Behringer Intros Four LFO Eurorack Module, A Knockoff Of The XAOC Batumi

Behringer has introduced a new Eurorack module, the Four LFO.

The Four LFO appears to be a knockoff of the XOAC Batumi, which is a fully voltage-controlled, quadruple digital LFO module that offers some unique features.

Key features appear to be the same as the Batumi:

  • Four voltage controlled LFOs
  • Free, quadrature, phase and divide modes
  • Assignable waveform outputs
  • Assignable reset/tap tempo inputs

The Behringer version appears to be a fairly straight copy, but it looks like it combines the features of the Batumi and the Batumi expander module, Poti.

XAOC shared this response via Facebook:

“To all the pathetic parasites around: imitation is the highest form of flattery…”

Details on pricing and availability are to be announced.

69 thoughts on “Behringer Intros Four LFO Eurorack Module, A Knockoff Of The XAOC Batumi”

      1. How “original” is an LFO or 4 of them, exactly? ^^
        this looks like a lot of fun together with the Behringer Roland clone modules.

        2. If this is so unoriginal, why did B steal the feature set AND the user interface AND the front panel symbols from Batumi? They could easily make their own product, yet they decided to rip off something that exists. Please show me another LFO on the market that offers those dependent functions like tap-tempo, frequency division, phase modulation, and all that with 12 waveforms available at the same time.

          1. The whining and whinging about Behringer is as original as plants in eurorack youtube videos, maths in your rack, youtube vids of a eurorack case playing bland ambient sounds, mutable instruments modules in your rack.

    2. If by whining you mean pointing out that the toxic pirate capitalism this company is once again displaying sucks ass, then I am all for it. Batumi is available and affordable, so there is no reason to clone it other than pure greed.

      1. Like many things that Behringer does, they do them because they can. In a way, Uli is a bit like Donald Trump. The more people whine about what they do, it just reinforces their behavior and they do it more. In Uli’s case, the profits are also an additional incentive, I’m sure! If you really want to stop either of them, whining or commenting on their “bad behavior” is definitely not the way to do it. The only thing that could possibly be better for Behringer right now would be if Uli was indicted in a criminal court for a “non-crime”, like being a copycat.

      2. tbh, i am not a fan of four play or this thing, brains or chaos. I like the other products Behringer has – very easy to modify and gimp up new features without worrying about resale value. I don’t see the value add for me here. mutable stuff I can do my own software mods too, but the Behringer versions are closed, they muck up any color blind accommodation I’ve worked out, and they don’t fit into the existing mutable value stream. the clone market is much better in this regard.

        however, this blog doesn’t really differentiate between this behavior and any other behringer behaviors. as a company it is roundly scorned here except for a few new faces. and that what I’m referring to as whiners. so whine away yall in that category.

        as for toxic capitalism, look *first* to the real serious offenders that are killing people outright; gas, GUNS, oil, GUNS, food GUNS processing, GUNS, drugs, GUNS, etc.. compared to these? Behringer is a fart in the wind. EOM.

      1. So, we can say someone is whining, but we can’t ask what is wrong with someone for not caring that a company is ripping off a very small company…got it.

        1. nothings wrong with *me*. i used to do this stuff for a living. you can’t take it, that’s *your* problem. personally, I’m all for copying everything. none of this stuff is more than trivially original anyway.

          1. if it’s only trivially novel then behringer could add a trivial amount of effort to make this novel in its own right. if you’re correct, then it seems they *want* to make people upset with this clone – good for business. if you’re wrong then they are simply lazy and know they can get away with it.

            personally im leaning edgelords.

        2. goat monster

          It’s not complicated. Criticize things, if you like (Goat monster’s comment is idiotic), but not people (goat monster is an idiot).

          1. That definition is not complicated, but there seems to be a lack of consistency in enforcement, as I see violations of the way it has been defined in other comments, including the response to my post. This page has become a bit of a toxic dumpster fire, so I guess I bid Synthopia adieu. Thank you for the decade plus of useful information.

            1. Thanks for your feedback.

              The OP said “there it is finally. let the whining begin.”

              This isn’t a criticism of a person, but of comments that the OP thinks are whiny.

              We will delete personal attacks when we see them, but do not pre-screen every single comment, only comments from new visitors. This means that some personal attacks will slip through, as on every other site that allows comments.

              The fact that you’ve been engaging on the site for a decade, along with thousands of others, confirms that this approach has worked.

    5. Are you the same John – the boorish dude on facebook talking about how many Marbles you have an offering sage advice on graphic design that is incredibly amusing? You really think IP theft complaints are whining? You really do need to adjust your moral compass. And lay off the advice to Behringer’s design team. It just makes you look sad.

  3. Behringer: 4000+ employees, mega factory in China, $828.5M revenue,
    XAOC: 10+ employees, manufactured in Poland, revenue: It pays the rent.

    I know a bully when I see one.

  4. The batumi is awesome, maybe they’ll clone Instruo in the future. But I do wonder if people are truly upset with Behringer or just virtue signaling, writing these messages from their smartphones which have way more of a dark story than Behringer’s business practices. Good satire comes from anger but I’m not sure anyone is really angry here.

    1. The fact you use a tired cliche phrase like “virtue signalling”, rather than address the actual issue being discussed, means you aren’t a serious candidate for having your questions answered. Your whataboutism trying to swamp this with an unrelated comparison is just sad. The company they ripped off here is small. They reverse engineered a non-open source design and will undercut the people they ripped off. If you can’t see that as something wrong, then I truly feel bad for you.

    2. Xaoc got their share from batumi and from this behringer release also, lots of new people will reach their website 🙂 its time to move on, progress everybody! Whining people also need to progress by sharing their thoughts decently and forget about the resale value of a product they love and should keep. Now they can have a new one cheaper and by a different manufacture. I hope xaoc doesnt cry but take their pencils out to draw batumi2 – attenuverters please and good luck!

      1. You say this as if the design of Batumi was a kind of natural good and Xaoc reached out for it and made money of something everybody is entitled to have. This is entirely wrong. The design is an effect of hard work and investment, and it entirely belongs to Xaoc devices. Nobody else has the right to use it until he or she pays the loyalties. This is called IP for a reason.

  5. this is a so not necessary move by Behringer.. starting to suspect them for using provocation as a method of marketing.. !?

  6. Do you actually make enough revenue to keep advertising these creeps for free? The MI stuff is one thing, but this is pure theft. Please stop promoting it

  7. Every time Behringer does this, it further divides our community from a bunch of people that collectively love synthesizers to two opposing factions.

    I can’t help but wonder why go through this effort? The way they price their products, they’re making basically nothing off of these things. Just enough money to keep themselves in the news cycle and have us talking about them. Whether or not you like Behringer is irrelevant, but here we are talking about them.

    XAOC seems like a pretty cool company that puts everything they got into their products (go read the interview with them in the latest Waveform magazine). B on the other hand can’t even design their own LFO module.. LOL.

    But seriously, read comments on synthtopia before behringer started doing this stuff. We didn’t hate on each other and judge each other based on their purchases. That’s just sad, but here I am contributing to it all..

    1. “But seriously, read comments on synthtopia before behringer started doing this stuff. We didn’t hate on each other and judge each other based on their purchases.”

      See the discussions from the early days of iOS music making. The topic was extremely divisive to readers at that time!

      “Maybe the owner of this site can change the name from Synthtopia to iPadtopia.”

      “I, for one, enjoy hearing about these new music-oriented iPad apps. Almost no other site sees this thing for the major music tool it could prove to be.”

      1. I loved the iOS coverage here when I was doing that kind of thing. it was the only place you could find the cool stuff.

  8. All these posts on various different synth / gear sites.
    All the comments are the same. Behringer Boo, Behringer Bad. Knock off.
    None of them mention that the XOAC Batumi has it’s wave selection and sync toggles on the rear of the panel. Meaning you have to take it out the rack.
    Behringer have put it on the panel face. Much better.

    1. You forgot to say they can be easily put to the front in an elegant way by the Poti expander, and you don’t want to buy it, you are welcomed by Xaoc to diy. So, is this ridiculously trivial “innovation” justifying the IP theft for for you? Grow up.

      1. How is an expander an elegant solution?!
        I have to spend even more and I’m losing rack space! Brilliant!
        I honestly think Behringer’s modules are a good thing for the eurorack community.
        I bought their Crave and Neutron desktops because they were a cheap, semi modular, way of getting into patching etc.
        I’ve since gone on to buy a rack and various different modules from other manufacturers like Mutable Instruments, Crea8audio and smaller local boutique manufacturers.
        That wouldn’t have been possible without dipping my toe in with Behringer’s cheaper gear first.
        The only other Behringer thing I have is their RD-6 drum machine. Again, because it’s so cheap and I can actually take it apart and hack / modify it and in that way learn more about the electronics behind synthesis. So much so that I’m actually going to buy the Erica Synths DIY module series to learn more.
        Again, wouldn’t have happened I didn’t experiment on the cheaper gear first.

        1. > How is an expander an elegant solution?!
          > I have to spend even more and I’m losing rack space! Brilliant!

          No, you don’t have to buy the expander. Xaoc welcome making your own, it is pretty easy. As for the space, you clearly missed that this thing is wider than the original Batumi, they added the space needed for the additional controls. Brilliant, indeed.

          How is Batumi and Poti elegant? If you don’t see the slickness and ergnomics of its design, and prefer the ugly mess with switches and LEDs randomly scattered in this abomination, then perhaps you also need Brains. Luckily your fav “manufacturer” offers some already.

          1. Wow. How to really miss the point.
            Thanks.
            I’m going to chill out now and listen to some traditional koto music.
            Hachidan is calling.

  9. People buy these ist copy stuff, that’s why they build it. That it looks so aweful is even more annoying to my eyes.

  12. Just stop writing about Behringer clones. Music blogs are complicit in their strategy because they write about every single last copy the company churns out.

    1. “Just stop writing about Behringer clones.”

      Love them or hate them, Behringer is newsworthy to synthesists. What company has a larger synth line, at this point?

      2. Here’s the litmus test. Can you write what you honestly think about Behringer products and the company’s business practices without fear of retribution?

        It’s one thing to publish product announcements and quite another to provide meaningful insight into how those products impact the broader industry, small manufacturers and customers.

        I watched what happened to Peter Kirn, simply for having the guts to say “this doesn’t feel right, they should focus on making their own original gear.”

        1. “Can you write what you honestly think about Behringer products and the company’s business practices without fear of retribution?”

          Yes. We write about Behringer products regularly, and we try to accurately cover them, just as we would any company’s products.

          If they introduce a knockoff product, we state that fact. This is something that we don’t see other synth news sites doing, even though making inexpensive copies of other company’s products is Behringer’s stated business model.

          We’ve written about them suing Dave Smith. We’ve written about them attacking Peter Kirn in unprofessional ways.

          It’s not especially insightful to state the Behringer’s business practices are going to be challenging to many synth makers. We feel that we can be insightful by accurately covering the news that is relevant to synthesist.

  13. I’m not really into Eurorack, but the core of this looks like something I might code up in an afternoon on an arduino. In fact the one-lfo version is probably already in the Moog Werkstatt suggestions book (which is great by the way). But possibly I missed something. Can someone explain, why is this so much originality by Xaoc? Must we feel obliged to pay the price of a cheap laptop for it? If people want to cut a few corners on build quality to save money, why not let them choose?

    I do get that it’s very naff to exactly copy the front panel layout of something that someone else makes.

    1. good thought MrMidi – as always!

      IIRC it was the same attitude we all had in the mainframe/minicomputer industry when PC’s appeared – toys, and not the fun kind. however, now look at where it all lead – anyone can be a knucklehead on the internet. used to be we had to have a degree just to bangpath our way around. if we’re were all alive in 50 years, i wonder what the music industry will look like.

      those that stand in the way of progress just get run over.

    2. You are not obliged to pay anything. Besides, there are plenty of multi-LFO modules on the market, some of them are cheaper than Batumi. XAOC don’t hold a monopoly for a quad LFO. However, XAOC hold copyright for the particular design, layout, front panel symbols, and the reach feature set, and most importantly for the hardware design. If you didn’t have time to check this out, Batumi is not just a mere set of four independent LFOs thrown under one panel. It is a very smart and ergonomic setup of interconnected oscillators offering various forms of mutual syncs, frequency division and phase modulation.

      1. Thanks both. I agree that copying the options and the front panel layout is a bit cheap when it’s not hard to think of a new quad LFO design and layout. (The Behringer does improve on it a bit, with the extra switch and more intuitive led positions.)

        I’m not sure what you mean about the hardware design: this is digital so the analog circuitry will just be some a2ds and d2as. They won’t have copied the firmware, that is illegal, they will have written it from scratch, but that is simple enough to do.

        1. You clearly have no idea how these things are constructed. Check the number of ICs inside the Batumi. Copying is illegal? They take what they want without even thinking, because they CAN, because they have millions of $ invested in attorneys. They openly declared to have copied the firmware. That would tell something about the accuracy of your opinions.

          1. I’m looking at the Batumi PCB now. Several ICs, and one is a CoolAudio V2164M. That’s CoolAudio owned by Behringer. That particular chip is a knock-off of SSM2164.

            But sure, anything with several A2Ds would use a few basic opamp ICs too, etc, as this one does. Not sure why that’s a big deal.

            I’m sorry, I misspoke about the firmware, though. Looks like a while back, Matthias Puech rewrote a Batumi firmware from scratch and released it open source. Very nice. That Batumi firmware borrows from other open source projects, MI in particular. Quite possibly, Behringer is borrowing that. Would be really great if Behringer would also open source their firmwares too.

              1. It must be a different XAOC pcb, apologies, google images mixed them up. That one is using CoolAudio V2164M though. https://twitter.com/unexCoder/status/1012722780146749440/photo/1

                What I said about the firmware is 100% correct, though.
                Here’s Matthias Puech:
                https://mqtthiqs.github.io/design.html
                Batumi at the bottom, and the firmware is open source MIT licence at the github link from that page.

                Despite all this, I totally agree that it’s naff to clone/knock-off the front panel like this, as I already said. Also a bit antisocial if they use open source stuff without open-sourcing stuff themselves.

  15. I find it especially funny that musicians, who’s income is relying on the protection of copyrights of their original compositions, are celebrating Behringer products. Behringer could give away their stuff for free, I wouldn’t take it. Also, the stuff is so cheap, there will be no sustainability. If it breaks you can throw it away. The whole business model is so wrong and exactly the opposite of what we need.

    1. Most folks buying music gear aren’t working musicians believe it or not, especially not enough for it to be their main source of income. I’m in that camp, I still want a Batumi though but anyways

    2. Lol do you think every composition is original? All music is stealing from itself. That is how we have genres. Do you think everyone making house or techno just magically decided on a common bpm by chance in isolation from eachother? Everyone is copying. Half the people buying eurorack probably saw some youtube video and thought’i want to do that’ ‘what modules are they using?” Copying. Or no, better yet ‘inspired by’ lol

  16. “Also, the stuff is so cheap, there will be no sustainability. If it breaks you can throw it away.” Am I supposed to see something that is not desirable about this?

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