The Behringer era

Good points all.

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Right. And afaik Korg has not faced bad behavior allegations.

If all the poor creatives want a sweet semimod but made under strong labor regulations the market will respond.

What are you still doing here? Tidy up your place!

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Lol I’m working around the charging station :sunglasses:

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I think it is safe to say that anyone buying a luxury item such as a synth can indeed vote with their wallet, whether they choose to or not is entirely up to them though.

I like cheap gear and I like stuff that isn’t as cheap too, I’m far from wealthy.

Also, I see that some of the people here would rather see the machines being cloned to be forgotten and fade away.
So they would be used only by a few rich collectors. They are good designs, nobody else wanted to do anything with them. Is it not better for more musicians to have the opportunity to do music using classics? Or should the design die with their “righful” owners so nobody can use them if they cant make a lot of money from it?

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When I started electronic music, the question of ethics would not even pop up: all I needed was cheap gear that sounds good enough “just to try”. And get me addicted before I knew it, of course.


I think @konputa’s remark about an “unserved market” is really accurate. And this unserved market is, IMO, actual 10 times larger crowd of 6-strings and mono-out stomp boxes addicts !

Even Elektron created Analog Drive with such logic in mind.
But they got it wrong : they should have done a multiFX+drive box with looper/sequencer that can record without a computer. Maybe that’s the next product :wink:

Back to Behringer era, consider starting electronic music right now : with a budget of less than 500€ you can already have something quite decent !

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This is the thing. Why it’s supposed to be a luxury item. It should be accessible to as many as possible.

Yes the original designs are good, but plenty of other companies have done things with them, that isn’t the real issue that most have with Behringer, please at least try to acknowledge that.

am I reading the specs of the Octatrack here?

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OK but wee @LyingDalai didn’t have the option of buying into bad corporate behavior. Thats what Behringer is banking on and there’s a chance then it’ll turn the game into what most tech is today, “everything is made in China.”

You were creative without cheap goods.

That it isn’t a necessity to life says that it is a luxury, not me or you or anyone else.

Being accessible to as many people as possible? Give them away for free then? Nice idea, but run it past Uli and see what he says :wink:

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All Uli did was listen to what people wanted on the forums. Recreate good gear that was loved by many but is not accessible anymore. So he did. I suspect after this first wave of clones they will be making more innovative and original designs. Go Uli !

to me, Behringer synths are basically like Squier Stratocasters. they’re cheap tools that will get the job done, and that’s about it. Moog (and Fender, usually), on the other hand, make instruments you want to keep for a lifetime. each has a place in the market.

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C’mon, just be happy that people outside of first world countries/kids/students/poor musicians/more people in general that couldn’t afford the stuff will enjoy some nice synths too.

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Thanks for bringing this thread up.
I think criticism towards Behringer is justified but we dont need to exchange the same arguments over and over in every thread about a Behringer product.

I just hope there will be some hard facts about Behringer being the evil corp that it is portrayed every time because the same stuff gets repeated over and over and most of it is rumours with little evidence.

Me personally, I think there might be a middle ground between Uli Behringer being a James-Bond-villain-type of character that misthreats his workers in sweatchop-like factories and Uli Behringer being the altruistic businessman that just wants to deliver music-instruments to the masses with minimal markup.

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I believe that has always ways been the case though, I started out 30 years ago and with a budget of about £250 over the course of a few months by saving money (my wage was less than £30 per week)

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The question then arises why there’s this hierarchy of countries to begin with.

But ya know maybe OT…

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Indeed. For all we know these may be the first synths owned by some of Behringer’s own factory workers.

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Good call. Also, it would be interesting to see how other companies like Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Arturia or Novation fare with regards to the treatment of employees in their manufacturing plants. After all, if they are all equally bad, the question is no longer where to buy but whether to buy.

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