Let's talk Behringer

[isteen]

An owner of a store once told me that Behringer just bought and took apart popular pedals, and made exact copies of them - with cheaper components. Does anyone of you have good experiences with ANY pedals from Behringer?

It's a brand everybody loves to hate, and I have to admit that some of the Behringer products I have tried, never impressed me.

What it boils down to is tone - is there any pedals from Behringer you really like?

[horrorshowbass]

The sansamp bass driver clone (BDI21?) has never let me down and cost less than £30.
It's not in a metal box but unless you enjoy throwing your pedals at the floor, shouldn't be a problem.

[JapanAxe]

VD400 analog delay - cheap-as-chips version of Boss DM2 - currently £19.99 from GAK!

[paul_5]

Yup, the BDI21 is a brilliant piece of kit. Loads of players on here have them either as a back up or as a main pedal.

[Hobbayne]

Ive got a [size=4]Behringer Ultra Chorus UC200. Only £20, and does what it says on the tin.[/size]
[size=4][/size]

Edited May 8, 2016 by Hobbayne

[bartelby]

I had a copy of a Boss Octave pedal years ago. It was crap. It didn't track a guitar, let alone a bass.
I also had a copy of the EHX Small Stone a couple of years back. It was awful, massive drop in output barely any effect.
Last year I got a BDI21, to me it sounded like a fart in a jar. But lots of other people recommend them.

I might just have bad luck with faulty items though. As I refuse to believe the first two pedal were meant to be like that.

My dad has the EM-600 Echo pedal and that sound pretty good for £30.

Edited May 8, 2016 by bartelby

[MacDaddy]

Harley Benton seem to have managed to avoid the vitriol that is aimed at Behringer.

[elephantgrey]

Ive never had any behringer that hasn't broken on me, usually at the worst possible time. For cheap clones id go for Joyo (Harley Benton), the one i have has lasted longer than any behringer has.

[isteen]

For some reason Thomann no longer sell Joyo pedals. Behringer and Harley Benton (plastic cases) but no Joyo

[40hz]

I have the bass overdrive pedal, it's more distortion than overdrive though. It's held up perfectly to 8 years of use and gigging and sounds great. No complaints here.

[rmorris]

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1462714871' post='3045085']
Yup, the BDI21 is a brilliant piece of kit. Loads of players on here have them either as a back up or as a main pedal.
[/quote]

+1 This.
The footswitch is a funny sort of thing. It doesn't run on phantom power.
But it does sound good. And the build is actually pretty solid.
Circuit wise I believe it has FET input opamps as opposed to the CMOS type in the BDDI.
I have both and tbh I find it easier to avoid undesireable (imho) tones on the BDI.
Basically I find it doesn't get as obviously distorted as the BDDI and prefer it just for a 'warm drive ' sort of sound.
I don't know about relative noise levels. Both get hissy if you start to wind up the Treble and/or Presence controls.
Also not really tested how the DI outputs compare in terms of balance. The phantom option is very handy on the BDDI if you're running into a desk.

Edited May 9, 2016 by rmorris

[AttitudeCastle]

[quote name='isteen' timestamp='1462722675' post='3045186']
For some reason Thomann no longer sell Joyo pedals. Behringer and Harley Benton (plastic cases) but no Joyo
[/quote]

There are loads of Joyo pedals sold by Thomann with the HB badge on them:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/JOYO-JF-13-Vintage-Amplifier-Effect/dp/B006QUGBVK/ref=sr_1_5?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1462753184&sr=1-5&keywords=Joyo

http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ac_truetone.htm

Same pedal.

Speaking of Joyo, they actually have some really good staff there now, and they are very receptive to feedback from their testers, who are pushing to have higher quality (yet still low priced) gear, as well as generally starting to work on more original designs. They have a lot of central europe based, as well as UK based guys, doing some cool work, and I've contacted them with questions before, and had great response/comms too. I own one, Joyo pedal (as I'm a distortion addict who will 7/10 times buy it if it's less than £30.) but would be happy to try more, (same with Tonecity!)

Behringer do make some really good kit. I know a multitude of bands running the X32 now, and their software teams are pretty solid IME. (Though obvioulsy we're talking pedals!)

The boss SYB clone they make many in the live bass dance/dubstep world prefer it to the boss, for example, and I have a Behringer single DI that's a back up that's served me well for years. As for pedals, the cheap plastic stuff is pretty much just that. Generally just inferior quality clones of (mostly Boss) pedals, some sound pretty close, some very, but almost all (again just my experience) with more noise/hiss etc.

[Lozz196]

The BDI21 is great. Also the DC9 Compressor is pretty good, better for an always-on type pedal as it does lose some lows, but for the price it does the job nicely. In fact of all the compressors I`ve had it`s probably the one I got on most with.

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited February 22, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Ghost_Bass]

Had this one (amongs other pedals from behringer) and it did sound pretty good with bass but it wasn't the sound i had in my mind (after a long search ended with the B3K) but it's a great pedal for the price and made with a metal box. I also have a 2-channel USB mini-mixer hooked on my PC and it's been working great for the last 3-4 years. Cheap and cheerfull, for my needs.

Can't beat them for the price but if you're looking for the best sound quality possible you'll never end up buying Behringer.

[cheddatom]

I'd never judge a brand as a whole, always take each product on it's own merits. The BDI21 is ace and I regularly record with it for actual releases being played on radio etc. I also gig it fairly regularly. Clearly it depends on what you want, but for a large portion of my bass tone needs, the BDI21 is actually "the best sound quality possible"

[rmorris]

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1462884427' post='3046602']
I'd never judge a brand as a whole, always take each product on it's own merits. The BDI21 is ace and I regularly record with it for actual releases being played on radio etc. I also gig it fairly regularly. Clearly it depends on what you want, but for a large portion of my bass tone needs, the BDI21 is actually "the best sound quality possible"
[/quote]

+1
Behringer produce such a wide range of stuff - Bass Rigs to Digital Mixers and the rest...- that it's difficult to generalise.
I also have:[list]
[*]the 'Hellbabe' Wah pedal : plenty of controls and and adjustments plus the non contact optical mechanism promises well. But it has problems with clicking at end of travel etc. Apparently (ie on the web) it's possible to improve the range etc by trimming some stuff around the optical sense / pedal mechanism.
[*]HD400 'Hum Stopper' - Two 1:1 transformers in a small box - works well. I don't have technical spec on it for freq response etc.
[*]Alo have a rackmount COMPOSER compressor. This is good - But it's the 'original' version which seems to have a much better reputation than the later versions (with the cheap looking 'shiny' front panels)
[/list]

[Swijn]

I used the PH9 Phaser for a while. Bought as needed it only for part of 1 song and couldn't justify with the expense of the MXR Phase9. It performed really well actually and cost me just £20 new! - you simply can't argue with that..

[isteen]

Great information guys, I value all input very much.

[Lozz196]

Should also mention their mics - I have the XM8500. Bought as a backup to my Shure SM58. SM58 sold on, the Behringer suits my voice better, being a tad scooped, as my voice is a bit middy.

[BigRedX]

For some reason the Behringer DI box won't work with our Moog Etherwave Theremin. And it's not just an isolated instance. Every time the PA engineer can't get a signal from the Theremin it turns out he's using a Behringer DI. As soon as it's swapped out for the EMO one that we carry as a spare it's fine. Any ideas why this might be?

[rmorris]

What is the Behringer DI model ? And the EMO ?

[Chienmortbb]

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1462998189' post='3047753']
Should also mention their mics - I have the XM8500. Bought as a backup to my Shure SM58. SM58 sold on, the Behringer suits my voice better, being a tad scooped, as my voice is a bit middy.
[/quote]XM8500 is a better mic than the SM58. However there are many mics better than the SM58.

[Lozz196]

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1463088361' post='3048568']
XM8500 is a better mic than the SM58. However there are many mics better than the SM58.
[/quote]

Agree, and it`s about a fifth of the price as well.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='rmorris' timestamp='1463053806' post='3048102']
What is the Behringer DI model ? And the EMO ?
[/quote]

It's a [url=http://www.music-group.com/Categories/Behringer/Signal-Processors/DI-Boxes/DI100/p/P0062]Behringer Ultra-DI 100[/url] and the EMO is the [url=http://www.emosystems.co.uk/Products/Passive_Direct_Injection_Boxes.html]E520[/url].