Sound like a lot? It is, this mixer is feature packed. The first thing that I noticed about this board is how absolutely easy it is to use. Again, the last time I recorded (before cranking this baby up with my Fostex D-160 hard disk recorder via ADAT option card) I heard the annoying squeak of my 8 track 1/4 inch reel to reel. I was scared to death to leave the analog world. Behringer really went out of their way to make this gear extremely user friendly.

The Neutrik XLR connectors are solid feeling, the trim pots seem sturdy enough. -20dB pad switches are smooth and easy. There is 60dB of gain in the mic pres, which Behringer calls ULN "Ultra Low Noise." These mic preamps are quiet and uncolored. Gain is fairly smooth when turning the pot, but it's a bit top heavy. Cranked wide open (last hair of adjustment) it's a little finicky and there is some noticeable noise at the very top. I have never had to use this much gain on any source. Phantom power is switchable in groups of 6 (channels 1-6, 7-12).

Routing the signal is as simple as pressing the "Routing" button, the "Select" button on the channel, and selecting the destination on the LCD screen. The destination is selectable in groups of two and panning left or right sends it to the appropriate channel (for example, panning hard left on 1/2 sends to channel 1). I also have the option of sending to more than one channel in the mixer (16 if wanted) and the "MAIN" out.

Compression is selected by pushing that button and then the select switch on that channel. Using the LCD and control knobs below it (the selector knobs function by pushing to select/deselect and turning to adjust value) you can activate the compressor and control all parameters in real time. There are five different knee selections, and 1.1:1 to infinity:1 are selectable. This compression really works well on most sources. Used correctly (like many other compressors) it is undetectable and extremely functional. It will fatten up drums, smooth out loud vocalists, and everything else your rack mounted unit will do. I swear there's almost nothing that a 1.6:1 no. 3 KNEE setting can't handle. All 32 channels and main out have compression available to them at all times, extremely convenient! I recorded a Steinway grand once that was crackling and popping like crazy when I applied compression, but after the latest OS software update from www.ddx3216.com I do not experience this on the same tracks. It seems to me that Behringer updated the compression software and alleviated this problem. I think it is worth mentioning that these same tracks crackled when used through another very popular digital mixer which I owned for a week.

EQ is selectable in the same manner, and applies to all 32 channels and main out as well. This four-band fully parametric EQ is easy to use, sounds good, and reflects changes made with a simple graph on the LCD screen. It's somehow comforting to see changes you make, and also makes it quicker to tell what you've done to a track when scrolling through the channels during a mix.

Gates are selectable in the same manner, and apply to all 32 channels. These gates are extremely useful on all sources, and fairly tweakable. Need to gate all of your drum tracks? The DDX handles that flawlessly. One issue with the gates is that the delay of 10ms cannot be undone (the gate is looking ahead by a minimum of 10ms to be more accurate upon opening). The only real issue here is when gating drums, the drums will be delayed by a minimum of 10ms from your overheads which are typically left ungated. You can correct this in the mix by using delay on channels 1-16 during mixdown to align the tracks if necessary. I really haven't had a problem thus far, but thought it was worth a mention.

This mixer comes with four effects banks built in, and they sound surprisingly good. The reverbs are very tweakable (the plate sounds great on vocals and snare), delays are clean, the comb filtering is pretty cold sounding but functional. The first two effects banks handle reverb and other high math equations, while banks three and four are mainly comb filters and delays. All four banks are simultaneously accessible by all 32 channels. There is a real convenience factor going on here by being able to automate a flange over your lead guitar for just the last measure of your shred, or automate a cranked reverb over that big vocal at the end of your song. It's still OK to bring your own effects, four aux sends using 24-bit conversion sound great, and give you a total of up to eight simultaneous effects. SWEET.

The converters sound great to me. The board uses 24-bit ad/da conversion throughout. Floating point 32/40 bit DSP works for me as well.

The control room output is clean. The headphone amp sounds clean at moderate volumes. Really cranked is a little dirty sounding to me.

The faders are fairly smooth, nothing to write home about. One of the fader knobs on this board was mounted a little crooked, I haven't bothered to try and straighten it yet. The motorized action is very fast, smooth, and accurate. At first I was mesmerized by the coolness of flying faders, but soon realized that Behringer wasn't really trying to impress anybody but rather added the feature out of necessity. Aside from the main fader, there are 16 faders which function as 1-16,17-32, 16 ch. buss and AUX. These banks are switchable by pressing the appropriately marked dedicated button.

Metering seems slow, but it's nice to have the meters right next to your faders because you're always looking at the board to see what's going on. You can select hold times for peak.

Snapshot automation is just a miracle to me. It wasn't THAT long ago that some engineers would actually take photographs of their mixers before shutting down for the night. I have setup different configurations for multitrack recording and mixdown, etc., so I can just walk up to the board and configure it in seconds.

OK, now onto the moving fader automation. Again, from the squeaky reel to reel and now to this. This is heaven on earth my friends, it's like having 32 hands to help me mix and trust me I need all the help I can get. I sync my Fostex recorder via MTC and we're off and running. The mixer will play back almost anything you ask it to, except for gain pots and solo. Mutes, fader moves (Casper, is that you? :) ), effects changes, panning, delays, compression, gating, EQ... the list goes on. If you charge people for your recording services, the moving faders are a real wow factor (while the Behringer name is not to "gear snobs"). Never underestimate the power of the wow factor.

The mixer locks with my recorder within two to three seconds, good enough for me. You can control most digital recorders via MMC.

You're probably wondering as I did, how do you store all of this automation and snapshot/library info? Do I have to hook it to my PC and all that garbage? Lucky for me, the answer was "NO WAY!" The DDX3216 uses a PCM/CIA card slot to save these files, just plug a memory card in from your local electronics store and leave it there forever. Don't make my mistake though: I called Behringer to ask them what size card to get, and they weren't quite sure yet here in the states. I bought a 32MB card (around $30) and this card will hold around 11,000 dynamic automation files. Get yourself an 8MB card and be set until, well OK, at least until the next sampling rate change and all your gear is obsolete.

Behringer offers software updates on their website, and they include a joystick port PC cable to perform updates. I have updated once, and it took maybe 10 minutes to load the new Operating system and library settings.

I received one mixer that fader no. 16 would not respond to automation (motor not engaging) and the online music store I bought it from replaced it within one week.

The DDX3216 from Behringer is a highly functional, great sounding board with built in everything. If you're afraid you'd have to be a rocket scientist to use dynamic moving fader automation, think again. At least, you can think again after picking up one of these digital consoles for around $999 street price.

The Bottom Line: A surprisingly good and useful product from Behringer. Recommended.

Link relating to this review: Behringer

Warren Dent uses his portable recording rig and occassionally gets paid to do so in South Carolina.