Behringer X32 Compact

Like other reviews say, leave all your previous hangups about Behringer at the door, they have really changed their game with the X32 line of products. The build quality is excellent: the dials, sliders and buttons seem very hard wearing. Once you get the whole feel about the flexible mix bus workflow this desk uses (and a lot of higher-end digital consoles use), it is an absolute joy to use.

The preamps are absolutely worlds apart from Behringer's previous offerings, big and bold sounding without going dull. They have a tendency to start to sound a little thin if you need to crank the gain, but I've been assured this is a typical quirk of Midas designed preamps. Digital scribble-strips at this price point is just plain unheard of!

Bought this with two S16 digital snake modules, effectively doubling the analogue I/O. I silly cannot believe that this system was purchased for relatively little money and the quality is retained. Fantastic. If Behringer can shake off their historical 'cheap&nasty' stigma, this will be the product line that completely obliterates the competition at this price range, although it's doing a pretty good job already.

Oh, and be very careful with the latched XLR inputs on the X32 and S16s. There have been reports of XLR connectors (with the little latch 'window') getting stuck in there. I have had other equipment suffer this issue and I have avoided this by using Switchcraft or Neutrik XX series XLR connectors (or ones without the 'window').

Use: I am currently using or have used the Behringer X32 in my Home studio, for my band practice and gigs. I have also used it for some very high end Club concerts.

Clarity: The signal quality of the preamps is very clean and transparent. There is no signal disturbance on recordings. The vocals and instruments sound exactly the way they are which is very important while track recording. There is no colour to the sound, when one compares it to the Midas M32 which has a fatter/thicker sound.

Pros: 1. Very portable. Can be easily carries in a soft case in the car.
2. The software is very easy to use and understand. The firmware updates kept improving. Right now I can say that X32 offers software capabilities like some higher end digital mixing desks.
3. The Behringer line of products offers some excellent hardware integration peripherals with the X32 to customise your audio network with other hardware devices.
4. The screen size is very good for navigation.
5. The price point is very good compared to other digital mixers.

Cons: Nothing to complain so far...:)

Comprehensibility:1. Very good desk for beginners as it is easy to use and understand.
2. Very useful in studio environments as you can get good visual feedback from the desk.
2.

I first posted this quick review mistakenly in the X32 Compact Case section (which I have to add is a very good case having purchased one).

FOH for a local band, I was pointed toward this desk by another FOH sound guy who mixes named bands for a living and told to ignore the Behringer name. How right he was, 15 months down the line with one and no complaints. Loads of FX and EQ's built in, knobs feel responsive and precise and the 7 inch screen is easy to read when on individual page. You can save and swap scene setups quickly. I save the settings from every place the band plays so that next time we play there I can reload and have a base setup to quickly work with. It can be a bit of a tricky learning curve at first, remembering where every layer and settings lurk, but you can set custom buttons to quickly go to the things you use most during a show (these are also saved within the scenes). Overall you cannot get better for the price.
I was a Allen & Heath diehard (still have one as backup), but I now can set up in 1/4 of the time (usually less) ready for sound check. Thank you Behringer / Midas.

I have been incredibly surprised by this unit, like many others I have had my fair share of Behringer kit that broke just out of warranty and was always in the category of "ok for the money". The overall sound quality of this unit is really very good indeed. I have the latest firmware installed and the quality of the hall and plate reverbs is very good. The graphic EQs are also very smooth and do not seem to cause the degradation in phase response that some other low end digital mixers do.

The channel and bus dynamics are also notably better than the ones I have used on other entry level digital desks, even above this price point. The inclusion of variable hold as well as attack and release is extremely useful, especially on the gate where it can greatly reduce chatter when the threshold and background noise level are close together.

With the X32 range Behringer has moved from "ok for the money" to "excellent for the money". There are better desks out there but nothing even remotely close in overall price/features/performance.

Coming from an analogue panel, it's a pleasure to work with. Many features, nice automated faders, scribble strip and much much more. Nearly everything is positive.

Some small disappointments found (yet):
- multiple headphone jacks - good, but made inside the handles so we had to get the jack converters out with pliers (could be only us though)
- built-in usb recorder records in 1536kbps files, which is so much more than we need, and it slows down the file transfer time to storage media. Cannot change this as far as I know.
- fader knobs sometimes wiggle out of position, but are easy to push back.

Note that these comments should not be the factor to not buy this mixer! We don't have any regrets on buying this and are using it happily in our church.

Firstly, like everybody says, you need to forget the stereotypes about Behringer when it comes to the X32 products. I bought this Behringer x32 compact mixing console 5 months ago and I can say that the build quality is very good and it never crashed, which I didn't expect because some persons said that it will be slow and sometimes it will not respond to the commands from a tablet or phone, but I didn't experienced any of this faults so far.

Quality
As I wrote before, this mixer console is well built and the materials from which is constructed are durable, the faders moves very easily, as well as the potmeters.

Sound
The preamps are very good, they sound great and clear.

Effects
I haven't tried many effects of this mixer, I like the stereo delay and vintage reverb which I use on the vocals, they sound good, and you can modify the parameters easily.
The compressor and the gate are easy to use and they do their job, the EQ can be adjusted easily.

I like that it has a scenes section and you can change the saved scenes very quickly.

I think this unit worth the price, and in this price range it is the best. I recommend for anybody who is looking for a cheaper but very good digital mixing console.