Behringer Intros Radar Contact & Pickup Mic For Eurorack Modular Synthesizers

Behringer today introduced Radar, a contact and pickup mic module for Eurorack modular synthesizers.

Though we don’t see any mention of this on their site, the Behringer Radar appears to be closely based on the Mutable Instruments & Music Thing Modular Ears module.

Here’s what Behringer has to say about it:

“The RADAR sports a pickup microphone placed right underneath the surface of the module. Simply tapping or scratching the textured surface will convert those into signals that can be patched into any module of your choice to create ambient, echoey sound effects, creepy bangs or any sound you can imagine!

The pickup on the RADAR is even sensitive enough to capture any surrounding acoustic waves be it a knock on your modular case, a snare hit from your drummer or even sounds coming out of loudspeakers. Those sounds can then be converted into gate or envelope signals and tweaked with the Gate Sensitivity or Attack and Decay controls respectively.”

Features:

  • Pickup microphone to generate wide range of sonic pulses and impulse combs
  • Create unique sounds by scratching and tapping the RADAR surface
  • Collect acoustic waves surrounding your modular case including loudspeakers
  • Connect external microphones, electro-acoustic instruments such as guitars or line-level signals
  • Amplifier with up to 50 dB of gain for a wide range of signal sources
  • 3 indicator LEDs to monitor input clipping, envelope follower level, and gate detector activity
  • Gate detector with 3 sensitivity levels translates taps into gate signals
  • Envelope follower with 3 attack and release times converts tap profile into an envelope CV
  • 4 controls and switches give you real-time access to important parameters
  • Eurorack specs: 6 HP,10 mA +12 V, 5 mA -12 V

Pricing and Availability:

The Behringer Radar is shipping from their factory now, with a list price of $79 USD.

41 thoughts on “Behringer Intros Radar Contact & Pickup Mic For Eurorack Modular Synthesizers”

        1. Music Thing Modular releases most devices under a CC BY-SA license. That requires anyone using their designs to attribute the source and release their design under the same license as the original.

          If a company or person fails to do that, they’re in violation of the license terms. I’m too lazy to look at the Mutable site, but I expect it has similar terms.

          Open source does *not* mean “take it, tweak it and make it closed source for profit.”

          1. So Behringer basically rips them off and provides no credit because the company has better lawyers than small Euro makers?

            1. Google “Creative Commons cc-by-sa 3.0 license”

              Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

              ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

    2. As well you should. Open source isn’t for vanity projects. It’s intent is to share, and be used. some children never learn sharing. sad.

      1. The critical thing about open source is that it should stay open source. The intent is to share knowledge, not to provide designs that massive companies use to make close-sourced products for profit.

  3. There they go again b-ear-ringer sendin’ in the clowns & knocking off another one of their clones insidiously from poor Mutable who’s not even in biz anymore what a damn shame folks

    1. I don’t think insidious means what you think it does.
      There’s nothing gradual or subtle about Behringer’s clone project.
      I mean, come on, you’ve been crying over them for a couple of years now.

  4. People are complaining about this being a “knockoff” but I’m not sure even Mutable Instruments was the first company to make a contact mic style module. Even so, the Behringer has more functionality (envelope follower, attack and decay time) which is not something that has been done before with this style of module, to my knowledge. This is far from the most egregious example of Behringer knocking off modules and synths.

    1. Not the most egregious, but I’d rather not give Behringer a pass regardless. Taken as a whole, I their business model is ultimately predatory. It reminds me of Uber: Price the competition out of business and then jack up the prices, rewarding only the investors. Uber as a service is not nearly as good as it used to be for riders AND it’s drivers because they own the market. It’s a too common investment strategy these days.

    2. Anybody that’s seen a Mutable Ears can tell that this is a straight copy. The Ears had an Envelope follower, too, and the exact same functionality.

      All that Behringer has done is bring Ear’s jumper settings to the front panel and make the build quality worse. (ie, cutting corners by eliminating panel washers and jacks).

      Ears is licensed Hardware: cc-by-sa-3.0. All the license asks is that you give creators credit and that you share any derivative works like this was shared.

      Behringer should do what all legit companies that build on open source projects do – credit the creators and share any derivative designs. Behringer clearly thinks that they can skirt their responsibilities because they’re a big company with lawyers and deep pockets.

      1. Here you are virtue signaling about not virtue signaling. Sending hugs John you seem to be constantly butt hurt on here, it’s not good for you, break the cycle, you can do it!

        1. Thanks. My one-year follow up tests came up clean. So I’m mainly dealing with the side effects of treatment (surgery, chemo, radiation & surgery – ugh!).

  8. I can’t believe they went after loopop recently, you’d think w all their money they might explore new creations instead of ripping off small companies like arturia and xaoc. I own a deep mind 12 and it’s a really lovely instrument, based off the juno of course but so good. I respect reviving old designs but when you rip the small guys it’s not cool

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *