Behringer Brains Reloaded Adds 5 New Modes

Behringer today introduced ‘Brains Reloaded’ – a free firmware update for its Brains Eurorack module that adds 5 new modes.

The Behringer Brains is a clone of the Mutable Instruments Plaits macro oscillator. Plaits uses open source software and hardware licensing, which means that anyone can make a clone, if they follow the requirements of the license.

Mutable Instruments released a Plaits firmware update in December that adds a DX7-compatible 6-Operator FM synth and 7 more synthesis models. The Brains update is different than Mutable’s Plaits update, adding these 5 new modes:

  • Engine One – BX7 is an FM synthesizer that includes 32 classic FM Synth patches. These are compatible with native DX7 patches and can be uploaded via the Behringer SynthTribe application.
  • Engine Two – BASSLINE offers a virtual take on the TD-3, which itself is a knockoff of the iconic Roland TB-303. Controls give you access to distortion, resonance, modulation, and decay.
  • Engine Three – Wave Generator provides a wide range of waveforms, with controls over waveform types, bit crusher, and sample rate.
  • Engine Four – VOX is a synthesized vocal morphing sound engine, with control over formant shift, resonance, and vowel blends.
  • Engine Five – Audio Scope allows you to route any external audio signal into BRAINS V/OCT input, letting you use BRAINS OLED Display as a basic oscilloscope.

The Brains firmware update is available now via the Behringer site.

8 thoughts on “Behringer Brains Reloaded Adds 5 New Modes”

    1. They’re required to by the Plaits license, but they have not followed through, and there’s really no reason to expect that they will.

      1. For people not into open source, and without weighing in on the overall B discussion, the Plaits source code was made available under the MIT license:

        “The MIT License is a permissive free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts only very limited restriction on reuse and has, therefore, high license compatibility. Unlike copyleft software licenses, the MIT License also permits reuse within proprietary software, provided that all copies of the software or its substantial portions include a copy of the terms of the MIT License and also a copyright notice. As of 2020, the MIT License was the most popular software license found in one analysis, continuing from reports in 2015 that the MIT License was the most popular software license on GitHub.”

        https://pichenettes.github.io/mutable-instruments-documentation/modules/plaits/open_source/
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License

        So no, they aren’t in legal terms. At least giving credit where credit is due though… 😐

        1. MI licenses the module using CC BY-SA 3.0, which says that you have to share any derivative works freely, using the same license.

          Behringer has not done this. Have they at least provided proper attribution for the module design to Mutable Instruments?

          1. There is an argument to be made that these engines are not derivative unless they have modified the existing Mutable algorithms. DSP code is more or less the same regardless of what platform it is running on, so it is difficult to push the argument that they are derivative of the platform.

            For an existing real world example, the Korg Prologue line of synthesizers have open source DSP engines in them. Yet Sinevibes has made many proprietary engines, sold them as compiled binaries, and not released the source.

            1. Behringer doing more than necessary? For a company that steals from the competition I wouldn’t argue that these are different.

          2. I stumbled over this dated discussion while enjoying playing with my new Brains module. The MI Hardware and Code have different licenses, as you can see on the pinchenettes github page. For Code (STM32F projects) it is the MIT license, whereas for the Hardware it is cc-by-sa-3.0. The Brains HW is definitely different so I don’t see a violation of the license.
            However, I would have hoped Behringer would have invested as much effort in documentation als Mutable Instruments did.

  2. jert, yes, they do. on the product page, from the beginning.

    want open source? get a Plaits clone. behringer’s the ‘low cost’ vendor – no frills, all thrills.

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