Behringer MS-101 Synthesizer Now In Production (Roland SH-101 Clone)

Uli Behringer announced today that the Behringer MS-101 synthesizer is now in the early stages of production:

We’re now in pre-production with the MS-101. It took longer than we anticipated as we’re running our factory at near maximum capacity.

Pre-production means we’re now producing around 50 units to ensure everything is in order. Provided we don’t find any issues, mass production will then commence a month later, which would be January.

Details on pricing and availability are still to be announced.

Specifications (Preliminary):

The company previously shared these details for the MS-101:

MS-101-BK, MS-101-GY, & MS-101-BU – a clone of the classic Roland SH-101:

  • Monophonic synthesizer with 3340 analog oscillator
  • 32 semi-weighted full-size keys for great playability
  • Analog signal path based on VCO, VCF and VCA designs to recreate the classic sound performance
  • Oscillator with 4 simultaneously, mixable waveforms: saw, triangle, square/pwm and octave-divided square sub-oscillator
  • Resonant VCF can be modulated with ADSR, LFO, keyboard tracking and bender controller
  • 6 FM sources
  • ADSR envelope generator
  • Easy-to-use voltage controlled 32-step sequencer with 64 sequence locations
  • Arpeggiator with wide patterns
  • Attachable handgrip included with pitch bend wheel and a pitch modulation trigger
  • Guitar strap included
  • Bender assignable to VCO, VCF and pitch mod wheel on attachable handgrip
  • Noise generator can be used as modulation source for distortion-like effects
  • Portamento function with auto mode
  • Pulse wave can be modulated by LFO, envelope and manually
  • 57 sliders and switches to give you direct and real-time access to all important parameters
  • External audio input for processing external sound sources
  • Comprehensive MIDI implementation with MIDI channel and Voice Priority selection
  • 3-Year Warranty Program

67 thoughts on “Behringer MS-101 Synthesizer Now In Production (Roland SH-101 Clone)”

    2. There’s a basic building block that people don’t seem to understand. Simple analog synths have potentiometers which adjust resistance of electricity in a part of a circuit which controls the sound. There is no way to capture and store and recall this resistive value to the voltage.

      More complex synths use encoders which determine a digital “value” which is then converted to a voltage and sent to the circuit. Encoders can be “recalled” with patch memories and controlled by CC values, simple pots can not. Because of this, encoders introduce a whole set of D/A conversion from the encoder values back to voltages which equals more complex circuitry; in the case of the SH/MS-101 D/A conversion for all of 57 values controlled by front panel sliders and pot and switches. Instantly more money, which most folks shopping Behringer would complain about or not understand.

      If you want your simple, cheap analog clone mono synth, please stop asking for MIDI CC control and patch programability — you’re just showing how little you understand about the instrument, and the history and design of synthesizers.

      1. So not comprehensive CC. I understand the difference, but want clarity on BS marketing. It’s basic midi, which is fine if you’re ok with that. I’m not.

        1. To be fair, it will probably also include MIDI clock, poly chain, pitch bend, modulation, sustain, and perhaps pitch bend range and note priority. Maybe that’s not “comprehensive” but for an instrument like this I wouldn’t hesitate to call it “complete”.

          2. Calling it a complete MIDI implementation IF there’s not control of all the parameters isn’t truthful at all, under any reasonable interpretation of “complete” whatsoever.

            1. It has patch memory, so presumably there is a CPU between the front panel controls and the analog side. This is how it can have comprehensive MIDI implementation.

      3. @Roman Kendall: I guess Korg used some black magic with the Monologue: 250Euro and does everything you say… Analogye synth, memory, midi cc of all the knobs, it even has a (motion) sequencer…

        1. @safadono: No magic, just a new design, not trying to replicate the architecture of a previous (non-programmable) synth. They’re different things. Nice little synth the Monologue.

  5. hope soon some other china company clone the behringer synths for half price 😉

    . i played behringers 101 plastic box at superbooth .5 minutes and not exited ….. i keep my roland sh-01a, its metal , good sliders (midi cc) even small , filter is better and your sounds Presets can be saved .. cost the same even (just need to connect a midid keyboard most have that anyways )

    1. You put the same comment on every post about new analogs.

      It’s almost like you’re trying to troll people, but just not doing it very well.

  8. As much shit as Elektron gets for their Overbridge software whatever-the-fucks. Somehow you can always find their gear in a photo. The analog rytm is cut off in the photo and still make that red piece of ass look like a joke.
    Yes, I like Elektron…

    1. Well done you, spotted a totally unrelated $1600 buggy drum machine AND you still managed to compare it to this admittedly budget analogue clone… “slow clap”

  11. Uli says, “…running our factory at maximum capacity”.
    We read, “…beating our slaves into an early grave”.

    Seriously, though, I know you people love living in the past, but these re-issues of outdated, outmoded and very limited toys has to end. Mini Moogs, 101s etc. were good in 1970/80, but NOT 50 years later.
    Yes, we all know one can create music with anything: rubber bands, tin cans etc., but synthesizers used to be about technical innovation. Moreover, the last great synth innovation was certainly not created by Robert Moog, or Dave Smith et al (regardless of how many people bought Little Phattys), and, by the looks of it, it won’t be made by Behringer, either.
    It was created by Brett Victor.

    To prove my point, I challenge anyone who owns any of these dated dinosaurs to a ‘live-on-stage/on line” duel.
    Any Moog/Boog you like vs one, solitary Alesis Micron/Akai Miniak.
    No external sequencers, samplers… just synth vs synth, mano e mano.

    Make no mistake, as fictional heavyweight boxer Ivan Drago once said… you [v]ill lose!

    1. That sounds like a fair challenge to me: even the few people can hear the difference between analogue & digital won’t really care about it in a live-concert mix, and polyphony & better sequencers will clearly win.

    2. Luckily for the world you have zero say in it. We demand old synths from the 70s and 80s and the market is providing them, end of discussion. Your point is irrelevant.

    4. Presumably you will be starting from an init patch with this greatest ever VA?

      How long will the challenge be given that you will have to spend several days dialling in a patch?

      Is your opponent allowed to sleep while you are fiddling around trying to get the shortcuts to work?

      Are you allowed to look at the manual during this challenge?

      Do your outputs and encoders even still work?

      A competent SH101 user would have an entire song multi track recorded before you had got a bass sound down.

    5. Yeah so basically anyone who has never been able to afford or be lucky enough to use any of these vintage synths should just give up on that dream.

      You realise that until now only a tiny fraction of musicians have been lucky enough to afford gear like that, despite the fact that some of it is almost 50 years old.

      Anyways Innovation doesn’t pay. And usually costs a lot to the end user. Leave that to someone else. The market speaks for itself. The reason these are so popular is because they’ve been a complete rarity for 50 years

      1. “Anyways Innovation doesn’t pay. ”

        You’re making me sad now. This is an extremely defeatist attitude, and seems to see the world only through the lens of profit.

        Thank goodness many, many people do not agree with you.

    7. Miniak, micron? These are your examples to prove how old fashioned moogs and DSI are?
      Sorry, look at P12, pro 2, and prophet X – all way more innovative, and much better sounding, than those plastic dsp machines.

  14. I’ve tried the neutron and the model d and they are both great for the money. I sold both because I want presets. I’m a songwriter not a synth master and I think in today’s day and age companies forget theses are not just toys.
    I have my Deepmind 12d and it is fantastic so no slight to behringer. I just can’t get excited about another analog mono synth with no presets.

    1. Thats boring, that’s not living in the moment….just like all those song editors and DAWs….bleh, do it live and in 1 take and have fun….life is too short for anything else.

    2. I feel a similar lack of excitement about the new offerings from Gibson and Fender because I can’t play guitar. Monosynths aren’t toys either; they’re instruments for performances to be recorded. Once you do know a synth architecture you build a repertoire of basic sounds you can dial in quickly and then use the hell out of them, from where it becomes easier and easier to improvise in a repeatable way.

      1. I am a sh!t keyboard player and couldn’t do a skilled “performance” if I tried, but I can bang out sound designs and compose endlessly. Patches may not seem that important for someone who sees it as a performance synth, but for someone like me it is a deal-breaker. As I mentioned in another thread I love my boog to death, but it would have been massive if it could save presets.

  17. Synthesizers with only one oscillator can generally kiss my entire ass, heh. I prefer three if I can get them. The range of possibilities is exponentially larger. OTOH, let’s give some cred for the external input and 3-year warranty. It shows some respectable commitment. If a device will hold up for three years “on the road,” you might expect 5++ if it stays in a home studio. Pro-rated, that’s a nice ROI.

    1. I resemble that remark!

      But seriously, I am not nostalgic for classic Roland monosynths, because way back then I was much more interested in my brand new DX-7, which I still own and is running perfectly 34 years later. If Behringer can match that with their MS-101 then they have arrived. Only time will tell.

    3. The SH-101 shares company with the Minimoog, Pro-One, Odyssey and SEM – maybe there are more capable modern instruments, but somehow these five classic monosynths can just take you very quickly to the exact sound you’re looking for, with plenty of stops at sweet spots along the way.

      On paper, none of them can claim any particular extraordinary thing, but in use they are all magical. They sing. That’s why they hold their value, and that’s why we keep seeing clones!

    4. My 303 clone and an Analog 4 are duking it out right now. The nice thing about classic synths is that they have a narrow enough range to sound distinctive and consistent, not unlike a physical instrument. In electronic music you want wild new tonalities unlike any heard before, but you also want something familiar and consistent with which to frame and contrast them. That could be anything, but the classic synths were the first ones that did a good job at hitting the obvious basic possibilities.

  21. I know we marvel at these cheap repro-retro synths, but I was just looking back at the BassStation || , It’s down around £330 now. Close to what this Sh101 whill be. The Bass station has not one but TWO analogue oscillators, plus a sub bass with switchable waves, ring and sync mod, multimode and “acid” filter, drive and distortion, lots of weird routing stuff. Best of all – it has presets and all the controls are midi controlable at double resolution. I mean – on features or just value, its a waaaaay better synth. The synth world is a silly place.

    1. I used to consider all that stuff when shopping for a synth, until I started actually listening to them.

      (Admittedly BSII is pretty damn cool though – arguably a modern classic)

    2. Ah, the ability to save patches. I caved and bought a Boog because it sounds so bloody amazing and for $300, how can you say no? However I miss the ability to save patches far more than I thought possible, so the BSII was a Godsend. No patch saving means this is out for me – doesn’t offer me anything I don’t already have and since I never owned an original, nostalgia doesn’t work either. Man I really hope the UB-Xa will save patches and have a keyboard.

  24. Had a 101, traded it away. As, every 3 months the soldering iron and anger would be required to make it do what it should do.

    Yes in principle bad, but a new reliable board is the main thing here. No fucked up sync needing triggers, a box or more expenditure.

    The Maine IC’s are replicated the slider throw replicated. So as someone who lived with the 2018 reality of a 101 I welcome this.

    99% of the time is capturing inspiration, a feel, a line. Not if it’s bang on if the slide time is identical or if the resonance overloads the mixer with the same harmonics.

  26. For those wanting a 101 with patch save/recall, just get the BS2. It’s easily the modern equivalent only with some meaningful additions. More synth, better value, better company.

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