Shut Up & Play: Sounds Of The Behringer Wave Synthesizer

Synthesist Tom Noise shared this ‘shut up and play’ style video demo of the new Behringer Wave synthesizer:

The Behringer Wave is a knockoff of the classic PPG Wave, a hybrid wavetable synthesizer from the ’80s.

The Behringer Wave copies the PPG Wave 2.2, a hybrid synth, originally released in the early ’80s. Like the original, Behringer’s copy combines wavetable oscillators, which offer a much wider range of waveforms than traditional analog oscillators – with analog VCFs and VCAs.

Pricing and Availability:

The Behringer Wave is now shipping from the factory, with a street price of $599 USD.

Note: It typically takes at least a month, after it starts shipping, for new Behringer synths to be available at its ‘super partners’ retailers.

13 thoughts on “Shut Up & Play: Sounds Of The Behringer Wave Synthesizer”

  1. It seems like it has no preset names (judging from the display), much like the original did.
    Though I’d be surprised if there isn’t a preset name somewhere in the menus.

    I could never understand that on the original 2/2.2/2.3 – Palm gave way for more or less not so useful information for normal use on the display, like MIDI, tune (440Hz) and cassette status (even 15 characters or so on the 2.3 reserved to say it was in 2.2 or 2.3 mode!), which could IMHO easily had been a different menu item.

    Not something that’s gonna keep me awake at night, just an observation, though.

    1. i prefer numbers. and doing everything from scratch anyway. looking forward to getting the Wave soon. maybe a LMdrum too now that they’re announced. i didn’t preoirder the DM, i have an original linndrum i don’t use already. lol.

  4. To smoothen out some of the digital vibe I used to rund my PPG Wave 2.2. through a Roland Dimension-D (my friends and I didn’t like digital sound back in the 80’s). There is one feature however, that I miss from my old Wave 2.2. – that may be a reason to get a Behringer Wave – i.e. the ability to spread out the wavetable over the keyboard. When doing this I could come up with pretty novel rythmic patterns by just playing quite normal. Also – I looked into the Behringer Wave manual, and the included sequencer is nothing like the PPG sequencer. Sure it was quirky, but when the patterns were all well programmed and loaded – you could use the synths knobs to mix the various voices. This was fun when doing chords, because you could change the chord by mixing the various voices inn (add a 7th… and so on).

    1. Why do you care? Are you the CEO of Arturia?

      I own a MiniFreak and a MicroFreak and I’m all for them cloning the world and bringing affordable synths and grooveboxes to people in my tax bracket.

      Why do you seek to stifle my happiness?!? What kind of person are you?

      Oh… I know… the evil elitist kind who will throw IP in our faces when it’s convenient to your argument, while supporting organizations like OpenAI.

      Uli, I’d love an Octatrack or a Digitakt II. Can you do a one-to-one exact Digitakt II for about $500.00?!?

      Gods… these people!!

      1. I mean yes, absolutely.
        But you have to admit, there’s a difference between the £90 JT Mini letting me have the same as that guy with a £35,000 irreplaceable, out of manufacture Jupiter-8 and Arturia, who first made a synth in 2009.
        And still makes everything but their very earliest offerings.
        And anything they don’t make has a newer better interpretation that they do
        If I were Arturia, that would annoy me. Imagine if Arturia struggled financially due to cheap clones. That would annoy ME, I love Arturia’s stuff. As do you!
        That being said, do they really? I’ve not heard of a Behringer Arturia clone.
        You’d think that would be news worthy.

        UPDATE:
        Turns out yes.
        The Behringer swing is a clone of the Arturia Keystep.
        A $150 midi keyboard and sequencer from Arturia still in production.

        That is absolutely not acceptable and should be classed as IP infringement.
        Unless you think it’s frightfully important to bring that $150 controller into the $50 range of the Behringer swing.

        Surely you agree that’s not right?

    1. Behringer now produces more synths and electronic music gear than any other company, and their product introductions are obviously newsworthy to electronic musicians, as a result.

  8. I can’t maintain B-hate anymore. Waste of time & energy. Someone(s) always make a splash by selling cheap. If you’re wrestling with bills or a kid starting out, a $200-600 synth can be a golden find when you’re dreaming of one that’s $4K. What if someone gets several good years from B-gear that serves their studio? Few of us ever start with a Schmidt.

    Making it simpler with softsynths is working for me now. Its often more potent than hardware and my studio isn’t so hot, I can fry an egg over a power supply. Different strokes.

    1. I love Behringer for affordable clones of 80s unicorn synths.
      I’ve also just found that they’ve cloned Arturia’s KeyStep, a $150 controller for $50.
      If you can afford $50 for one, you can save for a few months, that’s some pretty gross barely-not-ip-infringement (´ ?`)
      Behringer needs to learn some manners.

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