In his latest video, Tim Shoebridge takes a look at how oscillator tuning of the oscillators of a Behringer D synthesizer vary over time – and how this compares to a variety of other synthesizers.
“I’d like to share with you my findings on the amount of drift that my Behringer Model D oscillators exhibit in comparison to some other fully analogue synthesizers that I own,” explains Shoebridge. “No music or sounds with this video, just words and graphs, but I hope you find it interesting.”
In an earlier video, Shoebridge demonstrated Poly-Chaining Four Behringer D Synthesizers.
If you’ve used the Behringer D, or an original Model D, let us know how this compares to your experiences in the comments!
Oh dear.
You’d think that my Model D wouldn’t be quite so alluring, now, but hey, I still like it.
I already give it a good thirty minutes before hitting the record button, and now I’ll just have to check the tuning between takes.
Interesting video. I am afraid that this confirms my suspicions. I own a Behringer Model D as well as an Arturia Microbrute. I rarely have to retune my Arturia. I retune the Model D frequently. That being said, I wonder if the tuning stability would improve if the Model D was loaded in a Eurorack and used a better power supply. As I understand it, (should have referred to the manual before I posted here), once the Model D is in a Eurorack, you now longer need the wall wart.
Kudos to Tim Shoebridge for this effort.
This is what happens when you copy 40 year old circuits known for tuning instability!
I have noticed this with my D. The scaling is very stable though. The tuning variation in a room with stable temperature hasn’t been a problem for me, – but I imagine performing at a venue would be different.
I had a different experience with the MicrBrute. It needs to be retuned every time you use it, and you can audibly here the pitch change as it warms up.
The benefits of old oscillators designs’ sound is completely overrated. I’ve got oscillators in my modular (Motm, Synthesizers.com) that are very stable, but still ‘analog’ AF.
“This is what happens when you copy 40 year old circuits known for tuning instability!”
I think you hit the nail on the head. Wasn’t one of the selling points of ARP synths that they stayed in tune better than Moogs???
Oh, Well- I am having a blast with my Behringer. Probably will rarely leave my studio.
Finally an objective view!
… behaviour of different moog oscillators woudl be interesting!
I had the same results (or even worse) with my Moog Voyager ! But it didn’t bother me.
A lot of quirks in cheap analogue instruments I either don’t notice or just accept depending on the price. But with this I don’t seem to have this issue? I generally find it needs a warm up, but is it any different because I’m playing it with CV rather than MIDI? Seems to track well…
The Slim phatty had the absolute worst tuning stability ever, I am surprised Moog even put out this synth.
What a disaster. My Behringer Model D seems to have no problem, but it also seems to like to sit on top of my soundcard, nice and warm