[pk_hat]

If anyone cares, here's my take.

While I usually share WHERE's opinion on Behringer, I could never deny that they hold a certain place in the industry, catering to a demographic that is the growing number of home-recording enthusiasts. Some of which will keep it entirely as a hobby, while others will set their sights on bigger ventures and have a genuine interest in learning about engineering as well. The latter will usually start out on the same path. Minimal gear, minimal budget but with a desire to learn and get some 'hands-on'. This is where Behringer can be high and mighty. Not everyone starts out with an Avalon pre, a Focusrite Red compressor, an Amek, SSL or Neve board, much less with ADAM or Dynaudio AIR monitors. I say let Behringer be what they are, a good starting point to understanding signal paths, gain staging, midi control devices, etc.

Those who know better and crave a better sound, which usually happens if the interest sustains by reading mags like Mix, Sound On Sound, Tape Op, as well as visiting forums such as this one, will soon figure it out. You get what you pay for and different circuits introduce different sonic results. This of course, if the song is there to begin with. I'd much rather hear a good song (in any genre) done with a Soundblaster and Behringer gear, than some piece of $#!t garbage recorded on a Neve and mixed to 2" tape at Abbey Road.

I had a Behringer mixer (MX2004) which seemed like the deal of the century at first, but within a year, the faders got buggy until 2 of them completely went out. One of the control room outputs (where my monitors were connected) crackled and the monitor/volume pot was yielding an uneven stereo image. I swore to never buy Behringer again, and I probably won't. However, I learned quite a bit by using the mixer and experimenting with routing to and from my patchbay and some of the outboard I have. Sure, it was a $249 16-channel mixer but I can't say I regret having bought it. It did a good job for a while, it failed, I learned a lot from it and now I'm moving on. My next mixer will certainly not be a B nor a Mackie, but a Soundcraft or Allen & Heath instead, even if it means waiting until I can afford it.

One of my high school friends from Montreal came to visit last weekend, he brought his Gibson and a Behringer V-Amp modeler. What can I tell you, that thing sounded better than my POD, no lying, no exagerating. Perhaps it will fail him in a year, maybe two, but for $100 on eBay, he can at least get cracking on some new tunes and get productive, which again, is all that matters in the end.

I know I'm rambling on (and I do apologize) and yes I do - generally - despise Behringer, but I'm done with my "not even if they made guitar picks" bashing. My conclusion is that it's "hit-or-miss" with them, they just happen to miss with my first (and last) purchase, but as odd as it sounds coming from me, I feel Behringer is needed by a lot of people who are simply starting out.

'night.