Behringer BBG (PPG) Wave

[ABECK]

If it's perfectly legal, then I guess it's up to the market to determine if it's morally acceptable. Seems like the answer has been yes on that.

[The Real MC]

This has been going on for years. Behringer knows exactly what they are doing. These legacy products aren"t protected. The smarmy copying of names and layouts and color schemes - pretty blatant, but not something that can be stopped legally from what we"ve seen

 

Uh, no.

 

B******* introduced their clones of the Boss pedals at a NAMM show and got slapped with legal threats from Roland citing trade dress. Trademark law is the tool to protect unique identifying features. Moog Music owns the trademark on "minimoog" and "model D", when B******* introduced their minimoog clone as the "model D" they were promptly sent a letter from the legal dept at Moog.

 

The tools are out there to verify trademark use. B******* doesn't bother to use them, banking on manufacturers' ignorance or lack of legal revenue to enforce their IP.

[dglcomp]

According to Behringer FB, Hermann Seib is now fully on board and he knows the ins/outs of the PPG Wave series very well.

 

Hermann Seib Joins Behringer/Music Tribe Wave Synthesizer Development Team

PPG and its Wave synthesizers have been the brain child of the industry icon Wolfgang Palm and have graced the stages of artists like David Bowie, Jean Michel Jarre, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Stevie Nicks, Pet Shop Boys, Mike and the Mechanics, and Stevie Wonder just to name a few.

After the announcement of Behringer and Music Tribe to look for collaboration partners for the development of the next generation Wave hybrid synthesizer, we have been fortunate to gain a legendary engineer to the team â Hermann Seib who has been deeply involved in the PPG Wave history. But hear from the man himself:

About Hermann Seib

'I'm a software programmer/analyst living in Vienna, Austria and have loved playing and creating music throughout all my life. I started playing guitar at age 12 and when the Roland SH-101 became available, I got one and was instantly hooked. But as for most people, there came a point where I had to decide whether I want to become a musician or a programmer. Computers won hands down so I never became a great guitar player and instead I practiced my programming skills instead. These shiny new home computers that just became available were simply too fascinating â and they sustained my life ever since.

PPG and I have a rather long common history. I first saw the original press release for the Waveterm A in 1982 and immediately wanted one. Unfortunately, I also couldn"t afford it as I was at just starting my career.

Around 1987, I was finally able to buy a used Wave 2.2/Waveterm set. Since that time, I have become a fan of these machines and know pretty well how they work. However I'm much more of an engineer than a musician and to me, the Wave synthesizers are "computers with attached tone generation circuits". Around 2000, I started to reverse engineering their operating system, so that I could understand how they work from a computer perspective. It took me quite a while to understand the sound generation side of the things and while I still wouldn't say that I've fully mastered every detail, my understanding was good enough to create an upgrade to the original V6 software. The result was version 8.3, which is a commercially available upgrade.

Around 2000, I became involved with Paula Maddox and Dave Forward in a project called "Waveterm C". The idea was to recreate the Waveterm in a more modern PC running Windows version and use a USB interface to communicate to the Waves/EVUs/PRKs. Well, we got the software side up and running, for which I was responsible for and it worked to a point where you could create wavetables and transient sounds. The USB-based hardware interface worked quite well, too, but unfortunately the project never became mature enough to be launched.

https://www.hermannseib.com/waveterm/

I also created WaveSim, my simulation of the famous Wave/EVU, which was first only as a standalone Windows program and later available as VSTi as well. Wolfgang Palm was aware of these activities for quite a while and in 2008, he contacted me. We exchanged ideas and he helped me understand some details of the Wave synthesizers, which resulted in further WaveSim improvements. Wolfgang then went on to create lots of new, vastly improved wavetables that could be loaded into WaveSim which can be found here.

https://www.hermannseib.com/english/synths/ppg/wavesim.htmâ¦

Later in 2012, Wolfgang became interested in porting his PPG WaveGenerator, which was only available as iOS Plugin, to VST and Audio Unit on Windows and Mac OS - a project I was heavily involved in. Subsequently I entered similar collaborations on Wolfgang"s other PlugIn creations such as the PPG Wavemapper 2, PPG Phonem, and PPG Infinite.'

Why did you decide to join the Behringer Wave project?

'My main motivation is to help recreate the Wave to ensure it gets as close as possible to the original, as the legacy and 'soul' of this synthesizer is very dear to me. And because it"s blue ð. I am very much looking forward to collaborating with the Behringer engineering team and participate in the testing and comparison with the original unit since I have a deep understanding of the original code the makeup of the unit. We"re currently discussing the development of an app for wavetable management. I am very excited to be part of the Behringer Wave synthesizer project to make sure the legacy of this legendary synthesizer will live on.'

About Music Tribe

Uli Behringer, Founder of Behringer and Music Tribe commented: 'We are very proud to have Hermann Seib on our team as he is not only a brilliant engineer but also an intrinsic part of the Wave history. As a teenager I came across the PPG Wave while frequenting music stores. When I first played the Wave synthesizer, I was so mesmerized that I have since never forgotten that moment. Unfortunately, with a weekly teenager allowance of 5 Swiss Francs, acquiring this synth remained a dream. In 2019 we were fortunate to acquire the original Wave 2.3 from the famous band Tears for Fears and after a big restoration job, we became determined to bring this legendary jewel back to life.

Ever since I designed my own synthesizer in 1977, I have always been obsessed with synthesizers and today, Behringer is on a mission to bring back classic synthesizers as well as design completely new instruments and make them available at prices everyone can afford. We at Behringer believe that everyone should have access to the amazing synthesizers and sounds of the 70"s and 80"s.'

Uli continues: 'We are currently recruiting experienced synthesizer software and hardware engineers from all over the world to join us in our synthesizer mission. People interested can directly contact us at joinus@musictribe.com.'

[Franz Schiller]

I gotta admit...I never had any kind of gearlust for the PPG before. But because of this release âand, well, really this threadâ I listened to several demos of the PPGs, and now I'm interested.

 

Wavetables through a legit analog filter are sounding really good and interesting to me right now. I also have been playing around with the IK Multimedia Syntronik version of the PPG, called Blau, and I like what I hear with that too.

 

I'm not sure how this weighs in on the moral balance of re-issuing a nearly exact copy of a vintage synth. But this is definitely a synth that would have never been on my radar before. In fact, to me, it might as well be a totally brand new synth, for all I care.

[ABECK]

Wolfgang Palm is not at all happy about this.

Guess he's not that upset: https://www.musicradar.com/news/who-better-to-be-working-on-the-behringer-bbg-clone-than-a-long-standing-collaborator-with-wolfgang-palm-himself?fbclid=IwAR01Y4TSpREVW1Nfbmp44iqIa0RdUauYBpd_MW7iz_iMlNityJ69oExRqIw

[ElmerJFudd]

Wolfgang Palm is not at all happy about this.

Guess he's not that upset: https://www.musicradar.com/news/who-better-to-be-working-on-the-behringer-bbg-clone-than-a-long-standing-collaborator-with-wolfgang-palm-himself?fbclid=IwAR01Y4TSpREVW1Nfbmp44iqIa0RdUauYBpd_MW7iz_iMlNityJ69oExRqIw

 

Who better to be working on the Behringer BBG clone than a long-standing collaborator with Wolfgang Palm himself?

By Simon Arblaster (Future Music, Keyboard Magazine, emusician) 4 hours ago

 

Hermann Seib hired by the Music Tribe firm.

 

So if you couldn"t have Wolfgang, the next best option would be Hermann.

[analogika]

Wolfgang Palm is not at all happy about this.

Guess he's not that upset: https://www.musicradar.com/news/who-better-to-be-working-on-the-behringer-bbg-clone-than-a-long-standing-collaborator-with-wolfgang-palm-himself?fbclid=IwAR01Y4TSpREVW1Nfbmp44iqIa0RdUauYBpd_MW7iz_iMlNityJ69oExRqIw

What about Behringer hiring Hermann Seib makes you think Wolfgang Palm is less unhappy about this?

[ABECK]

Ahh - I read it too quickly. Thought it said Wolfgang Palm WAS the collaborator. My bad.

[David Emm]

Somehow, looking at those bright blue mod/bend wheels & display, this thing seems incomplete without a lava lamp, some incense and a bong.

 

Cackling hippie to play it madly available separately, thank God.

[b3keys]

Great for Depeche Mode, T. Dream, Fixx, A-Ha, Gary Numan, Rush covers

[analogholic]

I'm very happy about this one...

 

Those grainy wavetables with analog VCA and VCF has a SOUND! If you like that sound is another thing.

Can't get that sound with software....

I initially "thought" that i.e FM7 sounded "better" than my old DX7´s and thought "shit" I need to sell

my TX-816 before it becomes worthless...well, I'm VERY glad I didn´t sell it...same thing, even that one has a SOUND which software just can't touch.

How many times have we heard the typical "well the new one sounds better" from developers and engineers, who are not musicians and "listen" with their

engineering mind instead of their ears.

So Palm´s statement that these software versions sound better is laughable...I´ve tried his recent stuff and they all have this generic "software tone" with no balls

or presence...I deleted those apps.

 

So the interesting thing IMO would be to have this original design with a modern computer based Waveterm to go with it

[Markyboard]

[Marzzz]

My understanding is that Wolfgang Palm retired, sold off his business interests to Brainworx Audio GmbH, and was actually contacted by UB regarding the PPG clone; I can"t find the source at the moment but he declined to participate, but didn"t seem to care what UB did.

 

Personally I would be very interested in a Mircowave I clone, but with a better interface.

[Al Coda]

 

Personally I would be very interested in a Mircowave I clone, but with a better interface.

 

^^^^^

This exactly,- and it doesn´t have to be a rack device urgently,- as a desktop device (we can buy add. rackears for) it would be welcome too,- at least for me.

 

 

A.C.