What is everyones opinion on alesis?

Tom-eg

Also what is everyone's opinion on behringer?

Savman

Not sure how you can expect anyone to talk up or cast off an entire product range from 2 fairly well established manufacturers. You're gonna have to be a little more specific than that...

Tom-eg

Well has anyone came across with any problems with them? Or anyone been surprised by any pieces of kit by them?

Savman

Tom-eg wrote: »

Well has anyone came across with any problems with them? Or anyone been surprised by any pieces of kit by them?

Surprised at it working or surprised at it not working? I think it's a very vague question, both make a wide range of products, some good some bad and some downright ugly.

Why are you asking anyway? Just to gage industry opinion or do you actually plan buying any products from said companies?

Tom-eg

Ok maybe i should of asked what peoples experiences with both alesis and behringer equipment have been. Overall what do you think of them?

Savman

Tom-eg wrote: »

Ok maybe i should of asked what peoples experiences with both alesis and behringer equipment have been.

Mixed. A vague answer to a vague question

You doin' market research or wha? My spider sense is tinglin.

Sham Squire

You'll find that generally Behringer get a kicking on most of the music production websites (gearsluts,etc) but I'm not sure there is a general consensus on Alesis.
I have only used one piece of Behringer equipment ever and that was a cheap mini-preamp. It was actually grand and better than the DBX mini-pre which is nearly twice as expensive (they both retail under 150euro and neither is anything to write home about).

le_tigre

They made one of the most powerful polyphonic analogue synthesizers ever, sold it for comparative peanuts, and still produce/service it {no further development, but fine}. There have been build issues with some of their kit, but Alesis have always had a generous return/repair policy, and they usually get a few hardware revisions in before calling it a day for R&D.

I've only owned one Behringer product and promptly sold it on for something else.

Techbot

I just bought an Alesis 8 channel USB mixer. And it has a hum, goddamit. And it's not my machine, it's the bloody model.

madtheory

Behringer bashing is SO 2004

Sham Squire wrote: »

I have only used one piece of Behringer equipment ever and that was a cheap mini-preamp. It was actually grand and better than the DBX mini-pre which is nearly twice as expensive (they both retail under 150euro and neither is anything to write home about).

I have a different opinion . The dbx is a fun piece of kit, the Behringer is not as good at all. The Art one with the overdrive presets is even better. Personally I would prefer any of those over the SPL Gold which is way upmarket, which I just didn't like at all, I found it bland. At least the baby ones have useable character.

Alesis are a cool company, sometimes build quality is not great, but it's OK. They've made some classics- as has been mentioned, the Andromeda is just great. The Quadraverb is a noisy classic, and the Wedge is still a seriously good reverb. The D4/D5/DM5 are the best audio to MIDI triggers available. Their HD recorders sound really good as long as you're aware of the issues. For example, the non XR converters are rubbish at 44.1k because of how they divided the single clock source. They're v. good at 48. And the drives can fall out!

Behringer- they make cheap stuff. It doesn't last forever. Most of it sounds quite bland. But it's so cheap! The more recent mixers are fine for general purposes, but I'd hate to have to record on one, they rob tone from even the best mics. The only thing I own by them is the micro headphone amp, it actually sounds much better than their rackmounting one.

squibs

I have a behringer mixer, bass v-amp pro, patch bay and midi keyboard controller. The keyboard has a knob which never worked, but the rest has been 100% reliable. The mixer is coming up on 8 years old now.

Bought an alesis DM5 kit this week. It is a budget electronic kit, with all that entails, but I like it. I prefer the pads on the Yamaha DTX although I'm still tweaking the pad response so come back to me on that, but the brain is far better than the DTX imho.

DamagedTrax

heres the experience i have with both companies

alesis m1 mk2 monitors -
exaggerated bass pieces of crap - no more, no less.

behringer bcr & bcf2000 -
best midi controllers ive ever bought. cheap and rugged. ive been using them on the road for 3 years and theres not a hiccup out of them.

all the stars

Hi all,
never get to post in here

I have an Alesis mixer USB - for my laptop - and i find it great - really easy to use (me not being mechanically minded and all)

and my Mic is a behringer - not sure the type but its very very good...

If i could just figure out how to mix down properly i'd be laughing.. loudly...



www.myspace.com/oraclegurl

PaulBrewer

DamagedTrax wrote: »

alesis m1 mk2 monitors -
exaggerated bass pieces of crap - no more, no less.

.

You shoulda heard da Mk 1s - they were like a 3 way speaker with the mid driver bust!


In fairness Alesis changed the industry with the Adat, and the SR16 drum machine and D4 and D5 drum units were cool at the time - more recently the HD24 is a groovy box for little over a grand.

Those Behringer Headphone amps are pretty bullet proof too.

sei046

+1 for the behringer headphone amps. I got some SERIOUS milage off a eurodesk MX8000. 48 channel desk with a serious amount of features and I have to say it never gave me a single problem. I never thought I would say this about a behringer desk but I miss it! It just felt cool, well like a mackie 24!

alphasounds

The Behr. ultradrive/qurve is super value, also the 1540 speakers for DJ
and as floor wedges.
The Beh.mixers are not really fun to listen to.
The EQ's are total usless.
Composer not bad at all and has a better audio quality
then the alesis compr.( very dull)
The guitar pedals are brutal and worse then any old plastic i came across.
If some bands enter the stage with the vamp i get automaticly into a baad mood.( same with zoom )
Amps sound ok but no limiter.
Alesis seems to be more consisted with audio quality.
Behringer some stuff is very good for the money
but for some stuff should get arrested.
Thats only my live stage experience.
greetings Thor

condra

As far as I know, Alesis are now part of the same company as AKAI, Ion, and Numark.

Only today, I was in Sounds Around getting a new stylus for my Ion/Numark turntable, which, incidentally, has flakey USB drivers.

My AKAI MPD 32 is well built and generally works great, but the manual and support are both rubbish.

The only Alesis product I've had was an Alesis Ion synthesizer, which was a total lemon for me. The keys were light and plasticy with sharp edges, and the synth was average in sound, and frustrating in use.

As far as Behringer goes, I think they're great for MIDI stuff (BCD/BCF!), and their monitors are supposed to be decent (Truths- in that price range)
Not sure if I'd be pushed about their mixers.
In saying all that, my first soundcard/interface was a Behringer (BCA 2000 or something), and it worked very well and was built like a tank.

Soundman

Only piece of Behringer equipment I have EVER let be used in my PA was their headphone amp. I was forced to use their Ultracurves or whatever they were called for about 3 weeks while our BSS gear was repaired. Worst 3 weeks of my sound career thus far.

I've had so many bands come in with Behringer gear and start to play only for me to stop them a few seconds later asking are connections and cables/power alright as it's so noisy. They say yes, I go up to investigate and find out why it sounds so bad as soon as I see the label. They always whine and say that no other engineer has said anything. I then find out that they have been using small PAs that generally hide the frying bacon sound that Behringer is known for. No I'm not being a snob. If something sounds good, I don't care who makes it.

I really don't like that company. If you need cheap gear then please buy T-Bone instead. Please? So much better.

Haven't used much Alesis gear so can't comment.