The Behringer Gear-in-progress Thread

The Lounge Other Gear
#1037

You’ve probably seen it often. You just don’t recognize it on a raw circuit board. There are functions under the 16 steps, and a Function select key. 1 + 16
Like this :

I picked this the Cyclone TT-78, because this is a copy of the analog circuitry of the Roland CR-78. Cy-clone – get it ?


The Roland CR-78

This was a "Rhythm Machine " from 1978, that had a distinctive sound using inductors ( aka coils ) in their circuitry, rather capacitors in RC circuits. You can see a whole line of inductors in the Behringer device in question.

The Behringer device has some similarities to the Cyclone TT-78, but is also quite different.

You can read about the CR-78 and how influential it was, at Vintage Synth. It would be a good synth for Behringer to recreate.

ADDED : I am still not sure that the Behringer synth in question is a recreation of the CR-78.

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#1038

mr7i9emzzh451_jpg
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#1039
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#1040

Behringers own designs and font choices always remind me of church related rap and rock bands. Always trying to be appealing to the audience and always failing to actually look ‘cool’. Not that it matters soundwise, but still…

That said, the masters of ugly design are indisputably Sonicware with their bass & beats.

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#1041

not sure I agree. I think there are people who like its sound, but I wouldn’t say people are clamoring for it by any means. I never got the impression that the TT-78 did very well either. never see them in people’s setups, on forums, social media, etc.

true not every machine they make can be 808 or 2600 level of desired. but I don’t much see the point in going for machines barely anyone wants.

that said, having a useful CR-78 that interfaces with other machines in normal ways is great. not everyone wants to go through this:

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#1042

Roland CR-78 Prices
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From Reverb

You can offer all sorts of explanations for these prices of course. This is part of what i looked at and considered before doing my post.

I posted in the clone war thread that given their low volume manufacturing efficiencies the sales volume threshold Behringer has for taking a chance with a product is a lot lower then most other larger manufacturer. You can see that in the number of products they are developing.

We can list off a few of Behringer’s existing products that are lower demand.

It’s a bigger net. It scooped up some sort of inductor based sequenced synth, whatever this is. If this is a CR-78, and I don’t know, then they’ve made a lot of changes, definitely a good thing.

Uli has been posting a lot on historic electronic music equipment, 40, 50, 60 years old.

( I like your post, chiasticon. )

#1043

my guess would be because they’re such early drum machines, quite vintage looking with the organ style buttons, and they’re pretty rare. plus Radiohead used one. I still don’t think there’s a ton of people after that sound. but… maybe it’ll see a revival from such a machine existing…?

a fair point. and it wouldn’t be the first clone they’ve done that I thought was an odd choice; sure it won’t be the last either…

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#1044

I remember what you said about Behringer deciding to do the SH-5.

So maybe with whatever this most recent thing really is, it’s in the “higher hanging fruit” category.

One thing i do like, is how they will take an older or more unusual technology, and recreate that unusual technology in detail. The inductors in this case, and the technology in the Solina, for a couple of examples. There are others. There are less expensive ways to redo these, and obviously you could also make stuff sound OK simulated in digital or whatever, but that’s not what they are doing with these.

I think this relates to a historic perspective on this. It’s not just about generating a profit, though a company doesn’t exist very long without that.

ADDED : I am wondering already what might happen if you introduce a magnetic field ( AC or unipolar ) on to these inductors. They will sit pretty close to the front cover, and it seems to me they might present a nice circuit bend in the magnetic sphere.

#1045

Seeing that front panel put me in mind of the Bentley Rhythm Ace, so I googled, and sure enough, they have the same lineage, Bentley Rhythm Ace being the ancestor. Saw that being used live (in a rock context) in '72/73 with Arthur Brown.

Gratuitous video, which appears to show the inductors and talks about midi conversion: https://youtu.be/d3ZMvBrX_to

#1046

Yeah, Ace Tone the Japanese company from 1960, made a series of predecessors “Drum Machines”. Ace Tone can be considered a seed of what later became Roland. Those early drum machines were a basis for the CR-78.

You can look at a list of the earlier drum machines on the Ace Tone wikipedia page.

Many of these earlier drum machines probably have interesting things about them too.

How do you remember what they were using from a concert in 1972, bibenu ? You don’t have to answer, I’m just being amazed.

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#1047

Because a rock band with no drummer was VERY unusual in ‘72. Actually the whole band was very unusual.

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#1048

The drugs really were much better back then, weren’t they…

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#1049

Phil Collins has the answer. When he’s cool, the In The Air Tonight drum machine will have its day. Might be a while!

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#1050

Phil Collins, Blondie, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Gary Numan, Roxy Music.

It was obviously not as influential as 808 & 909, but it was used by many artists.

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#1051

And Jon Foxx and Ultravox made great dystopian use of it, and ex Genesis guitarist Anthony Phillips did some really intricate programming with it for his synth album 1984. So it’s got a great provenance but the hipster has failed to notice.

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#1052

All the charm is in the patterns.

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#1053

guictr posted earlier with several pictures about the hinged keyboard RSF Kobol recreation.

Today Behringer showed a prototype build of a Eurorack recreation of the Kobol Expander.

There was two versions of the Kobol Expander. Perhaps this is the second though i am not sure. They say they are now testing this so it is pretty far along. You’d assume they might offer the two Kobol recreations around the same time.

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#1054

The cr78 makes beautiful general purpose tones that are great for so many more genres than a 909, which immediately sounds like club music no matter what, which not all of us are trying to make. Turn on any modern tv show or late 70s and 80s fm station and you’ll hear cr-78 constantly, its so unobtrusive, light and airy, and timeless, very heavily sampled and widely listened to, not at all obscure. 808 sounds great for these general purposes as well, just happens to be shouted out in 10000 songs so we all know it. I have a midied 78 but can’t wait to try the B version with indi outs

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#1055

right but almost to the degree that you can get any Casiotone and hear pretty much the exact same sounds. not that I’m hating on such a thing, mind you…

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#1056

Those are great sounds too, but to my ears, they are dirty and digital and more chintzy, unlike the clean analog filter pinging circuits of the 78

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