Tutorial On Feedback Pinging And Basic Review Of Behringer Flow 8

[@dmat9116]

Excellent review Doc B! Really well presented and great use of the mixer. Enjoyed very much

[@DocBolus]

Cheers man, appreciated. I really like this mixer. I know it's designed for podcasting but it is very good for small live rigs.

[@q_yrko9067]

Awesome review and nice trick. Cool video Doc!

[@DocBolus]

Cheers, yep definitely a cool trick to play with, and the NTS-1 makes some amazingly haunting sounds.

[@PeterMossUkulele]

Hi - you say you replaced a Yamaha mixer. I am looking to do the same. My current one is the Yamaha MG10XU USB. When I chat live say using Zoom, my signal post fader goes from the USB socket at the rear of the mixer and into the USB of my Mac. Now the return signal comes back to me down the same USB cable and there are 2 dedicated channels 9/10 on the desk. So where would the return USB signal go into with the Flow 8? - Thanks - Peter.

[@DocBolus]

Hey Peter. The mixer I replaced was an ancient 90's half rack small form analogue mixer (MV-400 I think). To be honest as I run stuff mainly as hardware I haven't used the USB monitor return, but there does appear to be a dedicated BT/USB level control for audio input both on the front panel and in the app. I may have a go experimenting with USB audio return to see if it goes pre or post any FX but to be honest as I said before it's not a feature I use so it would just be an interest thing. Hope that's some help.

[@PeterMossUkulele]

@@DocBolus Thanks for responding - Try a Zoom call to a friend and see where their audio comes back to you from the USB. I'd be really interested to know. Thanks - Peter.

[@DocBolus]

@@PeterMossUkulele What I was thinking was maybe plugging it in and just playing back some audio as a start. Will let you know where it comes from.

[@PeterMossUkulele]

@@DocBolus Thanks Doc

[@scalt7]

Is it possible to use this mixer in a live acoustic setup like 2 vocals 2 guitar 1 keyboard 1 drum pad then 2 monitor for vocals ? Thanks for response.

[@DocBolus]

I don't see why not, this seems to be exactly what it was designed for. 2 XLR Mic inputs, 2 mono jack inputs and then a couple of stereo pairs. Yep fits the bill.

[@scalt7]

@@DocBolus thinking between this or the zoom livetrak8 . In my country the zoom is cheaper compared to flow 8 . But for the companion applications this is good a choice. Anyway thanks for the response .

[@djcalarasidjnuntabotez-djm2073]

Good evening How much do you recommend that compression be held on the microphone channel. Shure slxd24e beta58 s50 set with Gain ul to 22db and Level 0 Thank you very much

[@DocBolus]

Sounds good, but ultimately compression levels depend upon what you are trying to acheive. The greater the compression the more you can drive up the level and the greater the percieved loudness.

[@djcalarasidjnuntabotez-djm2073]

Do you recommend using microphone compression?

[@DocBolus]

@@djcalarasidjnuntabotez-djm2073 as a rule of thumb yes

[@djcalarasidjnuntabotez-djm2073]

I'll bother you with one more question Why do I have quite a noise on my microphone channel? If I reduce the gain, it disappears, but then I don't have enough volume. Is it just my problem?

[@DocBolus]

@@djcalarasidjnuntabotez-djm2073 without seeing the specific setup it can be difficult to know, it could be the proximity to the microphone, it could also be that the compression could be bringing up the ground floor noise. One way that people deal with these kind of issues is by using a gate, which basically cuts off the sound when it is under a certain level. Not sure if that helps but I tend to use my Flow8 with synths plugged into it and rarely with a microphone so I have not explored that kind of signal chani fully.

[@psykheart]

Thanks for this video! Looking for a small mixer and this looks like a viable option.

[@DocBolus]

No worries, it is pretty flexible for it's size. Not perfect though, I bought it for using live.

[@hvhvgitaar]

Interesting mixer. Did you consider the zoom l-8? Kinda torn between these two….

[@DocBolus]

Just took a quick look at the L-8 hadn't seen it before but having just had a squint I think I would still have gone for theFlow-8, there are better dynamics in it and it has a smaller footprint. The L-8 recording feature looks quite cool but it is not something I need at the moment. The thing to be wary of with regard to the flow8 is that the main outs are on XLR which annoyed me to start with but makes sense as the recorder I use has XLR inputs.

[@hvhvgitaar]

@@DocBolus Thanks. Agree about the dynamics.

[@IntiAlonso]

Ey one question. Is it possible to use channels 1 and 2 to plug a line level intrsument? Obviously using a XLR to 1/4 cable, but is it safe?

[@DocBolus]

Just run a little test. I tried a guitar in, turned the gain to 0 and made sure that phantom power was off and it worked fine... I then plugged in my Micro Modular turned the gain to -20 and played it, this was fine but the noise floor was quite high, so yes you can but the sound quality maybe a little impaired. Would be fine for casual use.

[@IntiAlonso]

@@DocBolus thank you!

[@DocBolus]

@@IntiAlonso No worries, glad to help and hope to see you again

[@taniabgonzalezg7197]

Hi I hope you can help me fix this. I just bought the flow 8 and a brand new MacBook. I installed simply put and Everything goes well until after I select the newest version (738 now) and click update. A legend comes up that reads… DFU ERROR 7: failed to prepare dfu update. The mini screen in the mixer stays red in update mode until I turn it off. One time the legend didn’t appear and it continued to update in the simply put but the mixer said UPDATE FAIL. If anyone could help me i would really appreciate it.

[@DocBolus]

Might be a bit hard to trouble shoot here, has the mixer been totally bricked? I mean will it still work but without the update?

[@taniabgonzalezg7197]

@@DocBolus yes it works fine analogue

[@DocBolus]

@@taniabgonzalezg7197 well that's good, I did a bit of googling and it might be a mac thing. To be honest I have never updated mine and I run Linux so I am not sure how much help I can be.

[@martinkaiser5263]

Is it possible to link 2 Flow 8 together ??

[@DocBolus]

Hi Martin, I really don't know, but I would say not. I think Behringer conceived of it as a small mixer for podcasts so probably didn't think people who wanted more channels would buy it. I guess you could use one as a submixer for another one.

[@dougclendening5896]

Your fx monitor comment - why aren't people talking about this more! It's too bad you can't mute the initial channel 3 input though. Sometimes I don't want infinite feedback, I just want two more fx applied. Similarly for the usb channels in - you can choose to ONLY listen to the usb input channels via the monitor outs so that you can hear your final mix POST DAW effects, live!! Your DAW suddenly becomes a live, guitar effects pedal board.

[@DocBolus]

It's the thing that really made a big difference for me, being able to play with the extra monitor outs. I didn't know that about the usb channels as I don't really use a DAW but it sounds like a whole other level of useful there.

[@dougclendening5896]

@@DocBolus yeah, the DAW + usb in + only monitoring the usb-in is huge. You open up a DAW, pick your VST plugins (essentially like guitar pedals but more), apply it to your favorite instrument track that the flow 8 so graciously provides 8 of, then send the DAW/PC audio back into the mixer via usb and ONLY send that usb to monitor outs (via latest firmware update). Then just play your instrument (don't even need to record or do anything else) and have infinite virtual effects at your finger tips.

[@DocBolus]

@@dougclendening5896 That really does sound like a game changer

[@michael7018]

What a waste of time man! Not doing anything just yapping.

[@DocBolus]

Thanks for the feedback always appreciate someone wasting a bit of time with me.