lexicon

Audio milestones - just a few

We don't stop and sit down for too long at Factory Sound, and we've just realised that our original favourite Behringer product has turned 15. For anyone who doesn't remember, the old MDX8000 (multi-band compression) was a terrific studio tool that is almost un-findable thesedays. It was deleted by Behringer sometime in the 1990's...and there are never too many around for sale, but nontheless we remember you. Happy birthday Combinator! If you stop and look back at the last 15 years of professional audio innovations and milestones, plenty has happened: The home studio explosion - amazing how many musicians (and stand-alone engineers) have incredible studios in their own homes. The quality of gear versus cost is simply astounding. Besides, there's currently not enough enough spare water in Australia to justify digging up your backyard for a swimming pool...so spend your hard-earned on a studio! The powered speaker revolution - we're now well-and-truly into the 2nd wave of powered speakers having paid for themselves several times over. Notables along the way included JBL Eons seemingly everywhere at the start, and then RCF Art300A going louder and harder to become a real alternative for many small bands. EV, FBT, JBL and RCF are all now so far ahead of where they started with powered boxes. Just look at JBL PRX series, or RCF TT series to see how much sound you can easily get from one little box! Changing of the guard (effects) - About 10 years ago, just about any 'soundguy' could turn up to a gig in and around Melbourne (and probably anywhere else in the world), and know that they could pull up their favourite preset on the house SPX900 or SPX990 Yamaha. But then TC Electronic came out with the twin powers of M-One and D-Two, and it was all over. Within six months of their release in Australia, M-One had all but replaced SPX990 as the effect of choice for mid-level PA systems, and D-Two was a perfect companion. Of course now both TC Electronic and Lexicon are very popular for both live and studio applications. Moving operations to China - We're sure that the Behringer motto was never 'Keeping the bastards honest' but that is what happened when the German company founded by Uli Behringer moved to China for its manufacturing. We spoke with Behringer Australia's GM (Michael Jago) who has been with Behringer since it was first imported into Australia (originally through a company called Musiclink). He agreed that Behringer had driven the price quite seriously downwards, making it much easier to either make a start, or to simply get heaps more gear with your budget. "I have found our old (Music Link) 1999 catalogue....This product could be your story. The MX802A (pictured above) was $499 in the 1999 catalogue. Then when Behringer Australia started in 2002 it come down to $299.99. It's closest current day replacement would be the 1202. It has the 4 mic pre's and has a 2008 RRP of $159.99 Quite a price drop from $499 to $159 in 9 years. Young blokes today don't know how good they've got it" That's quite true...and Behringer has had a far-reaching (positive) effect on our industry. It is without question that Behringer products offer maximum bang for buck. Manufacturers such as DBX have been kept honest by Behringer's pricing policy, and have since lowered prices to a level we would never have imagined 10 years ago. There are many manufacturers based in China, but only the ones who have invested time, energy (and lots of $$$) are consistently producing products for our market that just seem to work. Have you seen this clip produced by Audio Technology magazine? Watch part 2 here... There have been so many other audio milestones: like Neutrik winning the connector armwrestle, Shure & Sennheiser going head-to-head and leaving the other live mics in their wake while doing it, the rise and rise of Rode microphones... We'll come back to this one.