Behringer Pro-800: Stocking Stuffer or Suppository?

[JoJoB3]

4 minutes ago, David Emm said:

Admin! Help! Help! The thread has become a tumor! It needs to be locked!

As a synth hound, I was simply interested in how the Pro-800 behaved, but even mentioning Behringer seems needlessly auto-inflammatory. Best reason to lock it: no one has a real-world report, but everyone smells a dead mouse.

 

I say "dead mouse" because I recall a tale of a dead Linn 9000 which when opened for repair, had a mouse nest and etc. all over the nice warm power supply! 🤢

They're certainly affordable enough to buy and try (and easily returned if you don't like).  Why is this thread and replies a bother?  I think it's interesting. Sort of outlines humanity to a degree.

[GovernorSilver]

18 minutes ago, David Emm said:

Admin! Help! Help! The thread has become a tumor! It needs to be locked!

As a synth hound, I was simply interested in how the Pro-800 behaved, but even mentioning Behringer seems needlessly auto-inflammatory.

 

You did use the word suppository in the thread title  😄

 

A more innocuous thread title might have gone more... innocuously

[JoJoB3]

1 minute ago, GovernorSilver said:

 

You did use the word suppository in the thread title  😄

 

A more innocuous thread title might have gone more... innocuously

Agreed.  The complaint is hilarious.

The sooner we keep shiz real the sooner the successful outcomes.

 

[JoJoB3]

On 8/26/2023 at 8:10 AM, Konnector said:

Is there a Behringer thread on a forum anywhere that doesn't take a downward spiral? Let's not turn this into another heated Gearspace thread. Ooops...too late.

Had to quote you. So true (ahh, that's refreshing!).  Congrats to this forum for NOT being 'Gearspace' which is often times beyond being a garbage forum outlet.

[David Emm]

8 minutes ago, GovernorSilver said:

You did use the word suppository in the thread title  😄

A more innocuous thread title might have gone more... innocuously

 

HAH! If you believe that, I have a Con Brio in a teak case to sell you!

 

I feel mildly guilty for inadvertantly Behringer-baiting. Its easy to fall into. I find myself perking up when someone like Modal Electronics releases serious modules, such as the Cobalt8m. There's a lot of power there, so its a key part of my GAS and unlike so much else, you generally don't need a stylus to run one. I'm always rooting for modules to do well. Of course, I sent an hour or so tweezing the GX-80 last night, so my module-luv is hazy at a certain point. 🤭  

 

[JoJoB3]

2 minutes ago, David Emm said:

 

HAH! If you believe that, I have a Con Brio in a teak case to sell you!

 

I feel mildly guilty for inadvertantly Behringer-baiting. Its easy to fall into. I find myself perking up when someone like Modal Electronics releases serious modules, such as the Cobalt8m. There's a lot of power there, so its a key part of my GAS and unlike so much else, you generally don't need a stylus to run one. I'm always rooting for modules to do well. Of course, I sent an hour or so tweezing the GX-80 last night, so my module-luv is hazy at a certain point. 🤭  

 

But...this is even further OT. No?
And why the LOL (followed by cries of "PLEASE DELETE THE CONVERSATION" of course/as usual)?

Be better than the other forums!

[analogika]

1 hour ago, RABid said:

A few days ago I made the comment that it is one thing for Behringer to copy the MiniMoog, but another to copy products currently in production like the Mother 32. Well, today I went down memory lane. Bought a brand new MiniMoog Model D around 1979. Osc 2 refused to stay in tune. Used to drive me crazy. Bought a Moog source. The thing went crazy after a few years. Would play notes and switch programs on its own. Could not sell it in this condition and could not get it repaired so I took a loss. It was 30 years later I found an article on the Internet saying the problem was cheap materials used in manufacturing. The seating for the main chip would corrode and that corrosion could not be seen if the chip was pulled and inspected. 

 

FWIW, my Source had that too. AFAIK, the widespread "Crazy Source" problem is generally accepted to be due to the voltage regulators being mounted on the back wall of the synth, but soldered onto the power supply board attached to the top control surface. 

The constant flexing from pressing the buttons on the control surface put a strain on the solder joints between voltage regulators and power supply board, causing random voltage drops that wreaked havoc on the digital controller. 

The fix is to cut the legs off the voltage regulators and solder them via wires. 

It takes a couple of minutes. 

My Source has been fine ever since (about 25 years now). 

[analogika]

1 hour ago, JoJoB3 said:

Also: ya like that electric car being forced today? Wanna guess the 'conditions and overall result' overall for the lithium mining....alongside the conditions for the people doing it?

Salute btw: Exactly and Apple is THE WORST (far worse than any music instrument company).  I have PC's from Win 95 still functioning and useful still.

 

Can o' worms, I know, but: 

 

a) the environmental impact from lithium mining is NOTHING compared to the impact from fossil fuel collection — look up "oil spill life expectancy Niger delta" and "strip mining Germany" for some of that. Is Deepwater Horizon actually closed up by now, BTW? Or is it still pissing oil into the Gulf?

 

b) I have a functioning Mac SE from 1990 sitting in the basement. The iMac DV from 1999 had the Firewire port blow at some point (Apple fucked up the overcurrent fusing on pretty much all models until about 2001), but works otherwise. 

[analogika]

1 hour ago, David Emm said:

Admin! Help! Help! The thread has become a tumor! It needs to be locked!

As a synth hound, I was simply interested in how the Pro-800 behaved, but even mentioning Behringer seems needlessly auto-inflammatory. Best reason to lock it: no one has a real-world report, but everyone smells a dead mouse.

 

I say "dead mouse" because I recall a tale of a dead Linn 9000 which when opened for repair, had a mouse nest and etc. all over the nice warm power supply! 🤢

 

My Wurli had been a mouse's nest at some point before I bought it. Pissed all over the reeds, rusting them, and nibbled at the schematics tucked into the cooling fins. 

[GovernorSilver]

45 minutes ago, David Emm said:

 

HAH! If you believe that, I have a Con Brio in a teak case to sell you!

 

I feel mildly guilty for inadvertantly Behringer-baiting. Its easy to fall into. I find myself perking up when someone like Modal Electronics releases serious modules, such as the Cobalt8m. There's a lot of power there, so its a key part of my GAS and unlike so much else, you generally don't need a stylus to run one. I'm always rooting for modules to do well. Of course, I sent an hour or so tweezing the GX-80 last night, so my module-luv is hazy at a certain point. 🤭  

 

 

No I don't believe that if you had simply entitled the thread "Behringer Pro-800 any good?" that some sort of debate would not have popped up at all.

 

I do believe however, the volume of posts would be cut in half and the debate would be of a milder nature.    

 

Oh well, thanks for the entertainment with your choice of thread title.  😄

[ElmerJFudd]

some custom patches

[jazzpiano88]

Can it do Phish's The Meat Stick? 

Example from Page's rig.

 

[Finale]

[Baggypants]

On 8/28/2023 at 10:44 AM, Cabo said:

Maybe someone should start a separate thread that's actually about the Pro-800 (and re-name this one)?   I'm a little curious about actual product experiences and there's nothing here.

Welcome to every Behringer thread

 Someone will always piss in it.

[ElmerJFudd]

 

 

[Jim Alfredson]

Regardless of everything else, that YouTube demo for the soundpack has to be the most annoying sound demo I've ever experienced. Holy moly.

[jazzpiano88]

No kidding!   But I did chuckle at the fitting whistle demo on the Comet Cleaner commercial jingle. 
Remember—

Comet, it makes your mouth turn green

Comet, it tastes like gasoline

Comet, it makes you vomit

So try some Comet and vomit, today.  

[ElmerJFudd]

 

SoundCloud embedded 100 patches

https://payhip.com/b/AsjXa

 

Comparison 

 

[Konnector]

Sounds very close to the original, but it's not anything I need. These days I'll reach for a good VST for that flavour. At least they provided patch memory which they should've included in all their other analog modules. 

[AnotherScott]

18 hours ago, Konnector said:

At least they provided patch memory which they should've included in all their other analog modules. 

 

The Prophet 600 architecture the Pro 800 is built on supports patch memory. The Minimoog (for example) that their D is based on did not. It would not be possible to add patch memory to it without making other internal component changes that would make it no longer a Minimoog clone. C'est la vie. It might be something "different but close"... like a Roland SE-02. So you have your options, and take your choice...

[RABid]

What gets me about Behringer's copies is they don't seem to know when to be exact and when to alter and improve. I mean, WHY would you release a copy of an old synth, include patch points so it can be interfaced with a Eurorack rig, and then use S-TRIG!!! Really? You don't have an electrical engineer that can sketch you an alternate patch point using standard gate/trigger? S-trig failed. It went away. No one wants to deal with keeping an adapter handy to go between S-trig and gates. It is 2023. Everything should be compatible with Eurorack. 

[ElmerJFudd]

2 hours ago, RABid said:

What gets me about Behringer's copies is they don't seem to know when to be exact and when to alter and improve. I mean, WHY would you release a copy of an old synth, include patch points so it can be interfaced with a Eurorack rig, and then use S-TRIG!!! Really? You don't have an electrical engineer that can sketch you an alternate patch point using standard gate/trigger? S-trig failed. It went away. No one wants to deal with keeping an adapter handy to go between S-trig and gates. It is 2023. Everything should be compatible with Eurorack. 

Behringer/Music Tribe/Uli has the Midas engineers building the synths as far as we know.  They actively monitor their Facebook group, if the issue has been brought up there, they know about it. But, I’m guessing there’s a reason they did it this way. 

[CyberGene]

2 hours ago, RABid said:

What gets me about Behringer's copies is they don't seem to know when to be exact and when to alter and improve.

 

Yes, I agree. My very first Behringer synth was the Poly D and I actually disliked it for the lack of a 440 Hz reference. I mean, why would you release one of the most notoriously pitch-unstable synths and then remove the A-440 reference 🤦🏻‍♂️ And the keyboard was cr*p anyway. And who needs that sh1tty distortion? Or a fourth oscillator? I mean, yeah, it's POLY but I could never make it sound in tune when played polyphonically. I sold it and replaced it with a Model D which was spot on. BTW, there's one improvement on the Model D, compared to the original which I really love: turning ip the EXT source knob without a source plugged in, would overdrive its own signal which is really useful, no need to patch that yourself as on the original.

[Threadslayer]

On 9/2/2023 at 5:43 PM, AnotherScott said:

 

 It would not be possible to add patch memory to it without making other internal component changes that would make it no longer a Minimoog clone.

Which components are these?

[AnotherScott]

17 minutes ago, Threadslayer said:

Which components are these?

 

Presets require digital control. So for example, the values of true analog potentiometers cannot be recalled digitally. So the only way to build a preset system for them would mean building a contraption that physically moves the knobs to the locations that yield those values.

 

I remember seeing a picture of something built this way, anyone remember what that was?

[stoken6]

44 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

 

Presets require digital control. So for example, the values of true analog potentiometers cannot be recalled digitally. So the only way to build a preset system for them would mean building a contraption that physically moves the knobs to the locations that yield those values.

 

I remember seeing a picture of something built this way, anyone remember what that was?

I did hear of a company that fitted rotary actuators that could rotate analog(ue) pots under digital control. They fitted them to classic preamps, EQ, compressors etc and offered a remote/cloud service where you could run your DAW project through their rig and your automation lanes would control their gear.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Threadslayer]

1 hour ago, AnotherScott said:

 

Presets require digital control. So for example, the values of true analog potentiometers cannot be recalled digitally. So the only way to build a preset system for them would mean building a contraption that physically moves the knobs to the locations that yield those values.

 

I remember seeing a picture of something built this way, anyone remember what that was?

One solution would be to replace the mechanical potentiometers with digital potentiometers - "Digipots" - which have been around for decades. It wouldn't be pretty, but definitely doable. Some of them contain non-volatile memory such that they revert to the previous setting on power up. You'd need to change the control interface to rotary encoders and numerical displays or something else to replace the mechanical pots to avoid nightmarish Rube Goldberg electromechanical actuators to position the physical dials. No doubt not worth doing, but I was just curious if there were any technical showstoppers in the original circuitry that I wasn't aware of.

[RABid]

My Roland SE-02 stores presets and I like it just fine. Still has an analog audio path.

[mate stubb]

Everywhere you want a level control, you must introduce a VCA. Everywhere you want a switch, you must install an analog switch. The signal path will still be analog, but it is not the same as the original because of the new elements you have introduced.

[RABid]

It is the pitch control that amazes me. Both oscillators and filters.