Behringer RX1602 v2 Line Mixer - 2-Year Review!

[@ernestgrouns8710]

Thanks for the review of this product, Ian. I was needing a basic synth mixer and you sold it well. Thanks!

[@IanWaugh]

Thanks Ernest, glad you found it helpful 👍

[@sdjk909]

I have one and agree its great! Solved the problem that you brought up about the lack of stereo mixers. Being a rack is also a life saver. Why aren't more companies into this market?

[@IanWaugh]

Yes, it must be a massive market but so few solutions 😲

[@ohheyitskevinc]

It appears we both have pretty much the same gear! 😊 I’m a little hesitant buying Behringer gear as I don’t necessarily agree with their business practices, but this mixer is actually really good and had mine for a couple of years too. I use TRS balanced but if there’s any noise on TS cables, those cheap clip-on ferrite chokes on them usually help. I run mine to my Scarlett 4i4 and in between the mixer and the Scarlett I have a Behringer HD400 “hum destroyer” that really helps. Stereo in stereo out and it literally does what the name suggests. The fx send is a disappointment, but with the Scarlett, I never have a need for it. I just run fx between the mixer and the Scarlett if I need to, and the Scarlett obviously has a phone jack and monitor outputs. Nice review! Hope you’re having a good weekend!

[@IanWaugh]

Hey KC - Thank you. I should have mentioned the FX send but it went under the radar as I've never used it. I tend to add FX in the DAW if I want to. If you add them on the way in you can't remove or edit them on the way out 😄 Strange if we have much similar gear 😲

[@LFOVCF]

It's just bloody handy, and a great price

[@IanWaugh]

Exactly 😊👍

[@chromatic-me]

I’ve had mine for a couple of years, linked to a Behringer patchbay. Both are unobtrusive and just doing their jobs without a fuss. I only have a simple setup with 3-5 stereo inputs from keyboards, expanders, phone and iPad. All effects are done in my DAW.

[@IanWaugh]

Hi Paul - Yes, this one's been chugging along quite well, too. It's nice when stuff just does the job 👍

[@thomaswidter]

Sorry to hear of your eye condition. Great review though, very helpful. Many thanks!

[@IanWaugh]

Hey Thomas- Thank you very much. I haven't found anything with so many inputs at anything like the price 👍

[@iixorb]

I agree - they are great for things like simply joining a bunch of synths and drum machines together (for example) without taking up loads of room with a huge mixer. I did a KZbin video of turning a mono drum machine like the Behringer RD8 into a Stereo drum machine, using the 1602.

[@IanWaugh]

Hi - Yes, surprised there are not more simple mixers like this. Enterprising use of the 1602 👍

[@holgerk.4650]

thank you for the vid. Version 2 has balanced outputs as I have read

[@IanWaugh]

I think someone here did mention the difference but, alas, I don't remember what it was 😊

[@pjdepaolisii]

excellent review...got my sub

[@IanWaugh]

Thank you Pete - much appreciated 👍

[@dougmcgee6075]

The confusion with the name "Eurorack" is understandable. Behringer has used this name long before the euro rack became a modular synth standard. The Behringer company had used the registered trademark "Eurorack" to refer to their 19" rack gear for over 20 years according to my old memory.

[@IanWaugh]

Hi Doug - interesting. But as B also produces 'proper' eurorack gear you might expect them to drop the name from other gear. Or, being Behringer, not 😊

[@wavesequencer]

I've also been using one of these for a few years now. Quite useful, although considered potentially switching to an ADAT i/o expander also from Behringer, but that would be less inputs and no onboard FX send on that unit. I'm using the mon/fx send to send to an external 19inch FX processor (output of that is patched to one of my audio interface stereo inputs), and one of the stereo input channels is fed from a second FX processor's wet output (the FX processor is patched directly to my Prophet 08 rack unit) - dry signal being sent over SPDIF from the FX unit to my audio interface. I just wish there was something like this with 2X stereo FX sends/returns, + ADAT io with the option to pick which physical inputs or stereo returns go on which ADAT channels.. so not a full on audio interface, but a really handy keyboard mixer with at least 4 stereo digital channels out..

[@IanWaugh]

Blimey! 😊 Yes, it's hard to fathom why someone hasn't released a simple but practical mixer for keyboards. Why put a mono send on a stereo mixer? B's design team seems to have gone to the same design school as Roland 😢

[@JoseVGavila]

I own two of them (version 1) and my experience has been very good. I use them for my rack synths and also for my Montage and Genos. Then they go to a Yamaha MG10XU, which also receives PC audio and has the main studio headphones on it

[@IanWaugh]

Hi Jose - Excellent. I'm a little surprised no one makes a 16-channel stereo version but I'm guessing if they did it wouldn't be as straightforward or as affordable as two of these 😊

[@Phantommxr]

Hi Ian, Just a quick question that could dive deep... what is your setup comprised of? I seem to have the same type of synth mess you have and the same mixer as you are reviewing in this video, I also have a iConnect 4+ and it does recognized my Wavestate but the librarian software can't see it thru the 4+, so I have to connect direct. Here is my main issue, I want a main midi controller to put on my desk and then have my boards on the wall, but I seem to be having a issue with controlling the presets and patches from the computer or controller. Any tips and tricks you can share would probably be a great video and I am positive that I am not the only one with these tech issues. Thanks for all you do, I love your genuine style and good synth friend attitude!! keep it up and of course I subbed and plan on watching more!!

[@IanWaugh]

Hi - thanks for your kind comments, very much appreciated Not sure Ican be of much help here. All my synths are connected to the RX which is connected to the main X1832 mixer which acts as an audio I/F. I use a Native Instruments S61 keyboard as a MIDI controller but don't use it to control any of the synths. On the odd occasion I've wanted to control external gear I've used the keyboard's MIDI out. So probablynot the setup you were expecting...

[@EchoKraft]

Great video! Thank you 🙏🏻

[@IanWaugh]

Glad you found it useful 👍

[@nate6692]

This unit is maddening because - it's almost ideal for my needs, but it's flaky, drops the right channel if you touch the volume knobs, and the monitor send sums to mono

[@IanWaugh]

Hi Nate - Yeah, I don't think I mentioned the sends as I never use them and, yes, mono, outs on a stereo unit are dumb design decisions. Sorry to hear your unit is having probs. Is it still under warranty? You'll get at least a 1 year warranty from most suppliers, some offer 2 and B themselves have a 3-year warranty. You could also try a little Deoxit or similar. I cleaned all the pots in an old Zoom FX unit and they worked perfectly.

[@mwmusic29]

Great review Ian! I purchased a mixer from a friend a while back but it looks like these units might have been a good choice. I"ll definitely keep them in mind as the setup continues to evolve. Thanks for sharing!

[@IanWaugh]

Thanks, Matt. For me it was a matter of getting a sub-mixer or selling some synths 😄

[@pmc5532]

Hi Ian, I was looking for another mixer but ended up looking at more Synths Lol, No good when i've only got a 10x10 ft room and 32 ish piece's of gear.😵‍💫

[@IanWaugh]

Yeah, I know the problem... 😢

[@patriciaoudart1508]

I do the same, I have a second mixer table, a Xenyx from Behringer too, four lines stereo and four mono. So taking one stereo to link from the eurorack mixer, and this is becoming just, I will buy a third, certainly, with other expanders, in 2024, as also I'm making my studio setup in three units, three ever ready boxes, without umount/remount fear when having to move the material. Three computers makes three sound devices, some with insert, or side chaîn, and return, four to six synths, expanders, and mics, a old fostex mr8, one Behringer composer, compressor, that can be side chaîn or line, and a Behringer effects eurorack pro. I have one mono synth old from the sixties needing to be preamplified, so it's useful to have the mono line with preamp on the table mixer, and perhaps being able to feed it with some basic effect. Cables is a big problem for me, to find to good ones, and shorter they are the better it is. And never have to do the setting again, balanced connectors must be chosen depending where they go, hours of brain storm, I brought the effects and composer used years ago, and brought the mixer new, from Thomann, Behringer were for me the own affordable price. My xenyx is USB, for recording, and for playing through the amplifier, there's also a special cable to buy. This make the setting very technical, and I don't like that. So my solution is to have three boxes, with in everyone two keybeds, or synths, one computer with sound device, encoder and midi, and stuff in Euroraks, so it is made for long duration and moves without change or unmount.

[@patriciaoudart1508]

😊I just had a look to Thomann, if I have to buy a third mixer... oops. Finally, I would have no such choice, that the same eurorack mixer from Behringer. I saw also their modular, mixer output, but only four outputs mono. In fact, I have interest to bakance the instrument to a particular place in the stereo space, and it's useful for me to equalize a single instrument to play in ensemble, for live composition. Not the least having separate fx inside three mixers for example a little delay, for some, is useful for some old instruments, or wind instruments played with a mirophone. The rack is very useful to not have the cables over the mix table, so this is the own choice, low cost, for me, with maximum ability. For my setting, I will adapt alle this, certainly faking off the power line, to use a separate 9v or 12 v power , this is now becoming a norm as those things use very litle power. In the same way, my Xenix table will be adapted to feat in a rack, with cables all in a rear panel.

[@patriciaoudart1508]

😮 One last remark, every channel should be customized easily, on the rack there is no place to write the name of the instrument, mine ou yours, it's the same, and we need also to strip color lines to differenciate when we use two mono for one stereo instrument. Live, I have to go fast to find the faders, not so easy on a rack. I use color adhesives for now. In a future rack I will add a rack wood strip (home made) , that will give me place to customize every track in regard.

[@IanWaugh]

Wow! That's some setup! It makes sense dividing it into sections to make it easier to set up and manage 👍 Good luck with it all.

[@em-performance2016]

Very helpful review and right to the point. I have some mono synths, and want to use an external FX unit, so this would not work well for me.

[@IanWaugh]

Hi - Thank you. It depends how you connect everything and if you eventually want a stereo signal. Many line mixers seem to have more mono Ins than stereo so you should be able to find something suitable.

[@mrdrgonzo]

I've been trying to find something the same as yourself (a mixer with stereo channels) but the only mixers available are DJ mixers and only go upto 6 channels. Behringer might have a target audience for people that want a big mixer with just stereo channels, even better if they included a soundcard with full track input.

[@IanWaugh]

Hi - I'm amazed at the lack of ,mixers like these on the market. I'd have thought everyone with a few synths would need one. You've some good ideas there, too 👍

[@adamstraker1153]

Hi Ian, great vid thanks for the upload, I have acquired a v1 as I have over 10 synths and drum machines I want to be able to play together, obviously only having a stereo out on the mixer means that there are only 2 channels on my DAW (Ableton) so if I set up a channel for each synth there will always be bleed from the other synths, is my only option to mute the outputs on the mixer to prevent this? I guess also I have to be careful when recording that the channel I do not want is muted?? Don't suppose you could do a guide on how you set yours up with your DAW?? Thanks in advance

[@IanWaugh]

Hi Adam - Thank you, glad you found it helpful. I don't think I use it the way you would like it to work I connect my gear to it and run the stereo out into another mixer which has a built-in audio interface. It's only a single stereo in so everything would be recorded to the same track if recorded together. Typically, though, I record each instrument on its own, one at a time so they all get their own stereo track. You can do this if you sync to MIDI but I tend to play everything manuakky. The RX is simply a way to connect everything to the main mixer and all into one channel. It sounds like you might want a multi-channel audio interface so you can record everything at once, each to their own channel. Hope that helps explain how I use it 😊

[@teddym2808]

And hence the issue. If it had 16 gain knobs, I would have been all over this. I want a rack mixer dedicated just for my drum synths for some extra inputs, but drums are mono sounds, so this is really an 8 channel mixer for mono sounds. Not 16. Well, not if you want gain control of the mono inputs.

[@teddym2808]

That said, the product, along with the Samson SM10, seems to be the only 16 input 1U rack line mixer, so.... I suppose I could use it for all my stereo synths, would be great for that.

[@IanWaugh]

Hi - Yes, it's an 8 -channel stereo mixer which you could use as an 8-channel mono mixer. you could also use 2 mono inputs in a single stereo section and balance them in your DAW. There does seem to be a dearth of suitable drum mixers, though. If the price is right you might consider two units but not an ideal solution.

[@teddym2808]

@@IanWaugh Samson one at double the price has the same structure.. I actually have a eurorack 1202FX I have never used.. so what I am going to do, since that has 10 mono ins and 1 stereo, plus EQ and FX, is use that dedicated for my drum synths. Perfect. Then just solo track and track them to DAW one at a time. Then I'll get the 1602 for my stereo synths. By doing this, it will leave me room for my main interface inputs and the adat expanders to use all outputs of my remaining synths, for example the 6 outputs of Integra 7. Cheers, great video btw.

[@IanWaugh]

@@teddym2808 Thank you. good that you've found a solution 👍 I sometimes find that the ideal solution to a connectivity problem doesn't exist 😊

[@FotoxBr_nl]

I have the 1602. This one still has the fx out as mono ? Mine has. Strange for a stereo mixer isn't it ?

[@IanWaugh]

It is. Maybe it's a throwback to v1 when almost all FX pedals were mono. Stereo send AND return would be nice. Maybe v3 😊

[@ohheyitskevinc]

Yeah fx out is mono (and to the phone jack too). To be fair to them, I guess if it was stereo it may have taken up more space inside meaning we’d have 7 stereo in vs 8. A 2U version of this with 16 in would be nice :)

[@IanWaugh]

@@ohheyitskevinc Awesome! - have a word with Mr B 😄 Seriously, when looking for line mixers I expected to find 12, 16 and 24 stereo versions!

[@kentaccordionist]

I have a Behringer 1204 usb with the fx built in, and use my rx1602 to provide extra inputs. Works great for me. Think I paid about £99 pounds.

[@IanWaugh]

@@kentaccordionist Hi Stephen - Good to hear 👍 That's essentially how I use mine.

[@fcf8269]

How do you use the mon/fx port? It has only one connection instead of 2, like the regular output. Is that a mono out?

[@IanWaugh]

Hi - Yes, it's mono. I don't use it. Should have mentioned it in the video but, as I don't use it, it slipped my mind. It is definitely a shortcoming and poor design on B's part. Someone suggested you could use the stereo headphones out but I haven't tried it.

[@fcf8269]

@@IanWaugh Thanks; indeed it is a shame; as the whole point of this mixer is that it is stereo :) Not sure what they were thinking, because I would assume if all the inputs are stereo, all the outputs should also be stereo. Thanks for the great info you put out there!

[@IanWaugh]

@@fcf8269 Yes. some companies make strange design decisions. 😲

[@giulianovideo]

hi, is the headphone output stereo?

[@IanWaugh]

Yes 😊

[@giulianovideo]

@@IanWaugh thank you very much

[@IanWaugh]

@@giulianovideo 👍

[@RuiGon1]

Hello. I use my phantom 0 as an interface with Ableton, because of the clock and the sound of the interface. I was thinking of buying one of these to hook up a bunch of synths and hook this up to the fantom. Does the sound come out decent? Do you have any idea? Thanks for the video.

[@IanWaugh]

Hi Rui - It's analog so if you crank the levels up as high as they can go you will get noise. It's about gainstaging. I set my synth volumes around 7-8 and adjust the levels on the RX about the same. I have 6 synths running through it and they all sound fine to me 😊

[@RuiGon1]

@@IanWaugh Thanks a lot. It's a joy to see a white beard like mine on youtube.🙂

[@IanWaugh]

@@RuiGon1 🤣 I'm naturally blonde 😊

[@RuiGon1]

@@IanWaugh 😀

[@JoseRojas-kv7kv]

Thank you very much for sharing this video. The big question is whether it's really so quiet that you don't need a passive direct box. i have a setup similar to yours and am undecided if adding an ART T8 8-channel Hum Eliminator / Isolation Rack is necessary.

[@IanWaugh]

Hi Jose - Hum is usually caused by electrical interference while noise is more a product of the circuitry. If you have hum, an eliminator should help but I have never used one. If you crank up the levels on analog gear there's a good chance they will produce noise. I try to keep the levels between 6-8 and tweak the volume from the synth. Recording from all my gear has, so far, been fine. As I mention in the video, I use unbalanced connections as most synths have unbalanced outputs but the RX can accept balanced, too, so that might be an option if you are getting noise although you will then also need a converter to convert the synth outputs to balanced. In my experience the only way to know what you need is to try a setup and make adjustments if necessary. There's the theory but every setup is slightly different 😊

[@JoseRojas-kv7kv]

@@IanWaugh Once again, your opinion has been very useful, thank you very much and blessings to you and your family.

[@IanWaugh]

@@JoseRojas-kv7kv Glad you found it useful 👍

[@patriciaoudart1508]

I have the RX 1202 fx eurorack pro mixer. The problem with those racks (composer, effects..) is that every cable is behind, must not change the settings, because jt's becoming spaghetti😂.

[@IanWaugh]

Hi Patricia - I guess it's a tough decision whether to put the connections on the front or back. 😊

[@matrix12x]

version 1 has a hum from the power supply transformer even with nothing plugged in. Does V2 have this issue?

[@IanWaugh]

No, it's fie. I read a few reviews of v 1 but none mentioned this problem. Not trying to teach my Granny to suck eggs 😊 but are you sure it's the RX? If so, you may have a faulty unit. Has it always hummed? Hard to believe this was a known problem on all units. But possible, of course.

[@matrix12x]

@@IanWaugh I have 2 units. exact same performance. apparently they changed from a torroidal transformer in the V1 to a shielded switched mode power supply in the V2

[@IanWaugh]

@@matrix12x Ah, that's not good. 😢

[@alainszyller615]

It would be so much easier if Behringer sold a true 16 input audio interface So far I have a Steinberg UR22mkII USB Audio Interface, in order to get all my imputs in it I use two small cheap mixers Moukey 8 inputs and Moukey 6 inputs (8 inputs not available, seems it's selling very well) I m not convinced getting this RX1602 would help me much Actually I would rather consider getting two Behringer U-Phoria UMC1820 USB Audio Interface or a Zoom L-20 mixer / audio interface Practically, my current question: would buying that for $130 would be a significant progress vs Moukey 8 + Moukey 6 ?

[@IanWaugh]

Hi - I think other companies do - maybe the new Arturia? Haven't looked into it yet. The RX isn't going to solve everyone's situation.

[@alainszyller615]

@@IanWaugh yes the new Arturia seems amazing. It is even doing more than that , from what I've read. It also works as a patchbay and as a MIDI hub. But is $1400

[@IanWaugh]

@@alainszyller615 Eek! If you simply want to consolidate audio inputs there will likely be cheaper options. Some folks use 2 x RXs,. You could daisy chain them feeding the out of one into the In of the other. However, if you want individual audio tracks from an audio interface that will cost more 😢

[@kcartwright2772]

Is the aux send stereo?

[@IanWaugh]

Hi - If memory serves, it is only mono. But there's no Return so you'd have to use one of the 8 channels if you wanted one. Someone suggested you could use the Headphone out as an Aux send but not tried it. In fact I never used the Aux and I think I totally forgot about it in the video 😲 Hope this helps.

[@theokidokis]

V1 has a much deeper box and a different internal power supply.

[@IanWaugh]

Ah, ok, thanks for the clarification. But I believe they are functionally identical?

[@theokidokis]

yes@@IanWaugh

[@pmc5532]

Got mine £45.00 on ebay! bargain😁

[@IanWaugh]

Absolutely! I've thought about getting another one but that would only encourage me to buy more synths...😊