Behringer Pro-800 Synthesizer Now Shipping, With a $399 List Price

Behringer has announced that its Pro-800 – a knockoff of the Sequential Prophet 600 that bumps the polyphony up to 8 voices and implements the GliGli mods – is now shipping.

It looks like the company listened to customer feedback on Synthtopia and other sites, because they’ve also cut the price from the originally announced $599 to a list price of $399.

Behringer Pro-800 Synthesizer Audio Demo:

Features:

  • “Faithful emulation” of the classic 1982 synth
  • 16-channel 5-pin DIN MIDI with deep control of virtually every facet of the synth, including NRPN and MIDI CC
  • 16-oscillator structure with 8-voice architecture
  • Unison mode lets you use all 16 oscillators into one patch
  • 3 waveforms per VCO can be individually toggled, meaning up to 6 simultaneous waveshapes for precision tone-crafting
  • Noise generator
  • Pulse width can be controlled manually or via LFO for flexible square-wave shaping
  • 4-pole lowpass filter features a 24dB/oct slope
  • Poly-Mod function allows you to modulate OSC A from OSC B
  • Dedicated LFO is outfitted with 6 waveforms, giving you plenty of modulation possibilities
  • Polyphonic 2-track sequencer and key-assignable arpeggiator
  • 400 user program slots are available for patch storage and recall
  • Polyphonic glide
  • Chord memory

Pricing and Availability

Behringer says that the Pro-800 is “in stock and immediately shipping from our factory”. Expect it to be available to pre-order at retailers soon, priced at $399 USD.

73 thoughts on “Behringer Pro-800 Synthesizer Now Shipping, With a $399 List Price”

  3. Sounds great, and is very affordable. Hate all you want, but Behringer is bringing analog to the masses, at an incredibly affordable price. Im not mad at them, rip off as much as you want Behringer, you do you!

    1. As long as you get what you want it’s all good right. No wonder you’re a Behboy.
      I could name another few people who lived and ripping of millions of people but also gave us things but I’ll bet you won’t cheer for them. 😉

      1. The purpose of patents is to serve the public good, not to provide a perpetual monopoly for inventors and a unlimited legacy for their descendants.

        Dave Smith/Sequential received 15-20 years of patent protection, but now that it has expired anyone is free to copy the design.

        On another note, I wonder if B/Coolaudio is supplying its CEM clone chips to other companies?

  4. … pretty funny another knockoff from b-ear-ringer’s pro-crap-clone-clown-a-thon¡¿more like, we’re expecting it tooo be in stock immediately but not until we have enough pre-orders so we can string everyone along if&when our factory can be ready tooo get these things suitable for shipping which will be maybe 6mnths from now; who the hell knows we really don’t?! what a joke folks

    3. is this the best you can do, make out as if they haven’t released any products before… sad.
      You sound ridiculous, how many other pre-orders by other companies that don’t have even a modicum of the infrastructure and manufacturing prowess that behringer has have you railed against today or ever?

      1. I never pre ordered, I don’t see the point, If anything I usually wait a year or two and buy revision 2<. I have no issue to postpone material desires.
        But if I did, I would prefer to take a chance with a brand that have no products but I like what it promised than supporting a brand that capitalised on human stupidity.
        At least wait a year or more for the MKII

  5. If it arrives and becomes a thing, I think that’s pretty cool. I hope it keeps its tuning and has a good calibration routine. This could be incredible, and at that price, you really can’t ignore it as long as it sounds good, works well, and is physically pretty solid. At this price, it doesn’t even have to be an exact sounding copy of the Prophet – it just has to sound good. The YT demo is playing while I type this and it is very promising.

  7. I had a prophet 600, as well as a Prophet 5. The 600 had a close, but not identical sound as the 5. The biggest problem with both is that theri custoom ICs had a tendency to break down in very cold or very hot weather. Thry weer finnacky instruments.

      1. Please elaborate about who is a pedophile supporter and exactly why. Some evidence might be nice.

        This comment does not really seem to be on topic and constructive.

        1. Comments from first-time commenters get held for moderation, but not established commenters.

          Sometimes established commenters go off the rails, though….

          If you see somebody veer into making personal attacks or hate speech, the best way to let us know is using the Feedback link at the top of every page on the site.

      1. Really? You think computers are made out of air? People throw out their PC’s faster than good quality instruments. (not I would call Behringer products quality)

        1. Nearly everyone owns a computer. The environmental impact of buying a softsynth is simply the electricity it consumes while running.

            1. Vintage synths suffer from capacitors that dry out, leaking batteries that destroy circuit boards and rare ICs that fail. They’re consumer goods that were never intended to last 30+ years.

              And let’s not even mention old foam that disintegrates into black goo.

            2. “Until you update your computer and the plugin stopped working.”
              Utter FUD.
              There are plenty of musicians running Atari and Amigas.
              There’s even an Access Virus B running as a VST on an emulated Motorola DSP. (The team are holding back the the Virus TI until it goes out of production.)
              Of the hundreds of VSTs I’ve used over the last 25 years I really can’t think of any that I miss.
              One or two 32bit plugins I need to bridge but generally they get superceded by something better.
              I was getting into Geist 2 but it was shoddy business practices from Roli that sunk it.
              Maybe it’s the folks with Apple computers that are getting stung from deeper architectural changes: PowerPC, X86 then Apple Silicon.
              On a PC you can happily run anything you like in a virtual machine and route USB hardware to it.
              I’m running a handful of 4th gen Intels and ex-corporate Xeon equivalents. Very cheap, very reliable and plenty powerful.

            1. “What if you just want a dawless setup”

              You can happily do dawless on a PC.
              Try Bespoke [https://www.bespokesynth.com/]
              Or Cantabile [https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/]
              Or GigPerformer [https://gigperformer.com/]
              Or Usine Brainmodular [https://www.brainmodular.com/usine.php]
              Or VCVRack [https://vcvrack.com/]

              1. Is ‘dawless’ on a PC even a thing now?

                My understanding of the ‘dawless jamming’ idea is that a key motivator is that many people work on computers all day, and when they make music, they want to do it without using a computer. They don’t want to spend more time looking at a screen and moving a mouse around.

                I know that technically, you can record and perform music on a PC without using a DAW. But my impression is that avoiding working on a computer is a bigger driver than just avoiding working in a DAW.

                Thoughts?

                1. I find that I’m less creative using a DAW than I am using a stand-alone sequencer. I cut my teeth as a teenager on the Alesis MMT-8 and gravitate towards simple devices like the Circuit Tracks or even SQ-64 that allow me to work quickly unless I’m trying to polish and complete a track. At that point, I appreciate the horsepower and bells and whistles that my computer-based rig brings to the equation.

                  DAWless on a PC? Yeah, I’ve done it simply because I want to bring an instrument like Pigments or a Valhalla reverb into play.

                  1. Plus with my rather minimal hardware setup i feel more like “less is more” and that makes me twice as productive.

                3. So many exceptions to the rule.
                  So many personal opinions.
                  Does DAWless mean screen-less or monitor-less, or mouse-less, or timeline-less, or PC-less, or editing MIDI-less.
                  If you run an Ableton session only using and looking at the Push 2 is that DAWless?
                  If you intricately edit MIDI and copy and paste sections in a Hapax or a Dirtywave M8 is that DAWless?
                  If you work in an operating theatre does your UDO Super 6 remind you of work :p ?
                  If you use an iPad at work then run Boderlands on it at home, is that DAWless?

                  1. I mean, let’s not overcomplicate the things that are simple. DAWless setup means without a DAW. So:
                    – If you run an Ableton session only using and looking at the Push 2 is that DAWless? -> No, it’s not DAWless, because Ableton Live is a DAW.
                    – If you intricately edit MIDI and copy and paste sections in a Hapax or a Dirtywave M8 is that DAWless? -> Yes, it is DAWless, because an M8 is not a DAW.
                    – If you work in an operating theatre does your UDO Super 6 remind you of work :p ? -> No.
                    – If you use an iPad at work then run Boderlands on it at home, is that DAWless? -> If you use just Borderlands, and not any DAW in the iPad then yes, it is DAWless because Borderlands is not a DAW.

                    Regarding being sustainable and environmental friendly and still having studio gear, it is doable. I have bought second hand gear for my studio for 20 years now, everything except for a couple of things that will actually survive me. At first it was because I was broke, but now it is because I am super broke and concerned about the planet.

  9. I can see that Thomann already have them on pre-order 🙂 [But honstly, I have already too much gear]

  10. Worked in a studio that had a prophet 600. Loved how crunchy it sounded. cannot fathom why they didn’t opt to upgrade the buttons to proper discrete buttons and not the horrible membrane.

  11. “Knockoff” is officially a category tag at synthtopia.

    I clicked it and they are all behringer posts 😀

      1. No, as stated, I am just now figuring out that Synthtopia has a “knockoff” category for their posts.

        The Korg Oddyssey and 2600 are somehow spared from this categorization, though.

        1. “The Korg Oddyssey and 2600 are somehow spared from this categorization, though.”

          The Korg ARP Odyssey and 2600 are official reissues, made with the involvement of ARP co-founder David Friend. That’s why they say “ARP” on them.

          The Korg ARP Odyssey and 2600 are also not designed to be cheap copies (which should be obvious based on their price!). They’re reissues that designed to be as close as possible to the original – and just about everybody agrees that they succeeded.

          These differences are obvious to all, as is the fact that Behringer’s entire line is cheap copies of other company’s products. I’d consider them good cheap copies, but definitely cheap copies.

          1. Price is rarely indicative of quality, especially when half of it is marketing costs being passed on to the consumer. Arguing who made a copy better is a moot point–synth companies have copied each other’s designs from the golden age of analog well into digital and softsynths, yet somehow a company who makes a $10k table gets lauded as an innovator and the one selling analog synths at a price accessible to us members of the lower classes gets grouped into the age old “China makes junk”
            trope. Kirkland exists for the same reason Behringer does, and I don’t see either going anywhere

            Erica has been ripping off vintage gear since their inception but rarely gets criticized because they make it more-black and, most importantly, more expensive. Michigan Synth Works ripped off the sys-1 to a standing ovation. There are probably more knockoffs of Mutable’s designs than real ones. This just scratches the surface, but if you want to take a deeper dive, look at almost every FX pedal on the market.

            Uli is not a nice human, so if you hate the company because he has Bond villain energy, then that’s fine, but they do make quality products considering half of the designs they’re copying had serious QC issues to begin with, and they’re using the same cheap plastic and wobbly knobs that were on the originals.

            1. So much stupid in this comment, it’s hard to tell where to start.

              Nobody said “China makes junk” or that Korg is the second coming of Jesus. The OP mentioned that Behringer makes knockoffs and you’re leaving butthurt comments because you, like everybody, knows thats a factual statement, but you still don’t like it.

              Erica synth does’t ripoff anybody, unless you think that all Eurorack synths are ripoffs. Take a look at the original Eurorack line, Doepfer, and it’s full of synth modules that are based on vintage synths. They don’t Xerox old synths, though.

              You can’t ‘knockoff’ Mutable Instruments designs. They’re open source, so clones are encouraged.

              1. Well you got me there. I thought the SNTRX, Bassline, and Bass Drum 2 seemed familiar, but I must have stupid coming out the ears.

                1. The syntrx may look like vcs3 but its only inspired by it’s look, the circuits are completely different so same approach but completely different instrument.
                  Same with erica bassline, it’s not trying to be a 303 and not advertise as a cheap copy (=knockoff) it’s doesn’t even resemble a 303.
                  The bassline have some inspiration from the 909 kick circuits but it’s completely different and it’s a module, not part of a drum machine and not intended to replace a 909 so it’s not even comparable.
                  If you making cheap copies of other product and advertised them as a copy of the original it’s called a knockoff, simple.

            2. “Half of it is marketing costs being passed on to the consumer.”

              Not that simple.

              You’re ignoring the significant cost of R&D and the high costs of salaries in Europe or the USA. Behringer gear is cheap because (1) low cost semi-skilled labor, (2) cheap local components, (3) they copy other people’s popular stuff, (4) they exploit youtube influencers to sell the product, and (5) sell through massive retailers to minimize dealer markups.

              It’s all about maximizing market share and profit while making it extremely difficult for established manufacturers to compete.

              1. I honestly agree with everything you’ve said but we probably disagree on how “bad” that practice is. A visit to Andrew Huang’s channel or the Moog Worker’s Union tells me that Behringer isn’t the only synth manufacturer with “problems” (1) and (3), and the rest is just capitalism; love it or hate it, there will always be a market for these companies (i.e., the Kirkland model). Heck, Teenage Engineering still has me blocked on Instagram because I said their table was overpriced and uninspired.

                If Behringer went out of business tomorrow, many of your favorite synth manufacturers could as well. Behringer ordering for 50k+ devices each run keeps components nice and cheap for everyone, not to mention keeping the cult of analog full of members who can’t afford more expensive devices *right now.

                I feel you on competition though; it always hurts to see a smaller group of folks making awesome synths go out of business, but I won’t group Korg in with them until they learn how to deliver timely updates on their products 😉

                1. I’m not sure you understand just how tiny the music industry is. Behringer ordering parts for 50,000 synths is miniscule. As an example, STM sells tens of millions of processors a month and discrete component manufacturers like Vishay sell *billions* of parts per year.. Behringer’s demand is next to nothing. They most certainly don’t “keep components nice and cheap.”

                  The cold truth is that the money earned by selling 50,000 Pro-800s is money that won’t be spent elsewhere in the industry. That’s bad news for manufacturers small and large.

                2. “Heck, Teenage Engineering still has me blocked on Instagram because I said their table was overpriced and uninspired.”

                  i find it hard to believe, there are many other who express this opinion and not been blocked, maybe you want over the top?

                  “If B went out of business tomorrow, many of your favorite synth manufacturers could as well. Behringer ordering for 50k devices each run keeps components nice and cheap for everyone”

                  Nonsense, ordering parts for synthesizers does not impact the price of electronic parts. Copying others products and offer cheap knockoff for “everyone” hurts other brands from developing new products and degrading the synth market. It doesn’t help anyone.

              2. I’ll also add that I’ve had many Chinese students in my classroom over the years and they are anything but semi-skilled at the work they do.

                  1. Oh, definitely, but I think that would be true of any mass produced good. Companies like Death by Audio and BSTL are rare these days. BASTL has done some interesting stuff over the years to stay competitive, specifically their incredible sale last holiday season. I think that’s a happy middle ground for a small company like that–offer a heavily discounted price for folks who are fine waiting for it to come, and in doing so all of your components come cheaper with the higher volume, plus you get your small team focused on one run at a time assembly line style.

          2. The Korg Arp Odyssey with its miniature size is a better build quality? It has the exact same super cheapo keybed as the Korg MS-20 mini and the same level of construction quality. It does, however, cost more. So, that’s worth thr ARP name?

            1. You’re changing the subject because you’re unable to respond intelligently to my previous statements. Sad!

              1. Exactly how is that changing the subject? You wrote that the Korg Arp products are better quality and the price reflects it. Again, exactly how is that changing the subject?

                1. “You wrote that the Korg Arp products are better quality and the price reflects it. ”

                  No I didn’t. You’re just making up shit that you want to take issue with.

                  I said that Behringer makes “good cheap copies, but definitely cheap copies,” which most people would agree with.

                  And I said that Korg is making “reissues that designed to be as close as possible to the original”. Most people would agree that’s the case with their full-size 2600 & Odyssey reissues.

                  Whether or not you think a reissue is better quality or a knockoff is a better value gets into personal choice. But it’s just BS to pretend that the Korg ARP 2600 is not a hardcore attempt to reissue the original, or to suggest that Behringer didn’t cut an ass-ton of corners in making their 2600 knockoff.

                  1. This is exactly what you wrote:

                    “The Korg ARP Odyssey and 2600 are also not designed to be cheap copies (which should be obvious based on their price!). They’re reissues that designed to be as close as possible to the original – and just about everybody agrees that they succeeded.”

                    You then wrote:

                    “These differences are obvious to all, as is the fact that Behringer’s entire line is cheap copies of other company’s products. I’d consider them good cheap copies, but definitely cheap copies”

                    Ask 100 hundred random people on the street: Would you agree that the author of the words above is saying that Behringer products are cheap and that the Korg ARP products are better quality (i.e., not cheap) and the price reflects it. 100 out of 100 would say yes, that is what the author is saying.

                    You never wrote “full-size” anything in your original post. Now you’re changing your narrative.

                    The fact is that the Korg ARP Odyssey mini, with mini keys, was not inexpensive and has a cheapo keybed and construction quality on par with their MS-20 mini (which is certainly not high end).

                    1. Dude – you’re arguing that cheap means low quality to everybody, while also arguing that cheap does not mean low quality.

                      Just give it up unless you have an intelligent comment to make.

                      And do you really take issue with my statement that Behringer makes good cheap copies, but that’s not what Korg is trying to do with their reissues? I’d expect anybody to be smart enough to recognize that.

                    2. Hey, where is Torgood’s May 3, 2023 at 6:16 pm reply button? When / if a reply button shows up, I will respond to his repeatedly changing his tune and ignoring the issue and his repeated use of ad hominem arguments rather than dealing with the topic.

  12. A P-600 was my first real poly, so I have mixed feelings, but up mine, the design is good at its root. Yeah, membrane switches are a dubious thing where there should have been real buttons. On the plus side, the sound is very close to the original, so its hard for me not to like it as a good central poly, especially for EDM-minded players. Their gear is more often mono or 2/4-voiced. I’m going to squint hard enough to ignore the B logo and call this a welcome, practical new goodie. Its also a whopper of a stocking stuffer, at that price.

    Also, is Trey writing like a thalidomide baby or is it just me? 😛

    2. I agree that Trey is nuts, but what’s with the Thalidomide joke?? Do you also make fun of people crippled by Polio? Absolutely brutal.

  13. I love Behringer synthesizers. With time, I would like to complete all his products, but it will take time ?, and as for connoisseurs of original synthesizers – well – for an ordinary listener, the end result counts and it is completely irrelevant what equipment you use?
    I’m looking forward to the pro-800 ?

  14. I love Behringer synthesizers. With time, I would like to complete all his products, but it will take time ?, and as for connoisseurs of original synthesizers – well – for an ordinary listener, the end result counts and it is completely irrelevant what equipment you use?
    I’m looking forward to the pro-800 ?

  18. In addition to being a great instrument on its own, the Prophet-600 was famously the first synth to feature MIDI.

  19. It simply doesn’t sound that great. Maybe in 1982. But it seems liked a dated sound to me. I’ll take a 901 over that horn sounding mess anyway.

  20. To all the plaintiffs lawyers prosecuting the case against Bearinger, will you please identify your client by name. I’m happy to listen to someone having an actionable legal position. The rest of you are wasting precious oxygen. Absent legal action, new product is judged by the market. Since I doubt you can buy stock in Bearinger or their parent company, I guess you were out of luck. t. It’s great if Bearinger can provide something that satisfies a need for nostalgia or current demand. Otherwise, why would they do it?

  22. Even though I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do with it, I ordered one from Sweetwater the other day. Depending on how it sounds I may replace my Prophet 6 with it.

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