Save Save Save!!! (Behringer price cuts)

[sunspot]

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2023/03/23/behringer-drops-synth-prices-up-to-60-citing-better-semiconductor-availability-costs/

 

I had to snag a Wasp.

[Radagast]

I wonder if they will offer the new UB-XA at a lower price than initially expected?

[Stokely]

Yeah right now they don't have anything I'd really use.  The mono synths all seem cool, but I use hardware only for gigs and they wouldn't really be worth setting up for the songs I do.

The Pro-800  is another story, as is the UB-XA potentially (though any synth I add would almost certainly be a desktop unit.)  I was very impressed with the Pro-800 demos, especially considering it is mono and there were no effects (not even added later).   

[PianoMan51]

When Behringer kept introducing more and more analog synths I had some industrial thoughts.

 

1. They have an amazing in-house ability to design and mass-manufacture copies of just about any musical gear you can imagine. Cool. This is great for the players in the world. And this is how competition improves our lives.

 

2. But how many different analog synths can they continue to manufacture and stock without losing money? 5? 20? 1,000?

 

Onto the price drops. I interpret these as the natural reaction to number two above. Businesses rarely drop prices just because “it’s the right thing to do “. Businesses form to create wealth. Some of these (relatively new) products just don’t generate it.  So you drop prices either to spur demand or to close out the losers. This is a marketing tactic.

[Stokely]

I personally wish they'd stick more to "inspired by" designs like the Deep Mind that have modern features than slavish copies that create controversy, but then the controversy probably is a marketing thing too.   And of course there are a lot of synth heads that want the copies with no changes other than a silly knock-off name, apparently.  

I don't expect the Pro 800 to drop, because it's already at a really low price for an 8 voice analog synth  

[AnotherScott]

I have no need for a Pro 800, but I may find it hard to resist buying anyway. ;-)

[Stokely]

Honestly, I really don't either.   That said, if it had been around earlier I may not have spent the time making custom poly synth patches for my Modx and/or bought the Analog Xperience library.   The extra hassle of having a tabletop has to be considered.   At home I have Repro 1 and 5 (and Diva) and it's hard for me to imagine anything sounding much better than those.

I also might be compelled to buy a hardware reverb pedal if I got a synth with no effects.  Twist my arm, it's been something I've thought about.  Even possibly adding a Line 6 hx stomp to my pedalboard, with the extra purpose of letting me play some guitar (gulp, my next time playing guitar live will be my first one.)  If not that, then a hall of fame or Strymon or tap tempo-enable delay/verb box would be a ton of fun.

Really nice bread and butter option though to go with all the beep and boop one-finger-song arp machines that are the norm for the lower-priced synths.

[analogika]

3 hours ago, PianoMan51 said:

Onto the price drops. I interpret these as the natural reaction to number two above. Businesses rarely drop prices just because “it’s the right thing to do “. Businesses form to create wealth. Some of these (relatively new) products just don’t generate it.  So you drop prices either to spur demand or to close out the losers. This is a marketing tactic.

 

If you believe their boilerplate and Uli Behringer's interviews, they really don't need to make money on the synths.

 

They're an add-on business that he sees as enabling access to machines they wouldn't have otherwise. 

 

As much as it pains me to take promo at face value, it kinda squares with what we're seeing.