Behringer VCS3, PRO-16 Cancelled?

It looks like Behringer may be cancelling plans for their EMS VCS3 knockoff and Pro-16 synthesizer.

We’ve seen reports that Sweetwater has cancelled pre-orders for these synths (right):

“A couple of users in the Behringer Facebook group are reporting that their Sweetwater preorders for the Behringer Pro-16 and VCS 3 have been cancelled, allegedly due to discontinued development.”

Behringer has never really officially introduced either of these synths, but they’ve previewed their EMS Synthi VCS3 knockoff previously, and showed the Pro-16 synth at the 2025 NAMM Show.

Because of this, it’s unclear whether there’s an actual change in status on this, or if the lack of clear availability date made it misleading for retailers to be taking pre-orders.

If you know more, or if you’re impacted by these cancellation, let us know in the comments!

 

via reader Marc Martinez

54 thoughts on “Behringer VCS3, PRO-16 Cancelled?”

    1. The only evidence we’ve seen for any of these claims is this ridiculous “trust me bro” text message posted to facebook and reddit

      Hard to believe anyone is giving it any credence whatsoever

      1. I received the same message from my Sweetwater guy — however over on Reddit another purported Sweetwater communication described the ending of these long-term “pre-orders” which where actually just them putting you on a waitlist as being driven by the marketing department at Sweetwater, not any announcements from Behringer.

        Hopefully now that the question is getting some traction the trade sites Behringer will clear things up one way or the other.

      2. My pre order was cancelled (pro-16)but the agent was clear to say he had no information as to whether the synth itself was cancelled.

        1. This is the most rational comment in this whole damn section. Stop that immediately, Caligari!

          We all know this websites section is for wild speculation, flame wars & rant fests.

          Onwards we scroll to our doom.

  5. Hmmm, I think it would be kinda cool of Behringer to annonce, which devices will never see the day light, which they teased in the past…playing with people’s hope is …low… IMO 🙂

  7. This may be a good thing – Behringer has taken on a lot of projects at once, which ends up delaying other instruments that people really want (Jup8, CS, etc). They would be better served focusing on a few releases a year that are well executed. There is also a lot of internal competition on the supply chain side, with many shared components in different models.

    Hopefully, they’ll pick up the VCS3 later. In the meanwhile, there’s the Syntrx.

  8. F**K that’s the one thing I was hanging on for, I’m seriously strapped for cash, but I’ve kept a minor slush fund of at least £600 – £800 for this! Suppose I’ll have to pay my rent or car tax or food now!!!

  9. I think the Pro 16 development is being discontinued to put more development into the Jupiter 8 clone (which probably will be 16 voices if they can do it, but they might settle on less), which is a worthy trade off. The VCS3? I am not sure why.

    1. the pin matrix must be hard to reproduce, it behaves in unexpected ways.
      you stick a pin somewhere unrelated and suddenly the osc pitch drops.
      huh what was that? ^^

  10. I think the problem is the pin matrix module selection… Remember it used pins of varying resistance…. It may seem quite simple in this day and age but even Beringer stated rhey we having problems with it…. We will just wait and see….

    1. I know someone who had worked with an original VCS3 in a studio (or it might have been a Synthi but I wasn’t savvy enough at the time to know there was a difference) and he said the pin matrix was cranky as all hell, and it was nearly impossible to get the same sound twice, and this is when they were properly maintained and working correctly!

      However at the time of release it was cutting edge tech, and nowadays those things are “vintage” (even if they are new recreations) so people did and do put up with it.

      People buying something mass produced in China, even if based on 55 year old technology, aren’t going to be happy with the same lack of reliability, especially the bedroom composers and enthusiasts (no shade, that describes me too) that make up the core of Behringer’s customer base.

      1. Definitely looking to wrap myself in analog polyphony with slow releasing patches.

        That was really the appeal of the Pro-16.

        Nothing wrong with 6 voices, but I do hear them cutoff.

  18. It would have made more sense to re-factor the shape to match their larger desktop format like the K2 and the Pro800 , maybe that would have kept some of the tooling costs down.

  19. Or maybe it’s just Sweetwater. They always have inventory issues and seem to always be the last ones to get anything, and even then, never in abundance. Seems like 9 times out of 10 when I search for synths on Sweetwater, they are either on back order or they simply don’t sell the brand at all. :/

  20. From what i hear they cancelled it because the clone sounded too good.

    I’m just KIDDING! I cut my synth teeth on a Putney back in the early 70a, love them

  24. If they are retiring plans for Vcs3 it’d be nice if they put out a module of what they *could* get going on it, like say an oscillator bank and the patch bay ? . Maybe they are seeing more market priority in other areas though which is always understandable.

    1. i like that idea.
      …I did not get a behringer synth or drumbox yet but I was planning to instabuy the VCS3 on release. such a wild synth.
      maybe the sales of their more pretentious remake boards were dissapointing

      i would have been interested in a desktop muti-timbral jupiter clone too but i was not counting on it

    1. iVCS3, while great, isn’t viable much for live perfomance in which you woul need realtime control on both knobs and pin matrix at same time

  26. Not a big loss. I have rather excellent iVCS3 plugin installed on my iPad and Mac and as good as it is I hardly use it anyway… 😉 Tired of same all, same all old analog reproductions…

    1. As mentioned above, ivcs3 isnt enough to me as i would like to be able to realtime control both knobs and pin matrix at same time, which is only possible on hardware synthi.

  27. So Synthhead you’ve got my username on some kind of permanent hold for approval and is this how you bait me to use another name on the same ip so you can accuse me of spamming and ban me? (Please be direct and spare me the long winded reply of how your censoring software works. )

    1. Chill out dude. Not getting a post shown is hardly the end of the world. If that’s the worst thing to happen all day, that’s a pretty good day.

      It’s their website, they’ll moderate it how they see fit. Don’t like that? You can always build your own casino with blackjack and hookers.

    2. Oh please, get over yourself.
      This site is obviously a labour of love.
      If you’re a regular visitor you’ll see that it doesn’t get updated continuously. The new articles usually appear a day or two apart. Same with the comments.
      My take on this is that Synthead is a person with a life and only updates the website every 24-48 hours.
      If your comments don’t appear instantly, just keep chill.
      In a couple of days they’ll be there.

  29. I’ve always had a suspicion that Behringer might be working on a Synthi AKS, as they are a more portable synth, and would sell better than a Behringer VCX3, it’s the same PBC and Matrix and better than having to put it in a Wooden case, and easier and cheaper to ship because of the smaller footprint.

  31. > Behringer have commented on a recent facebook post that ‘nothing has been cancelled’

    Maybe, but are they actually going to ever sell one?

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