Behringer Plans Entire Line Of Vintage-Inspired Polyphonic Analog Synths

roland-jupiter-8Behringer recently started testing the water to gauge interest in a new line of synths.

So we asked Synthtopia readers what they’d want to see in a Behringer synthesizer, and over 2,500 people weighed in.

Now, Peter Grandl of German language synth site Amazona.de shared an interview with Behringer founder Uli Behringer, and it sounds like the company is planning an entire line of vintage-inspired analog polyphonic synths. 

Behringer Planning A Line Of Vintage-Inspired Polyphonic Analog Synthesizers

uli-behringer“The religious wars regarding analog, digital, and “virtual analog” technologies are known, but, for anyone who hears these synthesizers in direct comparison, the difference in sound is immediately recognizable,” comments Behringer, right. “For me personally, the attraction is in the analog world of sound.”

“We have not been idle in recent years. We have invested a lot of time in the analysis legendary synthesizers from Roland, Korg, Moog, Sequential Circuits, ARP and PPG etc. The Curtis and SSM semiconductors are today no longer available. We have, therefore, invested a lot of time, to replicate these with modern and high quality VCA and OTAs,” adds Behringer. “And now we have finally succeeded. These circuits will now form the basis of our synthesizer.”

“My personal passion is to bring the original and analog synthesizer back to life, but to provide them with modern digital control. We will also focus first on polyphonic sound generation.”

Designed In England

Behringer plans to have the MIDAS team in Manchester, England, led by John Price, design the new synth line. Behringer notes that “Price is among the best analog designers in the world and has over 40 years experience.”

Behringer is early in the development process for their new synth line and expects it to be at least a year before they have their first prototypes completed.

Note: The original interview is in German, and Uli Behringer’s comments appear here in translated form. The full interview is available in full at Amazone.de.

What do you think of Behringer’s plans for a full line of vintage-inspired polyphonic analog synths? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

via SonicState

113 thoughts on “Behringer Plans Entire Line Of Vintage-Inspired Polyphonic Analog Synths”

        1. in another year or two the AIRAs might get some good sounds going, like when they put out their official jupiter model to flagship for the line.

          1. They already have good sounds. They are good products.

            I’m not a fan. I don’t own any. But having heard them all, everything in the Aira range has lots to offer. Only hardened analogue purists will be able to tell – or care for – the difference.

            1. you can tell right away.. it’s not a secret that they are not there yet. it’s not just a matter of it not being ‘exactly’ like an old analog, it’s that it doesnt have the desired impact, like most any VA we have ever heard so far on this earth.

  9. IF…they really do build an analog synth with digital control, and IF it does have the same feel and sound as a vintage analog…and IF the build quality is good, and IF the price is right, I’d be very interested. I had a bad experience recently with a Behringer 1202USB Mixer that had a faulty USB socket, so that left me suspicious of Behinger gear. But if they are serious about a real analog synth, then good luck to them.

    At the very least, this should put further pressure on Roland to get its act together. With Korg re-introducing the ARP Odyssey, and having re-released the MS-20, and with DSI, Novation, Arturia and Moog doing great things with their analog synths, Roland need to really get with the times, and recognise that people want real analog hardware synths – not boxes with lots of flashing lights but little sonic substance (System 1) and then only glorified VSTs of analog gear.

    2. That was a truly awful instrument – had a very ‘Casio-feel’ to it. I played it once in a shop for 5 minutes, and then walked away in disgust.

      1. edm noobs be thumbs-downing those who have heard a VCO i.r.l.

        cheers to behringer and the team! here’s hoping there’s some controller innovations too, like some qunexus/linnstrument style pad(s) on the jupiter8/cs80 beast they’re planning here. here’s hoping the whole line takes off well and they keep it going for years and years!

      2. I liked it a lot in the shop and actually bought one. Took it back 2 days later… not that it sounded bad – it could have been actually quite useful on stage in some situations. The real problem was that it was impossible to edit and the software/hardware on the unit itself was really awfully made. I had Virus TI to compare it with, which felt like lightyears away from Venom. If I’d be critical about Venom’s physical construction then I could as well write a book about how a synth should be built and taking Venom as a very bad example.
        But I guess that when Behringer actually wants to build an instrument and they are aware that instruments are meant to be played with, then they must build a tough one with good components and construction. I wish them all the best 🙂

    3. And the Venom has what to do with Behringer precisely?

      That Behr and M-Audio are “lower tier” manufacturers in many eyes is perhaps the ONLY connection.

      The Venom was decent for its price and can be had cheap providing a lot of synth for the money for those that simply can’t afford better but want a VA in a hardware shell with a keyboard.

      Based on their recent products, I would actually have more faith in Behr producing a decent synth.

  11. Awesome news, I thought by the reaction to their previous press release Behringer would be producing an analog poly at some point & glad they’ve decided to go ahead. Having Midas onboard again is really, really good news, good components & design with interesting feature list is what’s gonna sell:) I can’t wait to see what’s instore for this project but having to wait a year to proto-type is a long wait but hay mite be worth it. I wonder what poly they’ll choose to copy & make a modern version of – emm CS80 or Prophet 5, maybe JP8 or Poly Six, who knows. Anyways I’ll definitely b keeping interest up on developments of this one – Go Behringer blow us away!!!

    1. in the article if you scroll through the pages he mentioned jp8 and cs80 specifically as his general target point. You’ve got to hand it to him for the sheer BALLS of announcing a 16 VCO synth in 2015. It’s people with conviction and executive power like this that the gear industry needs to keep a good idea going, unlike the companies that ‘test the waters’ with small bug-filled gear then scrap the whole idea without ever getting to what people really wanted from the analog gear in the first place.

  12. Arturia and Novation have proven that analog synthesizers can be “reasonably” priced. I have not bought them because they are attached to cheap little keyboards. I hope Behringer gives you a choice…something like the Korg radias system? Slot the Behringer module(s) of your choice into the Behrnger keyboard of your choice.

    1. They’ve demonstrated that you can make cheap analogs by cutting a lot of corners, like making a one oscillator synth out of plastic with a mini keyboard. They’ve proven there’s a market for cheaply made synths, rather than figuring out how to make pro quality synths more affordable. I suspect Behringer will do the same, making a good sounding poly synth and putting it into a Venom-style plastic case.

  13. Seems like they know the market pretty well and want the same things we want.

    Who ever guessed that the next step in analogue synth heaven would be from behringer. Certainly sounds like they’ll win our hearts. But I’d hope to see something in the shops 18 months from now, it sounds like it’ll be double that, in which cas, best to just forget it for now, maybe start putting a little money aside or thinking about bits of the studio to sacrifice.

    1. Uli Behringer confirmed within the article that Behringer has been making preparations before the revival of the analogue synths by for example Arturia. He suggests within the article that Korg for example might have known the preparations by Behringer before introducing their renewed analogue products.

      Amazona.de has done a survey in 2010 with these results (amongst others): http://www.amazona.de/studie-analog-oder-virtuell-analog-hardware-oder-software-alle-antworten/5/

  15. God I hope they don’t cut too many corners. If they don’t, this could be great. I would love to be able to go out onto uncharted territory with a truly new analog polysynth. I hope they take some big risks and try something new.

  18. My fear is that they will do what they have often done in the past, put decent analog clones into cheaply made hardware.

    It’s almost impossible to buy gear now that is made as well as classic 70s and early 80s synths. It’s generally not the circuits, it’s physical hardware that feels like crap and doesn’t give you the same experience as classic gear.

    Moog, DSI and a few boutique makers are a few exceptions. Even Korg’s MS-20 isn’t as classy as it easily could have been.

    So I’d really like to see them step up to the plate and do some gear with classy physical design and construction!

  20. the wave continues.
    back in highschool many MANY years ago i found an old Roland promars, a rhodes, clavinet and a simmons sds-8 drum kit buried behind a gong in a closet in my band class.
    it was my first rig.
    they had been long forgotten.
    that year our band teacher retired from teaching music and our new teacher (my gym teacher) gave me an awesome task…
    our school had been given $5000 to spend on equipment for our classroom.
    my teacher knew NOTHING about the gear i was using and instructed me to take all of the equipment listed above and a massive PA home for the summer.
    i was to “figure the shit out” and research some new gear for what was to become British Columbia’s first electronic studio.
    over the summer we purchased a Roland D-50 and a DX-7.
    it was a massive investment.
    all of this equipment disappeared shortly after i left the school.
    bought by an “independent” dealer who replaced these fine instruments with some shitty samplers, a bad computer music system and some student pianos with cardboard souls. (he took the grand piano as well…. and the fucking gong).

    some years went by and digital synths ruled the world.
    they were expensive and rarely expressive.
    then the boom.
    old synths went up in price and those of us with little (or no) money scrounged what we could for gear.

    Korg released the Prophecy. At a loss. it was a short run.
    the synth was overpriced and monophonic. It fell on deaf ears at a time when manufacturers were obsessed with polyphony and realistic piano and trumpet sounds.

    the prophecy had something that had been missing on “synthesizers” for many years.
    knobs.
    in time knobs were back and, to some degree, companies like Roland made a few interesting and more programmable keyboards.

    it took the Big Four (Roland, Korg, Ensoniq and Yamaha…. i guess alesis is in there too) to fight it out on the “stage synth” market and at last sales just dwindled and the market flattened.

    we lived a long time with black, grey, great sounding but ultimately dull gear.

    in the last 10 years it’s changed.
    i have a few nice analog synths. They’re new (old stuff is too expensive) and reliable.
    they have built in sequencers.
    they’re STEREO!
    i can hook them up and have POLYPHONIC ANALOG SYNTHS!!!

    i have drum machines (digital and analog)
    it’s fucking amazing.
    and every week some company is making cheap, decent, reliable analog (and hybrid synths… those crappy boxes are not without their merits..)
    for us to pick and choose from.
    even modular synthesis is with our low-budget grasp.
    i mean, even Roland seems to have woken up a bit and at LOW COST!!
    quit your bitching and choose what you like.
    play it.

    shut up and make music.

    this is the greatest wave in electronic music equipment HISTORY!

    too much “meh”, ladies and gentlemen.

    I, for one, welcome our new synthesizer-building friends.

    1. That brings back memories of heading to my nearby music store in Adelaide, South Australia after school to play synths. The store owner was good about it, and so I got the chance to play with Minimoog’s, ARPs, classic Rolands, Korgs and Yamaha CS’s range (not the CS-80 sadly). I never had the money to buy them, but it was the beginning of a life-long interest in electronic music, which continues to this day and now has seen me beginning to put together a half-way decent studio – though still some way to go (try explaining to your partner why you need more than just one keyboard!!!). So the chance to play with these instruments again is enticing – and its one of the reasons I am so looking forward to the Korg ARP Odyssey next year.

      But I always regret not buying the vintage analog gear when their prices crashed with the onset of the digital synth period in the 1980s – and if I had a time machine now, my first trip would be to about 1985 to grab some bargains – ARP 2600 going cheap anyone? The vintage analog gear on eBay or from specialised dealer like RL Music s is just too expensive now, so hopefully, with the re-introduction of new generation analog synths, the prices will come down a bit. But in the interim, if companies like Behringer can produce decent analog polysynths for reasonable prices, then that is a good thing, and marks to decline of digital VA synths.

  25. I’ve been waiting for an analog poly. Only behringer gear I’ve ever bought were some euro live powered speakers. They both blew out the first time I used them so I’ve been wary of behringer ever since. This could be really good though. I’m excited.

  26. Did he win the Powerball? Who is fronting the capital for all this? A project like this would require a huge startup cost with the prospect of a rather limited market, at best. This isn’t like cell phones or video games. It’s more like fine sports cars. There are only so many buyers. I would love to see this happen. I would love to ride on a lunar roller coaster, too, but I cannot believe that will happen in my lifetime.

  27. Why is everyone so excited about analog poly? Dont you already have DSI Prophets, Polyevolvers,Tempest is also analog poly, there are still Andromedas out there etc.? Not getting the point here.

    1. Analog Poly is usually very expensive and considering all the stuff listed it above £500 new. If you want a £500 or less poly like a Tetra (which I own) then you sacrifice the ability for a decent interface to get poly. I love my tetra but it’s not exactly fun for making sounds on. I think I’d have a lot more fun on a prophet 08 than a tetra. Behringer are known for their low cost and so this would mean bringing poly to the masses in a similar way to what korg have done with all their new analog gear, keeping it affordable.

      1. yes, more variety in the market would be great/ the DSI stuff is ‘analog’ (DCO albeit) and has its sound, but its not necessarily a desirable sound for many people.

  28. I am very excited for this. Behringer has been investing in style recently and not focusing solely on price.
    Even with some quality issues, I think Behringer is pretty no 1 music brand in the world if you look at the big picture. Where else can you buy something thats pretty darn good for such crazy low price? They have ugly but great sounding guitar pedal that is even cheaper than some chinese clones of the same range. I have 15+ year old compressor that originally cost less than 100e, and it still works and even sounds pretty good.

    Yes a Behringer might fall apart in million ways, but Uli Behringer is a business genius, no question about it.

  29. This would be great news if it weren’t for the fact that Behringer have announced a load of stuff recently such as the UMC 1820 which was announced almost a year ago and still no word on it. It would be nice if they actually released some of these products rather than just announcing more and more of them just to see if there is interest and if they will sell! Although I hope they do make them 🙂

    1. But are they talking about a ‘replica’ of a CS-80? I don’t think so, and I’m sure Yamaha would have something to say if they were. I think they are talking about the sound of analog synths of yesteryear in a synth of their own design. So what Behringer eventually come out with could look nothing like a CS-80 or a Roland Jupiter 8 or a System 100.

  31. There are always bad comments about Behringer, but when i see musicians on streets and in clubs, their fair priced gear seems always to be welcome. To music itself it makes no difference at all.

    2. The reality is that they’ve got a rep for making affordable knockoffs of the most popular music gear, but cheaply made so that the gear has a very high failure rate.

      Their pedal line cloned BOSS so closely that they got sued a few years ago.

      In the last few years, they seem to have cleaned up their act a bit, actually investing in their own product design and coming up with some interesting mixers and monitors. It will be a few years, though, until people see how the quality of their new gear holds up.

  33. My first syth was a jen sx 1000, since I have used pretty much most budget end synths and also bought the occasional duff synth like a Voyager , top dollar but strange operating system and I believed the hype!!
    I hope what comes will be good and at a great price.
    I would love to see an Atari Esque (cubase style )midi only sequencer from Behringer that , you could plug a mouse in and use like the old ataris, It is exhausting and time consuming getting computers ready to run software with out glitches and timing issues. That would be a good device to fetch to market.
    The number of synths now shows that the market needs a basic and clear midi sequencer, not a duff obscure step sequencer.

  34. I think they will be good enough, I like behringer stuff, it is what it is, I have a mixer that is like a tank put up with a lot of use and some abuse for ten years, although I have a reverb pedal that needs a thump or two to get going sometimes, and the red LED on it, holy shit, my eyes, my eyyess.

  35. I am so tired and frustrated with all this “analog vintage secondhand synth” market these days. Too many units malfunctioning, requiring service, cosmetic problems, extremely high prices, etc ….
    Not to mention the difficulty in finding them, in the first place.
    I have waited all these years for someone to realize that, in recent years, advances in electronics also mean that we can have ANALOG integrated circuits as well as digital, to manufacture analog polyphonic synths that are low cost, reliable, light and stable PLUS having advanced features offered by digital control, like MIDI, USB, memories, etc …
    So, yes, i am waiting for a CS80-inspired synth with a long ribbon over the keyboard and maybe a digital reverb built in, or a Jupiter 8 – inspired one, maybe with a built in step sequencer, or a Prophet 5, a Cobol …
    I hoped that Yamaha, Roland or Korg would do it, if it is going to be Behringer, ok, i don’t mind, as long as it is designed and built well. And please, we have enough keyboards, give us desktop or rackmounted modules as well as full keyboard versions.

  37. I’ve had both good and bad experiences with Behringer gear in the past, but I’d be very willing to give whatever they come up with a try. Why not? Hey, back in the day my first synth was a Wasp, and the build quality on that wasn’t even as good as the Behringer stuff, but I loved it anyway. 🙂

  38. just give me a circuit-copy of a Jupiter 8, with same panel, sizem same knobs, panel colors etc) for 2-3K with Midi (made in China….whatever) and I will be in heaven.

  39. To all the comments who complain about the brand behringer. Well: the amazing thing here is that there’s finally a brand who’s doing the chips again which you need to construct poly analogue synths. Dave Smith bought all the left curtis chips (the reason why he’s the only one who does poly analogue) and there wasn’t simply any possibility left to build real analogue polys any more (except some love projects like the Schmidt Synthesizer) – I do have some Dave Smiths here, but I think there is lot more possible than this – have everyone ever owned a completely bug free DS? So the massive amazing thing is that Behringer did their research on those chips and they building the chips. Many Synthesier Manufactures just used the chips which where than possible to buy back than and build the synthesizer with those. So this rebuilding of the chips is just a massive fact for the whole synthesizer community and the main problem which made the build of a cheap poly impossible. Uli, the CO of Behringer, did some interviews in Amazona before and there he was speaking about his passion of analogue synthesizers. So he build a synthesizer on his own in the age of 15. And well: Behringer is known as a cheap brand but they getting pretty serious with time. Don’t forget that Behringer was the first brand who did their gear in China. It needs some time to get a good chain of distribution there. Their digital mixer is now the best selling digital mixer on the world, and that has a reason. I’m hoping for the best and I’m completely thankful for the courage to take this step.

    1. why start with a Juno 106 that you can buy second hand for $1000 and are everywhere…rather to start with a Jupiter 8 that costs $10,000 second hand, and no-one can find…. both will cost about the same to make these days

  44. If they are truly manufacturing new chips, then the synths themselves may not be intended as a long line of synth products, but instead as a hands-on marketing push to help cover R & D while proving to other instrument builders that they now have a steady supply of new chips to buy. As long as the build quality is there, this might be an even better arrangement than if they make a line of products themselves.

    1. smart…but Korg has re-created their own MS20 filter and even DS managed to include a convincing filter in his new PRO2…..so you may be right to a certain extent but I think that Berhinger will earn more by including a small (surface mounted component) additional card in their existing controler keyboard line…..imagine analog 6 voices poly for 250 euros….bingo…..

  45. I don’t think its too far off the mark to say that the majority of us could make a reasonable features list, as the most vital basics are pretty clear by now. Not the wild dream features, but the hard-core, in-the-trenches aspects sought by those who are really INTO it. Therefore, my only concern is the $#@! build. Companies make vast claims all the time, only to have the production run model turn out to be cheese. Unless it was a grotesque design failure, the only obstacle here is “Will the damned thing hold up to semi-normal playing for a couple of years?” Don’t dismiss that UMC 1820 matter. Its smells like another NI KORE abandonment waiting to happen. When half the posters like the company and half bemoan crappy builds, be vewy vewy afraid!

  46. sounds promising and I would give it a try. the midas element sounds interesting, Ive had good results when I have worked on their desks. My personal experience with Behringer goes back a bit and I would say I really like all midi products Ive used. the audio products not as much. they tend to have a great feature set and price point but I havent heard any that sound good. So its been kind of a balance between price and what you need against too much signal noise, etc. But it sounds interesting enough to be worth a look at it to me. Id be interested in some hybrid analog/digi also.

  47. Right… another retro analog emulation…!

    While I wish them all the best, I won’t be buying this. I wanted something new and different. I can have as many analogue voices as I want just by layering sounds or stacking the stuff that’s already available. In some ways this is way more flexible than having an all in one unit – more direct access to knobs! But whatever, it seems it will make some people happy, but…

    The idea of 6 OSC’s for 250Euro is obviously not going to happen – I know Behringer make cheaper gear, but that’s just ridiculous. (I may have to eat my words, but I seriously doubt it) If it is 6 voice expect at least 750€ absolute minimum – probably a fair bit more.

    And what the hell was the point of asking us what we wanted when they’re spent years building this stuff already and were obviously already well down a particular track. Although everyone seems to have forgotten this is how they started this discussion only a week or so ago.

    All this says to me is, while we will pretend to hold your opinions valuable to us, we’re going to go ahead and do what we had already decided to do anyway – a bit like politicians do. The idea of a new FM synth got just as much, if not more, support and approval yet there’s not a mention. I won’t be wasting my time voting for anything else you might like opinion on Mr Behringer

        1. Uli said they are a year away from having a prototype, so doesn’t it make sense that they’d ask for input now?

          Cloning old circuits is not the hard part of what they are doing – that is trivial compared to designing a modern poly analog, that can be efficiently manufactured and that fits what people want to buy.

          1. Huh, the question was what kind of synth should we make. If they already have the analogue chops it’s fairly obvious they’re going to make an analogue synth.

            They didn’t say, we’re making an analogue synth, we would like your input on architecture.

            Two very different questions.

  48. beautiful idea. but let’s think about prices for a second: there is no reason really why a machine like a jupiter 8 (IF same quality as 1981) should be a lot cheaper today. let’s do some math – being german i use the beer price on the oktoberfest as a reference.

    in 1981, 1 liter of beer cost euro 2,50 (dm 5,00). today, it is eur 10. this is somewhat the rate prices have risen – by 4 times.

    in 1981, the jupiter 8 cost us$ 5.300 (which would have bought you 2.000 liters of beer in munich), which would make it today – about euro 20.000 or us$ 26.000 (yes, 2.000 liters again). believe it or not, this is what people payed those days. they did.

    the behringer poly will most likely not be THIS expensive, because this price tag would not sell behringer many units. but thinking below eur 5.000/us$ 6.000 is veeeeery optimistic. or assumes lower built quality.

    1. I like the beer analogy, but it doesn’t work for electronics.
      In 1981, 2K of RAM was over $15, today it’s 100 times cheaper. Same goes for many many other components. What hasn’t gone down is metal, wood, assembly labor.

      1. in 1981 the Fairlight cost 250k. i agree with synthdsnr, your analogy is blown outa the water when it comes to electronics sorry man.

        keep drinking that beer

  50. As DSI shows with DSI Prophet 12 and Pro 2, DCOs are totally capable of sounding analog. Sounding analog just means the frequency peaks are smeared out over a small band of frequencies, the sawtooth and squares are just imperfect and the filter will never be as exact and linear as a digital one. And most people find that only authentic because they remember the sound of their youth, when the sun was brighter and life was new and full of wonders. 😉

    1. Ok. Few things wrong there…DCO’s are analogue, specifically digitally controlled osc’. ie. Still an analogue circuit. Also your mischaracterization of the analogue sound as “really just frequency peaks are smeared out over a small band” makes no sense. A frequency doesn’t ‘peak’ or ‘smear’ in the first place but simply is what it is. Freq’s can be given peaks spectrally speaking with filtering, etc. but freq’s simply are what they are. What I think you meant was that the transients in amplitude can smear and seem to roll off top/high end frequencies in relation to said peaks in volume. I’m still sorry to say that is still a far too broad or perhaps narrow of a perspective on defining an analogue sound Saxifraga.
      Also, sawtooth waves as well as square waves are indeed perfect in the analogue state. Have you ever used a simple oscilloscope, I highly recommend for some fun. There are some extremely detailed modern one’s that prove that. Digital wave may actually be less stable by nature where analogue with it’s steady voltage’s supplied and regulated at every stage allows infinite consistent results.
      Lastly digital filters are the worst idea ever made. Lots of things work well digitally in a hybrid design like LFO’s, modulations, controls, etc. but an analogue filter is all there ever would be in a perfect world. If it were even true that a digital filter was more exact and linear, well, so what? who in the world would ever want to hear it. Not me.
      Sorry to burst your bubble bud. Go Uli.

  51. Behringer ARE going to rule the world. Yes, everyone bags them. Yes, i once had a dirt cheap digital delay pedal of theirs with the brightest blue light that would always stay on, lots of digital noise artifacts, but it was dirt cheap ($20). The fact that they’ve been around for years now, selling SO much equipment, has allowed them to simmer along the undercurrent and establish a great research base. Clearly they’ve been doing their homework. I’m a BIG Dave Smith fanboy (currently have a Mopho X4), and it is incredible that they have actually developed their own brand of SSM chip. The fact that he’s already said VCO? Totally bitchin’, but with digital control. Surely you wouldn’t have a digital lfo/vca/etc on the backend of vco’s. Or does he really just mean DCO’s? Anyways, we’ll find out in a year. Looking very forward to what they come up with. And by that time, Korg will have their new ARP out, Roland will have a ‘plug out’ version of all their awesome synths which i won’t ever care about, Dave Smith will probably have some even better out along with more modular parts, and the world will just keep on turning.

  52. Excited to see this pan out, but deep down I was hoping for a bit of progressive freethinking, rather than a nostalgic journey to the sounds of the late 70’s and early 80’s – but I guess it is an easier sales pitch than bringing a new analogue poly concept to market. I guess I can blame myself for hoping Behringer was going to do something original – what foolish folly was I thinking.

    1. I wouldn’t dismiss the analog renaissance – with the past sufficiently resurrected, they or others will most certainly start thinking about the future!

      There’s no reason why the past can’t coexist, harmonize with and inspire the present day, particularly in the field of musical instruments.

    2. I think this is a very closed-minded attitude – is everyone using a modern version of the Odyssey or MS20 making purely nostalgic, non-progressive, unoriginal music? Of course not. Should Fender stop making Stratocasters because they’re not a modern design? At the end of the day an instrument is a tool with which to make music, and some old tool designs at perfect for what people need, all that matters is what you do with it. If you want an instrument involving analogue technology with a completely unique or original sound structure, then you have modular gear, but within the confines of a complete, affordable, polyphonic, analogue instrument, which caters for enough diversity in music taste to make it commercially viable… I’m afraid it’s not likely to stray so far from its predecessors in its concept, and it doesn’t need to. Perhaps what needs to be progressive and free-thinking here is your attitude towards analogue synths.

  55. This should be very interesting indeed! The market is awash with mono/duo boxes and countless modular gizmos, but very few subtractive ploysynths (albeit DSI). Let`s hope they get it right.

  56. This could get interesting if Behringer not only copies the sound/function but also the look of popular analog poly-synths. They did it with effects pedals. I’d take a serious look at a Behringer Memorymoog copy if one was available. No wait, how about a Behringer version of the Yamaha GX-1? As long as they retain plenty of lawyers then let the fun begin!

  58. I own three pieces of gear from Behringer and have had no issues. Of course, you get what you pay for so expecting top of the line performance from budget kit is unrealistic, but I am excited to see what is offered from Behringer as an analog poly. Look at what Korg has made possible for $150 in the Volca line. If Behringer makes something decent for under $400 it will probably be a huge succes.

  60. sounds great. i recently got an Elektron Analog Four which is analog circuits with digital control. its wonderful. so more stuff like this is interesting and i think its awesome that we live in an age when the best aspects of all eras can now be combined to make really great instruments.

  61. I think when people talk of nostalgia with synths and use retro in sentences , its is comical as they haven’t really been in popular music culture too long , regards the relatively budget end of the market.
    The more synths on the market the better for everyone. I remember selling my Yamaha fs 1 r, I bought it for the formant filters and the idea it could pronounce words , I think we all had the pi’s taken out of us with that impenetrable synth. It was dire and promised more than it could deliver. I hope that whatever new synths come out , they are basic machines. The day that softsynths seem to get respect seem to be well and truly over . I do think this site should have section for hardware and one for the software brigade.
    I check this site for synthesizers , not rendered pics of some software ,that needs a £500 computer to run it for five minutes before its obsolete.

  63. Definitely will be interested in a poly synth, as long as its 2 osc, 8 voice, knob per function, no menus, full size keys or desktop/rackmount .

  65. People bash Behringer. Some out of bad experience with their product, some just because it seems the right thing to do. Ok, we know their past with lot’s of consumer grade stuff, but look at what they are doing lately. It reminds me of Samsung. They started with cheap VCRs that we all knew won’t work more than a few years, but look at the company now. I have a feeling Behringer has a similar fate. And I doubt these polysynths will be bad. In fact I’m looking forward to hearing and seeing them.

  66. My X32 is awesome, and frankly, it shows that Behringer are successfully moving away from the low-cost, low quality to low-cost, high quality. If they joined forces with Blackmagic design, who are doing the same, the AV world would spontaneously implode. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them not just rebuild a vintage synth, but really think about how to bring it up to date without losing the good.

    On the other hand, it could just be another vintage synth lookalike, but, I’ll keep my hopes up.

  68. I have had good luck with Behringer products. I used a PMH2000 powered mixer for about 10 years, for band practice and small gigs. I have several of their Truth monitors, never an issue and decent sound. So, since Roland won’t do it, how about a recreation of the Jupiter 8?

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