Jupiter-Inspired Behringer JT Mini Synthesizer Now Shipping

Behringer today announced that the JT Mini, an new analog synth in their Mini format, with a voice inspired by the Roland Jupiter-8.

The synth features a compact form-factor with a streamlined set of controls, a 27-note touch keyboard, analog signal path, arpeggiator and 16-stage motion sequencer.

Behringer JT Mini Intro Video:

Features:

  • Portable analog polyphonic and programmable synthesizer
  • Inspired by the Jupiter synthesizer from the ‘80s
  • 27 touch-sensitive keys
  • Analog signal path based on authentic VCO, VCF and VCA designs
  • VCOs with 4 selectable saw, triangle, square and pulse waveforms
  • Pulse width modulation
  • Vintage multi-mode filter with resonance
  • Filter switchable between 2- and 4-poles for additional sound creation
  • Extensive play modes featuring poly, unison and arpeggiator
  • 16-step motion sequencer with 8 memory slots and recording of knob movements
  • LFO with saw, triangle, square and random waves for vibrato, tremolo and wah-wah effects
  • Voltage Controller Amplifier with a dedicated ADSR envelope
  • USB Type C allows powering via smartphone, power bank or computer
  • Sync Input and Output to synchronize with other synthesizers or drum machines
  • Comprehensive MIDI implementation (including NRPN/CC control of all parameters and bulk load/save)

Note: While Behringer describes the JT Mini as a polyphonic synth, this appears to be a paraphonic design, meaning that it lets you play more than one note with the three oscillators, but it does not give you a complete synthesis voice per note if you do this.

Pricing and Availability:

The Behringer JT Mini is now shipping from the factory, with a street price of $99 USD. Note that it has typically been taking a month or so for their shipping gear to be available at retailers.

51 thoughts on “Jupiter-Inspired Behringer JT Mini Synthesizer Now Shipping”

    1. The Hirotribe looks interesting even more so as a groovebox designed by the guy who made the MS-20 and Monotribe. Im not crazy about the touch keybed and form factor, a boxy form with buttons wouldve been better but have enev touched the thing so dunno.
      Funny the comments on the Hirotribe talk about Behringer 2600 and RD9 as vaporware and how thats a plan, etc. The things that change in a couple years.

    1. yup, they’re also putting TRS jacks on the Micro’s now too. credit to the open innovation process for reflecting customers needs.

      it’s also substantially larger than 3 inches.

        1. they do, not enough folks complained the first time around, if any. open innovation only really works if folks contribute in timely fashion. once production starts – nothing stops it except an internal disruption. no company responds to every customer complaint.

          1. Behringer doesn’t listen to its user base. B gear is basically a scam, a rip off, a placebo.

            It’s all marketing bs and ########################

            2. Glad the Behringer products I own weren’t scams then. And I own a Behringer 8-track mixing board with effects, a Poly-D as well as a Behringer Edge. In my experience-based opinion, the only scam here is from anti-Behringer trolls.

              Keep-em coming Behringer!!

              1. Behringer’s products aren’t really scams – Behringer just cuts corners to make their gear cheap to manufacturer, and they do it in places that aren’t obvious to noobs.

                Behringer’s market is people that aren’t that experienced, and people that want a deal that’s too good to be true.

                I’ve owned two Behringer mixers, and at the store, they looked like they were built industructably. Certainly just as good as the mixers that cost a little more, but looked the same.

                Both of my Behringer mixers got noisy very quickly and had multiple channels fail. It’s because they use cheap pots, switches and controls. I spent close to a thousand dollars on mixers I had to trash, because they were too noisy to use for recording and too unreliable to use for performance.

                Anybody that’s had to deal with Behringer gear failing – and lots of people have – knows that the people you dismiss as “anti-Behringer trolls” are just people who gave Behringer their hard-earned cash and feel like they got ripped off.

                And when you do this, you look really ignorant. Anybody that knows ANYTHING about music gear knows that Behringer cuts corners. If the deal is looks too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

                Noobs are going to list all the Behringer synths that they’ve bought and explain how reliable they are. Good for you – but ANYBODY can see where Berhinger cheaps out with their gear, so you might as well tattoo ‘noob’ on your head.

    1. “VCOs with 4 selectable saw, triangle, square and pulse waveforms
      Pulse width modulation”

      I wish my Volca Keys had that, I might actually get more than 3 different useful sounds out of it.

      1. If you can’t get more than three useful sounds out of the Volca Keys it’s not the Volca’s fault. Maybe just not the machine for you?

      1. Well, 99% of Roland synths nowadays are a VSTs inside a midi controller. However have to admit their strategy is pretty great: mass produce the same brain (closed source raspberry pi), cook in the VST in a ROM and just produce the classic looking MIDI controller to map VST 1:1.
        For OOB guys get the Roland with the most VSTs cooked in and for ITB rent Roland Cloud… or buy the Roland VST version from Arturia, Cherry Audio, D16..

        1. True… but at $399.00, the SH-4d is a pretty amazing, multi-engine VST in a box. Its almost like having five pre-update Arturia MiniFreaks. I own one of those too. But back to the Roland SH-4d… I use it all the time and it has made many appearances on several tracks on my YT channel… and I assume eventual album release. I make IDM, breakcore, and morose post-goth/post-industrial stuff.

          https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCRpfaulozs95i_2OmtCf7gA

          There’s even a few videos where Behringer stuff makes appearances. In my latest, we started using the Twisted Electrons Blast-Beats. I mention all of this to serve as evidence that I do actually use these devices… and they all have their issues… and strengths. Behringer’s number one strength is that their machines sound great, for very little $$$. And I am not made of money.. so affordability matters!!

      2. Have you tried the little Roland S-1 synth? It absolutely blows this cheap junk out of the water. Great sound, built in FX and real 4-voice polyphony. The T-8 drum machine is equally clever and includes a TB-303 style bassline synth.

        1. Roland S1 is indeed a very enjoyable, good sounding synth. Well made and versatile.

          S1 is a real instrument in a tiny size.

          This feels and sounds like a toy, hence the price.

  5. I always squirm a little over mini-synths as too toy-like, but every synth is a toy to some extent. Not everyone starts from the same place. I was lucky. I began with a piano, a Minimoog and a couple of Prophets. That’s probably why I loosely dismiss pico-synths like this.

    The thing is, if these had appeared then, I probably would have jumped on the bandwagon. Basically, those who buy ‘toy’ synths will either enjoy them as a casual hobby and leave it at that or get restless and go for something better. Either way, playing music is vastly superior to recreational heroin or hunting humans for sport. :O

    1. I agree with that but plenty people hook this up to some bigger midi controller or sequencer. Behringer knows this since they produce plenty desktop form factor synths.

  6. That’s a lot of synth for under a buck. I was tempted by their Pro VS but felt like they tried to squeeze too much into a small form factor and that I might spend more time pushing rubber buttons than tweaking knobs. This is more basic and feature-limited, but the design feels very balanced and immediate, and the sounds in the demo video are good. It’s like a Model D that you can put in your pocket.

    The only thing I don’t like is that you have to use the headphone socket for audio output, so there is probably some loss of dynamic range. But at this prize and convenient size, I can’t complain. Take my money.

  7. I think you’re looking at it the wrong way. This might be an entry-level device for some people but it seems like a quality analog monosynth with very reduced size and price. I have a bunch of full size synths/ sequencers/ samplers drum machines, but I still like my Korg Monotron even though it is ridiculously basic. If you like the sound, having a bunch of bread-and-butter tones that you can dial in from the front panel without even looking seems like an obvious win to me. I love synths that do one thing really well.

  8. Hey Look it’s Beheringertopia again but seriously Synthhead have you considered just making a tab or a kind of extension / affiliate link to their social media feed so it’s more direct, you can just cut the need to copy and paste their propaganda. I mean product description. Or how about one post a week with all of their releases and super clever product videos in one post! Fine, I’ll just make my own blog and it will be better one day. (Somebody was gonna say that)
    And for those of you who are gonna white knight here and attack me I’m an avid fan of this blog and Synthhead and team and I reserve the right to criticize respectfully (albeit with sometimes hilarious sarcasm) because discourse is important.

    2. It’s a synth blog reporting on new synths being released. Oh no, the humanity. Good luck with the Behringerless blog. For synth afficionados whose precious feelings are hurt every time they read the word “Behringer”. May I suggest the name “Snobtopia”? You could dedicate a special altar to Teenage-Engineering-worshipping, and a weekly item explaining why anyone with a rig smaller or cheaper than Colin Benders is an inferior being.

      And because my message might actually be read as I meant it, I’m going to claim it’s sarcasm, and hilarious sarcasm at that.

    4. Oh c’mon 🙂 Not a knight and not even that much white (debatable) – It’s not like B isn’t flooding the market w/products, is it? What should this blog do, pass them under silence?

    5. All websites post about consumer goods the same way: 1) post when product is planned/announced, 2) post when product is released along some sort of review or first impressions 3) post about updates and/or controversy. Eventually product reach EOL and is forgotten away and no more posts. Rinse and repeat.

      Be it the Polybrute, Kontrol MK3, Proton, Prophet X, some module, a pedal whatever it is the same cadence. Only thing is that Behringer is releasing plenty hardware that fill the criteria of announcement, release/review, update/controversy, EOL.
      “Propaganda” is an incorrect term when the product actually exist, can be bought and can be compared as objectively as possible by third parties on YouTube, peers or in store by yourself.

      What I do find very cringe and very forced is the usual synth YouTuber orchestrated video release when a product NDA lift and its time to publish the already produced video to hype to oblivion. “OMG! THATS THE SYNTH EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT! DERP DERP!” Bro no, its the one they got paid to make an infomercial with a few non-dealbreaker flaws to make it seem “authentic”…

    6. Being performatively horrified that a synthesizer news blog covers news about products from a manufacturer you don’t like isn’t discourse, it’s just dreary and pointless criticism of a blog for doing the thing that it does – and that people visit it for.

    7. Sigh. It’s a site that reports news about synthesizers and most of that news is about synthesizer related releases and a large number of those releases over the last several years are from the big B. Hate on B all you like but hating on Synthtopia for sharing the news? Meh.

      Thank you, Synthtopia for 1) adding the caveat about “out now” generally meaning “a month or so” and 2) for calling them out on the absolutely BS spec that device is polyphonic. B has made a ton of money by inflating/lying about their specs since their very beginning. They’ve been making synths for years; there’s no way that was a typo. It’s a flat out lie.

    8. i thought we found more horrible things to complain about elsewhere… guess not.

      i like these little guys. you can tuck them inside the 3-octave flip-tops, midi thru them in, and instant paraphonic layering!

    9. It’s interesting that you can tell someones age on-line when they use old internet terms like “white knight” with entirely the wrong meaning and completely out of context

  10. For under a 1’er , this IS pretty impressive…. Say what you like about B’s business ethics, BUT I am sure that many of the next generation of electronic musicians will start on these , and that they’ll sell by the bucketload….

    I”ll be interested to see what’s next in this form factor.

  11. Ppl call behringer down. But they do plenty of unique stuff too as well as ther knockoffs ( I notice when anybody else does it. It’s a clone…when behringer do it…its a knock off!). There digital mixers are brilliant. The ddx3216 was a bit noisy but it was the first effort. All these haters don’t have to buy there stuff….or even like it…its a option. And for as much as there cheap…other companies are charging too much. There model D is 200odd quid. There’s no way a moog modelD costs 2200 to make. 2000quid more for a wood case and small keyboard.11 times the price. All companies have the same manufacturer power and can all go to China or wherever and have there products built. Ppl forget all the components are made there anyways.
    At the end of the day….I know gear heads who have it all….Jupiter x Thru to korg micro etc and I know ppl with a fully 90% behringer studio….guess whose more productive. Its like anything. Ain’t what u got its what u do with it.

    1. “Ain’t what u got its what u do with it.”

      And we have yet to see anybody doing anything musicically interesting with Behringer gear.

      I think musicians generally would rather spend a little more and get a nice instrument, but collectors and hobbyists are all over this cheap stuff.

  12. Oh. I’ve got a jt400 with a 3rd party editor that was 7euro. a pro 1. 2 autocoms and 2 quad gates and had mixers in the past. I’ve now a allen and heath. The gates are used for drum mics and are transparent and do there job. Same with the autocoms. The pro 1 is fantastic and cost 150 quid. Sequential circuits version would cost a fortune and I borrowed one. It was noisy and always out of tune and struggled with the cv midi converter I was using. The jt4000 since I got the software acts like a vst and is literally plug in and play and forget about. Has its own, noise free channel on my desk. 60 quid….bargain.

  13. And behringer business model is nowhere as evil as apple has become. Last mac I bought was a mac Pro 1.1 dual dual 2.66mhz Intel at 2700pound!!! To buy a modern equivalent would cost beyond my budget and be revised and unable to update in 5 years. My mirror door dual G4 was upto date for 10 years. Apples business ethics are terrible now. And no body ever called Atari a apple knock off. Though it was a Motorola 68030 clone.

    1. You can get a Mac Mini that completely blows away what you’ve got – and be able to expect 7 years of support/updates – for $600.

      Anybody that thinks Apple’s ripping you off isn’t paying attention to their product line.

  14. Kinda funny to me that it doesn’t have presets. When the J8 was originally released, patch storage was kinda the biggest deal. These days, when a 1TB USB stick costs less than a haircut and you could probably store every possible permutation of this synth at crazy high resolution on a 1GB USB stick… yeah, kinda funny.

    Best thing they bit from the Volca Keys is the the “Flux” mode (I’m assuming that’s what ‘freestyle’ means anyway). Wish all Volcas had that. Alas, it seems to be missing all of the more interesting voice modes from the VK.

      1. The memory is for the sequencer patterns I think. I doubt you will have patch storage for a number of reasons, so you’ll either have to di it via MIDI or get used to dialing in your favorite sounds. Not that that’s a bad thing.

      2. It does not save patches. It has ten sequence memory slots but those don’t save the sounds with them (just like the still-in-production Volcas they’re unashamedly ripping off).

        The thing costs $99 bucks. I’m not complaining about lack of patch storage. Was just noting that the lack of it is a little funny considering how big a deal patch storage/recall was for original Jupiter-8 buyers (and how cheap memory is these days vs them days).

  15. The word on the street that I heard is next up beheringer is gonna make a new smaller version of these that can fit into a gumball machine and cost 79 cents so small children can finally escape the yoke of expensive moog synths and have access to music making gear. If you think about it moog is gatekeeping the scene for under 10 year olds and this is really democricizing the next generation of tikes and getting synths into the hands of future artists.

  16. I can’t wait for this to be available in the States. But I still gotta pick up the Pro VS Mini. Eventually, I want to use my wife’s MPC to sequence an ensemble of mini synths from Behringer, and maybe a few Korg Volcas for good measure. Shit… these are cheaper than many plug-ins for the MPC. Hopefully, changing/assigning midi is as easy on these Behringer minis as it is on the Volcas.

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