Behringer X32 Reviews

4.6/5.0 based on 20 customer reviews

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Customer Reviews

Steve E
from Orlando
April 25, 2013Music Background:
Live sound and Recording engineer. System design and Systems Tech,

Great for the Price. I mean it. REALLY!

I shouldn't say great for the price, implying that you get what you pay for. But you get SO much more for the price. Comparing it to any other brand in a 32 ch model this blows them away. Somewhere I saw a comparison chart comparing the Presonus, Yamaha and Allen and Health consoles. The X32 wins hands down. on features and latency.

About the only thing I didn't like is that subgroups and Aux send are always paired (in either the pre or post sense). Meaning if you want mix 1 to be pre-fade you have to have mix 2 as well. You could'n't make mix 2 post fade. This will probably get updated in a future firmware update. Simply go to thier forum and ask. The more people ask I bet they will do it. But that's all I didn't like.
When you set up your system just remember this and you'll be fine. For example if your band has only 7 mixes then skip 8 and move on to mix 9 to make it post fade.
The sound is great. With Midas preamps it sound's like it's big stepbrother. And it is solid. No flimsy cheap plastic. This handles the road very well. We ship ours everywhere.
The built in effects are amazing, Compared to the LS9 or M7.
The iPad app is also a plus. You can have up to 10 iPads controling this thing! Give one to each musician and you never need to deal with tweaking monitors again during a show. Setting the iPad to work was 100 times easier than Yamahas stagemix! I can even have both of my laptops AND iPads controling it. At the same time. AMAZING!
For this ins and outs, well it has a ton. It even comes with 2 sets of AES50 to go directly to stage boxes. No need to buy a card. Also has their "Ultranet personal mix" thing. I forgot the exact term. USB AND Firewire. You can use it as a 32x32 sound card to record your show. I can even hook it up to my iPad using Auria. (24ch limitation for now)
They even have several rack mount versions of this thing. I can't wait to get ours back off the road so I can play with it some more.
It seems this console was or is geared towards Houses Of Worship, because its so easy to use. It really is easy to set up and use. Even out of the box it's ready to go. I build a lot of mixes on my computer using XControl and simply upload it to the desk. Quick and easy. And even if I have a show I want to save. XControl can get it and save it on your computer.
Well there is so much more. read the specs. All I can say is that you will be happier and have more fun with X32. And probably have more expandablilty for future for a lot cheaper than the other guys.

Jan
from Lancaster, Virginia
April 16, 2013Music Background:
Live Sound Engineer for over 30 yrs.

So Far So Good

Ok let's start at the beginning. I was like many others..Behringer..are you kidding me?!!!! Boy was I wrong. I decided to try the X32 based on fellow sound engineers suggestions. I was looking for a backup for my LS9 but didn't want to spend the $$$$'s. I had purchased a Presonus Studio Live 24 but just didn't like. In any event the X32 came double boxed. Packaging was excellent. I set it up in my living room and fooled around with it for nearly a week before my first gig with this board. My first outing with this board was with an 8 pc band with 5 vocals, guitar, bass, congas, sax, trumpet, B3 w/leslie and 2 additional keys, 4 wedges and 2 iem's. After initial setup of the board, configuration for the show was easy. In a nutshell everything went well and I was surprised with the functionality. Everything sounded as I had hoped.
Next gig was a mini-festival with 3 bands. Again no problems with the board.
For those on a budget, I highly suggest taking a good look at this board.

Rod Steger
from Dallas, Tx
March 29, 2013Music Background:
Live Sound/Recording/Mix Engineer

AWESOME CONSOLE

This is by far the best 32ch digital console that's out on the market today. I have used this console alot since its been out & I LUV IT... Great job Behringer for this creation... You guys Rock!!!

from Wisconsin, USA
March 26, 2013Music Background:
Berklee College of Music Student

INCREDIBLE BUY

This console does so much. Its really amazing how much functionality Behringer can provide at this price point. The "remote" function is fantastic. I absolutely love this console.

sai
from
March 25, 2013Music Background:
Recording Engineer, Live Sound Engineer

life saver console..........

used it for live and recordings...and was blown way by the converters and the pre amp for the money paid!!!

Craig Smith
from Castle Rock, CO
March 22, 2013Music Background:
Live sound engineer, pro musician

Reluctantly Impressed

I helped my daughter's small theater group by some audio gear for a space they're renovating. They wanted a digital board, but didn't have a lot of cash, so on my sales rep's recommendation, I went ahead and got this one.

My history with Behringer has been a little on-again-off-again. Had some great gear and had some stuff I wasn't happy with. This board, however has definitely tipped the scales in their favor.

My initial plan was to give it a 4 star simply because, while basic operation is a snap, the learning curve for some of the features is a little steep. It's a minor thing, but since I'm guessing a lot of non-techies will be attracted to this board because of the price, I think the complexity of getting to a few of the features is a downside.

However, I went with a 5 because I realized that, for the price, this board has no business even having all the basic functionality it does (like motorized faders and customizable lcd screens for each fader), let alone all the extras that take a few minutes of learning to take advantage of.

Really...I'm floored. Well done, Behringer.

Michael Roettger
from United States
March 1, 2013Music Background:
Live Sound Engineer

X32 - Game Changer

We recently upgraded our church to the Behringer X32. My overall impression is Wow, this is a lot of board for $3000. We upgraded from an Allen & Heath Mixwizard3 16:2. As soon as we started patching instruments into the new board I could hear the difference in sound quality. The sound is much more crisp and clear running through the X32. This is probably due to the Midas designed pre-amps.

Setup was a breeze. Just took out the old board, plugged all the I/O into the X32 and set the levels. This mixer is very easy to use the basics, but there is so much more you can do with it. It puts so much power at your fingertips with the dca's, subgroups, matrix mixes, 8 effects slots with many more effects options, and dynamics on each channel. I also love the scribble strips on the X32. Its so much easier to find my channels with the icon, name, and color code on each one. I can't imagine using a digital board without this after having this feature.

We are also looking to expand our setup later using the S16 digital snake to run an additional 16 inputs and 8 outputs to the stage, using only 1 network cable. It couldn't be easier.

One thing to note, upgrading the firmware can be tricky. I updated the firmware as soon as I received it, as I wanted to use the new version of XControl and it requires the newest firmware. I followed the instructions, put the update file on the root of a fat formatted usb stick, put it in the mixer and booted up. It did not update. I tried it with another stick... Same thing. I eventually browsed around on forums and found that for some reason you sometimes have to change the sample rate and reboot on the confirm. It then recognized the usb and updated.

Pros
- Motorized faders
- Effects
- DCAs
- Mute groups
- Dynamics
- Scribble strips
- Great mic pres

Cons
- firmware updates don't work like they're supposed to

Now we just have to wait and see how this board holds up. I'm a little worried as I've heard many reports of behringer equipment not lasting long. But my initial impression is that this board is very well built. I will try to update my review further down the road to address reliability.

Steve Herrera
from Bakersfield, Ca
January 4, 2013Music Background:
Recording/ Live Audio Engineer for 14 years

Truly Impressed

Behringer, I just want to say Outstanding Job. Our church was in the market for a digital board looking to upgrade from our Soundcraft K2; We looked at the Presonus 24.4.2 studio live board, the Tascam Dm 4800, as well as many other's. When the review's for the Behringer X32 started coming in as well as recommendation's from other professional sound men, I was not at all uncomfortable when I was informed that we were going to be purchasing the board for our Church.

Last night we were at the Church (seats 1,000) dialing the system in. Our system consists of 2 QSC KLA181's flown which have attached three QSC KLA12's on each sub. We also have two dual 15in subwoofers built into the stage. IT SOUNDS AMAZING. We are using all of the internal audio tools such as compression, gates, eq, and effects on the X32. our monitor mixes are using the internal Eq's for our 5 monitor mixes. We also have the board on a wi-fi network and were able to dial in the system with greater detail by being able to walk on the stage and around the sanctuary with a virtual X32 in our hands via our laptop and wi-fi connection, ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

I know all of you are wondering and to answer your question, YES you can definitely hear the quality of the Midas Designed pre-amps. Gain to noise ratio is low and our system sounds crystal clear.

Once again, Behringer you have earned my trust and I cannot wait to see what comes out next. You did a great Job and to all of you sound engineers out there, I highly recommend the Behringer X32 to you. Congratulations Behringer!

Chris
from Athens, GA
November 26, 2012Music Background:
Live Sound Engineer, Pro Musician, Cat Herder

Nicely Done Music Group!

I would be confident to say that I am not the only audio professional in the world that was skeptical, yet very curious when the announcements started regarding this console. I've been a long time user of the Yamaha desks (i.e. 5D, M7, LS9) along with some working time on the Avid desks (Profile, and SC48). I'm also an owner of a Presonus Studiolive 16.4.2 for personal/freelance work. The updates that have followed the Presonus have been impressive comparatively to when it was first released, but I have to say that the X32 is truly in a class of it's own in so many ways. In short, I have the DSP and open routing architecture of an M7 (and then a little more) along with the firewire I/O of a Studiolive (x2)....and it's prive tag comes in under the 24 ch. Presonus! Sound quality is extremely competitive in this market and is certainly subjective. I am certainly aware that while it does have MIDAS "designed," head amps, they certainly did not come straight out of an XL4....wouldn't really make sense if you think about it anyway...IMO digital gain structure is an entirely different animal comparatively (-18 = analog 0). The metering is familiar in that it follows the same DB scale of all the Yamaha desks, which is where I cut my digital teeth.

Ira Wilner
from Vermont
September 27, 2012Music Background:
Recording, live sound & broadcast engineer.

Finally five stars for Behringer

Behringer has finally emerged with a highly professional product that is superbly engineered, of solid build and excellent sound characteristics. Every detail is well thought out. It is by far the best small format fully programmable digital mixer in its class and at an unbeatable price/performance ratio. I'm not sure anyone could design one that was easier to use and customize. The internal mixing engine's capacity is astounding and the control and DSP CPU's are extremely fast and responsive.

An example of the detailed control features are the individual brighness controls for LCD display backlight, LCD scribble strip brightness & contrast, LED indicator brightness and goosneck work light voltage dimmer.

Another unique operating feature is the ability to view and control channel strip aux sends from two perspectives, what aux's are being fed by a channel strip or what channels strips are feeding a specific aux. It all plays out on the motorized faders.

Even the talk back system with its A/B pushbuttons is fully programmable to include monitor dimming option to prevent feedback and also latching or momentary control.

Like another reviewer I wondered why Behringer didn't offer the built in head end (mic pre-amps) as optional for those who were planning on only using their digital snake/stage boxes. It would have further reduced the weight of the unit which is now marginal for those of us with compromised backs. I guess I'll have to do my pilates.

A software defined product of this complexity is bound to have some minor bugs that will be best uncovered through use. And user feedback will continue to provide a path for product enhancements basd upon user comments and wishes. Such is already the case. My unit shipped with firmware V 1.01. I upgraded to V1.08 which was posted on the Behringer website. Updating the unit proved to be quick, painless and glitch free! Well done!

In V1.08 you no longer have to drill down several menu layers to get to the screen to edit the scribble strip LCD of a channel strip. Holding the select button of a channel strip and then pressing the Utility key at the main LCD display will immediatley land you on the editing page for it.

So what's not to like about a digital mixer? Very little regarding this new product. But, that said, there are some potential gotya's compared to analog. First and foremost all of your eggs will be in one basket. Toss out your EFX racks and travel lighter, but if one major digital control segment decides to give up the ghost you may have lost everything. So serious live gigs should always have backup gear, maybe even a spare X32.

If you prefer a separate monitor mixing or broadcast mix position then by all means bring two or three X32's to a gig as they can all share the same microphone feeds without resorting to splitter boxes. That will also give you a hot backup. And if you copy setups to thumb drives and use digital snakes it'll only take you a few seconds to replug and download the setups to the other boards.

Ultimate reliability and good service and support remains to be seen. It does look like Behringer is attempting to re-invent itself and provide a higher caliber of products and support.

The other "golden ear" issue is sample rate and audio bandwidth. The X32 max's out at 48k. You aren't going to get 32 channels of 96k or 192k out of it as that requires way too much horsepower. And that would substantially raise the cost of admission.

Tyler
from Knoxville TN
September 22, 2012

Wow!

To be honest when i had seen that Behringer was coming out with a digital console i was very skeptical. I did some reading though and finally realized their affiliation with midas. I LOVE midas consoles so that made me extremely hopeful. I was expecting two things to be weak on this console, build quality, and preamps. I was expecting the console to be somewhat un reliable. I have seen many Behringer products fail while being used and they have always been weak on the preamp end of things. I expected the console to sound very muddy. Last week I had the opportunity to use one of these bad bodys and it was a pleasure to mix with! Everything feels really solid and the preamps sounded very clean. Ive seen some test with the preamps and on paper they appear to preform very well. The sound lived up to those high expectations the test gave me.

As far as reliability goes, It seems like a solid console and it should hold up great provided its treated properly. But thats really something we will see over the next few years. I would recommend it to just about anybody.

Dan
from Boston, MA
September 20, 2012Music Background:
Live Sound, Studio Engineer

WOW. Finally I'm comfortable going digital!

What an amazing console. I remember hearing about it here and there for the past year or so. I remember thinking, yea right, looks great, but I'll stick with my trusty Allen and Heath. These finally were shipped to stores and I was able to test one out. I was absolutely blown away, so I purchased one on the spot.

I've used it now on four productions, one of which was an all day event with nine different bands. It has been nothing but fun. If your used to analog gear like I am, you like to have all the knobs in front of you. Available in an instant. I can honestly say I don't feel hindered using the X32, as I have using almost ANY other digital mixer I've ever tried.

The SL boards are cool pieces of gear. But I'm sorry guys, the X32 blows them away. Motorized faders, higher I/O count. There are so many little things. I never understood why the SL board uses one control for returning FX to both LR feed AND Aux sends. That's absurd! You have to compromise your FOH FX sound if the talent wants more or less? Wow.

The display is great. Large, clear, intuitive. I could go on and on about the cool things in this board. But at the end of the day, it has to sound good. And this console delivers. All of my EQ's and Comps are currently being sold. Goodbye giant racks of gear and having to find a bad cable in the mess. No more!

And the digital snake!? I'am salivating to get my hands on an S16. Goodbye giant multicore snake. Hello CAT5. That's a beautiful thing.

Now, here's the real test. The mixer works great, sounds great. But how will it hold up? In my experience, Behringer does not have the greatest reliability. Only time will tell to see if X32's start popping up with issues. Bad faders, intermittent turn offs. From how it sounds, I think it's going to work out great, but we shall see.

The ONLY thing that I would have loved, is if they made the console with no XLR/1"4 I/O at all, and bundled it with the S16. I know it sounds crazy, I know it does. But for ME it would make perfect sense. In almost any situation, weather studio or live, I never connect everything directly to the board. I only use snakes. Once I start using an S16 (or two I plan on using), I will never plug directly into the board. Again I know it's crazy and thats probably why Behringer didn't even consider it. But I would have liked it!!

Jeff Wheeler
from Louisville, KY (suburbs)
September 20, 2012Music Background:
Live Sound Engineer

The best budget-mixer for a digital workflow

I am indeed "blown away" by the x32, for which I already had high expectations. While mic pre-amp and EFX comparisons are often subjective, rather than objective, it is unquestionably in the same league as similarly-priced mixers such as the StudioLive and 01V-series. In my subjective opinion, I feel its pres and EFX are superior to competitors, but I do not think the reverbs and delays are as good as Lexicon.

Where the x32 blows away other models is its modern, digital workflow. DCAs on a $3000 mixer is truly game-changing. It is a breeze to mix on the x32, much like driving a $15k mixer.

In addition, the x32's EQs are far superior to every other mixer in this class, giving you a variable HPF and 4-band PEQ on every channel, without any limitations on PEQ frequency (unlike the StudioLive) and without having to sacrifice a band for HPF (as you must do on Yamaha.) With 6-band PEQ on all buses, you will not want to carry around graphic equalizers, because they are simply unnecessary.

Finally, the dynamics processing on the x32 are incredibly powerful. Not only do you have gate and compression on each channel (as on competing models) but you also have selectable side-chain source, key frequency, and key filter Q, making it easy to tame percussion sources. Combined with full control over attack/hold/release time on the dynamics, and you will find yourself able to produce a better mix than ever before on a budget mixer.

If unmatched EQ, dynamics, and DCA capabilities don't peak your interest, then probably nothing will; but anyone buying a mixer in this price range would be foolish not to give the x32 a listen before making his decision. I am very satisfied with my investment in it. Thanks, Sweetwater!

Ski
from south haven,MI
September 13, 2012Music Background:
Production Co.

Love It

Been working with mixer like better than the presonus sounds better easyer to setup pre amp sound good,more channel,and you can do a digital snake and midas pre's
FOR PRICE this great

from
December 7, 2012

best console for pardying

i was really amazed by this beauty. The gps screen at the top guiding me threw my mixing was essential to my pardyin.

Steven Hiers
from Charlotte, NC
September 5, 2012Music Background:
Drummer, recording hobbyist and live sound engineer

More Impressed By The Day

If a sub 3000 dollar mixer with this much I/O and recording capabilities, not to mention parametric EQ, Lexicon modeled verbs and Midas pre-amps does not impress you both in the sonic quality and work flow, you don't own one! The preamps are spectacular and the P16 persoanl monitors and S16 digital snake make this the most affordable and best value of any mixing device I have ever used including the Presonus board.

Tristan
from Seneca, SC
August 28, 2012Music Background:
Recording Engineer, Producer, Pro Musician, Live Sound Engineer

INCREDIBLE!!

Nothing's perfect....including this mixer. However Behringer has FAR surpassed my expectations for this mixing machine. Word to the wise: download the beta PC editor (I'm running mine off Parallels on a mac) and it makes setup a million times quicker. The layers can be daunting but the "view" buttons on each control section make it much easier to handle for the first-time user and veteran alike. Sound quality gets high marks from me in every department: overall sound, effects quality/usability, eq musicality, etc. It's a solid mixer that I'd feel comfortable carting all over the country with my band....then taking into the basement to make our next record with. Kudos Behringer! Now get your distribution channels in line and everyone will be happy!

Craig Perkins
from Missouri - USA
August 21, 2012Music Background:
Singer songwriter and orchestrater.

Very Cool But . . .

I was excited to see Behringer finally release a pro level quality console. Thanks! I was equally pleased to see the many things this board can do through the introduction videos.

I was however, dissappointed that this model X32 did not include a VGA output so that one could use the with a flat panel large screen. I am wondering if Behringer might consider this modification in the next release.

Mack
from Georgia
August 29, 2012Music Background:
Studio, FOH, Install and Design.

X32 verses SL24

Well I did compare this console's mic pres to the SL24. It couldn't stand up to the competition. The PreSonus was bigger and richer. I love everything else in this thing but the fact is the mic pres makes it a no go for me. My eyes wanted it but my ears wouldn't let me. Don't get me wrong I think this will do well for some but the mic pre is an issue. Hands down the PreSonus wins.

Jerry Rikel
from Birmingham, AL
October 25, 2012Music Background:
Live Sound Engineer

Nice features but couldn't deal with the workflow

This board definitely has a ton of bells and whistles. I really wanted to like it. It has a lot of features but I just can't see this working well in a live situation especially at a church where I'm mixing. We have multiple services and a few different engineers. There's too many pages and layers if you need to get to something quickly. Also, I thought the mic preamps sounded a little dull.

Behringer X32

32-Channel, 16-Bus Total-Recall Digital Mixing Console With Programmable Mic Preamps, Motorized 100 MM Faders, Virtual FX Rack, and 7" Color TFT

iOS/iPad

Recording

Computer Audio

Guitar

Bass

Keyboard

Drums

Live Sound

DJ/Lighting

Accessories

Dealzone

inSync

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