Re: To BEhringer or not to BEhringer

[dtapia@unoco.edu (Douglas Tapia)]

They've been sued (successfully) by Aphex for copping the
>exciter's circuitry, and by Mackie for stealing circuit board designs.  In
>the Mackie case, I have heard that the clincher was that the Behringer had
>a printed circuit board on it with an error that was identical to the 
>error
>on the Mackie board in question.  Oops.  Now Behringer's been accused of
>copying the capsule from (if I remember correctly) the Neumann microphone.

One thing I'll say for Behringer, they pick good stuff to copy, eh?

>However, if I place the art vs. ethics consideration aside for a moment 
>I'm
>sorely tempted to buy myself a Behringer 2642.  As for politics--Greg
>Mackie is a Deadhead, something I find morally repugnant ;-) but I'd still
>consider buying his products.

This is true.  I would never look down on somone for buying good Behringer
products at good prices.  These are personal decisions, and everyone must
find his/her own path.  It strikes me as funny that all of a sudden, Mackie
has become another BIG company in a lawsuit pitted against someone
infringing on their territory.  (Remember when Mackie was the little
upstart that was going to kick everyone's butts?  They ARE corporate
America now!)

As for Greg's being a Deadhead, I am inclined to agree with you, but if we
refused to by technology from former associates of the Dead we'd have no
Meyer, no Alembic, no Gamble consoles, no Crown derivitive mics. . .

Guess The Dead were kinda like the Microsoft of the Music biz.  We all use
products pioneered in their ranks, but we don't like to be reminded of that
fact very often.