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It's hard to describe Behringer's new DDX3216 digital mixer without sounding like an infomercial. What if I told you that this board lists for $1,999 and has a potential 32 simultaneously available inputs, 4 internal effects processors, full dynamic and snapshot automation, and a total of 17 ALPS 100 mm motorized faders?

That's not enough? Then what if I threw in a total of 6 D/A converters, 12 mic/line inputs and 4 line inputs, and parametric EQ and dynamics on every channel? What, you want more? Okay, how about 16-stage LED meters next to each fader and 17 Channel Control lighted rotary encoders? The DDX3216 is that kind of product.

It's not that those features are revolutionary — it's that you get them all on a mixer that costs less than $2,000. The features just keep piling up: 24-bit conversion, SMPTE time-code input, MIDI Time Code (MTC) input and output (the unit can generate MTC), word-clock in and out, and even a PC Card slot for storing settings and mixes. Clearly, Behringer has done a championship job in the features-per-dollar category (actually, make that features-per-euro — the company is German). Speaking of faders, they are one of the first things you notice about the DDX3216. They feel every bit as good as the motorized faders on some higher-end digital mixers, and they're considerably quieter than many. Motorized faders tend to chatter loudly when they're paired or grouped with others; these barely peep.

However, you don't want to push down on the faders too hard, or they'll bottom out. They're not touch sensitive, either, which means they can't automatically “feel” when you're punching in replacement fader-automation moves.

Still, if they were spaced farther apart and had larger finger pads, the faders would feel perfectly at home on a digital console costing more than twice as much. The LCDs on most midpriced digital mixers are two times the size of the DDX3216's, which means you're going to be doing some window-hopping. But the menus are well organized, the graphics are clear, and the six knobs and four buttons dedicated to screen navigation let you move around pretty quickly.

Also, the LED meters next to the channels take the place of the onscreen meters on other digital mixers, saving screen real estate and making it unnecessary for Behringer to offer a meter bridge. The DDX3216 has much in common with other digital mixers, so those people who have worked with other units should be able to find their way around this board pretty easily with only a cursory read of the manual. The unit's faders are layered into banks, with the topmost row of buttons determining the active layer (channels 1 through 16, 17 through 32, bus outs, or sends). Below that, in the switch matrix, buttons determine what the Channel Control rotary encoders (one per channel) adjust: pans, send levels to one of the four auxes, or levels to one of the four effects processors. Each knob is encircled by 12 lighted “spokes” to indicate its approximate position. Actual resolutions, however, are much finer than those indicated by positions of the spoke lights. Individual channel settings — routing, EQ, gating, compression, and delay (which is available only on analog channels 1 through 16) — are accessed by a shared set of buttons.

As with all digital consoles, the Select button you push determines which channel is to be operated on. In short, the designers did a good job of making this mixer's interface easy to navigate, and the display tells you what to push whenever there's any question. That operation could be streamlined with some shortcuts, though.

Broadcast playout software. On the Panasonic DA7, for example, hitting Select and Mute at the same time snaps a fader to unity gain, and simultaneously pushing the Select buttons on two adjacent channels pairs them. However, on the DDX3216, you can zero master fader and aux or effects sends by pushing down on encoder knobs next to the display.

Fortunately, the board's operating software is in flash memory, so it can be updated as improvements arrive. Updates can be downloaded from the Behringer Web site. Unfortunately, though, the DDX3216 File Exchange software — a file librarian for this and other kinds of bulk mixer data — is available for Windows only, not Macintosh. You can also do updates through the PC Card slot, so one work-around is to find a Windows machine with a PC Card writer.

The DDX3216 stores as many as 128 snapshot files, which reflect the state of the board (except, of course, for analog settings such as control-room and headphone levels) at any time. You can choose which parameters are to be recalled from stored snapshots — a nice feature. However, the board can hold only one dynamically automated mix at a time in its battery-backed memory — you don't lose the mix when you power down — so to store multiple mixes, you definitely need to use the DDX3216 File Exchange software, PC flash memory, or a device that stores bulk MIDI dumps. The DDX3216 gets warm with use, but it didn't get hot or start acting strangely after I left it on for 48 hours straight. It has a fan on one side — something to consider in rackmounted installations — but fortunately, the fan is quiet, and that's coming from someone who's sensitive to fan noise. My only quibble about the board's ergonomics is that your head must often hover over the middle of the panel — that's the only way to see the Channel Control encoders if they're at 12 o'clock.