First Look at Behringer's DeepMind 12 Poly Synth
Behringer has been a serious player in the pro audio market, recently being recognised for its industry-acclaimed X32 digital mixer series. The company now plans to launch their first Analog Poly Synth - the DeepMind 12.
UPDATE: Sound on Sound releases video on DeepMind 12's sounds and features. See last video.
We’ve all heard of Behringer-branded products in the audio world – they’re affordable, easy to use and, for some of us including myself, they were the first affordable option for basic gear with a reasonable value-for-money ratio.
Few people know that behind this massive company is a man named Uli Behringer, who founded it in 1989 in Willich, Germany. Mr Behringer was a gifted youngster – he was born with perfect pitch, built his first piece of audio equipment – the UB-1 synthesizer – at the age of 16 and studied sound engineering and classical piano at the Robert Schumann conservatory in Dusseldorf.
Image Source: Ask.Audio
As a university student, Uli realized the school didn’t provide enough access to audio equipment and so he started to build his own. Soon, he started receiving orders from fellow students; these included compressors and noise reduction systems and later, guitar amps, PA systems, mixing boards, recording interfaces and pretty much the full spectrum.
Only a year after the company’s incorporation, Uli, who was manufacturing his products in Willich, Germany, decided to move his soon-to-be empire over to mainland China, to lower production costs. After first dealing with subcontractors, Mr. Behringer had relocated to Hong Kong by 1977 in order to supervise the manufacturing process and ensure that his products were of a desirable quality. The turn of the millennia marked the start of corporate acquisitions for Behringer. In May 2000, the company had bought CoolAudio – a high power Class-D amplification technology rated as high audio quality.
After a series of successful business moves, Uli founded Music Group – a holding company chaired by Mr. Behringer. Throughout recent years, Music Group has acquired the likes of TC Electronic, TC-Helicon, TC Applied Technologies, Tannoy, Turbosound, Eurotec, Bugera, Klark Teknik and Midas, making it one of the largest and most successful companies in the pro audio world.
Image Source: echrepairs.com (Juno 106) / amazona.de (Phat 12)
Their latest product currently under development is an interesting product, one that resonates deep with Uli himself – the DeepMind 12 Polyphonic synthesizer. Meant to have a RRP of $999 in the US according to recent rumors, the instrument is based on a classic Juno 106 design adding improvements such as 12-voice polyphony using discrete analog circuitry – Uli’s personal request – with 2 DCOs per voice, individual PWM per voice, stereo VCAs, a discrete analog 2-pole and-4 pole LPF, a HPF with bass boost, 3 envelopes, 2 LFOs, a modulation matrix, a comprehensive effects unit, along with the standard patch memory, LED display, USB connectivity and after-touch-sensitive keyboard.
Sonicstate recently shared the first in-depth video of the DeepMind 12 Poly Synth in action.
Sound on Sound Video Review - August 11
As of yesterday, August 11, Sound on Sound posted a video on their youtube channel of the DeepMind 12 in action showcasing some of its features and sounds. Check it out!
Overall, we think the DeepMind 12 is an extremely interesting project by Behringer – a company not usually associated with analog synthesizers. We look forward to sharing more details with you as soon as they're released.