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[Sam Feine]

Dear Sam,
 
I don't know who you spoke with from our company but since this is an important topic I thought I would try to address it myself by offering some clarifications.
 
I'm not sure it is accurate to say that there is a difference in philosophy between MIDAS and BEHRINGER with respect to how each brand looks at digital audio. In fact, both brands are committed to the support of complete digital product eco-systems that meet the needs of their customers. This includes standards-based networking designed around the the specific needs of live sound; where low latency and clock stability are critically important performance parameters.
 
Where the brands differ is in the type of solutions they offer to their customers. MIDAS is a brand that is respected for decades of stellar sonic performance and rock-solid operational stability in the most demanding applications. MIDAS products are used in extremely high-profile events with sometimes hundreds of channels routed through several consoles. In this environment the unique attributes of 96 kHz sample rate, total redundancy with two independent network rings and up to three power supplies and sophisticated signal routing are mandatory.
 
The X32 uses the very same AES50 network topology as is found on MIDAS Digital consoles. This network is designed from the ground-up to offer the very lowest possible latency and highest stability because it is designed to carry live audio streams; not packet data. On the X32 the network is used not only to connect S16 stage boxes but also to link several consoles together, allowing them to share inputs. In this way one X32 can mix front of house while another mixes monitors for example.
 
The way in which channels are routed is determined by the intended application for the product. In the case of the X32 we opted for a scheme that makes sense for the way that buyers of this console will be using it. The result is a channel assignment method that allows a user to set up and operate the console quickly, efficiently and with enough flexibility to mix mains, monitors, recording and even a broadcast feed from one set of inputs.
 
Warm regards,
 
Uli

Ok, I must have misunderstood what they were saying when I asked them about the differing philosophies. (they did bring up the other differences as well (redundancy of components and the like))

Quick question, I'm sure its in the literature somewhere, but what is the sampling rate of the mixer? And why does it only allow group routing to processing channels? (will this be updated in the future to a more flexible routing scheme?)

Thank you very much for clearing up my misconceptions about the board and welcome to the forums, it is really nice to see the head of the company answering questions for people.

[Patrick Ferdig]

Patrick,
Thank you for the detailed response to my concern. Based on your reply it would seem that Music Group has taken, and will continue to take steps towards eliminating our concerns regarding service and support.
 
I have a question regarding the return of the product to the retailer. Will an exchange be automatic and no questions asked if the unit has failed, or will there be a wait and let's see if we should replace the unit attitude/approach taken towards these requests.
 
Also, there will be many part which might be considered CRU vs FRU. Will parts be available for those customer replacable components? And please excuse me for not knowing, but where are these factory authorized service centers you speak of.
 
Thank you again for your honest and open reply.

Hi Bob,

First off, I have been traveling so I apologize for my delayed response. 

Yes, we have worked very hard to increase our level of service across all areas of our business, but we are not finished yet.  We are continuing to work hard every day to continue our progress.g

As for product returns, our retailers will generally replace defective product for customers within the first 30 days of ownership.  Most retailers will set their own return policies for providing refunds or exchanges for non-defective gear.  After the first 30 days, the warranty will be managed by one of our customer care canters to help identify the issue and determine the best course of action for warranty repair.

Most of the items on the X32 are FRU components and are not what I would consider end user replaceable items.  We currently have the full line of spares at both our Las Vegas and Kidderminster Care facilities.

Lastly, you mentioned our FASCs and where are they.  You can find the list of our current authorized service online at www.behringer.com/support.  Please keep in mind that all items provided to a Factory Authorized Service Center for warranty repair requires pre-authorization in the form of an RA number.  An RA number can be obtained by contacting us directly.

[Geri O'Neil]

Anyone out there got the tech resources to do a shootout between, say,  Vi6, LS9, SL24.4.2 and the dreaded X32.
M

Well, I wasn't going to say anything until afterwards, but if we finish up in the shop early enough on Friday, I had planned some listening time between the X32, an M7CL, a PM5D, and a CL5, mostly to A/B the 3 bigger desks, but hey, I'll toss the X32 in there for fun.

Keep in mind, it has never wrecked my day to walk up to any mixer other than my favorite. I'll get a show going regardless. There's far more things I'll work to eliminate (noises, hums, buzzes, designer drugs, etc) to improve a mix than fretting over a console (that is, as long as it's in good shape and decently maintained). So I might not have the Golden-Ear perspective that some might want to hear.

Hey, let's just take care of business and have some fun, okay? We aren't comparing cures for cancer, ya know...

Geri O

[Jay Barracato]

Keep in mind, it has never wrecked my day to walk up to any mixer other than my favorite. I'll get a show going regardless. There's far more things I'll work to eliminate (noises, hums, buzzes, designer drugs, etc) to improve a mix than fretting over a console (that is, as long as it's in good shape and decently maintained). So I might not have the Golden-Ear perspective that some might want to hear.


Geri O

That is exactly why your opinion would be valuable.

[Uli Behringer]

I have been receiving a lot of inquiries from several forum members and thought I would post answers to a group of topics. In the interest of efficiency please allow me to clarify several topics in this one post:

96 kHz

This is a very interesting topic and one which receives plenty of discussion among our various digital engineering teams. Without taking sides in the debate over whether the differences are audible or even necessary in a live sound application, allow me to say that we have made a conscious decision to deliver the X32 with 44.1/48 kHz sample rates. As I have stated before, our goal with the X32 was to deliver a console that meets the real-world needs of the target customer and there are several reasons why that excludes a 96 kHz sample rate.

Most fundamental is the fact that as the sample rate doubles, so does the channel count drop by half. Of course we could add more DSP to maintain the channel count at the higher sample rate, but then the console would likely cost considerably more. Our job is to balance the feature set (channel count) and performance (sample rate) with a cost that makes sense for our customers. While we don’t count it out as a future possibility I would point people to the MIDAS Pro1 as an immediate alternative if they need the higher sample rate.

Why is the X32 so affordable?

This is such an important question because there is a lingering perception that we must somehow be cutting corners to reduce cost. I have seen people claim that we must be using poor quality parts, not following quality control processes or somehow designing in obsolescence. While I can tell you that this is absolutely not the case, it may be best if I offer some insights into our business model to explain.

There are four fundamental elements that comprise the selling price of our products; materials, labor, overhead and profit. Achieving low prices and delivering great value for our customers requires great discipline and hard work in each of these areas. It is my responsibility as the CEO to set the pace and ensure that we reduce costs while always increasing quality; because without quality, we cannot maintain low costs.

We reduce the cost of raw materials in two ways; first, we buy direct from manufacturers and not through a second source, distributor or contract manufacturer. Second, we buy in enormous quantities and leverage this volume in negotiating lower prices. Of course owning the factory where we build our products allows us to cut out at least 30% of the margin demanded by contract manufacturers who are supplying some of our competitors.

Consider that we buy our A/D and D/A converters from Cirrus Logic; the same parts (CS5368 and CS4385) that you will find in a $200k console; we encourage anyone interested to look further into this. We have also been told that we are the single largest Cirrus Logic customer behind only Apple! You will find similar examples with Analog Devices, makers of the SHARC DSPs that we use or Mabuchi, who make the motors for our motor-faders (and those of Penny & Giles, Alps, etc.) and the list goes on. We are buying the very best parts, from the very best manufacturers, direct and in huge quantities. That means we pay the lowest possible prices.

Likewise we have two major ways in which we reduce the cost of labor to build our products. First, we own the factory and this means we are paying workers directly and not through a third party that is making a markup. Again, this results in up to 35% savings. Second, we have invested in massive amount of automation to a far greater extent than many in China in order to reduce cost while increasing quality.

This past year for example we converted the placement of electrolytic capacitors from hand-insertion to full automation. Each of the machines that now place e-caps in rapid-fire succession cost over $500k US so the savings in cost will take some time to be realized. But we have seen an immediate improvement in first-pass yield by eliminating the chance of human error, and that is both improving quality and reducing the cost of re-work.

We run our company with a very low overhead relative to some competitors, and we do this not by cutting corners but rather by working smarter. First off we invest heavily in systems that improve productivity and reduce redundancy. For example our engineering management software Agile talks to our website content management system so when we enter a product’s specifications we do it once and it is automatically replicated across several departments and is immediately posted to the web. Or take our service manuals which are created automatically, in real-time and with the very latest schematics, parts lists and engineering changes - all available through an on-line portal.

Another way we reduce overhead is by re-investing profits in our company to purchase machinery, land and buildings. For example we have purchased new buildings in Manchester, UK and Las Vegas, USA in the past year. We have also purchased land and are building a $60 million state-of-the-art campus to contain a new factory, research center, logistics hub and residential village in China. These investments not only give us greater control over quality and production but they also reduce our operating costs over the long term.

Finally it is important to know that we operate on what would be considered to be a slim margin by industry standards. While some manufacturers price their products according to what they think the market will accept, we do it very differently. We calculate our costs and add a fair markup that will allow us to continue to grow our business and nothing more. Again, we have all seen strategies where manufacturers release new products at high prices only to reduce them as other competitors come into the market. We prefer to offer a fair price from the beginning and not play such games.

The reality of our company is that we are a highly efficient organization of 3,500 people including over 250 engineers and in-house manufacturing. We build up to 5 million products a year and consequently buy parts at the lowest possible cost. Plus, our quality is among the best in the world, with a defect rate of well under 0.7%, allowing us the confidence to offer a 3-year warranty.

Yes, we are a very different kind of company, we want to be different and I am immensely proud of our team.

X32 Manual

I have been asked why we did not issue a full manual when the console first shipped and when it can be expected to become ready. The truth is that we prepared a full manual and decided at the last moment not to release it as we felt it was too long and too complicated. So we set about rewriting the manual and including more illustrations and less text. The new manual should be posted online in the next couple of days but expect it to expand as we roll out new features and implement updates.

Generation 2 Firmware

Since the X32 has first become available we have received tremendous feedback and many suggestions for new features. While many of these suggestions reflect personal preferences we are open to hearing any and all ideas and promise to consider each of them for future revisions. We are already planning the future addition of dedicated function lockouts, which is one of the suggestions we heard from several of you.

One of the most exciting new features that we are planning for the X32 is the inclusion of high-end FX “plug-ins” based on physical modeling of classic audio hardware. Our algorithm development engineers are essentially “rebuilding” classics from Neve, SSL, UREI and others into effects that will be included on the X32. Well-known and loved gear such as the LA-2A compressor, Lexicon reverbs, an SPL De-Esser and even the TC Finalizer multi-band compressor are on our list.

We are also working on some pretty amazing pitch shifting and pitch correction tools for the X32. Imagine pitch correction on every console and the power of what that will allow you to do in a live or recording environment. The best part is that these effects will be made available as part of a regular firmware update and hence will be free of charge to X32 owners! Our goal is to make the X32 a living platform for constant expansion and improvement.

No company is perfect, but rest assured that all of our people are working very hard to constantly improve your Customer Experience, the quality of our products and service in every possible way.

Allow me to thank you again for all your support in all these 23 years.

Warm regards

Uli

[Uli Behringer]

MUSIC Group Research in Germany Expands

Dear all,

Over the past several months I have come to know many of you by your posts as true experts in pro audio. So when we decided to expand our world-class digital engineering team in Germany - the same team that has developed the X32 - I thought that I would reach out to you. We are currently recruiting for five important positions to join our already established digital mixer team and I am inviting you to spread the word or possibly even make a recommendation - or even apply yourself.

The first position is for two Senior Systems Engineers who will join the digital mixer team. The right person for this role will be fully conversant with modern DSP and FPGA hardware and firmware design, board layout and system troubleshooting and will work closely with the Software team to deliver functional solutions.

http://www.music-group.com/jobs/senior_engineer_systems_de.html

The other open position is for three Senior Software Engineers who will take ownership for all aspects of the design, development and improvement of our state-of-the-art digital audio systems.

http://www.music-group.com/jobs/senior_engineer_software_de.html

These positions will join the team that has been responsible for the X32 Digital Mixer, P16 Personal Monitor System and many other incredible products. They will also be the core of the engineering team that develops future products and systems that will take our digital audio, processing and networking roadmaps forward.

If you are one of the people we're looking for or you know of someone who would be a fit, then please refer them to the following job postings.

Thanks again for all your feedback and warm welcome.

Warm regards

Uli

[Steve Kas]

Help! I bought my X32 in late December 2012. I tried interfacing it with my PC laptop using firewire. It didn't work. I tried downloading the latest firmware from the website. I downloaded to 2 different USB's, inserted into USB slot on console top, restarted the console, and nothing. I put the files in the root of the USB sticks per the directions. Any help will be appreciated.

I have been receiving a lot of inquiries from several forum members and thought I would post answers to a group of topics. In the interest of efficiency please allow me to clarify several topics in this one post:

96 kHz

This is a very interesting topic and one which receives plenty of discussion among our various digital engineering teams. Without taking sides in the debate over whether the differences are audible or even necessary in a live sound application, allow me to say that we have made a conscious decision to deliver the X32 with 44.1/48 kHz sample rates. As I have stated before, our goal with the X32 was to deliver a console that meets the real-world needs of the target customer and there are several reasons why that excludes a 96 kHz sample rate.

Most fundamental is the fact that as the sample rate doubles, so does the channel count drop by half. Of course we could add more DSP to maintain the channel count at the higher sample rate, but then the console would likely cost considerably more. Our job is to balance the feature set (channel count) and performance (sample rate) with a cost that makes sense for our customers. While we don’t count it out as a future possibility I would point people to the MIDAS Pro1 as an immediate alternative if they need the higher sample rate.

Why is the X32 so affordable?

This is such an important question because there is a lingering perception that we must somehow be cutting corners to reduce cost. I have seen people claim that we must be using poor quality parts, not following quality control processes or somehow designing in obsolescence. While I can tell you that this is absolutely not the case, it may be best if I offer some insights into our business model to explain.

There are four fundamental elements that comprise the selling price of our products; materials, labor, overhead and profit. Achieving low prices and delivering great value for our customers requires great discipline and hard work in each of these areas. It is my responsibility as the CEO to set the pace and ensure that we reduce costs while always increasing quality; because without quality, we cannot maintain low costs.

We reduce the cost of raw materials in two ways; first, we buy direct from manufacturers and not through a second source, distributor or contract manufacturer. Second, we buy in enormous quantities and leverage this volume in negotiating lower prices. Of course owning the factory where we build our products allows us to cut out at least 30% of the margin demanded by contract manufacturers who are supplying some of our competitors.

Consider that we buy our A/D and D/A converters from Cirrus Logic; the same parts (CS5368 and CS4385) that you will find in a $200k console; we encourage anyone interested to look further into this. We have also been told that we are the single largest Cirrus Logic customer behind only Apple! You will find similar examples with Analog Devices, makers of the SHARC DSPs that we use or Mabuchi, who make the motors for our motor-faders (and those of Penny & Giles, Alps, etc.) and the list goes on. We are buying the very best parts, from the very best manufacturers, direct and in huge quantities. That means we pay the lowest possible prices.

Likewise we have two major ways in which we reduce the cost of labor to build our products. First, we own the factory and this means we are paying workers directly and not through a third party that is making a markup. Again, this results in up to 35% savings. Second, we have invested in massive amount of automation to a far greater extent than many in China in order to reduce cost while increasing quality.

This past year for example we converted the placement of electrolytic capacitors from hand-insertion to full automation. Each of the machines that now place e-caps in rapid-fire succession cost over $500k US so the savings in cost will take some time to be realized. But we have seen an immediate improvement in first-pass yield by eliminating the chance of human error, and that is both improving quality and reducing the cost of re-work.

We run our company with a very low overhead relative to some competitors, and we do this not by cutting corners but rather by working smarter. First off we invest heavily in systems that improve productivity and reduce redundancy. For example our engineering management software Agile talks to our website content management system so when we enter a product’s specifications we do it once and it is automatically replicated across several departments and is immediately posted to the web. Or take our service manuals which are created automatically, in real-time and with the very latest schematics, parts lists and engineering changes - all available through an on-line portal.

Another way we reduce overhead is by re-investing profits in our company to purchase machinery, land and buildings. For example we have purchased new buildings in Manchester, UK and Las Vegas, USA in the past year. We have also purchased land and are building a $60 million state-of-the-art campus to contain a new factory, research center, logistics hub and residential village in China. These investments not only give us greater control over quality and production but they also reduce our operating costs over the long term.

Finally it is important to know that we operate on what would be considered to be a slim margin by industry standards. While some manufacturers price their products according to what they think the market will accept, we do it very differently. We calculate our costs and add a fair markup that will allow us to continue to grow our business and nothing more. Again, we have all seen strategies where manufacturers release new products at high prices only to reduce them as other competitors come into the market. We prefer to offer a fair price from the beginning and not play such games.

The reality of our company is that we are a highly efficient organization of 3,500 people including over 250 engineers and in-house manufacturing. We build up to 5 million products a year and consequently buy parts at the lowest possible cost. Plus, our quality is among the best in the world, with a defect rate of well under 0.7%, allowing us the confidence to offer a 3-year warranty.

Yes, we are a very different kind of company, we want to be different and I am immensely proud of our team.

X32 Manual

I have been asked why we did not issue a full manual when the console first shipped and when it can be expected to become ready. The truth is that we prepared a full manual and decided at the last moment not to release it as we felt it was too long and too complicated. So we set about rewriting the manual and including more illustrations and less text. The new manual should be posted online in the next couple of days but expect it to expand as we roll out new features and implement updates.

Generation 2 Firmware

Since the X32 has first become available we have received tremendous feedback and many suggestions for new features. While many of these suggestions reflect personal preferences we are open to hearing any and all ideas and promise to consider each of them for future revisions. We are already planning the future addition of dedicated function lockouts, which is one of the suggestions we heard from several of you.

One of the most exciting new features that we are planning for the X32 is the inclusion of high-end FX “plug-ins” based on physical modeling of classic audio hardware. Our algorithm development engineers are essentially “rebuilding” classics from Neve, SSL, UREI and others into effects that will be included on the X32. Well-known and loved gear such as the LA-2A compressor, Lexicon reverbs, an SPL De-Esser and even the TC Finalizer multi-band compressor are on our list.

We are also working on some pretty amazing pitch shifting and pitch correction tools for the X32. Imagine pitch correction on every console and the power of what that will allow you to do in a live or recording environment. The best part is that these effects will be made available as part of a regular firmware update and hence will be free of charge to X32 owners! Our goal is to make the X32 a living platform for constant expansion and improvement.

No company is perfect, but rest assured that all of our people are working very hard to constantly improve your Customer Experience, the quality of our products and service in every possible way.

Allow me to thank you again for all your support in all these 23 years.

Warm regards

Uli

[Spenser Hamilton]

Help! I bought my X32 in late December 2012. I tried interfacing it with my PC laptop using firewire. It didn't work. I tried downloading the latest firmware from the website. I downloaded to 2 different USB's, inserted into USB slot on console top, restarted the console, and nothing. I put the files in the root of the USB sticks per the directions. Any help will be appreciated.

What kind of USB sticks, and how were they formatted?

[James A. Griffin]

Help! I bought my X32 in late December 2012. I tried interfacing it with my PC laptop using firewire. It didn't work. I tried downloading the latest firmware from the website. I downloaded to 2 different USB's, inserted into USB slot on console top, restarted the console, and nothing. I put the files in the root of the USB sticks per the directions. Any help will be appreciated.

Not every brand of USB stick works.   I"ve have good luck with the SanDisk Cruzer sticks...

[Tim McCulloch]

Help! I bought my X32 in late December 2012. I tried interfacing it with my PC laptop using firewire. It didn't work. I tried downloading the latest firmware from the website. I downloaded to 2 different USB's, inserted into USB slot on console top, restarted the console, and nothing. I put the files in the root of the USB sticks per the directions. Any help will be appreciated.

Couldn't find the answers over at SoundForums.net, or from Behringer, eh?

The Behringer Appreciation Society is MUCH smaller over here...

[ProSoundWeb Community]