What will the X/M32 replacement be?

[VTypeV4]

Many of us on the live scene will have used these consoles from tiny 'corner of the pub' setups all the way through to proper shows. My personal experiences are little other than positive - especially in the case of the full size M32.

My question is, what will their replacement look like? I appreciate some will say it already exists and is the Wing but I can't help but feel that is simply an experimental / concept / off-shoot design. Most clubs I've worked that have chosen to replace their X32 have done most often an A&H SQ series which are also great.

I also understand the full-sized M32 is now out of production.

Any thoughts or knowledge of any new series from the 'Music Tribe' people?

[OneWorld]

Many of us on the live scene will have used these consoles from tiny 'corner of the pub' setups all the way through to proper shows. My personal experiences are little other than positive - especially in the case of the full size M32.

My question is, what will their replacement look like? I appreciate some will say it already exists and is the Wing but I can't help but feel that is simply an experimental / concept / off-shoot design. Most clubs I've worked that have chosen to replace their X32 have done most often an A&H SQ series which are also great.

I also understand the full-sized M32 is now out of production.

Any thoughts or knowledge of any new series from the 'Music Tribe' people?

I sort of feel in my waters that Yamaha must have something cooking. Yamaha were at the vanguard when it came to mixers when they introduced the 'O' series. Yes there were some mixers that superceded those, but none that made a quantum leap in technical terms. Yamaha went back to the Moon instead of heading for Mars

I thought the Behringer Wing was the replacement for the X series but it seems it is a different box altogether and the X series continues to be manufactured and is a popular choice anyway. I suppose Behringer thinks if it works why fix it. Just like X-Factor, you'd think it's being shown the eXit and then sure enough, it's back again!

[Dave Rowles]

most often an A&H SQ series which are also great.

This is the current small format mixer of choice. so it's probably better asking what the next SQ will be. At the moment the SQ is moping up, and I see more and more of them around, with good reason as it's a great mixer.

At the moment I can't see any manufacturer great up for something that beats an SQ, but it took ages for anyone to beat an X32, so who knows what's in the pipelines. I think Yamaha is a good place to look as their small format stuff has been neglected for a while, and the TF series was not looked upon favourably. The new DM3 looks like they might be headed in that direction, but they need to add a load more channels and functionality to get there.

[DGL.]

I think if they hadn't improved the X/M32 with firmware updates then Behringer would have had to have a similar replacement by now, in theory the Wing should be seen as the follow up as it's certainly a much more powerful board and with the Pro series i/o on board it makes it an M series upgrade too.

Behringer have somehow managed to produce a well priced, reliable board which with FW upgrades still has a decent feature set even after quite a while in production, this has saved them in development costs and it's ubiquity means that it's probably still selling well. So many engineers will know how to use the board and probably have show files for it, having a "better" and more powerful board is nice but most engineers will simply want something that they know how to use and has enough features to do what they want.
It can do this, this and this better than an X32, ah yes but I can simply plug my USB stick in here and be away in seconds on an X32, your fancier board can't do that!

[VTypeV4]

Apparently the X32 is the best selling console of all time ever..

I guess they covered so many corners with it.. Out-right replacing the LS-9 and even smaller / lesser funded places that still had something like an A&H GL2200 with questionable outboard up until a few years ago.

I'm very interested to see what Yamaha bring to the table - I still have a DM2000 at the studio, a DM1000 for external jobs and I regularly use an 02R at home all of which get the job done and keep the work coming in.

A&H have done brilliantly with the SQ as it's a machine that I can't really fault as it does everything so well. I can't say as I've ever had a bad show with one.

I suppose I was wondering whether we'd see a cut down version of the Midas Heritage D. I've used a few of these and they're very good plus they're so much nicer to use than the Pro series. Appreciated, even a cut down and re-badged version would be more pricey than an X32 (and no doubt an SQ) but I'm really quite excited to see what happens next as the X/M32 has been such a game changer.

[AlecSp]

The simple answer is - maybe.

x32 has been a gamechanger, and carries on doing the job in many a small venue. Wing and SQ may be significantly better in many ways, but are both significantly more expensive, so X32 still has its own market.

There could be a replacement waiting in the wings, or it could be another decade. Can't see X32 being ditched wholesale at the lower end for some time, until there's a suitably priced replacement.

[VTypeV4]

I wonder if I should have named the topic 'I wonder if there will be another mixer so influential and widespread - what will that look like'..

I also considered whether a version of the new Yamaha DM3 but bigger with more faders might give Behringer something to worry about? Having said that, Behringer have made history so expect they don't really have anything to worry about anyways..

[Wonks]

They've obviously upset some M32 owners who wanted it for recording by never implementing the promised 96kHz upgrade. The website still describes it as '96kHz ready'.

I know a lot of people who are happy with it as is, but for those who paid out extra money over an X32 because of the promise of 96kHz recording and never got it, it must be a 'never again' moment.

[Drew Stephenson]

I also considered whether a version of the new Yamaha DM3 but bigger with more faders might give Behringer something to worry about? Having said that, Behringer have made history so expect they don't really have anything to worry about anyways..

Given the different price points I don't think Yamaha and Behringer really see each other as competition with those products.
The Midas range is a bit different though but as Wonks says, they've done themselves no favours there.

[VTypeV4]

It's funny, as I write this, there's an advert from DV247 'Ready to ship' for a brand new X32 in the top right corner of my screen..

I'm still very happy with the performance of my now 'old fashioned' Yamaha DM series mixers - they still do more (including 96K!) than everything I need for any situation I find myself in (where I need to provide a console at least) and as such, feel no need to swap them out for a replacement.

I guess the same applies to the X32 from both Behringer and the end users' perspective..

[BigRedX]

They've obviously upset some M32 owners who wanted it for recording by never implementing the promised 96kHz upgrade. The website still describes it as '96kHz ready'.

I know a lot of people who are happy with it as is, but for those who paid out extra money over an X32 because of the promise of 96kHz recording and never got it, it must be a 'never again' moment.

I got bitten by promised software/firmware upgrades for digital mixers when I purchased a TMD8000. Many of those never materialised, and IIRC there were some functions that when selected simply brought up a message saying that they would be implemented in a future upgrade.

As a result I won't buy any device that doesn't do everything I need at the time of purchase. If additional features are added later for free I won't complain, but I expect to get all the things promised out of the box.

[Dave Rowles]

[As a result I won't buy any device that doesn't do everything I need at the time of purchase. If additional features are added later for free I won't complain, but I expect to get all the things promised out of the box.

Totally with you on that front. That's part of the reason why the X32 sold so well is that it had everything you needed right away.