Anyone Using Behringer stuff - Thoughts on quality?

[csiaudio]

A friend of mine is looking at doing voice work on a very limited budget - honestly I would normally never recommend Behringer audio gear but has anyone out there had any experience with the Ultra Voice VX2000 from them? If so, what are your thoughts on it's...dare I say, quality?

Any while you're here has anyone used their V-Amp Pro guitar processor? Results?

Thanks

[warhead]

The V Amp is crap, but I don't tend to like model type stuff. If he wants to model different guitar rigs, try to steer him in the direction of the Randall MTS system.

What is his budget on a vocal strip? Is he going to be PC based? He may not need compression / de-essing or whatever that thing does as it may be available in his DAW.

Maybe he just needs a decent preamp and mic.

War

[T_R_S]

If it breaks don't expet to fix it just buy a new one. i had a DI and it got dropped once .... Toast.

[fOZf8]

Most of the Behringer stuff I have used isn't too bad, but it's also not really GOOD, it just is. It's cheap, and it does what it's supposed to (usually), just nothing spectacular whatsoever.

The only thing I'm currently using of theres is the Tube Composer, but it should really be called the Tube Com'Poser' cause the tubes barely do jack shit. They do add a VERY very mild distortion, but the lights that glow from the tubes aren't even the tubes, it's little lights added BEHIND the tubes to make it look like they're working hard to the beat. At first I had my doubts about wether or not the signal even passed through the tubes, but I've read elsewhere that they are just significantly underpowered, and if replaced with some lesser power hungry tubes it'll sound much nicer and drive them much better.

As for the compressor section, well, it's nothing great, I guess it's OK, but I rarely use it, I actually prefer software compression to that thing. The expander does a decent job though, and I actually do use that section alot, although if I had a different hardware expander, I probably wouldn't use the Behringers.

[joaquin]

A friend gave me the "Virtulizer Pro" ...FX, not too bad....I don't know, I listen to it only once yet, and tought, under some circumstances it may be useful


I mean...you can make music with anyting!!

[Boby Stoica]

I had some experience with Behr. gear as we have a lot of them in my band's PA rig.
Build quality is total crap. After less than 1 year, 4 pieces broke down, starting with the rack DIs..which by the way sound very bad, bringin a lot of noise esp. with the pad engaged and a bit of their gain.

The Tube Composer is pretty well described above - it's sound is grainy and it loses resolution. The expander can be useful, but the ..'tube warmth' is nothing but fried fries. It brings hell to PA's drivers.

The vocal channel - a bit better than a cheap mixer's channel. Not even like the Mackie's pres. That odd eq stuff & exciter can do something good, esp. if the PAs sound is.. out of balance..you can bring the vocal a bit upfront.

The gates.. stay away! It damages the signal, leading to total mud drums sound.
The compressors - esp. the 4ch. one - like the gates, mud, mud..

The IC based Composer - lot's of ppl use them, including Metallica.. I never liked them.. but I guess they beat the crappy Alesis 3630.

The Virtualizer.. well, if you use it on a club PA, it can do the job. But if you intend to make it your main vocal reverb.. stay away, get a good plugin.

That.. 'maximizer' thing- well, it has latency, making it almost imposiblle to use on a PA master.

The exciters are good. Small sounding, but I guess they can be modified.

The mixers.. no definition.. no nothing.. and they break after a year, too.

The design.. well, you can fool some with them.. They are indeed 'blinky'.

In a word - super cheap stuff, for 'wanna be' ppl and small restaurant or wedding bands.

[Rambler]

The ADA 8000 eight input mic/line AD DA converter is the only thing available in it's price range and despite the dreadded B..... word is a decent unit.

[Travl]

The only Berhinger products ive ever used are the Vamp and the ada-8000. I can honestly tell you both these products are crap with the ada-8000 being of the more usefull variety. I dont even use my Vamp anymore and would sell it but it is probably worth as much as crap. I do use my ada-8000 somtimes when I sum OTB and need more than 8 channels of conversion. I seriously cannot wait to replace this thing with a apogee when I get the funds. It pains me to use it whenever I have to.

[Hysteria]

I have a Bass V-Amp which I bought for live use as I need a few different bass sounds including bass distortion. As I consider myself more of a guitarist and kind of help out this particular band by playing bass so I didn't want to go mad and spend a fortune so thought I'd turn to Behringer

The guitar V-Amp appears to be virtually identical in build and my bass V-Amp has a number of guitar models that I have used on a few occasions when rehersing with another band at the rehersal studio DI'd into the PA.

My feeling are these:

-For the money it's not bloody bad!
-Bass amp models sound pretty good to me but some are pretty noisy which doesn't get cleared up by the internal noise reduction.
-Guitar models seem pretty reasonable, well at least the SLO 100 and JCM 800 models sound quite good but rather thin. My guitar rig based around a Marshall JMP1 wipes the floor with it but I wouldn't say it's bad and I would think that in a mix, especially a busy mix where you want the sound to cut, it would do fine.
-It's pretty easy to use, especially if you are just changing the basic settings (Volume, treble, bass, gain, etc.) and updating presets.
-I just sling it in my gig bag and it survives. The switch legends wear away fairly quickly but if you keep it in its proper (rather camp looking!) case it should be OK.
-FX are ok but Eventide ain't gonna worry too much

On the whole, having used and owned a few bits of Behringer kit, I am pretty impressed with the stuff considering the cost. In some cases the build quality seems better that I would expect for the price. I have a Composer that cost next to nothing but has XLR connectors and an internal PSU. Also the switches and knobs feel pretty solid.

I suppose the question to ask is 'What else can I get for my budget?'

Hope that is some help.

[thethrillfactor]

Yeah.

Behringer EX-1 here.

I'm on my third one(soon to be fourth).

I notice they go after about a year of solid use?

Why is that?

Its starting to piss me off actually.

[David R.]

Behringer stuff is great! I love it, use it all the time. Very reliable and I must complement them on their originality. How do they find the time to come up with all their products?

Oh, sorry. April 1st is friday, not today. Pleae disregard everything in this post.

[TYY]

I have their 4 channel headphone amp. It is kinda noisy but gets the job done and has been reliable for a couple years. Great for tracking.

I use a mixer w/onboard effects for cue monitoring while tracking basics and overdubs. No recorded signal goes through the mixer, but I can add effects that I don't want to print. The first one's headphone amp at about 9 months, they sent a new one, and it is about a year old, doing fine (cross my fingers). Definitely crappy quality but gets the job done (cross my fingers) in non-critical applications.

[uvc1977]

pretty much the same views here as everyone else, behringer is nothing special. For a home studio setup, non-critical applications or a tight budget im happy to use behringer products, i own 2 patchbays, some headphones and im about to get one of there headphone amps.

[farside]

I use the 4ch headphone amp. Thats about the only product I would trust them with ...all it has to do is work.

[ch2os7]

I bought an Autocom 1200 several years ago...when I got it I was impressed. It really seemed solid and it did a good job.
I bought a Virtualizer Pro a couple of years later and I was NOT impressed with the differences in the weight and "feel". It sounds ok but I wasn't especially impressed with it.
I bought the UB802 mixer and it seems to do what I bought it for. Not a bad little piece of gear.
I bought a 60w 2-10 combo amp on clearance from Musicians Friend for like $89.00. It's not a Fender Super Reverb but for that price, I'm really happy. So far.
All my behringer gear still works.
It depends on what you do with it and what you expect for what you pay.