Korg Forums

[GregC]

[Bachus]

[Jan1]

[GregC]

[Narioso]

[Timo]

Behringer products are cheap as they get the pioneering companies like Mackie, Roland, Moog, Korg and others to do all the expensive R & D and advertising for them. All Behringer do is reverse engineer, copy, find cheaper components, make the product look reminiscent of the original, and then undercut them, and then have the audacity to call them 'tributes'. They're pirates, in hardware form.
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[GregC]

[GregC]

[Narioso]

[GregC]

[Narioso]

[GregC]

[Narioso]

[Koekepan]

There's still the manufacturer that everyone forgets: Casio.

As a master device, their flagship device (they bill it as an arranger, but it's more than that) is quite capable of running a studio and making interesting music.

[Musicwithharry]

It is funny how Behringer gets thrown under the bus when we are talking about stuff like this. They actually make good stuff and have for a while now. In their earlier days, they were bottom of the barrel in quality. Now, their stuff is truly world class.

One cannot deny their success in the market. Their mixers are good (I have a number of them in my studio and live rigs), their speakers seem to be doing well, and their synths are generating more interest than any other company right now.

Is it bad that they are creating synths based on older synths from other companies? I do not see the problem. They are taking the 'original' and improving upon it. Their Deepmind synth may be patterned from a Roland analog unit, but they improved upon it such that it has its own character. It is hugely popular and the users really seem to like it.

Their Model D has generated more buzz in recent memory than any other synth that I know of.

It is funny how they seem to be upping the game and people seem to be upset that they are. Korg is the only other company, that I know of, that actually has a line of analog that is useful. Soft-synths and VA units just do not sound the same (but they are close).

I cannot fault Behringer at all for what they've done, as they have opened up the equipment for many more users. How many people can afford the original Roland 808? Not many. How many people can afford the Behringer RD-8? Almost everybody. It sounds like the original, acts like the original, and has a few features the original did not have that allow it to integrate better in the modern studio/live setups.

We easily forget that the high end synths we buy today are mostly emulating original analog/acoustic instruments. Soft synths do the same thing, but often are in much greater detail. I prefer hardware synths and do not use soft-synths at all. We seem to gloss over the fact that the piano samples in the Korg are Yamaha/Fazioli/Steinway grands and compared to the originals of these and use them anyway. Korg's HD engine has been around since the OASYS, and still sounds great and is relevant today. Even the little Kross has good sounds in it, derived from the HD engine. The M3 had the EDS engine (as did the M50). The Krome uses it, the Kross has the EDS-i engine. The Kronos still has the HD engine because it is relevant.

Korg, Roland, and Yamaha are in a good position. Korg may be in the best situation of all, of those three. Yamaha is too pricey, even for their quality, Roland is trying new technologies, and Korg is staying the course with gear for all user and price levels.

Behringer has a name problem that they seem to be overcoming well. They were known for low quality gear that failed much of the time and now their name is much different. Their only real problem now is availability of these new products.

Casio is in a similar situation because they are known as the 'consumer toy' category, even though A LOT of their stuff is really great. The Privia is an exception because it brought great piano action and such to the market and people wanted that. Their arrangers, namely the MZ-X300/500, are really good but because of their name, aren't as well known. They still need to overcome their branding from the past.

I plan on getting some Behringer synth stuff in the future. I would LOVE to have the MonoPoly, Deepmind-12 and a couple others. My most recent new gear purchase was the Korg Minilogue XD, however, and I think that Korg has it right. I may even get the Minilogue XD Module to go with it for 8 voices of polyhony.

If Behringer does anything, maybe it will be to wake up the other companies to actually release stuff at more affordable prices that people want. Even though the big three are in a good position, they could be in a better one.

One thing I hope is that we can really break past the 4-voice analog barrier and makes the synths more viable than just bleeps and blips and other noises that some market them for. The Behringer Deepmind-12, Korg Prologue 8/16 are the only ones that I Know of that offer enough polyphony to actually make a difference in playing pad sounds.

Grace,
Harry
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