Pro-16 from Behringer

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

A few days ago i posted the first announcement of the Behringer Pro-16 in this thread. I made comment on it being like the Sequential Prophet 5 and 10, with 16 voices.

The news today from Behringer has made me decide this now deserves its own thread.

It indeed has 16 voices, but it is also multi-timbral ! That certainly distinguishes this from the two Sequential products. It won’t be available for “many months” but sounds firm in it being a product. They also include photos of the internal boards.

Looking at this it appears that a smaller, less expensive 8 voice version might be possible. (I really appreciate Behringer showing so many internal photos of their products.)

More in this SynthAnatomy article:

No doubt more details on this is coming in the next few months.

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The Behringer Gear-in-progress Thread
#2

Begun, the clone wars have

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#3

The Clone War Thread with that in mind here is.

EDIT: Yoda translation.

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#4

It’ll be interesting to see how well this sort of thing does, because I’d imagine it’s still going to cost a fair wedge (I’d be very surprised it it comes in under a grand) and, with the Prophet 5 and 10 being going concerns, feels a little more than cheeky.

Also, I think a lot of people that buy Prophets are doing it because they want an actual Prophet. There’s more to owning one than just the sound it makes, which is probably less true for a lot of the cheaper clones. It kinda feels a little bit like trying to sell a knock off Ferrari. I think they knew that it would have to offer something over and above a simple clone, hence the voice count and mulit-timbrality, I guess.

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#5

The speculation on price i’ve seen was £800, or something around $1100 USD.

BTW: Those knock off Ferraris are a lot of fun.

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#6

There’s something about this that really bothers me. I have so much respect and gratitude towards Sequential and what they’ve put out through the years. This one just feels so ignorant and inconsiderate.

I don’t mind clones of stuff that’s long gone or where devs don’t want to return to their legacy. But ripping off something that’s out and about? It just feels wrong. Especially when done to legacy bearers like Dave Smith.

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The Clone War - Behringer. Good or Bad?
#7

Agree. And it looks like a Frankenstein’s monster of Behringer spare parts

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#8

With 16 (and possibly 8) voices, multi-timbrality and the eventual price, this seems way more targeted at taking out the Rev2 market :frowning:

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#9

I’d be very surprised if it’s more than bitimbral

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#10

Yeah I’m in this camp. Behringer are just cloning everything and that’s fine by me obviously but I would definitely save more and get a Prophet 5.

Out of curiosity, are they doing a good job in sounding like the synths they’re cloning?

#11

I’m the same. I’m not against making things accessible or cheaper or cloning classics etc.

I just think the blatant way they choose to go about it shows a complete lack of respect for the very legacies that they rely on to market their products.

I just choose not to buy their stuff. I would never criticise others for choosing to do so though. But the whole ‘can’t complain for the price’ ethos isn’t for me.

Will be funny when they start doing ‘premium’ or ‘producer’ versions with high quality pro spec parts etc. I’m telling you. It’s gonna happen.

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#12

Yeah, they’ve got some really good engineers on their books, a lot of their stuff does sound really decent. Not perfect, but usually pretty decent.

I’m not really that bothered about the cloning part of their business (their PR machine is a different story) but I think this one feels like a reach too far. I’m probably wrong though, it’ll likely go like shit off a shovel if it’s under a grand and sounds right.

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#13

Looking at the picture, they seem to be using polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) film capacitors with each separate voice instead of cheaper ceramic capacitors, just like the upgrade they made between the two 2600 synths.

The economies that comes with Behringer, at least in the last few years, has more to do with them having top notch manufacture engineering, and their choice of having much smaller profit markups, rather than using shoddy or cheap parts.

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#14

I have the Pro One. I didn’t get all OCD on the B vs. S Pro One vids, but in the one or two that I checked out, the resemblance is close enough.

I should note though I’ve never owned the vintage Pro One.

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#15

I think you’re very likely correct. The whole problem of control from the keyboard is enough of a reason to think so. Yet even being bitimbral, with a split 61 key keyboard, is a significant step up.

#17

Can we keep the hate to the hate thread and things about this product on this thread? I am getting a bit tired of seeing all B threads turning into dumpster fires. We get it.

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#19

Oh don’t get me wrong, I meant ‘pro’ totally as a marketing gimmick on higher priced items.

Not as some kind of remark about whether or not their current products use quality parts or not

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#20

The amount of interest they’ve put Deepminds versus the copies has me doubtful.

They could! But they have yet not expressed much interest.

#21

Indeed.
Please, people, keep the B-bashing for the thread bellow.

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#22

the Rev2 is a WAY better buy, even though it’s more (if the $1k-ish price is accurate). you get so much great stuff with the price difference: sequencer, arpeggiator, three more LFO’s, effects, a sub oscillator, another envelope, tons of mod slots, etc… and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting. I’d say it’s aimed squarely at the Prophet; it’s even got the three revisions built into it. and they’d better do something special if they want to try and compete with the Prophet 5/10’s vintage mod. that’s really quite something.

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