Behringer DSP9024 Ultra-Dyne Pro

The basic controls use graphical displays, since you don't have knobs, it is a bit like entering names into a cell phone. Nothing tough, just pushing the right buttons at the right time. The text/numeric control pages are not so nicely laid out, I would say. That takes a bit more thought, not as intuitive. More config pages and grouping of settings would help.

The manual is thick, and seemed to give a good collection of things, maybe not as quite as friendly as it could be. With experience in the field you can find things you need in it.

The unit is relatively easy for a basic setup, including Virtuoso, auto-mode, and presets. Even novices can get somethings out of it. It is also a pro-audio device, and therefore don't expect it to do everything for you. Just like a computer, you have to learn things to use one.

I believe our's is 1.3.

To upgarde: The latest firmware according to Behringer's site is 1.3, probably isn't a 3.0 then. The firmware is in an EPROM or ROM chip. You will need to have the downloaded firmware burned into and EPROM, or buy one. Then just unplug one, and put in the new.
See http://www.behringer.com/_software/firmware-update-dsp9024.cfm?lang=EN

Our setup is mixer out through patch bay to in, out to a DA to our STL and FM TX'r.

It does some nice band and overall compression/limiting. Bands and channels can have separate controls too (or not as default).

Haven't used the tube feature on air, some of our shows might not like it, hehehe.

It has done some nice things for us. I am new to it and just playing with it. I think it has great promise as it is very flexible.

I was going to try using a band for FM and STL pre-emphasis.

Sounds ok so far, I am new to the station.

It has been running since install, no problem. Defaults to bypass if dead.

The only concern is the battery, which is easy to replace.

I once had one mid band compressing extensively, without a need. I ended reloading an old saved setting and redoing it, as I don't understand that part enough yet, and I needed to get it on-air, and get out. I think it was on an auto setting and would have resolved that.

There website has manual and software downloads, and specs.

Haven't dealt with them yet.

Didn't see FAQ or more support info on site.

We are using a DSP9024 for our program processing to our FM transmitter. We are a community station, CJLY.net (web feed may be intermittent).

Price, features, flexibility, great. XLR and 1/4" nice for balanced and unbalanced, and pro's or novice.

I would get another if it died a premature death, and am looking for another inexpensive one for our community station. I dunno what else there is like it in the price range.

EPROM/ROM upgrade not so nice, prefer flash by far. Remote by MIDI only, lame. Standard computer interface would be great addition.

If you know what you're doing and learn to navigate the menu(s), it's not so bad.

Sounds great if tune it up right...just remember, with 6 bands of compression you can make it sound really sweet or really terrible.
It sizzles!!

This is my second unit...sold the first one when I got mastering software for my DAW. I liked the way it sounded, so I looked high and low and found this one for sale on the web.

They're not very helpful...especially on discontinued products.

I am using this unit on-air for fm radio broadcast processing. Just got it in. It's still using firmware v1.0 Can anyone tell me how to upgrade? What is the deal with "EPRPOM 3.0"? Does it cure the latency issue? If you have any of these answers please email me.
Just click on my name below. I've read on the net that several radio stations use this as their fm processor. I'd like to hear from anyone who is using for this type of application. Also need some advice in resolving the latency issue with this unit. Thanks!!

It is quite difficult to use at dirst if you are a novice. I am using it for Radio Broadcasting - and it seems to be pretty easy to set up!

Apart from the 'Overshoot' problem - the sound quality is fantastic. It brings life and energy to the Pop Music we play and makes all the difference when listening to our radio station on a Hi-Fi or radio.

Only had it a few days - seems robust enough. Am using EPROM 3.0 and it seems to be fine.

Have had dealings witjh Behringer in the past - very quick at replying to questions... but the answers are never that good.

Great unit for a great price - good old Behringer! Well Done - why did you discontinue it?

Verry easy to use if you have lots ofknowledge and expierence working with recording gear. Though the owners manual assumes you have prior knowledge of recording.

The sound quality is unparreled at this price point. It sounds better than units costing twice as much. it has a ton of desireable features such as programable stereo 6 band compressor, leveler, limiter, exiter, noise reduction system,and tube emulator. Some of the functions could be better. It is great for tracking exspecially the exciter on overhead mics bass or guitar. As far as mastering goes you get what you pay for. Great for tracking better than nothing for mastering. The quality for the price is an 11. If you spend $2000 then you get a decent mastering processor.

I have been abusing it for 5 years, and it keeps taking it.

Never communicated with them.

AWESOME FOR TRACKING! If this is all you can afford for mastering save up or outsource the work don't be so cheap, and expect great results.

Just got this today, up and working quickly, but still can't find how to alter gain make-up for each band individually, which kind of makes it useless.

Sounds Fine, no noise etc.

Looks pretty well put together.

Bought this for multiband compression of drum submixes - unless I can get it to change one bands gain makeup without affecting all the rest, it's useless for that (or any other multiband compression tasks). And yes, the limiter's minimum release is half a second, which means it will always stay off in this application.

I have been using this device for 3 years now - without any problems. In this time I updated the unit to software version 1.3
I think I can say that this unit is easy to understand and easy to adapt settings fast to your own feeling or wish.

Sound quality is still good after 3 year 24/7 usage, in most circumstances. (see my 2 reviews somewhat lower on this page.)
Ronio, the reviewer below me, is claiming that the peaklimiter can be set to 60 or even 50 msec release time.
Well Ronio, could you check if you really can do that on the 9024 and if so, how!
I think you gonna tell me that the shortest release time of the peak limiter is 0.5 sec, like I said before, wich is way too slow (am I crying again now?).
Ronio, read carefully: I'm talking about the peak limiter release time, not the compressor release times.

Like I said, I've been using this unit for 3 years in a 24/7 nonstop environment. And it still works, it never failed me.

Behringers customer support is somewhat crappy. They write quick "lets get this question over with" answers. Wich is not always enough.

By the way (Ronio :-) ):
Behringers support said this about the peaklimiters 0.5 sec fastest release time:

-----
QUOTE:
-----
this slow limiter realease time is normal, so your Eprom V1.3 isn't faulty.
Due to the fact that this product is discontinued there are no more changes to come.
-----

Still a pretty good device. Its is not really good standalone useable for broadcast.
I wrote most things already a little bit more to the bottom of this page.

I found this unit fairly easy to use. I bought the display, so I got it cheap and Guitar Center for about $79.00.

Sound quality is great if you take the time to set thing right. You should definitely take the time to learn this unit. I notice there are people here complaining about things and they don't even have the right figures. Remco is crying about the peak limiter being way too slow because of the release time and has the minimum listed at 0.5 seconds, that's wrong it's 0.05 seconds, which is much faster the 0.5! Also the upgrade with the software gives you a speedy 50ms release time. Also, Troy state he can find no level controls for the seperate compressor bands, but they are there. So you have to take into consideration that a lot of the critics have not taking time to read the manual and learn the product. But if you do, you'll love it.

I can depend on it to funtion well when I use it.

Never used them

I give it a great overall rating

The manual is as it should be, reference material.
Editing patches is easy once you get accustomed to the interface.
Firmware is currently 1.2.
No trouble getting a good sound out of it.

I use it for finalizing my mixes from a Fostex VF16 hard disk recorder. It works well enough for my purposes. It is a quiet unit and takes any noise out of my tracks easily.

The unit was secondhand and manufactured in 1998. Seems dependable enough.

They have always responded to my inquiries.

I am creating short jingle like creations and mixing my friends music.
The addition of the DSP9024 has made my mixes cleaner and given them a little more life.
If it were lost or stolen I would replace it.

The instruction manual is poor. This relates directly in difficulty in application for the ease of use. With experimentation one can eventually correlate implementation. I have tried the Ultramizer and Virtuoso by running a completed final mix down to improve the sound and could notice no changes or improvements. However, I have not yet dug into the deeper menu functions.

I have had the unit for about one month and so far have not obtained any imrpovement on sound quality.

I have had the unti less than one month. I turned it one for the second time and am now receiving a low battery notification. How would you rate reliability with this experience?

I have not dealt with the Company. The way they write their manual I doubt dealing with the Company will gain any improvements. In addition, Behringer is noted for poor customer relations. Why bother?

I purchased this unit to be used in final mastering. I have been recording and mixing for 8 years using a Alesis ADAT and TEAC ADAT along with numerous professional compressor/limiters, reverbs, 32 band Equalizers, and digital delay units.

Obviously I will have to study and work a to harder to obtain a final quality product using this device.

As stated previously here, the manual is useless. Once you get used to the menu selections and arrow keys, everything is pretty intuitive.

I am able to get a very 'optimod'-like sound quality from this unit, partly because I run an Orban compressor in front of it, using very slow settings. This prevents 'raw' audio from being driven hard into the multiband stage, and introduces some degree of program-dependent attack and release times.

The attack and release times on this unit are only adjustable by time, and do NOT seem to be program dependent. It is therefore very easy to get undesirable pumping effects, even though it is multiband. Too little delay, even with the attack time set to 'zero' results in that chintzy 'slappy' attack sound that you get from cheap compressors.

I am also intending to use this unit for 'pirate' broadcasing, so the bandwidth controls are very useful (I think!). I have set band 1 to begin slightly above 30hz and band 6 to end at slightly below 15khz. This seems to work in making the unit both a high-pass and low-pass filter.

I also will run a fast peak limiter after this unit, since as previously stated, the built-in limiter is useless, and overshoots are great from the mulitband stage.

So far reliablity sucks! The first unit out of the box produced a 'low battery' reading that manual says should occur 'after a few years'. Even though this battery is only supposed to store user settings when powered off, it says 'return the unit to us as soon as this happens'!

The second day I had it, I powered it on to find a grey screen, the MIDI light lit up, and NO OPERATION possible. After waiting two full weeks for the mail order company to send me a replacement, (even though I originally paid for second-day shipping) I open it up and plug it in only to get the same 'low battery' indicator!

The replacement was also a demo or display unit with an opened box, spooge on the display, and screw marks from being rack-mounted!

Never dealt with Behringer. The mail order guys were okay considering the situation, but I should have been told the replacement would be a demo unit.

If it worked it would be fine, but it absolutely requires a fine ear and experience adjusting other audio processors for sound. Listen to plenty of stuff before judging the sound.

It's easy to use, hard to understand because the userguide is'nt so friendly.
I posted a previous review about this product (3/4/2002) now I post again to share my knowledge about this little but nice machine.

When the unit has bad settings it sound really terrible...
The peaklimiter is way to slow (min. rel. time=0,5 Sec) for broadcast use.
But, when you take some time putting the right settings, it will sound good. Depending on the delay length.
I've put mine settings online: http://www.radiostadmontfoort.nl/processing/index.html
Which will change every once in a while...
I have contact with Behringers support about using it in broadcast, so when I get a tip from them, I try it. (To bad I don't get a tip so often).

Yes, you can depend on this machine!... It has never failed in over 2 years non-stop 24 hr use. (except that one time I lost the password for the unit :( )

As I said, I have contact with Behringers support, some times they give good information.
But sometimes like nothing. If you use this unit, you have to be able to operate it by yourself. Don't depend on support.

The overall Rating is okay, the unit has proven itself.
If it got stolen I might buy one again. But only if no other multiband processor for the same price is available.

I use this unit in broadcast, it works pretty good. A few things you have to get in mind:
-The unit doesn't have pre-emphasis, it should have for broadcast. I plan to build pre- and de-emphasis myself before and after the unit on one day... (ever...).
-Check the Eprom software version, currently is 1.3 wich is the best in my opinion.
If you have 1.2 or lower, update it, you can freely download the update at www.behringer.com
-The peak limiter is way too slow (min rel. time 0,5 sec) for broadcast. Behringer should get that fixed!!! (but who am I to say that)

It really takes some quality time to begin to appreciate this processor. The manual is not so user friendly. more illustration would have been better.

I are still of the opinion that "the jury is still out" for the most part. Sometimes I am able to get great sounds on it and the next day it seems to sound different. I will admit that I have heard some quality compression come from this processor. I wish the tube emulation was more detectable.

It really seems rugged enough as I haven't had any problems with it.

Have not used it.

I play R&B mostly and I was really counting on the smooth silky sounds for the vocals. I have heard smooth silk but not as much as I would like. In all fairness I will say that I do believe that the more you tweak it the better results you will get

Out of the box..into my rack..read the manual..great sounds straight away...I use the Virtuoso function, and set the delay properly,

Using to master and record, Motif, VG 88ex, Roland VS1680, so will buy the digital option soon, failed to get a 10/10 as I think the exciter is a bit obvious, and the tube types are too subtle, but maybe that's my tired ears, for the price though, fantastic, I think other postings that rubbish the unit are misinformed, as people obviously don't understand mutiband compression, or in fact don't even read the manual

Just bought it, but remarkably well made

Slow email response to other enquiries

If your on a budget, like most of us are, buy one secondhand

Takes some time to tweak it to how you want. I've had one of these for about 8 months and it's taken until now to get to a sound I like. I have two of these, one for broadcast and one for my home studio. One I bought back in April and the newer one in August. There seems to be a difference as I have tried two exact settings with the same source on each unit, Behringer must have made some changes to the software, I'd like to know what! The old one seems to sound better than the new one. Suspicious.

For broadcast I feed from a Behringer DX1000 mixer. Afterall, you only get out what you put in. I have set the unit on the basis of varying music and have at last managed to stop any bad artifacts such as slight pumping. The signal to noise ratio is excellent.

This hasn't failed me yet. Well constructed. The only thing that once annoyed me was that the memory battery went flat only after a couple of months.

N/A

I have only used the "automatic" function to master my music this far, and for that is couldn't get easier to use.

I like the sound i get from this machine. It sounds fresher, louder, and more well ballanced. It seems to be great at pushing up sounds that may be a bit to weak in volume so that the whole spectrum sounds more balanced, and that was just what i wanted. The 24bit 48khz in and output is also great, but don't forget the golden rule!: "shit in - shit out". If your soundsource is no good then you have no right to espect it to all of a sudden sound great when it comes out of the "miracle machine"... thats not how it works. But if your soundsource is good (in my case korg triton and nord rack 2) then you can expect a good lift in the overall sound. There is NO noice from this machine, and no other things bothering anybody, so i have to give it a high rate for soundquality.. especially with the highquality converters!

You really can't suceed in chrashing this unit..like in a way that oyu have to resart it or something like that.. never done any strange stuff for me anyways... 100% reliable this far

never had to.

I have good gear to make music: krog triton pro-x and nord rack 2, adn for monitors i have vent ps8 and a mackie vlz pro 1402 mixer, adn i also record with 24bit up to 192khz if i want to,.. but i use 24bit 48khz mostly... so all the way in this line the soundquality is profesionall, i dare say. So the sound is great and with this unit, i feel it helps me get that extra lift that push me just over the edge to reach an acceptable sound in the ears of pro's or semi'pro's. Be sure you have good soundsource first! no machine in the world will help you if it sounds like shit at first place. I recomend this product for people with small-normalsize homestudio.. like midistudio with synths and stuff (like me).i now have better currage to show my music to "real" musicians and feel that my sound dont get half as many complainnts about the mix anymore.. infact i havnat had any since i got this machine...

Hi, I just wanted to point out that the guy who said you can't change the gain for each band is incorrect. There is an option to link or unlink the bands in setup mode, so you can adjust all parameters for each band seperately.

This is a fine piece of kit.

Aieiao?euii i?i?eoaa a?? iocuau i aaiiii i?io???i??, i? ii? i? ?a?eaou oi ?? ?aii?, ii?eieueo yoi o?o?ie?oai ?oieo oi?i. O?i aie?? i?eyoii ?oaou i??aui, ??e iocua ia yoie ?o?aie?e? iaie?ai ii-?o??ee.
? i?io???i?ii ?aaioa? ia FM ?aaei o?? aie?? 3-? e?o, a?ea? ?ia?oa?iiu? i?i??aiiu, ?oi iicaiey?o ?icaaou ?aie i?iiaoi?eiue caoe, ?a?aeo??iue oieuei aey ia??e ?oaioee. Aea?iaa?y iaai?o aaciau? ooieoee i?io???i?a oaaei?u aiaeou?y i? oieuei ieioii?i, iiuii?i cao?aiey oiii??aii a?c ia?o??iey i??aoia?iaiu? ii?i ?aaeia?uaiey, ii oae?? cai?oii oeo??eou ea???oai e??iaiie oiii??aiiu, caie?aiiie a oi?iao? mp3.
Oa??a?i, ?oi aey iieo??iey ?i?i?e? ??coeuoaoia iaei eco??iey ?oeiaia?oaa ii ye?ieoaoaoee, i?ia?iaeii ciaie? i?eioeiia aeiaie???eie ia?aaioee, i?ia?iii?o?e aaiii?i i?io???i?a.
Ii ??a? cia?, ?oi i?e iaee?ee yoe? ?i?oaaey?ue? i?io???i? aoa?o ee?u ?aaiaaou Aa? e i?eii?eou e?oeiii? oaiaieu?oae? io ?aaiou.

?io?e au iaeoe ?aeiiiu?e?iieeia, caieia?ue??y aeiaie???eie ia?aaioeie aey iai?ia iiuoii a ia?o?iee? eiii????i?a e?ai?i oeia.

O?eouaay ioii?eo?euii i? au?ieo? ?oieii?ou ii ??aai?ie? ? aiaei?e?iie o??ieeie, ea???oai i??iu ?i?i???. Iiyou ??, a aieu??e ?o?i?ie ??i aeeoo?o? oieuei Au, iie?ay?u ia ?aie ciaiey a iaea?oe aeiaie???eie ia?aaioee.

Ie ?aeii?i cai??aiey ca o?e ?iaa iau?iey.

e?ii? yoie aie?ou ieeaeie iiaa???ee iio??aeo?ey i? a?o???ae

?oi??!

When I tried out the Ultra Dyne pro with a friend of mine, we both were looking at it, not knowing what to do after we plugged in de power. (we never touched a digital processor before). But after like 10 minutes we where having some sound out of it, not too good, but there was something. The presets are not so friendly to the music so we started to configure the thing by ourselves. It took us about 2 hours to get some quality out of it. 2 weeks later I bought the processor and now (2 months later) I know it's not a great processor but it's a good one if you set the right presets.
And let me tell you: The manual didn't help us with the presets, it only guides you throug the menu's in the system, but that's all. It could be better Behringer!
Also we had the problem of the 'screenshots' in the manual, because we had software revision 1.2, and the book was from revision 1.0 or so.

Sound Quality is great on this thing... but is you configure this thing wrong it sounds really horrible...
I am using this Ultra Dyne pro DSP 9024 as a broadcast processor, without pre-emphasis because it don't have that on board.
Some people say its useless for broadcasting, but its quite good I think.
There is only one issue I can't figure out: It's a 6 band compressor, with seperate compressor attack, release, tresholds etc. But setting the release time to 50 msec seems (listing to the compressor) that it is not releasing in 50 msec but in 500 msec. I am going to contact Behringer about this... or does anyone else here know why and what?

I have never seen this unit not working or crashing somehow... So I thing its reliable.

I never contacted Behringer, but I am going to to figure out about this release time of the compressors (setting = 50 msec, it seems 500 msec)
Oh yes,
Once I put in a password, but I typed a letter wrong, you don't have to confirm your password.
To unlock, I guessed like 50 times, but I could'nt get out the password... There was only one way said the reseller: Take out the battery (for his memory) and configure this thing all over again. But that was my own mistake.

As I Said, I'm using it in broadcast, it could be better, but for this price, -NOTHING- else can do better. Even a broadband limiter is more expensive!
If it got stolen or so I would buy this Ultra Dyne Pro again. For sure!
I really like the VU meters on the display, RMS and Peaklevel of all 6 compressors and output / input at a time on the display. You can switch the VU meter view to output level and input level. This is helpfull when you are configuring this device.
I am missing the pre-emphasis and when you set a password it should ask a second time to confirm the password.

+9 Took me about 90 mintues to figure this unit out top to bottom.

Just want to re-iterate what the earlier poster said on this unit.
The presets completely suck and are totally useless. But, crawl
into this thing, and you can really get some incredible sound out
of it. I was A/Bing the presets, and it was very disappointing. But
after I tweaked it for about 2 hours, I was blowing myself away with
the A/B differences. I use the Tube and Exciter very sparingly
(about 2-3% effect on each), I don't fine these too useful. But
the 6 bands of multiband is nice. I wish there was a level control
for each band, but there isn't. You adjust the level by your compression ratio.

A little different than what I am used to, but the end results are good.

Guitar Center was blowing these out for $150 dollars new. Best deal
ever! I payed 200 for my single-band RNC compressor!

-troy

I only give this rating a 7 because it does take time to get used this unit. It IS NOT a PRESET type unit. The presets will basically kill your sound but once you actually take the time to USE the unit and tweak it for your own personal music then it is rather nice.

Here is the wierd thing about this unit.
At first the sound is great because you have all this processing on your music and it sounds interesting. Once you start to take a critical listen, the sounds form the presets start to degrade your music and it gets discouraging.
I went from a 8 (First bought it) to a 5 (After a couple of weeks) back to an 8 (Now that I have owned it for 2 months)
This unit is a multi-band compressor, it needs to be treated as such.
Once you discover what primary frequencie you tend to record with, you can get some amazing results with it.
IT TAKES TIME... Let me emphasize again that this is not a PRESET unit.
Several of the reviews here were obviuosly written within days of owning this unit. That is a problem. I have seen posts where the reviewer says it the machine doesn't do this or that but those people are incorrect.
Individual tweaking of all parameters for ALL 6 bands is fully possible.
If you can't get a good sound from this unit it is because of you and not the unit.
It is NOT a MIRACLE fix-all device like many wish it was.
A major thing here: The better the source material, the better the results with this unit.
Sadly the price tag (Which is great) attracts lower end musicians and engineers who's source material is lacking from the get go and therefore have a hard time with this unit because it does not polish turds.

Solid like most Behringer DSP's.

N/A

I produce many styles of music and have a tone of other gear.
This is just a small piece in a chain. I mix with it as a frontend to my Alesis Masterlink and the combined 2 give me outstanding results for home mastering.
I am liking it more and more as I own it longer and use it more. I am finding sweet spots for my own music and mixing style.
The menus are a little slow getting to but not any different than my DAW or synths.
Overall it is an amazing peice for the price. I would certainly but it again for that price and might just get a second one for other applications.

You got to know what you're doing otherwise the endresult is can be poor! As long as you deal with this unit as a cross-over unit with 6 independant compressors you'll be fine. (Providing you know X-overs and compressors) If you get to know this unit you can get very good results real quick, but not as quick as a finalizer express, which is basically a PRESET compressor, which is easy to use but a whole lot less flexibel!!!

The sound quality of the compressors is fantastic. The peak limiter is useless for mastering or broadcast because of the shortest release time is far too long: 500 msec. The tube emulation may sometimes be useful, I don't use it much. The exciter can be a real help, as it souns very very good, as long as you don't push it too far.

I seems sturdy enough. Until now.

I once emailed Behringer about the computer-editor and I got back an Email they hadn't finished it yet. So, the response was prompt but at the same time it was not very usefull!

General mastering (acoustical .... heavy metal .... dance)

The unit is not easy to use for the uninitiated. There are too many keys to push. It has some pre-sets which I found to be helpful, but which are difficult to change and know what to expect. The manual is pretty useless, which is typical of Behringer. It says everything, but it only says it once, and it never tells you things like what the factory pre-sets are. It just says there are some. It took me about three hours to realize that the unit came from the factory with the entire audio spectrum compacted into two of the bands, so I kept wondering why there was no activity on the other six bands. There is supposed to be computer software for this unit, but I don't use it with a computer, so don't know if it's any better. I find myself being afraid to change the settings because I'm not sure I can get the other ones back. The A/B settings display is particularly troubling. You never know which program you're listening to.

I am using the unit to master (yeah, I know. If I spent another thousand, I could do it better). I have seven vocals, and the music tracks are already done. I find the unit to do a decent job of compression. It retains the high end pretty well for my purposes, and gives a good overall mix between highs and lows. The soft knee works very well, and I don't hear any adverse effects, except a little squish once in a while. It generally boosts in the right places, but a small adjustment sometimes results in a large difference in unwanted effects. I do live sound, but I don't use this unit for that, so don't use it for amp protection. To be honest, I cannot tell any difference in the tube emulation types. There are four different types, but they all sound the same to me. The exciter is pretty passive, as well.

It seems pretty dependable, and I must say, I find Behringer stuff to be very dependable overall. I have not had this unit all that long, so don't know about this particular gear. I would not use it live because I am not familiar enough with the operation, and am not comfortable with changing the settings during a live gig. That really is no reflection of the dependability.

As most people know, customer support is almost non-existent with Behringer, but that is not uncommon among sound companies. I actually did get an email from the US rep after I complained that I could not figure out why I was only able to get sound on three out of the six bands. He even offered me his phone number, but by the time he had answered my email (about seven days) I pretty much had it figured out.

I don't exactly play music. I get the tracks done, and then use them for vocals. I use this unit to master and finalize the mix, and it does an acceptable job. I was hoping for a little better, considering the advertisements, but some of that may be because I can't figure out how to use all its capabilities. I strongly suggest a trouble-shooting section to the manual, and inclusion of the factory pre-sets. Maybe even some instruction on what happens when you store a program and over-write the one from the factory. Can you ever get it back? Who knows? Overall, I give it about a six - I like what it does, but I could probably get the same results from an ultramizer for about three hundred less, because if you take away four bands from the 9024, that's about what you have. And from the factory (at least for mine), that's what was offered.

Out of the box presented plenty of ear candy, but on further tweaking found that settings do not work intuitively with each other, that moving the "process" up and down did not cause clear linear results. Manual is fairly clear, but hunting through six levels of menus with multiple settings on each is tiresome, and hard to A/B. Rather have six dedicted comp/lims and a freq. splitter on my rack, but thats alot more money of course. setting the input level can be tricky, moving the box rapidly from ok but not super tight to screeching audio garbage.(and it input/output levels should be knobs with leds right on the front, ok?)

I'm running a mix out of a Mackie VLZ Pro (16 channels from two MOTUS)and not banging the top of the headroom by any means prior to the Behringer. Quick transitions from quiet to loud can be "weird", and I sense the unit was not designed with this type of recording in mind. On evenly loud songs I could get a good full compressed and reasonable sonically separated stereo mix, without noticing the floor noise, but push that gate open a notch with no or low signal, and whooosh. Again, careful use of input/output here is vital, and the transition from full to harsh comes on suddenly. As a result I mildly precompress the stereo signal going into the unit with a DBX unit to prevent it becoming a BOSS overdrive pedal (I also have comp/lim outboards inserted on some of the VLZ-Pro channels. I wasn't looking for this to do the whole shebang). The tradeoff is the undesired loss of dynamics, which can sometimes be fixed in my software (Cool Edit Pro, Cubase VST) program. But it is no magic portal to sonic nirvana.

Hey, I haven't spilt beer on it or had it sit in smock filled rooms, left it over the weekend in the trunk of a car in the summer or outside the backdoor in the winter, so it has not been TRULY tested. No data wheel though. I hate data wheels.

Don't know, haven't dealt. At this price range, I expect it to be reliable until I drop it.

At half the price of a Finalizer with two additional bands, it is ok for tweaking a few not quite right freq ranges into submission. I have successfully used to bring back lost vocals in the mix, but I don't use it alone (slam two channels of unmixed/eq'd/comp garbage in and expect an electronic gold record engineer inside to turn it into awards material). I would say it has increased my ratio of "sounds pretty good"/"wow that is sonic crap" ratio from 1 in 20 to 1 in 12. And I think thats ok. It has produced better demos than some studios around here with "real" gear. Just don't hang it on your rack and start charging your buddies like a real studio. Their ears grow up too.

Not real easy to use, because there are so many parameters that can be set. And you really do need to select the parameters carefully to get a good sound. The Manual is reasonably good, but you do need to experiment with settings to see how it actually affects the sounds.
My unit is Software Version 1.2B. It seems to be significantly better than the units reviewed previously. There are some inaccuracies in the prior reviews (at least in comparison with my software Version). The menu system is reasonable, but again, there are so many possible settings that it is a bit overwhelming until after you have played with it a while and unferstand how to get around.
The "Virtuoso" and "Ultramiser" functions will set compression thresholds and volume levels automatically, and they do a reasonably good job. But it seem like I usually use them only as a starting point for dialing in the right settings.

The sound quality is fantastic. I don't know what else anyone could possibly want from multi-band compression. There is no audible noise or compression-algorythm artifacts. The frequency bands are completely independent and it does not cause high frequency loss when compressing bass bands. (I paid particular attention to that !) Also YOU CAN adjust the volume level of each band independently (contrary to what was reported in a prior review.) I am mainly concerned with the multiband compression functions. The Tube simulator is reasonable and subtle. I don't use it much. The "Exciter" function adds user-selectable odd or even harminics to the signal. I am usually very skeptical about this type if gimmick, but I have to admit that it sounds very good. It seems to add a subtle "sparkle" (excitement ?) to things without being too obvious. THe compression is very transparent. I use it during recording of fingerstyle acoustic guitar. It really evens out the variations in playing while not changing the tone of the guitar. It is also perfect for taming boomey bass notes or resonances due to room acoustics, because you can assign a compression band specifically to problem frequencies. Also great for reducing fingersquaek noises without eliminating all high frequencies, like De-Essers do, or leaving a "hole" in the frequency response, like parametric EQs do. Fantastic "Silky" sound ! I am using both the analog input/output and the optional digital I/O. The AD and DA converters seem very good. I can run S/PDIF signal directly into the DSP9024 but need to use a converter to get the AES/EBU output into the S/PDIF of my recording unit.

Seems very well built, the buttons have a very solid feel and a definite "click" to them. The chassis and faceplate are sturdy metal. But...I did return the first unit sent to me because the Display would fade noticably when the unit warmed up. So far the second unit is fine.
By comparison, it is MUCH more sturdily built than my TC Electroncs M-1. So I would give it a 10 if I hadn't had problems with the first unit, which makes me wonder a little.

I have e-mailed Behringer support a few times on other matters and they have always returned to message within a couple days with a reasonable answer. Usually that would only qualify as "competent", but these days, it seems like any customer support at all is extraodinary. For example, TC Electronics blows off every question completely with an incompetent reply. Mackie just ignores e-mails.

Overall, I have to give this unit a 10, based on the usefullness of the multiband compressors alone.

If you are comparing, note (as I did) that The TC Electronics Triple C only has three bands and they are NOT independently adjustable. All the ratio parameters are slaved to one setting. The Triple C is also always Stereo linked: both left and Right channels must accept and be slaved to the same parameters. Similar with the DBX unit.

On the DSP9024 all bands and left and right channels are COMPLETELY independent. All parameters, volume levels, and frequency band settings are individually setable. Stereo and band linking are an option if you choose to use it (make set-up a little easier).
It also has Gate and Limiter functions which appear to work adequately, but I don't really use them much. Take the x out of my address to contact me.

There are some presets and a very simple wizard type function, or you can edit all the many parameters on their own - so it's as simple or complex as you want to make it.

I couldn't really fault it for the price. I do mostly breakbeat stuff, the 6 band compressor and exciter works well, fattens everything up and makes it nice and loud :-)

Good quality convertors, pretty rugged looking for a rackmount thing.

don't know.

Works well, good for beefing up your mixes on a budget.

For the uninitiated, the Ultradyne is a lowcost mastering processor - like a poor man's Finaliser or Masterflow. It comes with a number of presets supposedly set up for various applications (mastering, percussion, broadcast etc) all of which are fairly poor. You can obtain better results by editing each of the parameters yourself (which include attack, release, knee, ratio & threshold for each band in the 6-band compression, noise gate on each band, plus an overall limiter, tube simulation, and exciter) though this will take a little time and experimentation. Accessing the parameters is easy enough, though.

The 6-band compressor is obviously the units main draw, but in practice it needs time and effort to coax a decent sound from it. You'll generally have to make compromises to get acceptable results, since despite the large number of editable parameters, the results invariably fall short of what you hoped for - the biggest single drawback is that you can't boost the output gain for each individual channel, only for the output gain as a whole, which severely limits the machines creative potential (eg. a tightly compressed band will become quieter, but you can't raise the gain to compensate). However, the exciter and tube simulations are better than I had feared, and are good enough for polishing up digital portastudio type work, though they don't exactly ooze quality. Overall sound quality is about what you'd expect from a low-budget digital signal processor.

No problems so far, it seems sturdy enough. It's only got to sit in a studio rack though, right? :-)

n/a. I've heard bad rumours from others, but I wouldn't want to judge having no experience of it myself. Free PC editing software from the Behringer website is mentioned, though at the time of writing it wasn't available.

Common sense told me this wasn't going to be up to the quality of the likes of the Finaliser/Masterflow/Quantum stuff - I secretly hoped it might be, but you apparently get what you pay for. I wanted to use it for compressing drums as well as for overall mastering, but for drums my Drawmer MX30 generally gives better results. The Ultradyne can add a few extra dbs for amateur mastering, but you won't get much extra 'punch' in your mixes, primarily because, as mentioned above, you can't boost the gain for individual compression bands.

Tested for it radio broadcasting and it is terrible at controlling overshoots.
I found also that if you push it to work the very occassional song with a lot of low frequency caused it to lose all treble, that is a
contradiction of a multiband compressor.
It had other cool features though like treble exciter and plenty of controls.

Appears to be very rugged, only have a few weeks.

I have sent 4 E-mails without any response back, so I have since had to deal with the agent.
However I will be bounced back because this is a not seen as a fault.

I have use all compressor and audio processors right up the Orban range, but this does not do what it says on tin.