Behringer has announced that its Kobol Expander – a knockoff of the original French synth module from 1979 – is now shipping.
The Behringer Kobol Expander is an analog semi-modular synth, in Eurorack format, that features 2 VCOs and a 4-pole VCF. The original has been described as ‘the French Minimoog’.
Features:
- Analog duophonic synthesizer with 2 VCOs and 7 morphing waveforms
- Based on “Kobol Expander” circuitry from the ‘70s
- Semi-modular design requires no patching for immediate performance
- Pure analog signal path based on authentic VCO, VCF and VCA designs
- Dual oscillators with 7 waveforms, oscillator sync and pulse width modulation
- Unique 4-pole VCF design for natural saturation only found in ”Kobol” synthesizers
- Analog LFO with 2 selectable waveforms and multiple destinations for advanced sound creation
- Additional noise generator expands waveform generation
- Oscillator sync
- 32 patch points for modular connection and integration with external equipment
- 31 controls give you direct access to parameters
- External audio input for processing external sound sources
- Complete Eurorack solution – main module can be transferred to a standard Eurorack case
- 16-voice Poly Chain allows combining multiple synthesizers for up to 16 voice polyphony
- MIDI support with MIDI channel and Voice Priority selection
Pricing and Availability:
The Behringer Kobol Expander is shipping now, priced at $199 USD.
Very nice, pre-ordered a couple of these
ditto. really looking forward to CV envelopes with key tracking. yum! saving a spot for Kobol and Poly Kobol too.
Yes, this is a nice release. Ordered — will pair well with the Polivoks.
Another boring copy of a 40-year old monosynth?
Wake me up when Behringer does something original or interesting.
deepmind
Neutron as well. Great little monosynth with a nice filter and cool waveshape modulation.
This came out 7 years ago, and the Neutron 5 years ago.
Fair enough, but there’s been a lot of disruption with chip shortages and COVID and such. I’m looking forward to the Proton very much.
~7000 € for the original….a lot for something supposedly boring…..thanks Behringer for recreating a classic.
I guess you can empty glass of sleeping pills, because the race is not over!
Buy 8 of these, and for 1600 bucks you’ll get boring a copy of PolyKobol, a 40-year old polysynth.
LOL. Have you seen how much $$$$ decades old polysynths go for on Reverb?
Considering that there were only about 200 Kobols produced, with only around 50 surviving, this seems like it fits the interesting category. Sorry, Do you have one from the 70s??? I don’t…
“Wavefolding”? “A Broken Flame”? Hilariously clueless
man im about to fill a whole room with behringer synths
stay asleep, haters … nobody cares about you
Wow! Another knockoff of an ancient design that didn’t sell when it was brand new! The same old sound! Primordial feature set!
Gamechanger!
Also, you morons: The Depeche Mode album title was “A Broken Frame” not “flame”. So quit pretending you know anything about what was happening back in the day.
Wow! Another knockoff of an ancient design that didn’t sell when it was brand new! The same old sound! Primordial feature set! Gamechanger!
Also: The Depeche Mode album title was “A Broken Frame” not “flame”. So quit pretending you know anything about what was happening back in the day.
Is it known whether Behringer will actually release a Polykobol?
RSF PolyKobol II: that would be interesting…I know it would be more expensive …that’s why we don’t see big synths coming from Behringer…not Behringer bashing btw…it’s just that would exite me.
i have the PolyKobol on my list but for $199 it is easy to pull the trigger
Why don’t they just build a new Deepmind; expanding the polyphony and updating the interface program? Heck, maybe they could go for it all and create an analog workstation.
RSF Kobol II 8 voice poly synth is much more interesting. Probably to expensive for Behringer if they want to make any profit.
Posted something…didn’t appear. Waited till the next day…still nothing there. Now I’ve 2 comments with mostly the same content…I’m not sure what’s going on…