Behringer UB-Xa Synthesizer (OB-Xa clone)

[WatchTheGuitar]

Andertons has the UB-Xa on pre-order at £899
https://www.andertons.co.uk/behringer-ub-xa

and say stock due 20th January

If there is going to be a desktop unit that surfaces eventually got to think it’ll be around £500 or cheaper which would be pretty incredible for a 16 voice analogue poly.

Yep, it's true, that's a pretty impressive price point. People are going to lose their minds. But so far, still no recent demos, not a thing, just a few impressive demos going back a year or so.

I wouldn’t hold your breath. Firstly, shipped units won’t be arriving at resellers until late January and Behringer doesn’t send reviewers models for review so reviewers usually have to buy them like any other punters.

The recent trend has been for the people who do bells and whistles demos to ignore Behringer releases as they have to buy them and Behringer have slagged a lot of them off on social media either directly, like Loopop, or generally calling them all out as paid shills. They even made some offhand comment about how Starsky Carr would review their stuff anyway which seemed pretty unthinking.

I bought a Kobol from Andertons and played around with it when it arrived and stuck a video up of that and it was as far as I could see the very first video anyone in the world had put up featuring the shipped product. Reviewers are falling over themselves to not review Behringer or they’re in the States who seem to get the shipped goods a month or two after Europe does.

I don’t know if anything will be different because we may perceive the UB-Xa as a more premium and desired product but there’s this whole situation with Oberheim currently selling the OB-X8 that may well factor in too. It’s like slagging Behringer has become de rigeur amongst the reviewers and they may rather get brownie points from the people who pay five times more for a name badge by boosting the original Oberheim instead.

[db3]

Amazing price! My heart has GAS but my head yells I don't have the space.
OB6 size would have been optimal for the masses. Hope the desktop follows soon.

[kritikon]

The recent trend has been for the people who do bells and whistles demos to ignore Behringer releases as they have to buy them and Behringer have slagged a lot of them off on social media either directly, like Loopop, or generally calling them all out as paid shills. They even made some offhand comment about how Starsky Carr would review their stuff anyway which seemed pretty unthinking.

I bought a Kobol from Andertons and played around with it when it arrived and stuck a video up of that and it was as far as I could see the very first video anyone in the world had put up featuring the shipped product. Reviewers are falling over themselves to not review Behringer or they’re in the States who seem to get the shipped goods a month or two after Europe does.

I don’t know if anything will be different because we may perceive the UB-Xa as a more premium and desired product but there’s this whole situation with Oberheim currently selling the OB-X8 that may well factor in too. It’s like slagging Behringer has become de rigeur amongst the reviewers and they may rather get brownie points from the people who pay five times more for a name badge by boosting the original Oberheim instead.

TBH it doesn't put reviewers in a good light. We already know Uli is capable of being an incredible twat, but I get his stance. And reviewers stamping their feet, not doing reviews because they can't get freebies...doesn't make me want to believe they're unbiased or bought.

It just means I'll have to go along to stores to demo Behringer gear properly myself. Which is a bit of a pita, as all the decent stores with stock are 3 hrs away minimum. But I'll believe my own ears and put up with schlepping about the North Island rather than being swayed by petulant children reviewers who are (mostly) in it for themselves anyway. There are some exceptions and I trust those. Many of these reviewers though - as bad behaviour as Uli. . And some of them not very good at reviewing anyway. So many of those Pro800 reviews have either all presets or samey sawtooth sounds that make me think it's incapable of doing anything other than buzzy or brassy - which obvs it's not. That type of sound is not a test of a synth IMO. I actually think many of these "reviewers" don't have a fkn clue how to program a synth, or they're prog rock throwbacks.

[Scotty]

And meanwhile all the price fixing scandals which aim to keep prices high to the detriment of consumers like us gets near zero coverage from the YouTube moral police. This doesn't give Behringer a pass for targeting journalists or the outright (somehow legal) copying of products in current production. Regardless, ignoring the behavior of the other big players in the arena is ignorance at best and selective outrage at worst.

https://pogustgoodhead.com/musical-pric ... g-scandal/

This is just the most recent examples. There have been others over the years involving many of the same players .

The recent trend has been for the people who do bells and whistles demos to ignore Behringer releases as they have to buy them and Behringer have slagged a lot of them off on social media either directly, like Loopop, or generally calling them all out as paid shills. They even made some offhand comment about how Starsky Carr would review their stuff anyway which seemed pretty unthinking.

I bought a Kobol from Andertons and played around with it when it arrived and stuck a video up of that and it was as far as I could see the very first video anyone in the world had put up featuring the shipped product. Reviewers are falling over themselves to not review Behringer or they’re in the States who seem to get the shipped goods a month or two after Europe does.

I don’t know if anything will be different because we may perceive the UB-Xa as a more premium and desired product but there’s this whole situation with Oberheim currently selling the OB-X8 that may well factor in too. It’s like slagging Behringer has become de rigeur amongst the reviewers and they may rather get brownie points from the people who pay five times more for a name badge by boosting the original Oberheim instead.

TBH it doesn't put reviewers in a good light. We already know Uli is capable of being an incredible twat, but I get his stance. And reviewers stamping their feet, not doing reviews because they can't get freebies...doesn't make me want to believe they're unbiased or bought.

It just means I'll have to go along to stores to demo Behringer gear properly myself. Which is a bit of a pita, as all the decent stores with stock are 3 hrs away minimum. But I'll believe my own ears and put up with schlepping about the North Island rather than being swayed by petulant children reviewers who are (mostly) in it for themselves anyway. There are some exceptions and I trust those. Many of these reviewers though - as bad behaviour as Uli. . And some of them not very good at reviewing anyway. So many of those Pro800 reviews have either all presets or samey sawtooth sounds that make me think it's incapable of doing anything other than buzzy or brassy - which obvs it's not. That type of sound is not a test of a synth IMO. I actually think many of these "reviewers" don't have a fkn clue how to program a synth, or they're prog rock throwbacks.

[felis]

$1199 pre-order from Sweetwater for those in the USA:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... ynthesizer

[kritikon]

Wow, so it's definite then. Very nice - I'm tempted to see how much shipping to NZ would be (as I suspect it'll be cheaper than the gouging they add on down here). The price looks all the more stunning when you look down at the bottom of that link page - "similar synth" - Sequential Oberheim OB-6 6-voice Polyphonic Analog Synthesizer $3,499.00. Nearly a third of the price for 10 more voices and all the bells and whistles they've added.

They're going to sell like very hot sellable things.

[kritikon]

Y'know - I'm thinking they might come up with a 16 voice Jupiter on this new platform of theirs. They already did a piddly little one, maybe next a proper one? Mmhmmmm. I need an emoji of a dog humping somebody's leg...

[lfm]

Gear4Music seems same price 1199 USD.
Available may 31st is the estimate here.

[kritikon]

May 31?
Bugger! I'd better get on and order my MinilogueXD for some new toy to play with in the meantime.

[egbert101]

Yeah, Digitone is on my list. Might wait for the January sales though rather than a self-xmas present.

[D-Fusion]

And meanwhile all the price fixing scandals which aim to keep prices high to the detriment of consumers like us gets near zero coverage from the YouTube moral police. This doesn't give Behringer a pass for targeting journalists or the outright (somehow legal) copying of products in current production. Regardless, ignoring the behavior of the other big players in the arena is ignorance at best and selective outrage at worst.

https://pogustgoodhead.com/musical-pric ... g-scandal/

This is just the most recent examples. There have been others over the years involving many of the same players .

The recent trend has been for the people who do bells and whistles demos to ignore Behringer releases as they have to buy them and Behringer have slagged a lot of them off on social media either directly, like Loopop, or generally calling them all out as paid shills. They even made some offhand comment about how Starsky Carr would review their stuff anyway which seemed pretty unthinking.

I bought a Kobol from Andertons and played around with it when it arrived and stuck a video up of that and it was as far as I could see the very first video anyone in the world had put up featuring the shipped product. Reviewers are falling over themselves to not review Behringer or they’re in the States who seem to get the shipped goods a month or two after Europe does.

I don’t know if anything will be different because we may perceive the UB-Xa as a more premium and desired product but there’s this whole situation with Oberheim currently selling the OB-X8 that may well factor in too. It’s like slagging Behringer has become de rigeur amongst the reviewers and they may rather get brownie points from the people who pay five times more for a name badge by boosting the original Oberheim instead.

TBH it doesn't put reviewers in a good light. We already know Uli is capable of being an incredible twat, but I get his stance. And reviewers stamping their feet, not doing reviews because they can't get freebies...doesn't make me want to believe they're unbiased or bought.

It just means I'll have to go along to stores to demo Behringer gear properly myself. Which is a bit of a pita, as all the decent stores with stock are 3 hrs away minimum. But I'll believe my own ears and put up with schlepping about the North Island rather than being swayed by petulant children reviewers who are (mostly) in it for themselves anyway. There are some exceptions and I trust those. Many of these reviewers though - as bad behaviour as Uli. . And some of them not very good at reviewing anyway. So many of those Pro800 reviews have either all presets or samey sawtooth sounds that make me think it's incapable of doing anything other than buzzy or brassy - which obvs it's not. That type of sound is not a test of a synth IMO. I actually think many of these "reviewers" don't have a fkn clue how to program a synth, or they're prog rock throwbacks.

I agree.
When Focusrite Bought Sequential the Prophet Rev 2 price went up 90-100% in my country

The 8 Voice used to cost around $1350 new if you converted my currency to US $ and now it costs $2399 new and there is no way i will pay that price to get a second one after i sold mine a few years ago

[egbert101]

DRY!

[Jim Roseberry]

Got on the pre-order list at Sweetwater.

Though they're a controversial company, Behringer has released some good gear.
X32 digital mixers are extremely common with live sound companies.
We use an XR-18 for rehearsal.

Here's hoping the UB-Xa is a great synth.
Thus far, I haven't heard any sound demo that shows off the Filter on low notes (where it almost sounds angry).
Can it authentically create the "Tom Sawyer" Filter sweep?
If it nails the Filter, it'll easily be worth the cost.

For me, a big turn-off with many of the reissues is low polyphony.
Poly Aftertouch is certainly nice, but the 16-voices is what sold me.

[Constructed Identity]

DRY!

Are these presets that this guy made?! Great stuff!
He made use of the aftertouch, good! I also notice that the knobs are set to 'jump', I hope they give the option to set the knobs to 'pass through' so that the sound doesn't jump turning a knob.

[egbert101]

DRY!

Are these presets that this guy made?! Great stuff!
He made use of the aftertouch, good! I also notice that the knobs are set to 'jump', I hope they give the option to set the knobs to 'pass through' so that the sound doesn't jump turning a knob.

From the guy's youtube description.

"This UB-Xa Demo was shot end of April 2021, when we already were testing the UB-Xa for two months. This model is Rev. 3; in the meantime I also got the improved Rev. 4, on which I reprogrammed all legendary original factory sounds. Right now there is another improved Revision, which gets in the shops. We Beta Tester always measured, discussed and got each week new Firmware Updates, also based on ideas we gave to the team. So over the last 2 years the UB-Xa improved not only with its hardware but also very much with the software. So in this Demo you get an impression of this synth in a medium stage and not final. Of course it also sounds great, so our progress was around getting the sound as close as much to the original and also get useful features inside of this really incredible synth. In this demo you can hear my programmed sounds for this synth. Other beta testers contributed also a lot of very great sounds, some of them are in another style, more classic and some also very modern. In this demo I demonstrate a lot of softer sounds and some ambient stuff but also some classic brass patches and typical 80 ies lead sounds, many arpeggios and such else. I also take use of the polyphonic aftertouch you can send to a lot of modulation sources like panning, filter, LFO, envelopes etc. This demo I recorded without any effects and no progressing at all. You just listen to a two stereo output signal. Just the pure, dry and raw synth. All sounds are from the UB-Xa expect the drums in the intro track. I am very excited that finally this synth gets to the market. You really had to wait very long, but waiting was worth, absolutely. Thanks for watching and listening, again, Cheers."

So, it's a 2.5 year old demo released today for some reason.