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September 25, 2005
go for that real analogue err.. look?
Behringer make some reasonably priced gear and it stands up pretty well to musical use and the scrutiny of the budget driven but still quality conscious musician. Often you hear the cry of "how do they do it so cheap?" when every other mainstream brand costs much more.
Obviously some corners are cut, and also they just make an absolute shitload of gear and theres gotta be some economies of scale that come into play here. The article that spawned this line of thinking is over on David Mellor's Record Producer. Basically he pulled apart an Behringer ultragain mic pre to see 3 LEDs mounted behind the tube which slowly get brighter after you turn it on which is supposed to simulate valve glow. I feel this is a bit disingenuous, even if the valve is still wired in there. I was surpised but not disheartened, i mean after all this is Behringer, the cheapest of the cheap (which is not necessarily a bad thing).
What stunned me was the follow up posts where folks wrote in citing two examples of other high quality music brands indulging in the same practice. The examples listed were the Crate Blue Voodoo and the Korg Electribe EMX1.
Which frankly, shocked me. It's just a bit tawdry and silly, especially for products which stand on their own as good sounding gear. It's window dressing for products which don't need it, or alternatively they're marketing to folks who put more stock in how something looks rather than how it sounds and how it is to actually use.
Working (now part time thankfully) in a corporate business I can sadly see how this sort of thing gets through - design by committee, where the actual nuts and bolts essentials of the product (sound, usability) are just as important as packaging and the look of it. It's bloody disgusting and another sign that the end times are coming and you should send me all your gear as you won't need it during the apocralypse anyway ;-)
Record Producer.com article Will you ever buy behringer gear again after reading this? Answer: Probably, but i'll be thinking a little bit harder about its supposed features before i decide if it is the good buy it's supposed to be.
Thanks Terry for link!
Posted by funnelbc at September 25, 2005 09:39 AM
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