Behringer FX2000 3D FX Processor

1. Introduction

A few years ago I used to rock a Roland MV-8800 production studio. It used to have only 3 effects slots (1x reverb, 2x delay/chorus, 3x multi-fx). When I needed more effects or wanted to do some crazy processing using the multi-fx processor I had to resort to re-sampling. To avoid it I had to find a stand-alone multi-fx processor which would allow me to have more effects without the need to re-sample. As usual I had a hundred in my pocket waiting to get a bang for my buck (or pound :) and this is how I met the Behringer FX 2000 processor.

2. Build Quality

Really sturdy metallic chassis (some of the edges are "razor" sharp so watch out, don't cut your fingers). Plastic knobs feel a bit cheap and wiggly at first but you get used to it and after 2 years I can't complain. Connectors are all of decent quality and fit nicely.

3. Features

You get 100 presets and you can alter them in unimaginable ways and store in another bank of 100 user presets. There are 8 master effects groups (Reverb, Delay, Modulation, Dynamics, Psycho Acoustics, Filter/EQ, Distortion/Amp and Special FX) within these groups you get certain sub-types and even effect combos such as REV+DLY etc. Each effect has 8 tweak-able params (knobs EDIT A through EDIT F + EQ LO, EQ HI). FX bypass push button and compare are nice to quickly skim though and preview the effects. Some effects require MIDI input to set tempo and such. MIDI in/out connectors allow you to recall a preset or to dump them to a PC using the MIDI SysEx. I really enjoyed the ability to recall stored presets using MIDI messages. All you have to do is to record a valid preset change event somewhere at the beginning of your track and the unit will react promptly.

4. Verdict

Lets start with the price. I dare you to find more a affordable multi-fx processor with such a wide selection of effects. Moving on to sound quality. It's acceptable, don't expect too much from reverb as presets sound quite average. The unit is simple in setup and easy to work with, produces nice sound and gives plenty of presets to chose from. For the price, definitely get it, you can't go wrong.

I picked this up on a whim after seeing it going so cheaply and needing a new all-in-one solution for my small home. I was not disappointed.
The build quality is really good for the price. Solid metal, and buttons are OK and should last fine. I found the menus a bit weird at first, but that's something a bit of manual reading easily fixes. The sound is not excellent though. It's good, no problems there. The reverbs are a bit uninspiring and you'd be better served getting a dedicated reverb unit if you have issue with this. But there's tons of features and it does these all pretty damned well for the price. So, buying it for an all-in-one thing is exactly what I wanted. There's some nice little features like being able to trigger the start point of effects, cycles and so on via MIDI.
I mostly use this for noodling on guitar and experimenting before trying to record something (because again, there's better reverb out there), but I predominantly use it for synths, and in that regard it has been serving me VERY well indeed. It's great at tweaking the sound to sit it in the mix fine.

I had been very prejudiced against Behringer but gave in and added this to my equipment, because it is one of their better products and is just very good value for money. The Behringer FX2000 3D FX Processor is partly aimed at the same kind of market as the Alesis MidiVerb 4 and other similar 19 inch effect rack units. But there is more, much more. You will not find psychoacoustic processing elsewhere at anywhere near this price. There's an exciter too and various programs to enhance the stereo image that you won't get on other budget effect units. There are twelve reverb types and the delays include a tape echo simulator and ping pong delay. There's the usual effects like various types of flanger, phaser, chorus and pitch shifting. There are a number of other features like compressor, expander, gate, limiter, ultramizer, de-esser, de-noiser, ultra wide, binauralizer. It has guitar amp simulation, speaker simulation, and much more, even a centre canceller (for karaoke). Watch out for the razor sharp edges on the rack ears though! As well as the instruction manual which comes in the box, there is a more comprehensive version about the FX2000 which you can download from Behringer's site.

In the meantime I bought a THIRD one (that says a lot)! Sounds as good as other high end FX processors but is 2 to 4 times cheaper. While in the beginning the operation of the four function edit wheels felt strange to me, I now see it is a superergonomic system that enables a much more direct/faster access than the "page scrolling systems" of most of the competition. Even if the info on the display is very succinct, the large characters are MUCH easier to see than the tiny characters of most other systems displays. Only drawback is that it cannot handle more than at most 2 FX at a time. I now use three in series.

With this unit you have many usable effects at your disposal. The interface is intuitive and easy to handle. The full explanation of the unit with description of all the presets and effects are unfortunately in 2 separate download files being the 'user manual' and the 'Quick start guide'.(should be 1 file) Most of the presets need to be parameter adjusted before you can use them in practice; Attention some presets are VERY LOUD, As a preventive mode lower the volume to a bare minimum each time you turn the presets knob to avoid to blow your speakers when you select (by accident) one of these noisy presets. Also be aware that you can most of the time only select one effect (except the combined presets and stereo effects) but indeed for this price you cannot have everything. The sound quality is OK but adding the unit to you chain (pre-amp, mixing panel, amp etc) will significantly increase the background noise level. All by all good quality and features for a very reasonable price