Behringer DeepMind 12

The much-anticipated Behringer polysynth is here. Bruce Aisher finds out if the DeepMind 12 is a wannabe or true contender.

After all the teasers, the first Behringer synth is here. The past five years have seen all kinds of musings about it being a Juno-style clone or an ARP monosynth. DeepMind 12 is neither of these, being far more feature-laden than a Juno-106 and polyphonic to the tune of 12 simultaneous voices. Also, with a metal case and wooden side panels, it looks like the real deal. Each voice consists of two oscillators and a noise source. The oscillators are digitally controlled (DCOs) so, in theory, lack some of the wayward charm of their less pitch-stable VCO brethren. The fully automated calibration process leaves you with a set of matched voices, but the synth does have ways of adding some artificial instability to the proceedings should you wish.

The first DeepMind oscillator offers a choice of sawtooth and square waves, or both simultaneously, while Oscillator 2 employs only a square wave generator (though the Tone Modulation parameter opens up more tonal variation than you might expect by inserting a second variable width pulse into the waveshape).