Behringer Neutron

[VariKusBrainZ]

Hi,
I had the opportunity to test one in a shop, but with no patch cables. It looks like a nice unit, but the filter brings distortion too easily, which is something I don't necessarily like. I found the sound "so so", almost as stable as some plugins and the envelopes prone to click.
I was wondering if it really worth the buy or if it is not possible to do the same with some modular software, like VCV.
Any idea ?
Regards

I really like the filter and it doesnt distort so long as Drive in the Overdrive section is turned down.
My gripe is the Sine waveform is much quieter than the others, they should have compensated for this.

Envelope clickyness is easy to overcome with a little tweak of Attack.

[seph67]

I have tried with all "effects" down (just had to put some output to the drive section to hear something ) but it started to distord quickly when I increased the Q. I love screaming sounds with a lot of resonance, but when it stays "clean".
Yes, with a subtile setting of the attack you can get rid of the click without loosing too much of the attack. Pity, because the env are quite fast

[VariKusBrainZ]

I have tried with all "effects" down (just had to put some output to the drive section to hear something ) but it started to distord quickly when I increased the Q. I love screaming sounds with a lot of resonance, but when it stays "clean".
Yes, with a subtile setting of the attack you can get rid of the click without loosing too much of the attack. Pity, because the env are quite fast

I havent opened it up yet, I understand there are internal trimpots, maybe theres something for the envelopes. I imagine one way they cut costs is by quick setup and quick quality checks before leaving the factory.

[bmanic]

I just got my Neutron today. What can I say? It's awesome!

Found a weird quirk that I can't quite figure out if it's like this on all of them or just on mine.. but the Width knob (for pulse width) on both oscillators are interlinked somehow, both affecting each other's oscillators pulse width. This is only true for the actual square/pulse though, not the "tone mod" shape.

Anyhow, here is a 11 minute+ jam with a simple arp melody from the Arturia Keystep. If you scroll through various sections of the jam you'll notice quite quickly how incredibly versatile this thing is. I'm mainly tweaking filter, osc mix, filter mod depth, envelope depth, drive, VCA bias (for my resonance trick explained a bit later), resonance and both ADSR controls. I also mess around with the BB delay a bit. The basic thing about this patch is the LFO (unipolar) triggering both envelopes and the LFO is being synced from the host/keystep. It's a variable shape, somewhere in between the triangle and saw which brings a nice softish additional modulation to the filter when needed.

The resonance trick: I have envelope 2 inverted through an attenuator going into the resonance modulation. This way the resonance is always less when the filter envelope is fully "open" and more when the release stage happens.

Another specialty that I explore a bit later on in the jam is shape modulation of oscillator 2 by the LFO (through an attenuator so that I can control the intensity). This brings a really interesting texture to the oscillator which is set one octave above the first oscillator.

This is jam, a sound demo for people who wonder about the sound character and "weight" of the Neutron in more traditional roles. We all know it can do crazy ass glitchy stuff really well but I'm extremely pleased at how good it is for basic synth sound duties with it's own very distinct tonality. It's safe to say that I have absolutely nothing in my arsenal (plugin nor hardware) that sounds like it. This makes the Neutron extremely valuable in my opinion and this alone is bound to make it a future classic.

Here's The 11 minute jam. The only additional effect added was a very simple 8th note ping/pong delay from Soundtoys Echoboy Jr (which I'm fading in at the beginning) and Pro-L2 catching a few stray peaks at the output of the mixbus. Everything else is 100% Neutron without any EQ or compression. This is about as vanilla as it gets. Recorded with my RME BabyFace Pro.

[vurt]

The 11 minute jam.

that's pretty cool
so i kind of hate you
id not been interested before, not that it didn't sound great in the videos, but they where usually accompanied by talking and edits...
if i can sit and listen to 11 mins of play, without skipping, then i think its probably something i could work in the rig
might treat myself, it is xmas after all

[bmanic]

It's an absolutely lovely bit of kit! I'm really loving all the quirks. This thing has "soul" in a way that I haven't found in many of the traditional recent analogue synths over the years (various rolands, korgs, dave smiths, Behringer's own Deepmind etc).

Then again, I've always liked quirky and strong personalities when it comes to synths so this may very well be a turnoff for people who want more predictable results.

[TheSynthScientist]

....This thing has "soul" in a way that I haven't found in many of the traditional recent analogue synths over the years (various rolands, korgs, dave smiths, Behringer's own Deepmind etc).

Mmmm, that's a broad sweep....some good synths in that bunch.

[bmanic]

Definitely good synths in that list but none of them "clicked" with me..

The Behringer Neutron seems to satisfy almost every nuance of what I like analogue synths for (I'm definitely a more digital synth guy at heart). Previously the analogue synth that impressed me as much was Pittsburghmodular's Lifeforms SV-1 which is crazy phat and quirky sounding.

Now with firmware update 2.0 this thing has become even more incredible. In my book this is by far the best bang for the buck in the analogue synth domain.

I'm most likely going to get a few more so that I can experiment with them in polyphonic mode.

[pdxindy]

....This thing has "soul" in a way that I haven't found in many of the traditional recent analogue synths over the years (various rolands, korgs, dave smiths, Behringer's own Deepmind etc).

Mmmm, that's a broad sweep....some good synths in that bunch.

Sure... some of them are better synths by a varieties of measures... but there is something wild and lovely about the Neutron

[pdxindy]

Now with firmware update 2.0 this thing has become even more incredible.

When did that drop? This is the first I've heard of it...

[EvilDragon]

http://www.synthanatomy.com/2018/12/new ... eased.html

[SLiC]

I have installed V2 and the control app works perfectly, very handy...especially the tuners!!

Make sure if you install you follow the instructions closely and don't have midi plugged in- there is a really helpful thread over at gearslutz.

[bmanic]

Also don't be surprised if the firmware update refuses to work on Windows. I tried 3 different computers (windows 8.1 and two windows 7 installed) and none wanted to update my Neutron even though I had followed every single step (including all troubleshooting steps like installing that extra driver and enabling it).

Then used a Mac and got it working instantly.

[SLiC]

Yup - that useful thread on gearslutz I was referring to has a driver fixer for Windows!
I think the issue was 2 different usb drivers, one for the midi, one for the firmware.

[topaz]

Updated to 2.0 (no instructions in zip)

App is not connecting to Neutron

OSX 10.12.6

Posted on behringer forum, lets see if they reply.