Crazy or sensible? User experience

[uselessoldman]

I am certainly not against Behringer half my studio is their kit and I have had zero issues.. My project was to record live bands, rent it out to friends, I have the money they don’t, I have the computer knowledge they don’t, and I have always loved mixing, that is why I bought the Yamaha 01x which to be fair still does what it was originally designed for, except it will not work on native WIndows cos Yamaha never updated their mlan drivers since windows XP !!

The Behringer x32 looks a great mixer/interface, the reason I looked at the Allen QU16 was in hope it would be a similar product. IT has a audio interface it can also be used as a control surface. As for overkill, maybe but the Behringer xtouch is what £400 the Mackie Pro Universal £1000 both are only control surfaces without the audio interface. the X32 and QU16 are not much more money wise for potentially a lot more features. ALso I could take the x32/QU16 and record without lumping about my rack system which is HEAVY.

We are currently still in semi lockdown and the studio/live music industry is all but dead so any projects I had in mind are currently on hold. So I can use the time to decide the way I want or can go forward. I retired last year, I have time to kill and a little money to play with and already had quite a bit of studio gear/amps cabs guitars keyboards etc what do I really want to do? I guess help those less fortunate use my computer/music knowledge and have some fun.

I just wanted to know what experience other QU series users had using windows with DAW software. As for needing a control surface, yes I can use a mouse, a keyboard even my phone or a touch screen , but I have a Yamaha 01x, owned used it for over 20 years, I just wanted to replace it with another unit so I dont have to keep booting between different drives and reconfiguring ever damn time.

I want to control DAW (Studio One) I want to be able to control automate vst, nks (native instruments kontakt instruments) and I want to be able to control the volume on my speakers, I use 7.1 as well as stereo. A control surface that does this would be awesome. and yes the x32 will come close as does my Native Kontrol keyboards – nothing does everything but as a collective I am sure I can achieve what I want some how some way

I am sure Allen Heath could get the QU series to work, I am sure its not that far off even now, but feedback is hard to get and that worries me. I know the Q series can be a control surface with some configuration, question is just what and how far beyond that will it go, compared to the X32 which I think is light years ahead of the competition from what I have seen – I will buy one of them, question is which one. Yes I know its only 48kHz and they do better audio interfaces, but then the x32 is also only 48kHZ and as I have said I have the LIquid 56 so thats not so important…. DAW control with audio interface is what I crave dream of, I like the faders and knob control for automation and general level settings

[uselessoldman]

A yes the Behringer Wing, wow what a piece of kit that is but it was released half finished, it has taken some times for the software to catch up be written tested released. It was tempting, SERIOUSLY tempting, but for me just a little too far overkill, but maybe just maybe, I might convince myself, whilst the music industry is closed I guess its harder to know what might be. For now I need to take time out and look a little closer at the protocals they all use and see what drivers config files etc are available and what isnt but can be done. I am sure event he QU series can do more just no one has bothered or cared to push it further – I am saying this blind, a guess but one thing for sure Behringer are pushing the boundaries and few iof anyone else is following them – copying others? maybe but then that was yesterday today they are industry leaders especially with their digital mixers

[volounteer]

@uselessoldman

AH has the Qu working quite well.
It was not designed for the use you seem to think you need to do with it.
You can record and then edit in a DAW.
Trying to control the faders on a mixer from your DAW is bizarro.
If you must be remote for some reason then use the Ipad to control the Qu.
Stop making problems harder than they need to be.

@MikeC

Don’t know why you hate Behringer so much.
If they had done something wrong the courts would have fixed it.
But they are in business. So get over it.
Are you going to insist on a life term for every crime anybody commits?
Assuming they actually did anything which is not proven just because they were sued.

Many folks have had trouble with chinese production especially at first.
The M32 is good. Behringer is good enough especially for the price.
AH is good. The Qu is plenty good enough especially for the price.
In fact, I am aamazed that the Qu is as good as it is and does as much as it does for the price!
AH engineers are like magicians to me, almost. {I was a licensed professional engineer}
Although lots of experience does make hard things look easy to do:)

@SteffenR

Does any ‘modern’ OS also defrag automatically before starting to use the PC for recording audio?

[Mike C]

Stop making problems harder than they need to be.

You should take some of your own advice!

[volounteer]

@MikeC

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***comments removed***

[Søren Steinmetz]

X32 as far as I have encountered them, can be ok stable in enviroments where they are not moved around too much.

Met companies who regretted they bought 10+ X32’s for touring, one company had 9 of the 10 consoles failing several times during a period of 6 months of tours.
(A few of their Digimute failed as well 😉 )
The two M32’s they had never had a single “hickup” (neither did the other Midas nor the A&H consoles they have in stock)

[volounteer]

@Søren Steinmetz

Have you found any company that does not have problems when their gear is abused during frequent moves?

Who would you say is the most reliable?
Is Behringer/Midas really the bottom of the barrel?
How deep is that barrel? Considering that perfection is not possible and everything is in a barrel of some sort.

[Søren Steinmetz]

All equipment will be able to fail, the question is how fast.

9 of 10 consoles of a single model is way too much IMHO

They have around 12 or 15 different models of digital consoles in their stock, and most of those have fail ratio of 1-2 in 10, only consoles to have 5+ in 10 failing are from that single brand.

The most reliable consoles I have met are A&H and Yamaha, in 30+ years, I have had 1 of each fail.
1 A&H GLD that was bugged and reprogrammed DCA groups at random, when you touched the armrest.
1 Yamaha LS9 with a faulty PSU cooler, resulting in surface latenzy – IE you recalled next scene and the screen + surface did not change for like 5 seconds.

Analog I have had a few on several brands, some not even on the market anymore.

But we are digressing a bit from the topic now.

[Mfk0815]

„Console fails“ is for me too unspecific. If they touring guy think „ah thats a B. so no problem to handle it extra rough because it is cheap“ and throw the device always several meters from stage to the concrete ground, I rather blame the guy than the equipment.
I worked a lot with my own X32 as well with M32 over the years and never had any issue. I bought one of the first X32 which came to Austria and even it was an early device it never fails. Also no issue with the stageboxes.
The LS9 I had before had several times issues with the faders (I had to replace all of them two times in 6 years) and also an issue with the power supply.
I had an GLD 80 as well. Once one hour before the show the power supply of the AR2412 was broken. Fortunately an analog system with a Soundcraft GB4 was there so I could do the job with that.
Last year I had an heat issue with my C2500 on an anual festival, where I used my X32 for years without any problems.
So, that are my personal experience over the last years. And what is the conclusion for that? Only with hat experience should it be, that A&H or Yamaha is not as reliable as Behringer? I would say no because the samples of incidents is too small.
Also 9 out of 10 devices which fails without specific information says nothing about a product. Maybe they had bad luck, or the guys who handled the devices are extra rough because they are Behringers. Or „fails“ means that the issue exists in layer eight. Maybe for the guys the power switch was not on the right place.
Again, if there is a structural problem with the X32, do you think this would not make big rumors when they sold more than a million devices? Especially when the brand is named Behringer.

[Søren Steinmetz]

2 of the X32’s had to have the main processor boards switched 4 times in one year.
6 of them randomly stopped working mid shows either their faders or buttons.
4 of them had PSU fails 2-3 times a year.
4 randomly changed input patches for no apparent reason (no scene/show recalls made)
6 of them had PCB lanes breaking up

Not attacking the brand as such, had several well working items from the over the years.

[volounteer]

@Søren Steinmetz

I believe you are fair but the internet is full of bad mouthing of Behringer products.
From what I see the attacks are often from money snobs or folks who think they have golden ears.

My one experience with them said they worked just fine.
We had a used 12? channel analog board we had gotten from a blind dJ who I imagine beat it up a lot accidentally as he went from gig to gig.

[Mfk0815]

Søren, That seems to be a bad luck company;-) Or they use them really rough. Your name suggests that you com from northern europe, so maybe there are some vikings genes in their blood which cause that they come into rage now and then;-) So they should really avoid using that product.

[Søren Steinmetz]

Must be bad luck 🙂

Odd part is when the bad luck only revolve around a single console model.

And yes I am in the Northern Europe where we need our equipment as rugged as our Mead :p

[volounteer]

@Søren Steinmetz

Small sample statistics?

One company, one model, one country.

Is there any source of good data worldwide that tells how they really are good/badwise?

Reviews can be a guide but the amazon ratings are often bogus.
Other review sites help but still the internet is full of lies and propaganda.

[uselessoldman]

Thanks Volounteer. Yes I want the mixer to control the DAW software, against say using a mouse and keyboard or touchscreen. The same as I can control Native Instrument Kontakt instruments from my NI keyboard, or limited control of the DAW or even vsts it can do all three. Why, cos I know I can using certain mixers, its a question of which mixers can do what, or potentially what extra they can do with a little programming. I also know that the AH QU16 will act to some degree as a DAW control surface, but beyond simple fader control and motion (stop start pause) I am not sure.

WHy do I want to make things more difficult for myself? that is exactly what I do not want to do. I want to be a lazy sod and sit at my desk and play music whether its playing recording or mixing. I have almost completed my wish list and bought everything I wanted. AN early JCM800 and a control surface and I have completed it. The x32 is the clear leader at the moment, I just want to compare what else there is, which considering what it can do for the price, looks to be very little else. I had originally looked at the Behringer xtouch, and thought I would go better, I like the idea of the integrated audio interface similar to my Yamaha 01x, remember, that is what I am replacing.

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