Behringer today shared a preview of their upcoming copy of the Elka Synthex, an 8-voice DCO polysynth design from 1981.
The Behringer STX appears to be a fairly straight copy of the Synthex’s design, but reduced to fit into Behringer’s 4-octave Deepmind 12 form factor.
Here’s what the company has to say about it:
“The Elka Synthex, a synthesizer from the early 1980s, is cherished for its rich, warm sound and unique character. Musicians like Jean-Michel Jarre and Duran Duran have used it to create iconic tracks, solidifying its place in music history.
Designed by Mario Maggi and produced by the Italian company Elka, the Synthex has a storied past.
At Behringer, we’re working to revive the Elka Synthex with a dedicated team of top-notch R&D engineers in Italy, where the original was created. Using original DCO oscillators and advanced Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), we’re able to replicate the original circuitry and signal paths, capturing the essence of its distinctive sound.
Our goal is to make the classic sound of the Elka Synthex available to today’s musicians, combining its vintage appeal with modern technology. This passion project aims to respect the legacy of the Synthex while providing the enhancements needed for contemporary use.”
Behringer hasn’t shared any official specs yet, but based on the images that they’ve shared, it looks like the key changes are the addition of MIDI, and shrinking the synth down to fit into one of Behringer’s standard formats, losing an octave off the keyboard in the process.
Pricing and Availability:
Details on pricing and availability for the Behringer STX are to be announced, but the company says that “This ‘labor of love’ project will take lots of time, but it’ll be worth the wait.”
Oh no, not another full set keyboard…no space….
Hell yes…another full set keyboard to fill my big empty space dedicated to synths!?
It would be cool if Behringer said, “Oh, by the way, it will be available next week.”
Not six years. Not six months. Not “Hot New Item- On The Way”
i love knowing what to plan to spend money on years in advance. it’s an adult thing, i know. kidding gotta have their suprises.
fwiw, this one is not on my list.
I speculate is part of the marketing campaign. In deed it is exciting that any company shares their products……it will be sad the day that we don’t have any news on future of possible synths. IMHO
I wonder if they use the same sound engine / chips hardware as in their other products and this is just another behringer in another jacket. Do Behringer products all sound the same? I’ve had the Neutron and it was fun but I’m wondering if this thing sounds the same as the other “remakes”?
People can criticize Behringer for relentlessly copying other company’s products, but they’ve have gotten really good at doing it.
Behringer is generally pretty OCD in the way that they copy the circuits of old synths. So, even when they shrink a Minimoog down to a $300 module, the circuits copy the original design closely and the result sounds good.
There are definitely examples of where they’ve missed the mark on this, but there are a lot of people happy with the way their Behringer synths sound.
Behringer also has a ton of experience in knowing where to cut corners to make gear cheap to manufacture, and they make smart decisions about what to change.
For example, the STX chops an octave off the keyboard and is a lot less deep, front to back, than the original Synthex. It’s definitely a change and a compromise, but it makes the copy much smaller than the original, making it much cheaper to manufacture and cheaper to ship around the world.
Behringer also standardizes their form factors to get economies of scale. This one looks like it’s going to follow the DM12 form factor. So they’re not just shrinking the synth down, they’re making it fit into an existing form-factor, so they can get economies of scale on case parts, the end cheeks, their packing material, etc. This means the STX instrument will be physically less like the original, but way cheaper to manufacturer.
Again, you are totally spot on dear Sir. .I used to had one. Sold it for 5k back in 2010.. Wish i had kept it, since This is one of those rare synths people like me, keep praised the analog lord, this synth sound is amazing (could be a fair contender against the wonderful Jupiter 8). However on this specifically synth, all the glide and lush sound are almost impossible or hard to replicate on a digital synth.
PS thanks for taking the time keeping us synth-heads posted!
no they don’t. any of it.
As a retired electrónica engineer. And having several of the ‘big’ full keyboard synths from Behringer I.e. (deepmind 12 size), I can attest that the hardware is different on each one of them. I guess is one of the reasons it takes so many time to build/clone each of their projects from the ground up.
All Behringer synths sound different from one another. They all are reengineered not copied. This means they spend an outrageous amount of time and energy to recreate them from the ground up based on the originals but with modern analog parts and technology. Some parts are even recreated by them because not available anymore. This one like all other recreations will sound as close as it gets to the original. The notion of a Behringer sound does not exist
The Synthex is such a unicorn, its hard to debate. I’ve never touched a real one, but I jumped at Cherry Audio’s Elka-X. Its a one-to-one recreation, plus CA’s effects. I love the DCOs. It also offers the original’s 4-slot sequencer. I like having the full compliment of features.
I’m curious to see how people respond after B’s Obie and this one have been in use for a while. Owners of the originals will start commenting on the contrasts. Until then, it’ll remain synth swamp gas.
i dont know much about this one… it looks like some kind of alternate universe Prophet
my friend had the original,its an iconic piece but absolutely impossible to spend that money who has that amount for a synth!, if this comes close, it could be a great piece of kit:)
Uli, please kill this trend with less than 5 octave keyboards, make a desktop/rack for those who don’t need keys, and 5 octaves for us who do care!
“Using original DCO oscillators and FPGAs …”
FPGAs?
this is not the real thing. It’s just a DSP simulation.
no, FPGA’s original use was logic consolidation to reduce parts and circuit area. this has nothing to do with DSP, it’s cost reduction.
this add says nothing about 8 multimode filters,
instead they choose to talk about FPGAs.
Who knows?
“capturing the essence of its distinctive sound.”
sounds like DCOs & DSP to me?
Instead of digging up old school processors of the type used in the original Synthex, they will use FPGAs. All old more elaborate analogue synths uses some type of CPU for logic operations…
The Synthex is another of numerous CEM-based synths (filter). In my book it’s the fx section that makes it stand a little out compared to its contemporaries. I am not that interested in this synth, more modern designs seems to be better to me. I am quite sure Behringer will get the DCO’s right. By now they have quite a reputation of getting the sound where it should be (starting with their Model-D). Flogging out numerous synths during the last years it’s no longer about affordability, but how much space one have to spare in ones studio. I recon it’s about time to think of rackmountable «clones». And yes – I agree with the critisism on the number of keys. 5 octaves is a minimum on polys. I know it will rise the price somewhat, but hey – we’re supposed to be able to play these things.