Behringer has announced that, after three years of development, their Wave synthesizer is ready for final testing.
“We’re very excited to share with you that we’ve just completed our third and final prototype after 3 years of development, which will now go to our beta testers for final testing, before the synthesizer is released for mass production,” they note. “The Wave hybrid synthesizer was a particular complex research and development project, as the recreation of the unique sound properties such as aliasing, over-sampling, low-res converters etc. was very challenging. But after much hard work, we nailed it.”
The Behringer Wave synthesizer is an unofficial copy of the Palm Products GmbH PPG Wave 2 synthesizer. The original PPG Wave is one of the first analog + digital hybrid synthesizers, combining wavetable oscillators with analog VCFs & VCAs. It is 8 part multitimbral, a feature that appears to be carried over in the Behringer Wave:
Behringer previously announced that they are looking for people with PPGs to help them beta test and promote their copy. The company says it will give participants a synthesizer, in exchange for testing the synth and creating several demo videos.
Pricing and Availability
Behringer has not announced specifications or details on pricing and availability for the Wave. Like their other recent synth introductions, production of the Wave is constrained by parts availability. Behringer says that “once we receive the necessary semiconductors, we’ll get it straight into mass production and into your hands.”
I really wish they would just wait until they “receive the necessary semiconductors”, build them, and THEN make the announcement.
This isn’t even a Knock Off. It’s more like a vague threat. “I swear to God we will make this someday!”
Man why not just take this idea and expand on it a bit to create something new?
that would go against the whole point of minimal effort and maxim profit
China, where Behringer has placed all its eggs, is 100% supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Civilians are routinely killed as policy to prevent them disclosing positions. eg When Russia takes a town all traffic along with their occupants are immediately destroyed. There is an ambundance of video, audio, witness and aftermath evidence to confirm this.
An economic vote for China is a vote for Russia.
Please consider how your personal choices shape the world.
It’s impossible to buy a synth without Chinese components in 2022. Many of the major companies manufacture there (otherwise, commenters would complain about being “ripped off” by higher prices). Even those that manufacture in other countries get their PCBs fabbed in China, and often get the PCB assembly done there, too, using a variety of Chinese parts.
So, yeah. The Chinese government sucks, but it’s impossible to avoid Chinese manufacturing.
Beautiful but a no sense synth in 2022. I wish it has Wavetable-FM and LFO’s like some Plugins or Eurorack Piston Honda MK2 &MK3.
Apparently, it still can’t make any sounds.
I don’t like the looks. Super small steep panel above they keys… is realy not my taste. And because this it doesn’t look at the PPG wave2 at all.
Complaining for the sake of complaining. It looks close enough that it wouldn’t matter to most. Anyhow it’s the same size panel as the Deepmind 12 and the VC340. Neither of which are small
That is okay Paul, one more Behringer Wave for the rest of us, thanks for not liking this.
The small, steep panel above the keys mimics the original PPG Wave panel design. The main difference is that the case doesn’t continue back for another 30 cm. The PPG was a hefty beast that weighed almost 20 kg.
People taking your dislike so personally 🙂
I don’t know how they manage to make one of the best looking synth look so ugly but they did it again.
It’s quite fun to recall that wave tables were invented as a means of effectively compressing samples – you don’t have enough memory for the full sample so you use “key frames” instead and then run through them.
But this is the first Behringer clone that I’m interested in (all ethical considerations aside), ultimately it will depend on the sound quality, how good the filters are! And as there’s no way I could either afford or would want to maintain an original PPG, the updated “clone” could be a good substitute.
finally an announcement without delivery date from behringer.
And the award for the ugliest looking synth goes to… (drum roll) Wave.
nah, matrix brute. butt ugly.
So true 🙂
I’m saving up for the Waldorf M. It has a really nice display, solid UI, classic and Microwave II oscillators and stereo VCA voice panning.
I used to have a Wave 2.2 – I cannot play my old tunes on this. The PPG had 61 keys.
Let’s wait for the expander 🙂
Who needs an ancient wavetable synth when there is the hydrasynth ? Just for nostalgia ?
The problem with hydrasynth with all it’s features it still sounds like a thin late 90’s early 2000s digital synth.
Nostalgia is a big part of music, always was, always will, i don’t see nothing wrong with that. This one looks like shit and i will never trust behringer instrument but i can understand other who will.
Agreed. The Deluxe hydra is my next purchase.
au contraire my friend. if it’s priced cheap, and it has analog filters, and it duplicated the classic, it will be worth it to many.
These sort of recreations baffle me. I can understand a Model D, I can understand a MonoPoly, Pro1, Jupiter 6 or 8, because there’s a large customer base for these synths and they still have unique irreplaceable utility and value They have retro fetish appeal, but they aren’t replicated well in software, they have great physical tweakability, and those synths compete well with a VST emulation on cost.
Behringer are not making synths for people with a synth cave full of multiple >$5000 synths, they aren’t selling to niche collectors.
Is there a market for a super accurate crap sample rate PPG wave amongst the $1000 budget beatmakers of today?
Is the gigging synthesist saying “no I dont want the massive power and poly aftertouch of the Hydrasynth, please give me fewer features and accurately modelled 1980 sample rates for the same price “?
I mean, who is making music which absolutely requires an accurate hardware PPG? And how many of those people would want one from Uli? Are there even 500 people who would rather buy this? If so … why?
Its weird
I am not sure, and I would also be interested to know. Presumably they know what they’re doing.
Have to admit, if I’m going to buy a physical synth rather than a VST, then a synth with distinctly electrical/physical quirks is curious in different ways to one that is based entirely on software running on a modern cpu.
My fear is that a few classic PPG sounds will quickly become cliched in certain genres once this is released. Although there’s a narrow divide between cliche sound and staple sound.
It’s not so different from the others you mentioned. It also have analog filters so presumably will be preferable to vst.
Some don’t care much, they want a new toy, they hear a demo they like and they buy. A known name with history that more people knows (especially experience users/youtubers) helps allot.
I have a friend who just got a new prophet 5. I don’t think he knew it before but he liked the sound on some demos and everybody he asked knows it and recommend it to him. He is pretty successful producer and he is looking for instruments that “does one thing, but does it great” so the hydrasynth with all is features is not on his radar.
you actually need to be able to play to make use of polyaftertouch.
When people call themself “producer” they usually cant play 3 blind mice to save their live. 😉
Good, I always preferred the music of the ones who don’t 🙂
Fantastic to see a hardware version of what is now a vsti plugin, but not sure why it needs so many vents in the rear casing and a powered fan. Maybe poor power supply design, with lots of heat? With energy costs increasing I suspect the future studio will be more software than hardware. Once our desire for 80’s hardware synths is over, we can move on.
I absolutely love it. Design and everything. A dream synth! I can’t wait.