Behringer XENYX X2442FX Mixer

Behringer 1224FX Mixer

1. 6 state-of-the-art, phantom-powered XENYX Mic Preamps comparable to stand-alone boutique preamps.
2. 16 editable, studio-grade presets including reverb, chorus, flanger, delay, pitch shifter and multi-effects.
3. 9-band stereo graphic EQ allows precise frequency correction of monitor w: Behringer XENYX X1832USB USB Mixer with Effects.

With the previous UB series mixers, Behringer began to shed its reputation as a maker of throwaway gear for DJs and touring bands who don't have money to burn. The UB series turned out to be solidly built mixers that delivered a lot of bang for the buck and were darn near impossible to destroy. The XENYX series completes the transformation. No longer snubbed by serious musicians as a bargain-basement brand, Behringer is now a genuine contender. I wouldn't be surprised if other gear makers are taking these things apart to see what makes 'em tick.

At the top of the XENYX line is the 2442FX with 12 fader channels. The first 8 are mono mic or line inputs, followed by a pair of mono mic or stereo line inputs, shades of the Eurodesk series. Another pair of stereo line inputs rounds things out.

The mic pre-amps are dead-room quiet, delivering vocals with a natural presence. The line inputs are just as impressive, imbuing my wife's Martin guitar and Dean Markley ProMag Gold pickup with a warmth and range I hadn't heard before.

Additional inputs include mono and stereo insert points as well as sends and returns for modifying the sound with external processors, none of which we'll ever use at church but nice to have nonetheless. You can mix the sound down to 4 subgroups before sending everything to the main mix. The uses for the subgroup faders and routing switches are limited only by your imagination.
And then there's that built-in effects processor. Our church is a steel-frame building that acoustically doesn't cut it, so we add in some hall reverb (setting 8), giving the music those ethereal few seconds of hanging in the air. With the effects routed to subgroups 3/4, I can press a single button to turn the reverb on and off at will. For spoken readings during a hymn, the reverb can be potted down on individual channels. The subgroup buttons also function as standby switches, muting all the mics and instruments between hymns.

As if all that wasn't enough, Behringer includes a USB interface box so you can lay down tracks directly on your Mac or PC. Suddenly, you're not just a musician. You're a record producer as well.
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.

This board is fantastic. I'm highly skeptical of most Behringer products, but this one is truly great. It is comparable to the Mackie MixWizard 16:2, with compressors on 10 channels (even better IMO).
There is a lot of confusion about the functionality and some of the USB capabilities, but after researching online it seems that a lot of people think this board is supposed to do everything for dirt cheap. READ the specs before thinking it is a multitrack USB wizard. It is only called X2442USB to distinguish it from the X2442FX board, which looks exactly the same but has more preset FX and no USB. The USB only sends OR receives a 2-ch stereo mix/input; DO NOT expect it to bus all those channels digitally for $379. That is just a pipe-dream. I bought mine used on Craigslist for $200. Not a single problem, have used it everyday for a year.

IMHO this board functions best as an out-board only. I record strai
ght into a Liquid Sapphire56 and/or MAudio Profire 2626, and snake all their outputs into the X2442USB for mixing and monitoring purposes. I always feed my BX8 D2's (MAudio studio monitors) from the X2442USB because it's sound is so good, and has balanced XLR outs, which most in-boards (audio interfaces) don't have. Not recording 16 channels at once too often, so I run TV, computer sounds, an ONKYO receiver through it, and even play music through it from my phone using the RCA inputs. If you need a convenient board for live sound in a band, or want to keep every possible home media device plugged into one place while also using it as part of a home studio, you will want powered speakers or a stand-alone power amp.

The preamps are so much better than we expected at SETI Systems testing lab, compressors are amazing when set well (and unnoticeable). I really wouldn't use it as an in-board unless my other two firewire interfaces died suddenly. However, there is no reason you couldn't plug 10 mics plus another 6 balanced/unbalanced 1/4" inputs with FX sends/returns and snake it the other way into the interfaces for multitrack recording. Like I said, I am seriously amazed at the quality of this product.

This board is perfect for small-medium sized bands, small-medium sized music venues, DJ's, TV studios, and home studios as a LIVE sound and monitoring or control room system. Forget the USB function, I used it once to make sure it worked, but this is not really a recording interface unless you just need to record a 2-ch mix. The board offers 24-bit DSP (digital signal processing), but it only records via USB at CD quality, 16-bit 44.1kH. I've read of some issues surrounding the manufacturing quality, and if something breaks, the whole circuit board must be replaced (in other words buy another one). Two of these boards are still considerably cheaper than a Mackie MixWizard. The bad reviews of this product are primarily people that don't read up on gear before purchasing it.