Customer Reviews

Behringer XENYX 1204USB 12-Channel Mixer

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I got this mixer about 6 months ago. My friend and I do a weekly radio show on livevideo dot com every wednesday. We began by calling in on headsets with a mic, but I got this mixer and man is it great. I can have myself, and 3 other friends all on individual mics. I can control the volume and EQ for each mic, and mute them with one click. While thats all hooked up, I have a computer used soley as a music/sound effects machine. This mixer also has a total of 3 outs. So you can record on one out and still have 2 other usable outs. I did alot of research on mixers, and I'm 100% satisfied. I might suggest spending the extra money and buying the FX model. I didn't think I would need it, but I wish I would have the option to add effects to the sound. Even without that options is still a 10 out of 10!

Despite the long description and photo, this is the current model with the built-in USB and the compressors on the mic channels. At least that is so for the one I bought from Amazon.

Why the 3 star rating.

1. Inadequate gain on the pre's. While it may be fine for mic'ing your guitar cabinet, it is not adequate for voice over work.

2. Inconsistent performance, each channel requires different setting with the same mic.

3. Unbalanced, you need to pan a mic (to the left on mine) to get it to center the stereo image.

Despite those problems, it seems to be a great mixing console for the money, you would need to speed twice what I did to get the same features in another brand. For a working pro that is probably a good idea, but for the home user like me the savings is worth more than the inconvenience those problems cause. The reason for the down rating is 90% because of the inadequate preamp gain problem. They really need another 20db gain.

I do not know why they chose to do it that way? Afraid users would turn it up too much and destroy their amp and speakers? Too cheap to provide a 20db pad? As it is you wind up amplifying the noise in the subsequent stages along with the signal. Probably where Behringer gets their reputation for noisy preamps.

The one knob compressors seem to work OK. I quickly found out that their instructions to turn it up until the red LED came on was not good advice, unless you like choppy distorted sound. Turning it up until the LED comes on, and then backing off until it just does not seems to be about the best setting. That does bring up the signal level a bit, but it also brings up the noise level so you have to back off to keep the noise down, which kind of (partially) defeats the purpose. Still it does help a bit.

The internal USB seems to work well, Windows (XP Pro x64, in my case) keeps resetting to the internal sound card so it is a good idea to check that has not happened. The mixer and Audacity do not seem to use ASIO4ALL despite the manuals saying both are ASIO compatible.

As I said 90% of what I do not like about this mixer is the lack of adequate preamplifier gain. If that was fixed I would give it a solid 4-4.5 rating.

ADDED: Behringer Support said the mixer was defective. I exchange it for another one, amazon was great about that. That fixed all three of the problems mentioned above. However, the mic pre's are still a bit weak and noisy for my taste (I raised my rating to 4 stars, from 3, if the pre's were better I would give it 5 now). I can see the pre's giving 60db of gain on the replacement, but that is kind of weak if you want to run dynamics with -72db sensitivity on it, however with an outboard preamp you should be able to peg everything, and the noise is no existent.

One of the things I often see in these kinds of mini-reviews is people deciding that the equipment is junk without even trying to get a good one. At this price point they are not all tested as the come off the assembly line, you may have to be the final QC tester. I feel that for $100+ savings over a more expensive one that is acceptable.

While this one is missing a few things that the X1204USB has, it does have a better 12 step VU meter.
I did not realize that until looking more closely at teh X1204USB spec's.

I love this little mixer -- and at a great price point too! The USB interface, though not on board per se, is not the biggest of deals as it works well and is CLEAN as a peripheral! I plan on using it in the field as well in my own studio. Thanks Behringer!

I can not say enough about this mixer, it is amazing, the USB function on it is amazing, It has stereo in and out via USB. Keep in mind, you wont get all 8 channels though usb, you will get left and right channels, which for me is more than perfect. The British style EQ's are very nice. All of the nobs are very sturdy. The mixer itself is very light. Over all would recommend this to everyone.
For your reference, i am a producer, and i do recordings of various artists across several genres.

A very disappointing purchase. Based on generally positive reviews of this model and Behringer boards in general, I may have just got a lemon. It happens. This unit produced very noticeable hiss - a level unacceptable for either home studio or live performance use. Unusable. I sent it back.

+:
> great quality
> great sound

-:
> the phones and the control outs are on the same volume control. no way to record from a mic while listening to existing tracks, except by plugging out the cables to the monitor speakers (I'm using this mixer in a home recording setup with a computer)
> software: it's all freeware or demoware which could as well be downloaded from the internet
> no windows 7 driver
> 2 rack mound brackets included, they don't seem to fit, no clue how to use them, no instructions, no hint from the web, and my friend can't figure it out either.

Please be aware that although this is a fantastic mixer, the description is somewhat deceptive. The description says it comes with recording software, which it does. The problem is, is that it requires you to purchase additional software. Sure you can use the free program Audacity that comes with it. But when using audacity, it's like being back in the early 80's and trying to record your favorite song off the radio with the tape recorder. Too much time being spent editing! Or, you can upgrade to some lame ass software I've never heard of before. Here is the real problem I have with this. In order for you to be able to use this mixer in say Cubase, Ableton, FL Studios etc. you have too purchase the software to incorporate the mixer into your host The program costs like 19 euros which is about the equivalent of 25 US dollars. I realize that for the most part, this a relatively inexpensive mixer. But it becomes a royal pain in the ass, when something or somebody is wanting more money to make something work the way it should. Like I said before, it's a fantastic little mixer. BUT THE SOFTWARE ISSUES BLOW!!!

The pictures below this item show the "X" version of this mixer. This model does not have the LED readout or some of the features of the "X" model.

Have'nt installed the software yet,im sure it will be great as I am pleased with this mixer,it is just what i needed,compact with enough mic pre amps for vocals,and easy too operate.

Multi-track recording, works great with most every popular software, and it is an INTERFACE mixer. you can use it for live shows as well as a recording digitally. If you are shopping for home studio equipment your quest is now over. This mixer is awesome! comes with a massive software package as well (I would advise getting Logic later on though, but for beginners it includes everything you could possibly need)