The Behringer PRO-XL MDX2600 Compressor (Review)

[Anodos]

In case anyone is looking to buy a compressor soon I just wanted to pass along my experience with this unit. Ive owned about a half dozen compressors over the years and all were DBX models except for a really cheap unit Peavey made years ago. The Peavey wasnt too hot for a number of reasons but its dry lifeless sound was high on the list. All of the DBX units were all fine for the most part, although some were noisier than others and some offered more control parameters. The best compressor Ive ever used has probably been the DBX 160XT, which I still have. Its a $500 mono unit that doesnt offer a lot of control, but if youve ever used DBX compressors, then you know how well they handle automatic attack/release times and so forth. Youd be hard pressed to ever do it better manually and in fact you couldnt in many instances because this unit responds to changes in transients and readjusts itself accordingly all throughout the recording. Many compressors have offered auto control for attack/release during the past decade or so and most do this well. But the DBX 160 is very quiet and has a nice musical sound, which is really just saying that you dont loose highs with it too much and it raises frequencies during compression that seem to have a way of making everything sound fuller. Its become the industry standard and at $500 per channel it darn well ought to be.

 

Ive never needed to mic in stereo before; Ive always played mostly electric guitar in a jazz-fusion trio type of setting, with only some acoustic in the background for the most part. Im playing a lot more solo fingerstyle acoustic these days however, and decided to try out a pair of Oktava MK-012 mics for stereo miking. Not having a stereo compressor however, and not being anxious to spend another $500 bucks I dont have for a second DBX 160, I thought Id give one of the cheap little Behringers a go. They have 3 or 4 different models, all of them priced around $150 or less. Its hard to believe anything this inexpensive could sound good (especially after my Peavey experience) but I own 2 Behringer mixers as well as the V-Amp and theyre just dynamite gear. Besides, at $100 dollars or so, I didnt think I could get burnt too bad if the compressor turned out to be a dud. So I bought their flagship model, the PRO-XL MDX 2600 for a measly $110 at Guitar Center last week.

 

Behringer is a real copycat company, as you know. They go out and find something somebody else has and then set about to do the same thing only cheaper. Whether you like that or not I dont know and I dont know how they make things so cheap. I dearly hope theres no kids working 12-hour days in India building these things. But at any rate, they do this very well I think. Their compressors are based on DBX designs. The MDX 2600 is even laid out almost exactly like the DBX 166 stereo unit. The only differences are that DBX is 2 to 3 times the price and the Behringer has a couple of more features!

 

I finally got to spend some time playing with this thing last night. I tried it on acoustic guitar and vocals. I cant believe how terrific this thing sounds. Its every bit as good sounding as my DBX 160-XT. Its auto features for attack/release are just as musical sounding. I had it cranked as high as 8 to 1 on acoustic guitar and heard no pumping whatsoever. It has a tube simulator along with a push-button control that adds a small amount of high end if necessary to make up for any lost during compression. Both are quite subtle and do what theyre supposed to. The expansion works well and is a better alternative than a noise gate (which it can also do at the push of a button) although I seldom use expansion for anything. If you have a noisy environment, like a noisy computer for instance, you might find expansion to be a big help there. I always feel like I loose something in the subtleties of my acoustic guitar when using expansion and for this reason Id rather not use any on it. The Behringer also offers a de-esser and peak limiter. I dont have any need for a peak limiter so I didnt try it. I did try the de-esser (although I dont really have a use for that either) and it was probably the only letdown with this unit. It didnt stop too many sibilants unless you cranked the level control pretty high, which resulted in a somewhat squashed sound. Most singers learn to sing off-axis eventually though, so a de-esser isnt a very big deal to most of us. I dont do any vocal work to speak of anyway so que sera, sera.

 

All in all, this is nearly the best $110 dollars I ever spent on a piece of musical equipment. Having not spent too much more than that for my V-Amp and mixers however, all I can say iswow....

[ViLo]

Thanks for your review, It helps me.

[ViLo]

I'm going for this one.

Bass V-Amp Pro

[Anodos]

Cool