Behringer Xenyx X1204 USB

I'm using this mixer in live situations of 2-3 people in small bars and cafes. It does the job very well for the price. The control room features are very nice to have and help me a lot even though when I bought it I didn't think much about them. The same applies to the 3-4 outs, which turned out to be very useful when I needed weird routing of the outputs. The AUX out with pre-fade switch is a great tool for creating a monitor mix. The low-cut is another nice thing to have

Now the negatives.
I really miss having a knob for setting the middle EQ frequency. Sometimes I can't fix muddiness problems in vocals or harsh instruments because of this.
Another thing missing is the ability to EQ the FX, because the built-in hall reverb I'm using sometimes produces long reverberation on some frequencies that need taming, but I don't want to lower all of the effect.
Finally, I would like to be able to have more control over the compressor, because sometimes I need to lower the threshold without raising the volume as much as it does. Sometimes you have a quiet player who needs a lot of compression in order to sound steady, but then you have to turn the gain really low.

I have also used this mixer as an audio interface to record and mix songs at home. When I bought it I wanted one single device to do both things (live music and audio interface). The sound is okay I guess, but you can get much more clarity from a 24-bit audio interface like the UMC HD series.

Overall, If I was buying now, I would go for a digital mixer because it would give me more control over each channel, mainly more EQ options on each channel, the FX, and the master out.

I needed something with USB support, and to be able to hook up a few instruments at the same time. So I went with this one.

It supports 12 inputs, so I like to have one for each instrument/cable and set up the track so it's always the same. Has 4 mic inputs which would be handy, if I had more mics to use with it.

The built in effects are a nice addition. I don't have much use for them though, except for a bit of reverb on bass and vocals. Same with the auxiliary sends/receives but I have used them once or twice, they are handy when you've the need.

Hooking up via USB is the easiest way for me to record. Only problem is it only supports 2 lines at a time, meaning you can only record, say, a guitar by Mic and DI, or vocals with a guitar and still have the different tracks separate in your software.

It's simple enough to figure out how to use if you've not much experience with mixing desks, just play around with everything and you'll soon get the hand of it.

The case on mine was a slight bit warped when I got it, nothing too drastic, it's just a little wobbly but you don't notice it that much. All the sliders and knobs work smoothly and the buttons work as they should.

I've recorded vocals, electric & acoustic guitar, bass, keyboards and some more and it was pretty much plug and play the whole time.

Overall a really handy mixing desk. Does what it should, and then some.

mixer

Bought it for homestudio, but it also works great for small venue gigs and practicing

major pros:

-usb connection, cable included

-features, lots of them, eq, compressor, buit-in FX, aux send/receiver, mute option, peak LEDs, etc.

-phantom power

-4 mic inputs

-schematic connections for different types of use on the quick paper guide, really handy


major cons:
- the power supply cable doesn't fit that well, it needs some sort of adjustment to switch on the mixer... really annoying (Still deciding if I'll return iit for that)

- hate the gain knobs, they could have used some similar to the eq ones, one can't really see in what position the gain knob is

- handling, for newbies it is rather hard... spent some time to be able to get a usb signal on my recording program

- it only includes a quick paper guide, one needs to get the complete PDF one online for more in-depth

- one can only record in one's software two separate tracks at a time




Summing it up good product for price/quality.


I've ordered so many stuff from thomann that now I'm completely broke, can't order more great stuff :(

We've been using this mixing desk for a couple of years now for both live work and the occasional recording session.

As it was our first mixing desk the array of controls was a little daunting but you soon get used to the layout and reading the manual helps a lot!

For live work it works as you would expect and easy to operate (after the initial learning curve). The effects haven't had much use but can be useful if playing in an acoustically dead room.

For recording the USB output works well and uses standard drivers so it's easy to get it up and running with your DAW. Being able to output to more than one channel would be handy but for basic recordings it works well.