Zoom L20 vs Behringer XR18

[Boodang]

I've owned my xr18 for nearly two years now and very much enjoyed it. To make recording gigs easier (as it has built in SD recording) I just got the L20. Tried it out this week with one of my bands and have to say very impressed. Straight away the rest of the band thought it was a clearer sound.... pristine was the most used adjective. 

Many moons ago I bought one of the first zoom products, a result of which I haven't touched them since, but boy have they come on. This was an intuitive desk to set up, it doesn't have the plugins of the XR18 but initial impression is that it's a cleaner, and to my ears, nicer sounding desk. Recording a gig with it tomorrow, will be interesting to see how it performs both in terms of a live desk and recorder. Will report back.

Anyone else have thoughts on these two mixers?

[Boodang]

Recorded Friday nights gig with the L20. Spent most of Saturday sorting out the gig gear but just got to play back the recording through the desk. I have to say the L20 did an amazing job. I thought it sounded so good I called the guys up to come over and have a listen. 

I've recorded the band through the XR18 and then processed it thru various plugins in reaper. This however I think is good to mix down as it with no extraneous processing. I'm going to do some recording during the week with both the punk and blues bands, and I'm going to use the Zoom. We'll see how it compares to the XR18 but so far loving the zoom 

[Elfrasho]

I've got the xr18 and the l12; the smaller version of the l20. Both are excellent things, but theres definately pros and cons on both sides. The recording on the l12 was a dream ! literally a few seconds and your multitrack recording. For my purposes though, the ability for each member to control their own mix was the clincher for the xr18. And, I've mounted a small pc with reaper in the rack too, meaning its just a matter of bringing my mini portable monitor along any time i want to record. I've got a preset set up on reaper so thats theres limited set up required.  More faff, but still an acceptable amount of faff to be abel to record multitracks!

Edited February 18 by Elfrasho

[Boodang]

So, having used the XR18 for the last couple of years, and using the L20 all last week to record.... I reckon the L20 is just a better sounding desk. With the XR you get carried away with the built in plugins, the L20 has none of that flashiness but to my mind it just sounds better straight after the gain stage. 

I've recorded with 5 different bands the last week and everyone mentioned how good they thought the L20 was compared to the XR. 

I'm relatively late to the party on these units but they're both awesome!!

[Jo.gwillim]

How do you set the monitor mixes. With the xr18 you get a different set of faders for each mix, guess you won't get that with the l20 unless they're motorised faders?

[Boodang]

3 hours ago, Jo.gwillim said:

How do you set the monitor mixes. With the xr18 you get a different set of faders for each mix, guess you won't get that with the l20 unless they're motorised faders?

With the L20 you do get a different set of faders for each of the six monitor mixes they're just not motorised. The way it works; you set your master FOH stereo mix, then you select, say, fader mode A. You set the faders for monitor mix A. When you switch back to master, any faders that are set differently now have a static led that marks the original level of the fader on that channel. To change the level you have to move the fader to that point and then the fader becomes active again.

It's not as good as motorised faders but it's not as clumsy as it sounds. Having 21 motorised faders would probably have increased the cost too much! A bit awkward to use but once you get used to it it's ok it's just not as fast to use as the XR as you have to reset a fader before using it. 

Overall, the L20 is actually quite easy to use live as everything is laid out in front of you, no hidden menus and simple channel architecture. Plus an all in one solution for live plus recording. 

I miss the motorised faders for convenience but live the L20 is easier to use. Interestingly, the audience can here the difference. A regular crowd at our gigs, same speakers and gear but different desk and I got asked what was we changed for the live sound by several non musician punters. It could just be I was able to set up the L20 easier than I could the XR of course. But it's interesting, lots of options on the XR so you think you have more control, less on the L20 but I could get a better sound. Maybe says more about me than the desks!

 

[Jo.gwillim]

6 hours ago, Boodang said:

With the L20 you do get a different set of faders for each of the six monitor mixes they're just not motorised. The way it works; you set your master FOH stereo mix, then you select, say, fader mode A. You set the faders for monitor mix A. When you switch back to master, any faders that are set differently now have a static led that marks the original level of the fader on that channel. To change the level you have to move the fader to that point and then the fader becomes active again.

It's not as good as motorised faders but it's not as clumsy as it sounds. Having 21 motorised faders would probably have increased the cost too much! A bit awkward to use but once you get used to it it's ok it's just not as fast to use as the XR as you have to reset a fader before using it. 

Overall, the L20 is actually quite easy to use live as everything is laid out in front of you, no hidden menus and simple channel architecture. Plus an all in one solution for live plus recording. 

I miss the motorised faders for convenience but live the L20 is easier to use. Interestingly, the audience can here the difference. A regular crowd at our gigs, same speakers and gear but different desk and I got asked what was we changed for the live sound by several non musician punters. It could just be I was able to set up the L20 easier than I could the XR of course. But it's interesting, lots of options on the XR so you think you have more control, less on the L20 but I could get a better sound. Maybe says more about me than the desks!

 

Thanks for that really good explanation. I think it would work for me, i wouldn't be adjusting monitor mixes mid song! 

[Boodang]

4 hours ago, Jo.gwillim said:

Thanks for that really good explanation. I think it would work for me, i wouldn't be adjusting monitor mixes mid song! 

The L20 has to be the easiest mixer I've used.... analogue or digital. There's a couple of anomalies associated with the digital side but nothing a 10 min video on youtube couldn't sort.  At the last gig I did actually change monitor mixes between songs as volumes settled down and it was easy to do. For small gigs I think it's perfect, the only thing I'd add for a big gig would be an old fashioned analogue stereo graphic on the FoH to get precise control over the eq. 

Plus great for recording. With the XR I ended up processing with plugins in Reaper, with the L20 I've just used it as a summing mixer and gone dawless with great results.