X32 at the Proms

[timtheenchanteruk]

Watching Dr who at the Proms last night, during the price with the Radiophonic Workshop Gods, caught a glipse of what looked like an X32...

 

Later on, a closer up image...

 

http://s16.postimg.org/ovqeu196t/Screenshot_2.png

 

It is indeed an X32, now feeling somwhat warm that I have the same desk as used by the Radiophonic Gods...

 

If its good enough to be used at the BBC proms, buy the guys themselves, who an I to argue :)

 

link to the peice

 

[GR1]

I've been doing some upgrade work at Sky News studios and most workstations have Behringer interfaces. Their stuff is fine exept in the most demanding situations. The Radiophonic mix will probably be programmed mixes of line level stuff so not too demanding.

[BigYinUK]

Plenty of Behringer stuff in the BBC studios at Radio Plymouth too. We did a session for them a while back.

[peza2010]

To be honest I am not sure while we are still doing this...

 

So far so good on the X32 front... yes they make some tat, but the desk is really standing on its own two feet.

 

 

It seems it may take a long long time for the B word to be a bad thing.

[timtheenchanteruk]

I'm not Behringer knocking, far form it, Ive had their kit for years, it was more surprise than anything that their kit is used for the Proms, especially such a high publicity one as this.

 

I'm more than happy with mine, and so are many, many more users. I just wasn't expecting what is, being honest, a lower end desk being used in such a high profile event.

[BigYinUK]

I've also had lots of it in the past.

 

Apart from a run in with one their dreadful DI's, its all been good. Never had a failure or breakage even though the stuff was gigged for years.

 

One or two of their products look like they wouldn't stand too much being bashed about, but once its all in a flight case I felt quite happy that nothing would break prematurely.

 

Given that you could buy 4 of 5 Behringer xyz's for the price of some of the more up market kit it was a no brainer when you're on a budget.

[S&L]

I think we are now at the point where all that's left is either

a) the label snobs - the same guys that look sideways if your car doesn't have the cool badge - or your guitar headstock.

or b) the guys that have been working with yamaha's etc for that long that they don't want to consider alternatives.

as I'm sure I have said before, I work occasionally with a band that have been touring with their x32 for a year now. Plenty of other blue room users can post similar stories. I have a hire unit sat in my rehearsal unit as I type - being used this week as a make shift recording studio. that particular desk has been all over the country for the company concerned.

it isn't a wait and see thing any more really just a question of 'does it fit the budget and requirement'

is it perfect? no of course not

is it reasonably reliable. yes of course it is

is it well supported - much better support than other desks in the same price range, by all accounts.

 

frankly my only question now is what size x32 will my next desk purchase be.

[paulears]

It's just a repeat of what happened to Skoda. Links to other respected brands, a complete review of quality control, and a good attempt at a rebranding exercise. Now you can't even tell one of the old Skoda jokes, because younger people have no idea what you are on about. Luddites still remain sold on their old opinions, and if they're that narrow, good luck to them. We still have negativity on certain individual items, which is often based on real world issues, but no longer the entire brand.

 

Behringer DI

AKG C1000

 

These two come up frequently as just Marmite products - no middle ground,no taking prisoners. We just need to realise that an entire brand cannot any longer be considered negative.

[Stuart91]

It's just a repeat of what happened to Skoda. Now you can't even tell one of the old Skoda jokes, because younger people have no idea what you are on about.

 

I'm curious if, with the Skoda situation, the money and effort that went into rehabilitating the brand would have given better results if they had just launched a new brand entirely.

 

Behringer are less likely to do so, (it's his name, after all) but I did notice that their more "boutique" guitar amps have a different name on them.

[Bobbsy]

It's just a repeat of what happened to Skoda. Links to other respected brands, a complete review of quality control, and a good attempt at a rebranding exercise. Now you can't even tell one of the old Skoda jokes, because younger people have no idea what you are on about. Luddites still remain sold on their old opinions, and if they're that narrow, good luck to them. We still have negativity on certain individual items, which is often based on real world issues, but no longer the entire brand.

 

Behringer DI

AKG C1000

 

These two come up frequently as just Marmite products - no middle ground,no taking prisoners. We just need to realise that an entire brand cannot any longer be considered negative.

 

Particularly in the case of the C1000S I'd say it gets commented on because AKG makes so many excellent microphones. If I had to choose a single mic to do everything with it would be the C451EB for example.

 

Behringer is a slightly different case. They did make some pretty ropey stuff in the past that "happened" to look a lot like stuff from other manufacturers. A lot of the criticism for copying others' designs is overblown but there is a slight element of truth. However, those who harp on about how bad Behringer is are largely living in the past. For example, their original digital mixer offering (DDX3216) was a lovely bit of kit for the money. The DCX2496 speaker management is hard to better even at twice the money. The ADA8000 may have slightly noisy pre amps at high levels but is "good enough" that it's used all over the place--the closest alternative is several times the price. Yes, they still make some dogs but every manufacturer gets it wrong sometimes. The one thing to say about Behringer is that it's almost always good value for money--it's just that sometimes the money is very low.

[OneEng]

The X32 is silly good for the money; however, I don't think it is the best for everyone.

 

If you know your way around the X32, you can set it up for a really nice workflow at the gig. That can be a big "IF" though.

 

I think that I might recommend the Qu-16 or Expression Si to less adept users or those that are intimidated by digital boards and are moving from analog.

[S&L]

The X32 is silly good for the money; however, I don't think it is the best for everyone.

 

If you know your way around the X32, you can set it up for a really nice workflow at the gig. That can be a big "IF" though.

 

I think that I might recommend the Qu-16 or Expression Si to less adept users or those that are intimidated by digital boards and are moving from analog.

 

I'm not sure that I agree with that - I had very little digital exposure before working on my first x32.

it certainly helped that the show I was going to mix was already programmed and I was able to practice for a few hours with an earlier version of that show

but with 2 hours on a kitchen worktop and another 2 hours in rehearsal with the band I was able to do a decent job of mixing a live show. The only thing that threw me (for all of 10 minutes) as an analogue user was using the bus pots - once I had got my head around send on faders, I never used the bus pots again.

I'm still learning new tricks (copy and paste channels) but most reports I have seen say it should take less than a day to get to grips with and as a former analogue boy I would agree with that.

[GaryNattrass]

We use their mixers all the time in broadcast and the rack in most of th Sat uplink trucks has several of the 8ch mixers for balancing talkback and coms, I have an ADA 8000 on my pro tools rig and a 1002b mixer for location work where I need a small battery mixer with a few channels and auxes for sends.

[OneEng]

The X32 is silly good for the money; however, I don't think it is the best for everyone.

 

If you know your way around the X32, you can set it up for a really nice workflow at the gig. That can be a big "IF" though.

 

I think that I might recommend the Qu-16 or Expression Si to less adept users or those that are intimidated by digital boards and are moving from analog.

 

I'm not sure that I agree with that - I had very little digital exposure before working on my first x32.

it certainly helped that the show I was going to mix was already programmed and I was able to practice for a few hours with an earlier version of that show

but with 2 hours on a kitchen worktop and another 2 hours in rehearsal with the band I was able to do a decent job of mixing a live show. The only thing that threw me (for all of 10 minutes) as an analogue user was using the bus pots - once I had got my head around send on faders, I never used the bus pots again.

I'm still learning new tricks (copy and paste channels) but most reports I have seen say it should take less than a day to get to grips with and as a former analogue boy I would agree with that.

Perhaps since I came from a MixWiz that didn't have any "buses" at all (unless you count the auxes), the entire idea that everything was a bus on the X32 really took some getting used to for me. I had never had to stereo link anything, and putting a compressor or gate on a channel for me was a matter of wiring ;)

 

Now that I have a grip on it, I think that you can use the features of the X32 to make running your show a breeze in comparison to an analog or even analog like digital desk.

 

And yes.... sends on fader is a wonderful thing ;)

 

 

 

[timsabre]

I have spoken to a few people who own and have used the X32:

 

Sound is very, very, very good for the price (it is based on Midas technology)

Fantastic features for the price.

 

It stops there...

 

It feels very cheap and does not feel solid to the touch

They have all had dodgy sliders, not crackling as such, but volume level "crackling", ie, volume cutting in and out due to what would be a crackling slider.

One guy got through 2 power supplies in the first year (he has only had it a year)

 

Consensus is that it is a good desk for the money and would be better and more reliable if they spent just a little more on it, using some better components. This would only cause a slight price increase that I feel would be acceptable if it gave more reliability.

 

 

You posted a message saying exactly this a few weeks ago, and everyone disagreed with you then. I still don't agree with you, and I don't know where you are getting your "consensus" from but it isn't the majority of X32 users. The "feel" of the desk compares very well to pro consoles and reliability issues seem to be rare and swiftly dealt with by Behringer.

 

Perhaps you should try one yourself and see what YOU think of it?