Behringer today introduced the Grind, a new synth design in their Producer Series line, which includes the Crave & Edge synthesizers.
While the Crave & Edge are knockoffs of Moog designs, the Behringer Grind is ‘mashup’ design. The Grind takes their Crave synth (based on the Mother-32) and replaces the analog synth voice with a hybrid voice based on their Brains Eurorack module (itself based on the Mutable Instruments Plaits).
The key difference is that the Grind offers 24 oscillator options, going far beyond the limited waveform options typically available on analog synths.
The hybrid synth engine gives the Grind a much broader range of sound possibilities. The Grind intro video showcases sounds that range from traditional subtractive synth sounds to wavetable sounds to 303-style baseline riffs.
Behringer Grind Demo Video:
Features:
- Hybrid synthesizer with multi-engine digital oscillator and analog filter
- Capable of wide range of sounds, including percussion, leads, basses & drums
- 24 digital oscillators, including 15 Mutable Instruments Plaits engines
- Synthesis models designed for pitched sounds like ripping leads, lush chords and ethereal pads
- 10 synth engines: Virtual Analog, Waveshaper, FM, Grains, Additive, Chords, Speech, Karplus, Hypersaw and Wavetable
- 10 percussion and noise engines: Rain, Noise, Dust, Modal Strings, FM Drum, Bass, Snare, Hi Hat, Cowbell and Tom
- 4 extended engines: DX7, TD-3 Bassline, Wave Generator and Vox
- Oscilloscope mode to monitor any input signal
- Multi-functional Timbre and Harmonics controls
- Morph control to seamlessly change the character of the selected sound sources
- Classic 24 dB ladder filter with resonance
- Switchable low/high pass filter mode for enhanced sound creation
- 32-step sequencer with 64 onboard storage slots
- Arpeggiator with wide patterns for great sound effects
- Analog triangle/square wave LFO
- 16-voice Poly Chain allows combining multiple synthesizers for up to 16 voice polyphony
- Semi-modular design with default routings requires no patching for immediate performance
- 22 x 12 I/O matrix for flexible patching options
- 50 controls give you direct and real-time access to important parameters
- MIDI support
Pricing and Availability:
The Behringer Grind is priced at $199 and is shipping from the factory. Availability at retailers typically follows within 1-2 months.
If Behringer makes an ALL-DIGITAL synth, it should cost $40
Pricing police ova here.
It’s not. The oscillator section is. The rest is analog.
Do you mean like a JT-4000?
If it has CV control over parameters then that part at least is analogue
And to think, they left the name Crains right on the table!
Crains it is – from this day forward 🙂
Mash up? Where does mash up design come from?
Its a hybrid design based on brains digital oscillator section and analogue signal payh from the Crave. Edge and Spice.
“Crains” would be hilarious, but “Brave” is perfect. :))
I vote for “Grave”
“Brined”?
Wow what an awesome synth and at this price point it will really put music making into the hands of people that can’t afford those expensive synths.
That comment almost sounds like something a real person would say.
I wonder if this strike at the east ports will delay things like this from shiping to the US?
Stuff from China is typically shipped via the west coast.
This is what I’d like to more of from Behringer. More original ideas.
Yes, the basic platform is built on Plaits. However, this is actually a really clever interpretation / utilisation of it.
It’s also seems quite a swiss army knife of a synth. This one desktop synth could free up a lot of rack space.
I’ll obviously reserve judgement until I see / hear more (and being Behringer it probably won’t be shipping until 2026 anyway!), but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.
Nice
Any word on polyphony or preset memory?
From the article:
“16-voice Poly Chain allows combining multiple synthesizers for up to 16 voice polyphony”
I take this to mean that each unit is monophonic.
No idea about patch memories on board. I found nothing in the quick start guide or other info on the product page.
There are “chord modes” in the Plaits algorithms
Maybe not true polyphony but fun and useful nonetheless
The video shows an example of this. It’s not real polyphony, it’s like tuning three oscillators to chord intervals and then running it through a single filter and VCA.
My main disappointment is that this isn’t named “Zombie.”
Its a clever design overall, especially the oscillator section. My main issue would be the jacks. I don’t expect B* to put 1/4″ jacks everywhere, thereby raising the price, but lesser options don’t hold up over time if you do a lot of patching. That’s a large part of the Grind’s mission, sooo… Its another example of why I went all-DAW. No patch cord madness.
So are you saying you think the 3.5mm patch bay, which is eurorack standard, is too small?
A clever idea, right, but not so much a clever design. They kept the very basic analog LFO which seems silly for a synth boasting a digital VCO that begs to be modulated. They should have replaced it by dual digital LFOs with lots more waveforms and that would have made it so much more powerful. The Microfreak is not that much more expensive, especially on the used market today.
The MicroFreak is one of the best bang for the buck synths ever made.
Except it has major volume/gain staging issues that prevents it from sitting in the mix with something like a Moog.
On a separate note, it seems silly not to make this 4 voices and a direct microfreak competitor.
Struggling to understand what exactly a “digital VCO” is?”
I think a voltage-controlled digital oscillator (ie you can patch cv’s to control it’s frequency etc) could be called a digital vco. It’s not unreasonable.
If you have brains already and a modular System, you dont need the grind, but for All others it is useful.
Looks like competition for the MicroFreak – but without the para-phony? (other than the chord mode oscillator).
Still, interesting, in particular for all the modular modulation options.
EmDee: So are you saying you think the 3.5mm patch bay, which is eurorack standard, is too small?
Oops! My mistake. I could have sworn they were RCA jacks and not hardy enough for that job. Eurorack is the smart choice for things in this range, as well as many others. You can take the hardware Moog out of the boy, but he’s still going to reflexively think in 1/4″ part of the time. So… oops.
Very tempting!
Thinking of selling the neutron and the td-3 and getting the grind and have a bit more desk space and maybe a bit more immediate inspiration moment captures
Fit for service.
Only complaint is that it is monophonic….for a digital synth, that is icky.
I am no B fan, but for the price (which is utterly stupid) I could use it to feed sampled sounds into my V-Synth and create a slew of fodder for new patches.