Mike Rivers wrote:

So, is there a place where one can be had for $650?
I might be interested in a Behringer for really cheap.

$650 would be quite a good price. I'm tempted to buy another
one for that kind of money. I paid $900-ish for mine, and
then added two ADAT cards and two AES/EBU cards. Makes it a
little more spendy, but quite versatile. I also downloaded
the software patch for surround processing.

To interject an operating note or two, I finished up a
Shakespeare festival in May ("R&J" and "Shrew", 1 week of
rehearsals, 6 shows on two weekends) and used the 3216. We
used 17 wireless mics, an announcement mic and two channels
of SFX/music. Outdoors, 4000-seat amphitheatre. I could have
used the Crest XR20, but the 3216 has scene memory, FX/DSP
on each channel and no need for outboard processing racks.
All the inputs were brought in optically through the ADAT
cards and ADA8000 preamps.

Without going into any great detail, it all worked
flawlessly, and in the environment, sounded terrific.

The scene memory would have worked like a charm, as I
programmed each character into each scene with the necessary
EQ, etc. Trouble was, the cue sheets were wrong, and the
person calling the cues didn't call them correctly, so
simply stepping to the next cue was impossible. BUT, being
to recall each show's presets was a major time-saver. Press
a button, watch the various settings react instantly.

So, yeah, for $650, I'd say it's worth experimenting with.



TM