Behringer Pro VS Mini Synthesizer First Look

Behringer recently introduced the Pro VS Mini synthesizer, a new synth that’s inspired by the classic Sequential Circuits Prophet VS Digital Vector Synthesizer.

Today they shared a video, featuring synthesist Clemens Wenners demonstrating the sound of the new synth.

The PRO VS is a polyphonic 4-voice hybrid vector synthesizer, modeled on the Prophet VS. It features 127 wave tables, 32 presets plus sequencer, arpeggiator, and display with oscilloscope.

It’s less of a direct copy than some of Behringer’s other synths, instead using classic vector synthesis as the sound engine for a mini-synth, with a form factor that’s similar to Korg’s volca series.

Pricing and Availability

Availability is to be announced. Pricing is expected to be $99 USD.

55 thoughts on “Behringer Pro VS Mini Synthesizer First Look”

  5. Pretty nice demo with some classic tones. I think there’s plenty of reverb applied to it, not really complaining, it’s period accurate, but nice reverb can make any sound source sound nice.

  7. Makes a great stocking stuffer for the synth nut in your life (oh wait, that’s you). Is it considered bad form to stuff your own Christmas stocking?

  8. Uli Behringer’s poor conduct and behaviour is well documented however there are parallels between Music Tribe and Amazon business model. Granted Amazon still sells products made by others, however they are increasingly encroaching on the very brands they carry, by copying their designs and using their vast and limitless purchasing power by undercutting these very brands and now selling their own Amazon branded products and undercutting the competition. Amazon’s practices are well documented as well.

    And whilst the revenue and prowess of these two companies are not comparable, their effects are however.

    One has to wonder how this will affect the industry over the years, as companies must now determine the cost of a behemoth like Behringer waiting to be able to legally and at times illegally infringe on their designs and intellectual properties.

    From what I understand, that have access to Access Virus’ source code and they can easily produce a synth with nominal changes or even a simple revision of the code and call it their own.

    Food for thought…..

    1. It’s the same with grocery stores. When you go grocery shopping, do you buy only name brand products, or do you also purchase (or only purchase) the in-store generic version of name brand products.

        1. Grocery store own-brands very often copy the design and shape of the packaging of expensive products, often half the price. Maybe it doesn’t happen in all countries, but I’ve actually fallen for it once or twice.

          1. Grocery stores often contract their big sellers to produce the best selling product under the Grocery stores private brand. The best example of this is Costco’s Kirkland brand. Only the very best sellers of products Costco carries get the opportunity to produce, white or private label as its called, for Cotco’s Kirkland brand. On that note, Check out this song about Costco I wrote one time at the Apple Kiosk at my Local Costco. Written/Recorded live on an apple ipad 2. https://damnrightmusic.bandcamp.com/track/standing-in-a-costco

        2. It’s a analogy. A better example would have used cars, TVs, cell phones or any other branded electronics. All of these products are produced in a similar manner to Behringer synths – that never seems to raise an eyebrow here. Lots of people here own Korg, Yamaha and Roland gear. All of whom were fined in court over a price fixing racket. You won’t see that mentioned here either

          Somehow it’s ok to own some types of mass produced consumer electronics but not others.

          1. It was posted here about Yamaha, many was against it but how is that related? This is also a bad analogy… BTW, In USA its perfectly legal (What you call MAP) but again, bad analogy.

            Let’s ignore for a second the history and the contribution of the three brands you mentioned compered to zero (or minus) of beringer,

            I remember they sue “Dave Smith” for a quarter of a million just because some employ state the obvious on gearslutz. They lost because the court acknowledge it was about “‘strategic lawsuit against public participation’ (SLAPP) – a lawsuit intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense”.
            If it wasn’t a well establish brand this kind of lawsuit would kill it. They won even when they lost. This is evil practice…

            There was this episode they offer “Robin Whittle” the creator of the classic Devil Fish mod for the 303 a 10k$ and when he refused they did it anyway.

            There was the “Hate Attack On Journalist” Peter Kirn with the anti-Semitic render. Uli apologized and quickly deleted the apology for unknown reasons.

            Exactly a week ago they attacked the costumer who complain about the delays and use the war for PR stunt.

            So they showed countless of times they don’t have any morals and they pissing on all other brands they copy/knockoff “to bring synths for cheap for everyone” This is their biggest bluff..

            So, bad analogy.

      2. No. You’re arguing that creating generic cornflakes is equivalent of reverse engineering an Oberheim OB-X, attempting to register the OBERHEIM trademark and releasing it as your own.

        1. Guys. Mi is fór decades proud And devine Roland 80’&90′ THT AdHd
          ui stuff. Lovely 202, alpha, w30, cm mix, D5, 707,GR09,…707,626 Takes a lot od DUST And space, So as a G.U.S. addict (to memory patch maps in Sysex manuál sec.)
          Later added some Costy Korgs of Volka & Electribe fór much more Simple usability And playability, ALL THEM SPACEY, COSTY, NONPRoFITABLE investments.them need fór as least 16/24 mix Console, outbourd fx…. you know, What I mean, aint?
          Welcome Foregreeners !
          In of age When eltronix instruments:
          Are made of SMT PCBs ! (
          conttra 80′ THTs Aš 707, Juno, 202)
          ,WhereThere Are all:
          32/64bit Soic SMD multilayer PCBs
          /w 32 bits DSPs, And
          AK Japanese DACs from
          Wu-han factory Plant!
          On Gate fór 19- 99 €$£
          Thats IT. !!! IXept IT.?!
          GotDamn big And pricey gear from Japan, US, sweden..
          Léta Behringer Break thé Law, that all synth Are Costy.
          Some Are cheap Aš TI speak And Spell , casios used to be, When money Are priceless .

          Let say Aš paraphrasing Germán FA Minister ,
          After Berlín wall Vought 1989, “.. not great will fór a mamkind if any of all China people Will Wish to have a Volkswagen ”
          to Wish: .. any of these :
          african, Indian, chinesse, philipinesse,
          chile~se childre
          n have a Volks~BE~Ringer
          synth Zwinger,) Is
          A GREAT NEWs Fór
          PLANET & MUSIC !!!

      3. While I understand the comparison, I’m not sure how far it goes. Tech R & D, and design are very expensive, and not part of the name-brand vs store-brand instant mashed potatoes equation.

    2. Still holding down the fort eh? “If everyone would just recycle, the planet would be safe, if we stop buying Amazon, the trees will grow back and Behringer will shrink and dissolve through the power of money and magic”. I used to sell TMNT drawings in grade 3, Garfield in grade 4.

      I’m just spouting a bunch of nonsense just to add some creativity to yet another Behringer post which happens to be full of copy/paste arguments and grievances from previous post. We understand, but the Jehovah’s Witness approach aint working out. Unfortunately, companies gonna company.

      2. Handsome Randy posts a classic straw-man example: Put random and ridiculous arguments in other peoples’ mouths, shoot down those arguments, then put the “It-is-what-it-is” cherry on top.

        Modern3 raises a valid question in a respectful way, well-worth discussing. You don’t like the topic, so you turn around and spray.

    3. Yea Amazon sells its branded batteries and pants. Some other crap like that. No sure how it will negatively affect our world assuming no-name Chinese companies have been doing that for 30+ years. Nothing to think here about. The world is changing to be driven by huge corporations. There is some name for this. This will replace capitalism at some point.

      1. That is hardly an astute observation. Amazon has driven other businesses out of business and industries into consolidation to simply compete. The consumer will surely benefit from the economies of scale, however eventually the ‘monopolies of scale’ will come back to hurt the end user!

        This isn’t about some generic brand from China or any other country undercutting the established brands, this is about a behemoth contracting these very same generic makers and undercutting business far and wide whilst stifling competition and piecemealing innovation.

        Behringer will do what Behringer has always done, yet lets not pretend that this is a good thing, the short gains will be just that short lived.

      2. they actually do it less than they used to – most people here are probably too young to remember the 80s before IP laws really existed but back before that you always had products come immediately to market that were direct copies of jeans, stereos, toys, etc and honestly there was nothing wrong with it. right now certain industries like pharmaceuticals have a short life before all of their IP becomes public domain to create generics and that hasn’t particularly hurt that industry. on the conventional music side you also see – try looking at how many stratocasters and single cuts are out there and has that hurt fender or gibson? The thing people need to remember is that behringer is never going to make your larger manufacturers go away but what it will do is grow the base.

      1. Actually, people do care, conversely, I do not care as much as you may believe as I am not a analogue purist, however having been in the industry for much of my professional life I do care about the state of the industry and the practices employed.

    5. Chicken can be eaten once or twice a month, but it is harmful to health because it contains hormones and antibiotics that affect both the immune system and the brain.

      I wanted to say, don’t take someone else’s care, care will come to you alone.

    1. This is the only one that actually exists. Now they make them, one by one, and see which gets the most likes. Then that one goes into production. Otherwise, the rest dont exist yet 🙂

  10. Big companies are why we have 95% of our goods. One of my sisters said “I hate Wal-Mart.” The other said “Me too, but that’s where the STUFF is.” We’re fortunate to have not only a choice of cars and streaming channels, but synthesizers in a steady stream. I’ve been on that lemming bandwagon for too long to quit now, so I’ll be needing two of these to hang from my nipples for next Mardis Gras. If you’re planning to do it with Micromoogs, see a mental health professional.

  11. I thought this article was on Pro VS mini…I liked the video…but.i guess I ended up in an alternate reality….

    If some of you dislike Behringer then why do you read these reviews….puzzles me….

    I guess I’ll get hate mail now….too bad…too bad….

      1. No problem from me on your criticism….I was just puzzled on why folks continuously drone on about Behringer. …I’m very much aware of all the points brought up…..same ole Same ole…over and over again…

        Peace Out!

      2. Oh your totally allowed to keep spewing your anti-Behringer rhetoric. Just don’t expect the rest of us to take you seriously when you keep spouting the same petty hypocritical arguments over and over.

      3. You are absolutely right, that is the whole point of these forums and comment sections. It is as though Uli thinks by flooding the marketplace with synths, some of which I am certain will be capable, musical, and wonderful tools, some of us will eventually look the other way and forget how he conducts business. I won’t and I have owned Midas mixers!

        The manner in which any business conducts itself should matter, to all of us! Demanding the Behringer, Amazon, or any company or person be better is a good thing.

  13. I’ve got an original Prophet VS and, while it’s now been in storage for a while, I used it as one of my go-to decks for almost two decades.

    Knowing a bit of what the original sounds like, I’d say that the opening ‘Mass’ preset (also used during the break) sounds well like a VS but is a bit thin. However, that’s to be expected. since big Vector patches like this on the original made good use of stacking 8 voices in Unison mode. VS Factory Patch #3, Volkanik, is a really good example of this. However, since the Pro VS Mini is only a 4-voice instrument, this should come as no big surprise. The basic tone and flavor of the original seems to be there, FWIW, at least in this patch.

    The other patches demonstrated here (organ, synth strings) are pretty bread-and-butter generic and could’ve been done on any half-dozen other synths as well as the original VS. So that tells us nothing really new about its capabilities, aside from the fact that the Pro Mini VS can cover those bases. But I’m still cautiously hopeful about this one.

    (Side rant: does anybody else HATE the music genre used for the demo here? Ugh. I was making music all through the 80’s, and nobody I know made or listened to stuff like the lame LA movie soundtrack dreck put out during that time period. Why do people now get nostalgic over a style of music that almost everyone outside of Hollywood producers wouldn’t even listen to back then..? /endrant.)

    1. >Why do people now get nostalgic over a style of music that almost everyone outside of Hollywood producers wouldn’t even listen to back then..?

      Because they were all about 5 years old or not even born when that stuff was being made. It’s the sound of all the classic movies/media of the age when America was #1, and you could play Nintendo in your jammies and your parents could afford a house, two cars, and save for retirement.

      As someone who is of that “Millennial” generation, our future is very dim. We’re downwardly mobile versus our parents, housing is taking up half our paychecks, we’re inundated with the horror show of modern internet/facebook/instagram advertisements, so dipping into the nostalgia that has Tom Cruise making cocktails or whatever crappy 80s action/horror/john hughes movie without having to deal with the new issues is trying to be nostalgic for an era that we never had (eg microgenres like Vaporwave/Synthwave/John Carpenter Soundtrack Wave)

      Granted that’s totally ignorant of what the actual issues the 80s actually had (the crack epidemic, jingoism at the end of the cold war, AIDS freaking everyone out, pop acts like Tiffany) but almost 40 years later it’s easy to just pick and choose the best factors.

  14. No mention of the randomizer function found on the original (2+enter), or whether it will have sysex compatibility with original presets. Answers please, Uli.

  15. Has anybody noticed that with these “minisynths,” they are price-competitive with many softsynths? Me thinks this just might be deliberate. A good idea, I think — assuming that is what they are actually shooting for.

  16. For some of or all of you who don’t know….

    TAIWAN—An escalated or prolonged conflict between Russia and Ukraine could negatively impact Ukraine’s long-term ability to supply the raw material gases neon, argon, krypton, and xenon needed for semiconductor production, according to researchers at TrendForce. Ukraine supplies nearly 70 percent of the world’s neon gas capacity.

    ‘AssemblyMag’

  17. The only thing we should fear of B is that the world will receive more and more good music because more and more people can now buy good music equipment for pocket money. How can we allow this to non-rich people! Below a certain minimum wage it should be forbidden to buy music equipment and make music! And all music equipment should cost at least a month’s wages! Music should remain elitist!

    1. Absolutely nobody is arguing that music gear should be expensive. Some people think that Music Tribe’s business practices are unethical and refuse to buy their products, that’s all. B has pushed the “corksniffer” narrative quite hard, but it’s false. Just because B synths are cheap doesn’t mean that the company and its owners are good.

  18. I don’t have a problem with desktop synths but these are simply too small for my hands. I’m guessing a user is going to have to mount these things to keep them from moving around once MIDI and audio cables are connected to them.

  19. Same issue with me, evileye. Its a lot of why I went for a base of softsynths. Mini-synths like this aren’t meant for touring, but you know some people will cram them all into a home-made case and hope for the best. I admire their bravery, but they should leave room for the bricks they’ll sh*t when one of the cheapo power supplies kacks it. Rack ’em up at home and then leave them in place. They’ll live longer.

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