Behringer FX2000 3D FX Processor

I had been very prejudiced against Behringer but gave in and added this to my equipment, because it is one of their better products and is just very good value for money. The Behringer FX2000 3D FX Processor is partly aimed at the same kind of market as the Alesis MidiVerb 4 and other similar 19 inch effect rack units. But there is more, much more. You will not find psychoacoustic processing elsewhere at anywhere near this price. There's an exciter too and various programs to enhance the stereo image that you won't get on other budget effect units. There are twelve reverb types and the delays include a tape echo simulator and ping pong delay. There's the usual effects like various types of flanger, phaser, chorus and pitch shifting. There are a number of other features like compressor, expander, gate, limiter, ultramizer, de-esser, de-noiser, ultra wide, binauralizer. It has guitar amp simulation, speaker simulation, and much more, even a centre canceller (for karaoke). Watch out for the razor sharp edges on the rack ears though! As well as the instruction manual which comes in the box, there is a more comprehensive version about the FX2000 which you can download from Behringer's site.

In the meantime I bought a THIRD one (that says a lot)! Sounds as good as other high end FX processors but is 2 to 4 times cheaper. While in the beginning the operation of the four function edit wheels felt strange to me, I now see it is a superergonomic system that enables a much more direct/faster access than the "page scrolling systems" of most of the competition. Even if the info on the display is very succinct, the large characters are MUCH easier to see than the tiny characters of most other systems displays. Only drawback is that it cannot handle more than at most 2 FX at a time. I now use three in series.

I wasn't sure how good this effects processor would be, but in all honesty, I can say it is really quite impressive!

There are limitations of course (such as combining effects and in-depth parameter fiddling) but on the whole, the unit delivers the goods.

For a start, the delays are really sweet - the tape echo being especially engaging, and the auto-pan having plenty of depth and definition.

The rotary, leslie and pitch shifter type effects also shine - and in my opinion are on par with those by much more expensive brands. The reverbs, if anything, are a little uninspiring - although I am accustomed to Lexicon PCM reverbs - but for live use (and possibly even some studio use) they are certainly useable.

Some of the effects, such as the Vinyl and Lo-Fi are pretty useless in my opinion, but hey - you might find use for them on a rainy day.

Overall, Behringer have made a great product here, and although I've snubbed them in the past - I really do think they make some fantastic affordable equipment. I'll definitely be buying more from them in the future...