamaha may not sound better than Behringer in that price range but they're built a little tougher.

But take it from someone who is actually USING and has BEEN USING a Behringer UB board for a couple of years now...they get the job done. They're not for everything but they work and can get the job done.

anonymous Thu, 12/29/2005 - 13:33

Coyote Trax wrote:

I have owned and used a UB1204FX for almost 4 years now and have never had a singles day's problem with it. Never.

that's the one in a hundred i am talking about, count your self lucky, that you did not picked one of the 99, purchasing a behringer is playing the lottery...

you won and 99 people loose their money and have hussle.

as i said buy cheap buy twice. i still say it's well worth to wait 'n' save for something you can consider sonically good!!

anonymous Thu, 12/29/2005 - 13:38

Coyote Trax wrote:

But take it from someone who is actually USING and has BEEN USING a Behringer UB board for a couple of years now...they get the job done. They're not for everything but they work and can get the job done.

been there many years ago with a mixer, eurorack 2004 to be precise, and dozens of my collegs in the early days of their career... and it was untill today the only purchase i ever made which i regret!!, because i still have some use of ALL my other very old gear (except the crap mixer), still working fine and sonically up for the job, money spend very well... and only ONCE.

maintiger Thu, 12/29/2005 - 14:02

I bought a behringer mixer once when I needed an extra board for live sound and did not want to spend too much... I think I spent about $250 and it was a waste of money- the pres were really dull and the thing sounded terrible. Its still in the garage somewhere, gathering dust. If i had bought a mackie it would still be used fer sure- like moonbaby said, you generally get what you pay for! :oops:

anonymous Thu, 12/29/2005 - 14:03

Ok. I think I found what I want. There's used mackie 1402's going for like $200.

One final question. How's the quality of Nady stuff? I noticed the Mackie has preamps and a lot of people say they're good. Not great, mind blowing, or astounding, but good. So how's a Nady compare? Is there anything better than Mackie I should look at? Is a used 1602 for 300-350 a better investment than a 1402 for 200-250?

jonnyc Fri, 12/30/2005 - 10:16

CoyoteTrax wrote: Dude, don't let these yahoo's make your mind up for you.

I have owned and used a UB1204FX for almost 4 years now and have never had a singles day's problem with it. Never.

Fact: You cannot get a mackie vlz pro for less than $750. That's a looooooong long way from $250. You can't find one used for less than $550 even.

$230 will get you a Behri board now and if you guys want to upgrade later you can...provided the band is still together even.

As an alternative, you could consider the Soundcraft Compact 10 for like $179 at MF. The Yamaha MG series isn't bad for the price either. Yamaha may not sound better than Behringer in that price range but they're built a little tougher.

But take it from someone who is actually USING and has BEEN USING a Behringer UB board for a couple of years now...they get the job done. They're not for everything but they work and can get the job done.

Started with a MG yamaha mixer, and the drummer that used to always come over had a little behri equivalent. The yamaha sounded much better, and the exact words out of the drummers mouth were "shit, i wasted my money". And at that point neither one of us knew anything about recording so its pretty amazing we could tell the difference, but that just goes to show you how awful the pre's are. Now some talent could get you past the bad sounding pre's, but we're talking real talent.

CoyoteTrax Fri, 12/30/2005 - 13:23

Then get some talent.

I do read people's posts here and few have mentioned the Behri "UB" series specifically, which is important when you're talking about these things.

"A" Behringer board (i.e., Eurorack series or some other series) is not the same as the "UB" series. And the UB series is a little different than the UB Pro series. The UB Pro series has a quieter power supply and is vastly different in quality than the Eurorack series which is very noisey. Make you're on the same page because the original post asked about the UB1832FX Pro.

Just to clarify.

anonymous Sat, 12/31/2005 - 04:37

coyote trax wrote:

"A" Behringer board (i.e., Eurorack series or some other series) is not the same as the "UB" series. And the UB series is a little different than the UB Pro series. The UB Pro series has a quieter power supply and is vastly different in quality than the Eurorack series which is very noisey. Make you're on the same page because the original post asked about the UB1832FX Pro.

that's totally clear, or at least should be. Printing 'XXX' and 'Pro' onto a piece of box does still not make ANY of their gear worth a single penny.

blaumph2cool Fri, 01/06/2006 - 20:45

I have A UB1832FX for the last 4 years and only use it in live settings as it is way too noisey for recording.

I am going to have to go with Coyote on this one. I have gotten every penny I paid outta my mixer.

it has a good amount of inputs and routing possibilities.

When I think back and if i had waited months or even a year to save up, i would have missed out on a lot of experience gained by using the crappy B (I say crappy in the nicest way possible).

-Chris W

maintiger Tue, 01/10/2006 - 09:38

I just dusted off my 16 ch behringer mixer for an outdoor gig this weekend- was doing a set in an event and the sound was being provided by a guy with a DJ set up. (Glad I didn't have to log my pa this time!) :D Of course the DJ didn't have enough input for mics so the mixer was good to set up three extra mics plus 2 line input for the keyboard. Worked fine for that, so I guess I'm getting my moneys worth after all. This board is totally not good for recording but it is what it is and it has its uses sometimes... :o

HansAm Tue, 01/10/2006 - 11:08

If you absolutley want it cheap, buy a used behringer. You get them thrown after you. And for what your going to use it for its "ok". Dont buy a new Behringer...
But of course i would suggest that you save up for a quality product right away.
I have a Phoenix mixer in my bandroom. It has just a little better reputation than Behringer i think.. But its still not a good mixer, the knobs are viggly and the pre-amps have notisable noise-levels in regular use.