Behringer Eurorack MX2642

Following the success of their first mixer, the 8‑buss Eurodesk, Behringer have scaled down the concept to take on the crowded 4‑buss market. Paul White checks it out.

The term 'Eurorack' sounds as though it might have been dreamed up by the Spanish Inquisition — either that, or a very bored man in Brussels, wandering around with a clipboard and tape measure, checking that all the measurements conform to some nebulous Euro‑standard. Behringer actually acted more like Euro‑rebels with their first mixer, the Eurodesk (reviewed SOS September '95), which many felt looked rather too much like a Mackie 8‑buss console to be strictly cricket. The Eurorack retains the same cosmetic styling, right down to Mackie‑style knobs, buttons and screening style, and is designed to compete in the rack‑size 4‑buss arena, but for what it's worth, I think Behringer might have earned more respect if they had come up with their own styling.

Quick Tour

Powered by an external power supply, the Eurorack gives the impression of being soundly engineered, and well thought‑out. All the connections, other than the headphone outlet, are located on the rear panel. This can be unscrewed and relocated on the bottom of the case, which is more convenient when using the mixer in an upright rack.

The concept of the mixer is simple: there are eight mono mic/line channels fitted with both direct outs and insert points, plus four more line‑only stereo channels. All these channels have short fader level control, separate routing buttons for the stereo buss, group 1,2 and group 3,4 and further buttons for mute and Solo/PFL. The Solo/PFL LED also doubles as peak level warning. Each of these channels is fitted with three‑band EQ and four aux sends; auxes 1,2 are switchable pre/post (as a pair) while auxes 3,4 are fixed post‑fade, but can be switched to a further two aux send busses (5,6), again as a pair. There are no aux send masters, so effects units with input level controls are an advantage.

The mono channels have the benefit of a sweep mid control, while the stereo channels have a fixed mid operating at 1kHz, though neither has an EQ bypass. The cut and boost range is 15dB for all equaliser stages, and the high and low frequency sections shelve at 12kHz and 80Hz respectively. All eight mono channels have a switchable low‑cut filter (100Hz), while the main stereo channels have switchable ‑10V/+4dBu operating levels.

A further four general‑purpose stereo channels are provided for use as returns, and these too have full routing, albeit in pairs. They have no EQ, and only two send controls; aux 1 and aux 3. They are, however, furnished with PFL (pre‑fade listen) buttons, as are the four groups. Each pair of groups also has a To Mix button, for subgrouping during mixdown.

The master section of this little mixer is very straightforward, with a single pair of bargraph meters below the global 48V phantom power button. The channel solo system can be switched between Solo (post fade) and PFL, and each of the six aux send outs has its own PFL button. There's a two‑track tape feed for recording, and the two track return may be monitored for playback or fed into the main stereo mix. A single level control sets the control room and headphone output level.

On the rear panel, all the audio connections are made by quarter‑inch jacks except the mic inputs, which are XLRs. The line inputs are all electronically balanced, as are the main stereo outs. The PSU connects to the mixer via a locking four‑pin plug.

Summary

Rather than being a direct rival to the original Mackie 4‑buss mixer, the Eurorack seems to have anticipated some of the improvements which Mackie have recently introduced into their VLZ range, making this a very practical and well specified little mixer. The frequency response is flat within +/‑ 1dB from 20Hz to 40kHz, and only drops off by 3dB in the 10Hz to 120kHz range, while the noise figures compare well with other soundly‑designed budget desks. Overall, the EQ is musical and positive, with a mid frequency sweep range of 250Hz to 6kHz, enough for most tasks.

There's little to criticise about this mixer given its price and target market, and it could be put to work in a small recording setup just as well as it could be used live, or as part of a fixed sound installation. The external PSU is a little inconvenient for live work, and some way of metering the four group outputs would have been useful; even just a couple of LEDs. On balance, however, the designers have put the effort in where it counts.