Behringer Xenyx X1204USB Mixer with USB and Effects

-----7 Year UpdateEverything on this board still functions perfectly, and I keep it powered on basically 24/7 (mostly because I can't ever remember to turn it off).Some of the faders crackle as they are being used and some of the the mute/unmute buttons will keep a channel (left/right) muted until you bump it - BUT this is because I haven't cleaned and lubed it. this happens to ALL mixers, look up "fader cleaner" if you want to go down that rabbit hole. I haven't cleaned it because it works flawlessly for my needs which is currently just using it as an XLR to USB interface for conference calls. (and also because I'm lazy)-----This mixing board is really great, and the price is right too. It boggles my mind that someone spend nearly the same amount on a USB interface as this entire mixing board which also interfaces via USB.Regardless, the reason for my review is actually a warning*********************************************************************WARNING: DO NOT INSTALL THE BEHRINGER DRIVERS FOR WINDOWS 7Reason: While troubleshooting a hissing sound in my audio (turned out to be a capture card... still isolating the issue, but not related to drivers) I decided to install the "official" Behringer drivers per the recommendation of a random person on Google. TERRIBLE idea. Immediately, I noticed a huge reduction in the number of recording and playback modes over USB, but after some time I realized my system had become wildly unstable. I disabled my onboard sound in the BIOS thinking there was some type of conflict with my onboard sound, but then found out the issue was related to the drivers I had installed (mind you, the "default" Windows 7 drivers worked PERFECTLY FINE). After numerous blue screens and audio cutting in and out, I began using the inputs/outputs to my sound card bypassing USB all together. Seemed a little silly as a huge selling point was the USB interface. Even though I uninstalled the drivers and uninstalled everything I could find related to the drivers, I could not get the drivers completely off of my PC. I did get to a point where the device wouldn't install at all, but it still recognised it as "BEHRINGER blah blah". This told me that somehow Windows in its infinite wisdom was still identifying the device differently than it used to (the default Windows driver that's assigned labels the device as "2- USB Audio CODEC").Finally, I searched my entire hard drive, and registry, for "behringer" "busb2902" and "busbwdm" (with the sound board uninstalled and unplugged). I deleted literally every reference I could (warning: this is very wreckless, but I was prepared to reformat my PC anyway because I intend to sometime soon). I then rebooted into safe mode and did it again to verify I did not miss anything. Once I booted back up, finally success! I am back on the default "2- USB Audio CODEC" drivers and am not experiencing any of the problems I was as a result of the erroneous drivers.Now, you may be thinking that others have not had the same problems with the drivers. This may be true, but I stick by my advice to stick to the default drivers for 2 key points:1) The default drivers work absolutely fine, so there is no need to install the ones from Behringer, so why take the risk?2) The default drivers offer numerous more configuration options and recording modes than the ones supplied by Behringer, oddly enough.*********************************************************************Regarding the unit itself, I do like it but there are some things to keep in mind.Comments on the USB interface:The USB input is strange, and it's not easy to control. The only thing you can do is bus it into your headphone monitoring, and you can bus it back out to the master, but that's it. No volume controls, no EQ, and you can't use fx/aux on it either. If you're using ALT 3-4 as a submix, you also have no option of sending it to that submix. It's quite frustrating and difficult to use. With regard to USB out, with Behringer's drivers you just have an option for 44.1K or 48K output and it's based on the main bus. Again, no volume option what so ever. This can be a real pain if you need to actually use the main mix out to something, and simultaneously use the USB output as well - this basically makes it impossible to mix it so that they are both at optimal volume. You'll inevidibly be stuck with mixing one correctly, then the other one you will have to deal with it being too loud or too quiet - and on that note, it does seem to go in a little hot. You can control the recording volume within windows, but this isn't optimal and riding levels isn't going to be an option. Would it have been so hard to make a button to pipe the USB into channel 7/8 so that we could have some control over it? Finally, this is a prosumer device... why can't it support 96khz on the USB bus? would that be asking too much?Comments on the board itself:The preamps in this board are better than expected. As with most preamps, they do tend to get some pretty gnarly noise in the last 10-20db of boost, but you shouldn't be pushing them that far. Even for my naturally quiet shotgun mic, the preamps offer me plenty of headroom that I don't need to boost that high on gain to attain unity gain. I will warn though, the preamps in this board seem to color the audio add a lot of warmth to the audio (typical of tube-style preamps). I like it a lot, but if it isn't what you were expecting be warned (again, this is typical of tube style preamps, so you wont notice a think if that is what you typically use).The built in compressors worked exactly like i thought they would - decent, and wonderful for live events, but best to leave them off for recordings as you can do more controlled and precise compression in post processing. Still, this feature is absolutely outstanding and works well! The EQ is decent and what I would expect from a board of this price. Sure I would have preferred a mid-sweep or more EQ positions, but I don't know that I would have been willing to pay the price for those features.The AUX channel is wonderful, but I was disappointed to find that it is attached to the master mix. For example, if something is turned down on the master mix or muted on the master mix, having it turned up in the aux channel will not send any audio through (even with the pre selector enabled, which I was sure would rectify the problem). For this reason, I couldn't use the AUX channel the way I was hoping and has kinda been a real bummer because I am now needing a solution for said problem. I do find it a bit odd that it's mono out stereo in, but I guess that makes sense when used in the context of external sound processing.The FX channel is also wonderful, and the on board sound effects are all quite good. What I would expect to find on any sound board I've used in my day really, from many reverb settings to a pitch shifter your basic FX are all there. I thought they did above and beyond on this for such a cheap board, I found myself impressed (but the FX I really don't have a need for unfortunately). I believe the FX channel does not behave like the AUX channel and sends regardless of which mix it's in (pre-fader, one might say). I haven't confirmed this yet, but am in process of exploring this as an alternative to using AUX as I don't need the digital FX anyway, as nice as they are.Panning is well... panning. However, I am glad that it exists on this basic sound board. The phones mix has an amazing amount of power, and I typically keep it below 25%. I was glad, because this is a shortcoming of some boards. Nothing more annoying than mixing for a band/concert and not being able to hear your monitoring headphones over the mains. Doubt that will ever be an issue with this board, it's got quite a bit of volume. Granted I wont be needing the board for this type of use, but if you did decide to use it in that fashion, I'm sure it would perform admirably. I am annoyed by the double sliders for the main mix and alt 3-4 as I always am, but I guess I see why it's separated that way (couldn't we have a panner knob for the main and alt 3-4 rather than individual sliders?). I have seen this in so many sound boards I've used that I can't really fault them for it though. Surely there is a practical reason for this in the world somewhere - but I have never ran into it in my experience.One of the major selling points to this board was the ability to mute and use pre-fader listen to set my levels correctly. This might be the cheapest board out that has those features. Finally, I would have liked an option for 1/4" output on the mains. Granted it's typical to use XLR for mains on boards, I would have really liked thatFinal Conclusion:For the price, this board is outstanding! The features are really quite good, and while I do have my gripes with the board, so far all of them have been minor. The USB interface is an obvious selling point, and while I was hoping for a lot more out of it, it does do the job. The amount of features on this board is truly amazing from single knob compressors, to EQ's for each channel, and AUX/FX sends with a decent on board FX processor... I am very satisfied at this price point. Had I paid over $300 for this board though, I would have expected more and not been satisfied. This does truly make me wonder why people pay so much for USB preamps etc when you can have this entire board with way more than a simple preamp for marginally more money.

I've been using my Behringer XENYX 802, without issue, for about 10 years for a DJ set up and just updated to the X1204-USB. Notice I said UPDATED not UPGRADED. Same quality as my 802 but 4 unbalanced and 2 balanced inputs. As well as aux send/rtns and all that. USB is great for recording live streams or events. Included DAW is free... so, I wouldn't expect it to change your life. Overall, and despite the excess amount of poor reviews, this is a GREAT PRODUCT, as far as affordable mixing goes.Sound quality is exactly what you SHOULD expect from a $179 mixer. This isn't studio quality but I've had no noise issues.Put simply, if you know what you're doing, this is good bang for your buck. BUT... if all you're doing with it is streaming, etc. and don't have experience with audio mixing you're going to either A) Need to take the time to learn how to use it properly OR B) Need to consider buying something simpler for your needs. Reading through a lot of the bad reviews, it's clear most reviewers could have benefited from some knowledge in gain structure and mixer routing (among other things). TRY YOUTUBE!!This is great for event production (weddings, corporate events etc.), Karaoke, SMALL bands, DJs (bars, nightclubs, etc.) ... so basically SMALL PA systems. If you're looking for a mixer for your home recording studio, or larger systems. I'd recommend you spend more and get a better mixer, as this one is more of an entry-level product.Finally, Behringer makes quality, affordable products. It's not top of the line, but people should really educate themselves before leaving bad reviews. It's not Behringers fault you don't know how to use their product. But, most assuredly, the majority of their customer base does.

Initially I had a bad unit - it was buzzing and chirping and had issues inside, I had that fixed and have been using the unit for some time now. I have to admit - it is a good mixer.I got mine and went out and bought a much more expensive mixer when it had its problems, in the meantime I was upset and I left a negative review, then after a while I had the behringer replaced, when I did, I decided to compare it - sound to sound, apples to apples with a mixer that cost almost 3x as much, you know what? it sounded cleaner.It offers a good clean USB interface - it is not easily susceptible to usb interferenceThe EQ worksThe one knob compressor worksThe effects are, well, okay?It's a solid tool for the money and a lot quieter than you might think. Well worth what I paid for it.Probably the best part of behringer is the company though, they replace units or repair them w/o hesitation, they are rock solid in this respect.