63 thoughts on “New Behringer Synthesizer Is Polyphonic (Sneak Preview)

  1. Polyphonic, full size keys, DCO’s, analog & it looks good – I’m skeptical about Behringer’s quality in general, but count me as interested in this!

    1. ….looks like 4 LEDs turn on in the video at 0:16. So 4 voices, 4-octave with some extra DCO tricks. Now say $ 599 and the picture is complete! 🙂

  2. I think the Behringer quality concerns are unmerited these days. Ever since they took control of overseeing the manufacturing in Asia their reliability has been quite good. To hit a certain price point, most companies are using cheaper components, so perhaps the knobs won’t feel as good as a moog, or the DACs won’t be as clean as the Modal 008, or the FX won’t be as dazzling as an Eventide, but I feel confident they aren’t going to be breaking down on a gig. I still have 2 behringer mixers going on 10 years old that have seen a lot abuse and still work just fine. I expect this to be the poly I thought Arturia would have introduced last year instead of the maxibrute. And like the bass station 2, minilogue, minibrute, and subphatty, I will definitely be buying one.

    1. I have to disagree on the quality issue.

      I’ve had two Behringer mixers and both seemed like great deals, but they were both noisy and had channels go out on them. And a lot of their stuff, like their pedals, is built to be landfill.

      People call out things like their X32 mixer and argue that they’ve changed and they’re building great stuff. No – they’re building a $2,000 mixer that’s built like a $2,000 mixer should be built, and their cheap stuff is still of low quality.

      So I’ll be very interested to see how the pricing and quality plays out on this. If they are smart, they’ll aim for the high end on both of these, so they can establish themselves as a legitimate synth manufacture.

      1. you owned old behringer gear, new stuff is infinitely better quality. their umc interfaces are very good. x32’s and xairs are everywhere and seem to work just fine.

        1. Think you totally missed his point. Yes, the X32s and XRs seem to be doing quite well but they’re priced pretty much how gear that works well should be priced. It’s very different than 1/3 price guitar pedals and mixers and rack units.

          Will be interesting to see where this lands. We don’t need more landfill so hopefully they price it in such a way that allows them to keep the quality up yet be competitive with the Minilogue (particularly if it is indeed 4 voices).

    2. I think quality-control concerns are still warranted with Behringer.

      Behringer had a period where their quality control was terrible– there was easy room for improvement. Now, it seems they have made noticeable improvements with a few of their products. But we can’t make a blanket statement that ‘all’s well’. Any potential Behringer customer would be well advised to do some homework (check reviews, etc) and make sure you check the seller’s return policy.

      I do hope that they are being thorough with their design and component specs on new products, especially this one. I will continue to hold appropriately low expectations, but will judge on a case-by-case basis.

      Having said all that, I should say that I’ve been very disappointed with poor quality control from Mackie, as well as Roland and Akai, too. I’ve seen some shoddy builds from those companies as well.

    1. While it looks like a Juno, and has quite a few Roland style parameters (LFO Delay etc.) This sounds noting like a Juno to my ears. To me, Juno’s have a very noticable tonal character. The Oscillators and Filter on these demo’s seem to be very different. I think the similarities end with the panel layout and the look. I’m still very interested because the Juno has a great form factor and is a joy to use. I think it would be great to have that form factor with a new and unique tonal palette.

  3. The paint work looks quite Juno 106-ish. My guess is like Fred’s, a Junoesque Poly with a few new twists. Price… maybe in the Behringer range of $800USD? They’ll have to compete with the Minilogue if it’s in that range. I just got a used Mopho x4 and I’m finding it the perfect size/functionality for my gig needs. Nice and small with full size keys. This looks like it has that in mind too. Although, I kind of like that bit of extra space on the tops of my Juno 106 and Mopho x4. Perfect places for Strymon pedals, small tabletops, usb DAC, or other things. Interesting that Behringer has gone this direction. I wonder if they’ll jump on the eurorack wagon…

  4. I believe the camera angle was on purpose as it only shows 4 LEDs. They want you to believe there are six voices but it wouldn’t surprise me if they went all the way to eight. You can cram more DCO’s than VCO’s into a synthesizer

  5. I know with the layout everyone is thinking juno but I am kind of wondering with the poly unison slider if it takes after the mono poly

  6. Color me officially interested. Multiple DCOs, LFOs, polyphonic voices (at least 4, possibly more?), nice little touches like wooden ends…

    Not to mention that the sound is actually quite nice.

    Depending upon the price, this could be a killer in the market.

  7. The quality of a synth is usually, inversely proportional to the number of teasers to promote its launch on the market…
    We’re at the third one…. It seems a bad thing

    1. How? This is a bigger synth with more controls, has full-size keys and, based on Youtube quality audio demos, has better sounding filters.

  8. I wonder if the Behringer announcement has anything to do with the recent announcement that Curtis chips are back in production.

  9. Sounds really good. Reminds me a bit of my old Jupiter 6, in terms of the filter. If this does six voices, I’m in. It captures the Roland vibe for me, in sound and functionality.

  10. I wish it didn’t have presets, no-one doesn’t even seem to be interested in this feature nowadays. Otherwise looks promising!

    1. I disagree, presets are quite useful for many musicians as a get up and go starting point and especially loved when they can be user defined.

      1. Presets are also useful for those of us who actually finish songs/albums and do a crazy thing called ‘playing live’. But sure, if listening to never finished material and/or watching a band take two minutes between songs to dial in sounds is your thing, knock your self out.

        1. I get that, but usually no presets mean more fun. This synth seems relatively simple and it probably hasn’t got mod matrix. So making sounds up should be quite easy. If someone wants to play just presets then making a sampler instrument out of any patch on a synthesizer and playing it from a sampler on a computer would make more sense – at least on stage.

          1. I do typically end up sampling my analogs if I’m doing my normal live setup, partly because of practical moving and space concerns, but also because I won’t gig the vintage stuff. But even in the studio being able to call up a preset is nothing I’m willing to give up. I have to do music in little chunks and am always coming up with a new line, or variation on a line and on the non-preset machines I end up keeping that one sound for ages because I don’t want to lose the subtlety of what I’ve created and consequently that synth ends up being under utilized. I’m 100% a midi guy and have little interest or ability in warping audio.
            Plus presets can get you to think about an instrument in a way that might not be readily apparent. Having had some pieces for 30+ years one can pigeon hole a synth to just doing a specific type of sound. A good mix is nice, I’m all about creating my own sounds but not ashamed to use, at the very least to start, with a preset.

            1. Also being a midi guy I have also tried to rely on presets. But opening a few year old project with a preset written down it doesn’t always sound the same anymore. Quite often it has sounded even something totally different. That’s why I always record everything now and care less about presets. But synthesizers are different, some work totally well with presets, some don’t.

              1. Even preset recall only works for a couple of months while you try to cobble together the time to finish a tune… presets are insanely useful.

                PS. Sysex dumps are the long term way if your sequencer supports them.

  11. Teaser’s are annoying, but I think Behringer has done a pretty good job of getting people talking.

    I am eager to find out how many voices this synth has. Six is a great number in my opinion. 4 voices sometimes feels too few. Sometimes my humble Juno Alpha 2 gets played more than my Analog Keys when I need the voices.

  12. Considering that they are revealing one video teaser per week, on 26th they are going to launch the product. Am I right?

  13. yes polyphonic!!! f&%#k Arturia for making great synths but lacking customer service….hooray for great company Behringer for making this (and me when I buy one)

  14. From what I know so far: it seems a very very good synth. Such as – that this is being made by Midas, that it’s a passion project for Behringer, that it’s poly, that it has some interesting sonic features, it sounds good, it has a large enough keyboard , and that Behringer tend to produce tools at a lower price point.
    If this thing is around the same price point as the Korg then it’s a winner.

    Lets hope this is the last “teaser” though, come on. Tell me specs, price and release date.

  15. I will never understand this. Monophonic or 4 voice poly in 2016. What can you do with such a kind of limitation even though the sound quality is good

  16. How many voices? For some reason I get the feeling they have choosen those irritating 4 voices – which won’t let you play the instrument as a polyphonic synth in the end anyway – since you can’t change chords without destroing the previous one.

  17. Why guess? Wait until it actually exists as a product and THEN we’ll know who Behringer stole the design from.

  18. I had the Tube Compressor rack unit a while back. I could hardly tell if it did anything at all except distort the signal if I attempted to push it.

    I still use the Truth monitors and the small Euro mixer. I swore off all Behringer unless it was strictly a simple function solved, ie, direct box or other trifle.

    I want this synth only to get away from relying on VST instruments. I want the board to be fully midi programmable though, so I can get my fav VST’s in on tracks and have one board on my desk. ( I really will never ditch VST)

    Also, lets hope it has some sort of CV control…..(is that possible on a poly?)

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