So Behringer is looking to make a $500 Odyssey remake. Korg will have theirs finished early 2015.
It looks like Behringer will have patch memory on theirs and would have a three mode filter which would recreate the sounds of the Mk 1 through Mk III filters. I’m willing to bet Korg’s will not have patch memory and only one type of filter.
I’m not sure what to think about this. I personally have no gripes with Behringer (but many do) and have been very interested in their recent announcements regarding entering the synth market. One question comes to my mind is what about patents?
If they release it, and they get patent troubles… they will just pull the item…
I think that happened with their digital-mixers or something. (google this claim, it comes from the depths of my memory…)
Lets for argument sakes just say they get away with it:
I like patch-memory… I like full midispecs… I like multiple filters…
I like cheap:
so if korg makes a remake, and behringer makes one… and the first buyers of each product fill the internet with complaints or niceties… I will probably go with the cheapest machine that does what I want, and that gets great reviews…
don’t hate me for it… I think my octatrack is worth every penny I paid for it… lovely machine… but if behringer made me a copy for half the price and more options and bells and whistles and it doesn’t fall apart on me… hmmm…
I would not buy the Behringer, or any other synth made by them.
The Korg one will probably sound better, and do you really need memories on a basic monosynth, the answer is no, you do not. It is literally like they looked at what Korg were doing, and thought of ways to trump them, but they were never ever going to do anything original or innovative were they?
If this is something they are genuinely going to produce then I’m happy with it. At korg’s asking price I have zero interest in an Odyssey remake. At Behringer’s price I do. I don’t doubt that build quality won’t be on a par with Korg but then it would be used for studio use in any case.
I like patch memory! Primarily due to laziness and not being someone who wants to spend an age tweaking.
In any case, no one should grudge competition. If Behringer think they can shift good analogues for under $500 then great. It’s not like that is some impossible price point what with the synths we’re seeing from Arturia, Novation and even Korg’s MS20 (I’m using comparative GBP here rather than $'s). These are well made synths with varying features so good luck to Behringer on delivering something similar.
Competition is good, it will only benefit us. It’s been brewing along nicely over the past few years hence the release of the Brutes, Volca’s, MS20 and Bass Station 2. The market is there for cheaper analogues and in a couple of years I think we’ll be spoiled for choice!
Competition is good, a race to the bottom is not! I would much rather see companies specialize and carve out their own unique piece of the synth pie, like back in the 90s
Anyway, let the product speak for itself if it ever gets released.
I get the concern but you’re always going to have your more premium/elite products (say, Elektron or high end DSI stuff for example) - that isn’t going to change. What you will have is more affordable synths for the masses. A lot of this might end up shit like Akai’s Rhythm Wolf but I’ll take a punt and say that more often than not, the bargain stuff will deliver fun and easier access into the world of analogue synthesis.
In typical fashion I can’t find the Korg pricing. It may have been hearsay but I had a figure over $1,000 in my head. $500 is now the price to beat or get very, very close to.
In my case, yes, yes I do. Countless times I have been working on a track not knowing where to take it next. I start rolling through my custom patches and land on one I completely forgot about and incorporate it into the track.
Without sampling many parts this also makes switching songs live more complicated than it needs to be. I can dial up an acid line pretty fast on my AK or MS2000 but they never sound quite the same from the last time I did it.
I guess if you are using more or less the same bass line throughout most of your tracks then yes I can see doing this from memory while doing the sound check. For me, hardly any two sounds I make on my Bass Station II sound the same. So that would involve a lot of fiddling when I could just be rocking out.
It would have to be compelling- soundwise - to make it a clear choice over the Korg version.
I have digital synths with patch memory, so I’m good there. I like to use analog synths for the barely-tamed to wild aspects of synthesis, in which nothing ever sounds the same twice, just like you could record a world-class guitarist/violinist/drummer 10 times and get 10 different sounding takes.
But yeah, the sound would have to be really damn good. Tales abound of folks who bought based on price or features alone and were unhappy ever after because of unsatisfactory sound
