Behringer X2442usb Premium 24 Input Compressors

I recently bought this mixer and for more than one reason also. . . . . I needed a lot of Mic inputs and also built in effects. . . . but this mixer delivers just that and much much more. . . . the features and different effects are amazing. . . I use it mainly for a small group of singers and musicians in for Indian music. . . I'd recommend this mixer for anyone who wants to get quality sound at a really good price. . . . coupled with the Eurolive B125D Powered boxes. . . . this is absolutely beautiful. . . . . Pundit Anirudh Maraj Just to make it clear to people considering the mixer because of its USB - this will not digitally record your tracks multi-track. The only mixers that can record multi-track are the Alesis USB 2. 0, a couple of firewire mixers, and some higher end mixers. This is only capable of sending the stereo sum to your computer through its USB interface. The vocal mic sound from this mixer is simply amazing. Rich and full even with low end mics. Easy to use. I have seen the critique about the limited mix out, but bear in mind that you can output up to 8 channels to a mixer such as an alesis from the back of the Behringer. . . each of the first 8 channels has a direct out. The strength of this box is for live use. I cannot stress enough how good the vocals sound. I am able to have three people on one standard vocal mic, standing two feet from the mic, sound as though they each had their own mic a few inches from their mouth. . with full, rich sound. I bought this to use in a medium sized Church. We have around 12 singers, and had been using two hanging condenser mics going into the main mixer board (a yamaha that totally blows). The voices sounded thin and distant no matter what changes we made at mixer. Now, with the behringer, I can have groups of two or three sharing one mic and it sounds massively better than the overhead condensers. They were not exaggerating in the specs when they said the vocal shaping ability of the board was its central feature. It is amazing; plus with the groupings, you can have your sopranos, tenors, bass, etc in groups and turn each of those groups down or up to balance a whole choir. this was virtually IMPOSSIBLE with overhead condensers. I happen to have an Alesis 12 channel multimix, so it will be easy for me to mix up to 8 channels from the Behringer into the Alesis and thence into my laptop. Bottom line, for less than $400, if your primary concern is having outstanding vocals and an easy to use board, get this. You will love it! Miscellaneous: if your church already has a main board somewhere, and you are looking to use this with your ensemble or choir and be able to make adjustments on the fly yourself, as I do, without having to touch the main system, then all you need to do is plug this board into one of the mic jacks that goes to your main mixer, using a DI box (direct input). It creates a flat signal into the main mixer, but then lets you shape the sound from your own mixer. A great solution for those who have main sound boards locked in a closet somewhere, or otherwise under lock and key as many churches do. The Behringer is very light and easy to store. We keep ours in a cabinet near the choir area and just set it on a table for worship. Addendum 2/22/12: Have begun using some of the effects,a nd they work nicely. The reverb gives a nice expansive sound to the vocals and is easy to adjust. Also, Guitars sound very nice played through this, in 2 ways. I plug my classical right into the board with a 1/4 jack, and then add some delay and it sounds beautiful and rich. My acoustic guitar is connected via the DI out on the back of my Fishman Loudbox 100 with a standard mic cable, so I can literally adjust the balance between my amp output and what comes out of the church speakers by adjusting that channel on the board. Makes for a nice balanced sound. So, I would say the other strength of this board is for acoustic-electric instruments I have owned this Behringer XENYX X2442USB mixer for about 3 weeks now. I think, for the price, it is definitely a steal! I use it to record my drum practice at home. I use Shure PG mics, el-cheapo Radio Shack vocal mics, and I also connect my iPod and a CD player to it. My usage is not very

sound-quality critical and does not involve travel/gigging either. Also, this is my first experience with professional mixers so my knowledge and experience is limited. First, built quality of this mixer is OK for my usage, but I would not describe it as rugged at all. The chasis (except for side panels) is entirely metal but of a light gage, and with plastic knobs sticking out from everywhere in the control surface I would think this thing would have to be handled with a lot of care if it were to be used for live gigs where constant travel is required. The side panels are made of soft-touch plastic and can be easily removed and replaced with included rack mount brackets which is how I set it up. This works just fine on a standard 19" rack. Functionally, everything works just fine and the sound is clean and warm. I should demystify the descriptons you see in advertising: this mixer has 10 mic ins, 8 of them have the full complement compressor and EQ functions, the remaining 2 (channels 9-10 and 11-12) are in a shared configuration of mic in OR stereo line in, do not offer compression, and the EQ has two fixed-frequency mid-range level controls instead of a parametric adjustable frequency/adjustable level controls. The remaining channels (13-14 and 15-16) are stereo line-level only. I have not found any hum or hissing on the headphone outs, main outs, control outs, RCA 2 TRK outs, nor USB digital out. The XLR mic ins, line TRS ins, RCA 2 TRK ins, and USB digital ins (the USB interface is bi-directional and stereo) work perfectly. I have not tested any of the inserts, direct outs, sub outs, or aux ins/outs yet. One feature which is only hinted to in the manual which initially confused me but later found to be good, is that the RCA 2 TRK outs will not output any signal that comes in from the RCA 2 TRK ins (event if 2-TRK/USB to MAIN toggle is engaged), and signals sent to the USB digital interface will return to the mixer (if echoed back by the recorder or whatever is connected to the mixer's USB interface) but can not be sent back via USB again. This is all to prevent a feedback loop. Also, the design of the unit seems pretty well thought out: I installed a goose neck light on the BNC light connector which turned out to be a defective light and the mixer heated up somewhat and shut itself down automatically after a while, so the mixer appears to have some protection functionality embedded that is not advertized. This happened a couple times and the mixer came out unharmed every time. A disadvantage I have encountered is that most of the push down toggle switches do not have an associated light to indicate they are engaged (only the solo, mute, and compressor switches/knobs do. ) You have to visually determine this by looking at the switch or by pressing the button to figure out if it is already depressed or not, which is not always easy/convenient. I guess you can't have everything at this price level :-) The indicator lights for the compressor only flicker on/off when actual compression/limiting of peaks is taking place, so even when engaged, the light will not come on if the input signal is low level. This is not clear on the manual either. The integrated FX box works fine, however, you can not assign different effects to one channel vs another, you can only select one effect and apply it to zero, one or more of any of the input channels. Also, the main mix via any of the main analog outs and the USB interface is only one stereo channel. To output multiple stereo/mono channels simultaneously you have to use the direct outs (and set mix levels externally) and/or the sub outs. The USB interface does not support multi-channel output/input. The USB interface worked quite nicely with my iPad using the iPad USB adaptor that comes with the iPad camera connection kit and the Sudio Mini XL app which I use as an 8-track (non-simultaneous) digital recorder. All in all, I think I got an incredible amount of functionality and flexibility for my money and I am very satisfied with the results. I am still experimenting with the X2442USB but this has been my experience so far. I love this mixer. I upgraded from a 12 channel USB mixer of a different band name. Yes, as someone else noted, you only get stereo outputs on the USB connection. In this price range, I don't know of any board that truly delivers a professional quality multi-track editing experience through a USB connection. You just can't have it all in this price range. If read the Berhinger specs you can easily find out more about the USB connection. The manuals are available at the company website too. However, you can have as many as eight output channels using the direct outputs on the rear of the board. Simply patch the lines into a multi-track recording device/computer and you can have an 8 channel multi-track editing experience. I've got a feedback detecting EQ and a Behringer compressor/limiter between the mixer board and the amps. It's always a good to protect your PA speakers with additional gear. That said, the eight onboard compressor channels and the PLF

Channel Setup Procedure can protect you pretty well too. If you use the PLF Channel Setup Procedure on each channel before each gig, you get remarkable sound quality with plenty of headroom. Don't just rely on the Gain Control turn-knobs during setup (as some amateurs might be prone to do), follow the whole setup procedure annotated in the manual, and you can pretty much knockout about 95% of the clipping without the use of a ceiling limiter. I do wish the FX generator was 32 bit instead of 24 bit, but the 16 each 24 bit FX generators sound really good compared to my old mixer. I also love how the FX tap system works though I rarely use this feature. Besides, all I really use is the plate reverb for vocals anyway. Everything else is just not really necessary and you'd do better just buying a dedicated FX generator. I love the four buses that give total flexibility for external device routing and multi-monitor setups. This was one of the primary reasons why I bought this board. Finally, and what I've come to absolutely love about this mixer is that it has a connector for mounting a light. TOTALLY SWEET!

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