Behringer Wing

[Dave Rowles]

Behringer Wing - Full Size RRP £2,700. - Additional Midas DL32 RRP £1150

Opener
Being in the market for a new mixer to expand my capabilities, I did my research, tried out all the competition, and was all ready to buy an SQ, when the buzz about the Behringer Wing got harder to ignore.

These desks have been out for a while, but with the recent re-stying from the white to black, the release of the compact and rack versions, and a massive firmware update, there was a flurry of activity, leading to stock shortages and waiting times. Follow any of the wing groups and forums, and you’ll see posts about excited users getting their hands on it. So what’s the big deal? Enough of the buzz and the very attractive price vs features convinced me to change my plans.

This review is written from the perspective of using it as a Live sound desk, but there's some powerful features on this desk which might make it ideal for a studio.

What is it?
The Wing is the latest digital desk to come out from Behringer. The X32 was a complete game changer on the the low end mixing desk market. The power and flexibility that it put in the hands of small venues and operators had some of the other manufacturers chasing the consumer base, and led to a price reduction among some manufacturers, and a new focus on the lower end market. Yamaha’s TF range, Allen & Heath’s SQ range, Soundcraft SI series, and others all had to up their games to compete. Like it or loathe it (and I know a few experienced engineers that loathe it!) The X32 made lots of waves in the industry.

The Wing is an evolution of the X32. Instead of the 32 channels that gave the X32 it’s name, there are now 48. These channels could more accurately be named processing paths, as they can be both mono or stereo simply by patching in both left and right channels. Stereo keys? One channel. Stereo playback? One channel. This means if you really wanted to you could patch in 96 inputs. 40 of the channels are what they call “full processing channels” meaning you have access to up to 5 processing points, and 8 are reduced processing with only 3 processing points.

My wing arrived and at 31kg, it’s a bit heavier and sturdier than the X32, although for me it’s replacing the X32 rack that I’ve had since release. First thing I did before playing with anything was to update to the latest firmware. Having perused some wing forums, I’ve seen some horror stories of wings not updating correctly, but for me the process was perfectly smooth. Unzipped the download onto a stick, navigated to the right menu on the wing, and hit go. Job done. The Wing doesn’t have a lot of inputs on the surface itself, but I have a Midas DL32 stage box that I used with my X32 Rack. That needed updating to the latest firmware as well, so after having all of that done, I connected it all up and started to delve into it.

Operation
A 1-1 patch was a breeze when dealing with mono channels. Some people were complaining about on the forums but having had a lot of experience on a wide variety of other digital mixers I didn't see the problem. Gone are the blocks of 8 from the X32, and you can free patch anything to anywhere! As every channel can be either mono, stereo, or M/S without reducing channel count, you deal with this at the patch level. Press the button to make an input stereo and it links the odd/even pair at the stage box. If you're plugging in a lot of inputs this can lead you to think about what order you've plugged things in order to compensate. Luckily the surface is so customisable that you're input list isn't a issue.

Having the option of stereo channels without losing a processing path is a great feature. I recently did training for a high end brand of mixer, and when set the number of channels available, you had to allow enough "unused" channels to accommodate any stereo channels you may want to set up. Not so for this desk.

As this first fire up was in the low pressure environment of my living room, I did a couple of tests on the DL32 to make sure it was working (important for the gig later in the week), and then switched my patch over to the laptop ins. Having a multi-track built in on SD card is a great feature, but the equally built in USB 48i/o makes this a great multichannel option, so I loaded up a suitable live recording in logic, routed everything correctly, re-patched the desk, and did a test mix.

Processing power
On the full processing channels you get access to: Gain, Trim, phantom, Low Cut (variable) High Cut (variable) Tilt EQ (A weird Hi/lo shelf adjuster), channel delay, Gate/dynamic 1, EQ, Comp/Dynamic 2, Insert 1 (pre-fade), Insert 2 (post-fade), Pan, stereo width adjust. That’s quite an impressive array of things to play with, so while only having channel delay, one dynamic, one EQ, and one insert point on the 8 reduced channels sounds like a lot less, it’s more than enough to cope with backing tracks or playback, and will probably cope with keyboard duties if you need the extra channels.

Putting the desk through it's paces, I tried using as many of the knobs and buttons as I could. There is the channel control section to the right of the screen which gives you access to many functions. The knobs don’t have labels, but just touching them bring up on the small screen what they do. One interesting “feature” became apparent when using them to do EQ. Other digital desks usually have knobs to adjust EQ band gain, width and frequency then have a button to select which band you’re editing. The Wing engineers have decided that all knobs will do one thing at a time, so it’s all gain, all width, all freq for each band. This, for me, wasn’t very intuitive as I generally want to focus on one frequency band fully, and not just gain or frequency. While the channel strip controls make some sense for other aspects of control, for EQ, it’s simply easier to use the main screen and control either by the context sensitive knobs underneath, touch and turn, or (as it’s a multitouch screen) grab the EQ as though you’re on an iPad. After further investigation (and a few more gigs under my belt) I really only use the channel strip controls for gain/phantom and high pass adjustment. For everything else, the screen gives you far more useful control. Ones good feature is the ability to alter the signal chain quite easily. There's a wrench icon on the screen and you can drag and drop the position of the dynamics, EQ, or tap point to any order giving far more flexible mixing options.

FX and Routing
Having a basic mix together I turned my attention to the busses to try and get some reverb and delay FX going. Billed as a 28 bus desk, that’s split by 16 aux busses, 8 matrix, and 4 main busses. I found the Main Busses a little confusing at first. You’ve got 4 stereo mains, which can be fed from as many different channels as you want so I find the “main” moniker a bit of a misnomer, as I think it’s better to see them as processing groups. I can see myself using them to separate out the drums/percussion, guitars, keys, and vocals, and then using the matrix busses to send that to the PA. The Matrix busses are exactly as you expect, although it is possible to send channels directly to the matrix like you can on most Yamaha Desks giving you access to 24 auxes if you want to use them that way. The busses can be mono or stereo the same as channels, dramatically improving number of stereo IEMs you can have. Busses have access to a compressor/dynamic processor, 2 insert points for rack FX and a 6 point parametric EQ with additional low and high shelf, giving you a wide range of options. Busses can be set either pre-fader (TAP), post-fader, or group. With the PRE setting you can alter where the busses take the signal from (TAP point) in the channel’s signal path. I usually set my tap point to be just after the HPF for monitors. Post fader for the FX such as reverb/delay etc, and Group turns it into a standard group if you want to add buss compression or other processing.

In a change to the way the X32 handled FX, the wing has them inserted on the bus so there’s no separate returns to bring the FX back to. To add a bit of head scratching to start with, you can't edit the FX on the rack until it was inserted onto a bus. Having it as an insert is a great space saving device as you’re not using up channels as returns, but introduces some creative problems. With 2 insert points on the buss, one is pre-fade, one is post. On previous digital desks, I've used the fader of the bus to replicate the "delay throw" technique, but by default the desk puts time based FX in the pre-fade slot. I thought about moving it to the post fade, but then I'd lose the ability to EQ the return which is a feature I use a lot for a couple of bands I regularly mix.

Luckily the software guys have got me covered. After a quick search on the digital repository of all knowledge, I headed to the user fader layers, and created a custom fader that allowed me to alter the send to the delay fx on the selected channel. This lets me replicate the delay throw that I'd usually do either knob on an analog board very effectively, and in a far easier way than the work around I'd been using on the X32!

By this point I’ve got a good mix together using the basics. It’s time to look at the extras.

Customisation
A lot of desk manufactures have started embracing the idea of plugins onto their digital desks. Yamaha with the Rivage system, and Allen & Heath spring to mind, along with Avid, Digico (with Mustard) and Behringer have taken this idea and run with it. On the Wing all the basic gates/comps/EQs on the channels can be switched out for plugin versions/emulations of different EQ types. Among them are a dynamic EQ, de-esser, LA2A and 1176 comps, a transient designer, SSL and Pultec style EQ models and a lot more options! These are obviously modelled versions and how accurate they are to the originals I leave for you to decide. It's important to note that these are available on all channels with no restrictions. Using a modelled EQ on one channel doesn't mean you can't on another. Want 40 LA2A compressors? No problem.

On shows and mixes I played around with a lot of them and all the plugins are definitely useful. I've got especially attached to the Pultec trick for bass drum, and the LA2A as my default comp, but I've started dabbling with the SSL type EQ as well as the SSL gate. The best upgrade on the FX for me though has to be the VSS3 reverb, which is a huge step up from the X32 LX480 styled reverbs, though those are still an option. Having used the VSS4 on a few of my higher end gigs, it's great having access to this, as the room models are very usable. I've found after dive into the settings that it really opened up what soundscapes you are able to make. There is also a great digital delay FX plugin that allows for some very interesting options with various auto panning and level controls.

We've also got graphic EQs of course, though I find myself needing them less with the generous number of parametric bands on the busses. The Wing only offers you 16 rack slots, so depending on the number of graphics you may need, I've found myself getting close to running out.

The Wing engineers have also thought about it's implementation of custom fader layers. Most digital desks these days are more control surfaces and allow you to customise the layout of the desk, and the Wing is no different. It offers 2 custom fader layers (user 1 & 2). The fader banks are split into 2, and you can have them linked, or separate, and you can assign any fader to any position, but what's more you can also do that to any of the other fader layers if you want. I've shied away from that, as on a gig I want to be able to reach any channel for sure if something goes wrong! But having 24 channels to set to what ever you want is great!

Along with the custom fader layers, there is also a large custom control section. This gives you access to buttons and knobs that you can assign to any task suitable for those controls. My default settings has the buttons set to turn the desk into Sends-On-Faders mode, meaning I can built my monitor mixes quickly at a push of a button, or in fact my reverb sends. I've also got a section where I've got the reverb decay time and delay feedback amount on knobs so I can alter those quickly, and a tap tempo for the delay effect. All of the functions of the Wing as controllable from this section, so you're only limited by the number of buttons!

The four faders to the right of the console I have set to my main and the aforementioned delay throw. A quick button press and scroll takes me to my matrix sends for when I'm using a large PA with multiple zones to worry about.

Extras
One thing I've not got to grips with is the DAW control section. There is a jog wheel and you can set the console into a mode where this uses either MCU or HUI, which you can select in the setup menus. I'm very interested to try it out, so hopefully I'll post up an update about that when I get the chance.

Conclusion
I hope this gives you an overview of what the Wing is capable of, and some of it's better features. But of course, the main question is, what's the sound quality?

Well, of course, that's down to your pres. I've got the Midas DL32 pres, and the sound through the console is excellent. I really can't put it down at all, and I would say the sound quality is easily equivalent to a lot of more expensive mixers. But I'll be honest, I think the sound quality through almost all digital mixers these days are hard to fault. Online forums will swear that getting the Midas "Blue Box" pres. makes a huge difference to the sound, but I'd find it hard to justify something like the DL251 box when it's twice the price of the mixer itself. Ultimately you're not going to be disappointed with the DL32 box.

Finally, I find this mixer fun. Little touches that make no difference to operating it, like scratches on the GUI for the plugins, recreating the look of the hardware it's emulating, moving around the desk, it all feels fun which is something I feel can be lacking on some more "serious" desks.

[OneWorld]

Behringer Wing - Full Size RRP £2,700. - Additional Midas DL32 RRP £1150

Opener
Being in the market for a new mixer to expand my capabilities, I did my research, tried out all the competition, and was all ready to buy an SQ, when the buzz about the Behringer Wing got harder to ignore....

Thanks for this, I really have one of the 'Wings' in my sights but haven't come across many reviews, which sort of makes me hesitant. I do have a preference for the Wing Compact so I am inclined to wait a bit longer to see if any reviews for the Compact to appear, however your review is very informative.

I missed out on the Midas equivalent of the X32, it was being sold at a bargain basement price, but thought it might be best to go for the Wing Compact, it would be a bit more up to date.

I had this notion I was going to go In The Box bid farewell to boxes, but I couldn't bring myself to let my synths go. And considering the cost of the Wings and other manufacturers' equivalents, having a mixer isn't an extravagance but a relatively affordable choice.

[ajay_m]

I'm curious about the DAW control functionality on the Wing. My own setup is more modest with the Yamaha DM3 but it has a dedicated DAW control view with a timeline display and onscreen buttons for automation modes etc. (albeit it uses only the archaic HUI protocol and not MCU). The single rotary encoder allows you to move around the timeline in this mode.
As far as I could see, most of the other digital desks including the Wing do have either MIDI and/or OSC control so they can certainly act as a control surface, but I could not see any dedicated functionality like the DM3 has hence not sure how you'd see eg project time position on the desk screen.

[Dave Rowles]

I'll see if I can get some time to play with it to see what can be done. The wing does allow you to decide how much of the console is used for DAW control, but it's not something that I use as a live engineer.

The DM3 while limited on channel count, is a much higher end console, and Yamaha own Steinberg as well, so it's no surprise they've got a bit better DAW control.

If you want to know a bit more about DAW control for the wing, there's a good video here that shows the basics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0du_tYvEBU

[ajay_m]

Thanks, that was an interesting video. So there *is* a project time display, I couldn't see where you would do transport controls or automation from his brief video, but it looks quite nice. The Wing and Wing Compact are of course far more capable desks then the little DM3 (albeit they won't do 96KHz) and the very generous local I/O on the Compact is also a plus - had this been available I might have been tempted at the time.
Of course we are utterly spoilt these days with a range of cost-effective digital desks, with the A&H QU series now available as well. Again, I'm not clear about the DAW integration capabilities these offer - I do get they obviously transmit and receive MIDI but OSC I'm not quite clear about nor am I sure whether they have a dedicated DAW control view, as obviously the Wing does, based on that video. This is, in general, a topic I would love to see an SOS article on - I am of course an enthusiastic advocate of putting a digital desk as the studio centerpiece and using it as your audio interface and control surface plus monitor controller etc - I cannot imagine how I coped before I did this - but choosing the right desk requires quite a bit of thought. For example, Yamaha using the old HUI protocol is a problem if your DAW is, say, Ableton, because I simply couldn't get that working.

[Rayr]

Dave,

You said: "The DM3 while limited on channel count, is a much higher end console, and Yamaha own Steinberg as well, so it's no surprise they've got a bit better DAW control."

As a Wing owner (2 years) and someone who has also tried the DM3 I'm trying to reconcile the "much higher end console" statement. The channel count, number of effects busses, emulations, routing and versatile interface of the Wing made me keep it and not keep the DM3. Using the DAW control with Cubase wasn't bad at all on the wing and the 96Khz sample rate vs 48Khz on the Wing was a very slight difference. (Neumann, JBL speakers and AKG headphone for monitoring). I do have mostly Midas interfaces and one Behringer DL digital snake. The effects on the Wing were superior and more versatile then the DM3. The amount of value I get from the Wing is hard to argue against and Behringer is still updating it. I almost fell for the DM3 hype but after much consideration kept the Wing. I only kept the DM3 for two weeks, but maybe I missed something. Please elaborate further on the DM3..