Behringer DEQ-2496 Initial Setup

Power On and Software Version Check
The first thing we should do is check the software version of the 2496. This is done by pressing the "UTILITY" button. The version is reported in the upper right hand corner of the display window. Version 1.4 is the latest software revision by Behringer and includes a few bug fixes as well as a few more variable functions. If your version is below this, consider downloading the latest software version and downloading the "Midi-Ox" midi control program used to transfer the software information from your computer to the 2496. Instructions on how update the 2496 via a midi transfer is available on the "DEQ2496-upgrade" section on the bottom of this page. The DEQ2496 may come loaded with version 1.2b or 1.3 which will still work just fine if you do not want to upgrade.

Menus and Setup
The main menus are accessed by pressing one of the 9 buttons on the right side of the 2496.

First, you should set the rear-panel "MAX" switch to a level of +22 dBu. This establishes an extra +10dBu of maximum gain capability and will allow a little more "headroom" for signal peaks.

UTILITY Menu Pages 1, 2 & 3
Pressing the UTILITY button will display one of three "PAGES" of menus. Select Page 1 (GENERAL SETUP) by pressing the "PAGE" button just to the top-left of the main display. Adjust the contrast of the display by first selecting CONTRAST by rotating the small top knob marked PUSH / TURN. A little arrow to the left of the display will move as you rotate the knob. Once the arrow is pointing to CONTRAST, change it's value by turning the big knob. Mine is set to a contrast value of 7. Select what works best for you.

Following the same procedures for selection and parameter values, make sure that values indicated on pages 1, 2 and 3 of the UTIL menu are as shown below:

BYPASS Menu
The "Bypass" menu allows you to select which modules you will or will not be using. I would suggest bypassing the modules you will not be using. You do this by selecting the module using the big knob, and then pushing the big knob resulting in a module that is "X'ed" out... I chose to bypass the GEQ and LIMITER modules since we will not really need these if the PEQ and DYN modules are properly set up. See the illustration below below:

I/O Menu Pages 1, 2 & 3
The "I/O" menu (Input / Output) allows you to configure which inputs and outputs you will be using and also configures the RTA (Real Time Analyzer) input source. See the illustrations below:

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NOTE: In the following menus on this page, you may find that the numeric values indicated cannot be found on your DEQ2496. This is because you are using the "Course" mode on the knob that selects the values. Simply press the knob IN and a finer resolution will become available.

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DYN Menu Pages 1 & 2
The "DYN" menu allows you to either configure the mono-band compressor and limiter or, as I have chosen to do, configure the Downward Expander (Noise Gate) only. You will want to configure this menu for "EXPA" by pressing the "B" button so that "EXPA" is highlited. See the illustrations below:

DEQ (Dynamic EQ) Menu Pages 1, 2 & 3 of DEQ 1, 2 & 3
The DEQ feature of the 2496 is the reason I was attracted to this box. There are 3 DEQ's available, and each one has 3 pages of parameters.

I used the 1st DEQ to configure my low frequency compression as seen in the 1st 3 illustrations below.
I used the 2nd DEQ to configure my midrange compression as seen in the 2nd 3 illustrations below.
I used the 3rd DEQ to configure my high frequency compression as seen in the 3rd 3 illustrations below.

The following "DEQ" settings are universal and should work with any bandwidth. Set the threshold as explained below. These settings were derived by KA0KA (Tyler) by using a function generator and oscilloscope, adjusting for maximum coverage and uniform amplitude of all frequencies while keeping the output sine-wave to minimum audio distortion.

DEQ 1 - Pages 1, 2 & 3 (Low Frequencies)








DEQ 2 - Pages 1, 2 & 3 (Mid Frequencies)








DEQ 3 - Pages 1, 2 & 3 (High Frequencies)

The parameter that will vary for you is the "THRESHOLD" control . The threshold on the 3rd DEQ is very important... You will want to adjust the threshold just to the point of removing any high-frequency tearing in your transmissions. Generaly, if you speak all of the vowel sounds (A, E, I, O, and U) at a normal speaking level and set your thresholds to adjust "Gain Reduction" on all three DEQ's to about -5dB, you will have adjusted the DEQ's for the best dynamic control in for audio processing application!

Also note that the "RELEASE" time on the 1st DEQ (Low frequencies) should be over 100 ms. This will prevent low frequency distortion from occurring as it does with faster release times.

PEQ (Parametric Equalizer) Pages 1 & 2
Your PEQ settings will vary depending on several factors: Transceiver bandwidth, the microphone being used, your voice and the desired audio you want to produce. In the generic example displayed below, I have adjusted for a Lo-Fi TX bandwidth of about 3 to 4 kHz using a dynamic microphone. If you will be using a condenser microphone, do not add as much low frequency boost because a condenser will have about 6~10dB more of low frequency amplitude available.

Lo-Fi SSB Settings using a "Dynamic" microphone (3~4kHz Bandwidth)

If your bandwidth, for example, will be around 6kHz, then the DEQ will look significantly different. See the example below for what I have used... Notice the Low-Cut and High-Cut filters added to keep the passband within the desired bandwidth:

Hi-fi SSB Settings using a "Condenser" microphone (5~6kHz Bandwidth)

Step 1:
Download the latest 2496 Midi software upgrade and download the MIDI-OX program.
When you download, make sure you choose a destination directory (folder) that you will remember in steps 3 and 7.

Step 2:
Purchase and Install the required midi interface cable.
You will need to purchase a special midi transfer cable to connect the computer sound card midi output to the DEQ2496 midi input. Most computer sound cards use the "Joystick" port (15-pin D connector) as the midi in / out port. The cable you will need will have a 15-pin male plug on one end, and two midi DIN plugs on the other end. Behringer recommends that you connect the cable to the DEQ2496 MIDI INPUT ONLY! Also, make sure that the cable connector marked "OUTPUT" is connected to the DEQ2496 MIDI INPUT.

CAUTION !
1) Make sure you turn your computer OFF before connecting the midi interface cable!

2) Make sure that you connect ONLY the MIDI input of the 2496 using the MIDI output from the cable. Behringer strongly recommends this!

On the interface cable, the "Output" DIN plug will be inserted into the "Input" jack on the 2496.

Step 3:
Install the MIDI-OX software.
Just follow the directions when installing the Midi-Ox software on your computer.

Step 4:
Configure the MIDI-OX software.
(a)
After the software is installed, execute the Midi-Ox program and do the following:
Click Options > MIDI Devices...
You will see 4 windows labeled: MIDI Inputs, MIDI Outputs, Port Mapping and Port Map Objects.
Select your MIDI device in the MIDI Inputs windows so that it shows up in the Port Map Objects window.
Select your MIDI device in the MIDI Outputs window so that it shows up in the Port Mapping window.
If your see "401 UART" instead of "MIDI" on the device name, this is fine as it is another designator for MIDI naming.

(b)
Check to make sure that the "Output Port" is connected to the "MIDI-OX Event Port" in the software by clicking the "Port Routings" Button on the top tool bar (8th button from the left with a "Rout 66" sign on it). You should see a connected diagram as follows:

If you do NOT see a connecting line from the "Output Port" (right) to the "MIDI-OX Event Port" (lower left) or something similar, then right-click the Output Port connector and then click: "Connect Output Port". A line should appear connecting the two as shown above. Also make sure that the top two connectors are labeled MIDI Input and MIDI Output.

Click OK and leave the program running.

Note: It is possible that your soundcard may NOT support MIDI In/Out functions. If you can not configure MIDI-OX as outlined in step 4, this may be the case. You may need to try it on a different computer with MIDI In/Out support. However, check the next step if you have a built-in embedded soundcard on your computer's motherboard.

Step 5:
If you are using a computer with a built-in soundcard on the motherboard, make sure that the MIDI ports are enabled. If you have a soundcard that is not built into the motherboard, then you can skip this step.

Step 6:
Set Up The DEQ 2496 for the Incoming Upgrade Transfer.
See the UTIL menu, page 2 and make sure that all of the parameters are set up as follows:

Note: The last menu item "CONTROL CHANGE MODE" will not be seen in versions prior to 1.4 so don't panic. It is not relevant to the upgrade process..

Turn the DEQ 2496 OFF. Press and hold the "UTILITY" button while turning ON the 2496.
The 2496 should display a message informing you that it is waiting for the upgrade transfer.

Step 7:
Execute the transfer.
In the MIDI-OX program, select Actions > Send > SysEx File...
Navigate to the directory ("Look In" dialog box) where you saved your "DEQ2496_1-4.syx" file and double-click that file. You should see a message on the 2496 display indicating the transfer progress in pages or "blocks" uploaded. This process will take about 5 minutes to complete. When it is completed, the 2496 main window will say: "Please Recycle". This is a fancy way of saying, "Turn off the power and then turn it back on again".

If everything was successful, The UTIL menu page 1 should indicate v1.4 in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Congratulations... Your done!

If you did NOT have success, then please see the troubleshooting section that follows...

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Troubleshooting Possible Problems:
Even though I had no problems using the above outlined procedure, others have reported problems getting the 2496 to upgrade properly. Below is a checklist of possible solutions.

1) Check the buffer rate by clicking: "Options" > "Configure Buffers..." Set the "Low Level Input Buffers" and "Low Level Output Buffers" to a "Size" of "64". I guess Behringer recommends this. You can experiment with different buffer sizes. I use 256 on mine.

2) Remember to connect ONLY the MIDI cable OUTPUT to the DEQ-2496 MIDI INPUT. Leave the 2496 MIDI OUTPUT disconnected!

3) Try using the opposite MIDI DIN cable connector feeding the 2496 input. I had one person report that his cables were marked the opposite as cables made by most other manufacturers, so it is worth a try.

4) It is possible, that your sound card may not be MIDI compatible. If you can not get step 4 above configured, then you may need to try it on another computer or soundcard.

5) If you have a computer with an embedded soundcard on the motherboard, the MIDI ports may be disabled in your CMOS setup. Reboot your computer and bring up the CMOS setup (F1 or ESC usually) and turn ON the MIDI port.

6) Bill Winkis Jr., KC4PE reported that the following worked for him:
(a) Execute the MIDI transfer to the 2496 even though you may not see anything happening.
(b) Turn the Power off on the 2496
(c) Turn the Power back on and quickly press the "UTILITY" button twice and then watch the display...
(I suspect that pressing and holding the "UTILITY" button while pressing the POWER button ON will accomplish the same thing.)

If the transfer worked, you will see the pages on the 2496 update very quickly and your done!
If it still did not work, then read the Behringer suggestions that follow...

7) USB to MIDI Converters: Paul Christensen, W9AC had a unique problem updating his DEQ2496. He was using a Yamaha USB to Midi converter since he did not have a MIDI port in his computer. The transfer did not work until he increased both of his "Low Level Input / Output Buffer" sizes higher than 256 to a value of 1024. (In MIDI-OX, this can be done by clicking: "Options > Configure Buffers..." and then setting both values to 1024 Buffers.) He reports that once the buffer was set to 1024, the transfer went very quick and was successful. Thanks Paul for this information!

8) Jim Henderson reports that he had to change the buffer delay in the SysEx transfer options to 120 mS. To do this, click: "View" > "SysEx..." > "SysEx" > "Configure..." Then make sure the "Delay After F7:" is checked and set the "MilliSeconds Between Buffers" to a value of "120 mS".

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9) The following are Behringer's suggestions for upgrading and troubleshooting the DEQ2496 software upgrade:

Behringer DEQ2496 Software Upgrade Recomendations:

The DEQ2496 software upgrade is done via MIDI and you will need a software package which can transfer Sys Ex files.
(Also ensure that the drivers for the MIDI device are installed correctly).

1) Download the DEQ2496_V1.4 Sys Ex file to your PC.
(eg.- after download, save zip file to desktop - extract to desktop)

2) Connect the DEQ2496 "MIDI in" to the PC interface "MIDI out".

3) Select "utilitites" menu in DEQ2496 and go to page 2. Turn everything off except "receive Sys Ex dump"

4) Open you MIDI sequencer software (or a MIDI tool like MIDI Ox) and select activity "send Sys Ex file"
You should be presented with some form of browser window to locate the correct sys ex file.

5) Hit "OK" to confirm. The DEQ2496 display will show "overwriting block xy / " and a file transfer progress window is displayed by the pc.
After a while... the update is complete.

6) To initiate the new firmware restart the DEQ2496
(I performed a complete reset, but this shouldn't be necessary).



Behringer DEQ2496 Software Upgrade Troubleshooting Data:

1) Make sure you only have one MIDI cable connected from the output of MIDI OX (PC) to the DEQ MIDI IN.

2) Make sure you do not have any "filters" (e.g. "running status", "sysex", etc.) set on your MIDI interface or MIDI OX (default on MIDI OX should be fine). Also make sure no "midi time stamping" is being used.

3) If the operation is not completed after ensuring the above steps, it may be necessary to adjust the buffer settings in MIDI OX, by going to Options, and choosing Configuration Buffers. This may require some experimentation to find the right settings...

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If all else fails, contact Behringer customer support at: (425) 672-0816.

If you have solved a MIDI transfer problem that was not mentioned on this page, please contact me with your problem and solution so that I can document it here for others.

Thanks to K4QKY for providing me with the "MIDI-OX User Forum" URL located at: http://www.midiox.com/cgi/yabb/YaBB.pl - Perhaps you will find an answer to a problem you are having with MIDI-OX.

Many thanks to: KA0KA, K2WS, K4QKY, K8YK, KC4PE and Behringer for their invaluable assistance in providing solutions and their hours of troubleshooting and experimenting to arrive at them.