Introducing the Behringer Crave

Versatile semi-modular analogue synthesis for less than $200

Hardware > Synthesizer

The Behringer Craze being introduced by electronic musician Moot Booxl at Behringers headquarters in LA, just as NAMM 2019 drew to a close.

Just when you thought NAMM was over, Behringer (who werent at the show at all, but made a video announcement from their LA offices) launched another synth that is almost certain to sell well. No, its not the still-forthcoming TR-808 or TR-909 clones seen in prototype form last year. Instead, its something unexpected, and cheaper: the Crave, a semi-modular (and bright orange) desktop analogue synth with mini-jack patch points on its top panel. Like all of Behringers synths, the Crave has been designed by the MIDAS/Music Group engineering team based in Manchester in the UK.

The Craves single VCO is based on an 3340 chip, like the Sequential Prophet 5s oscillators, and features the switchable high- and low-pass ladder filter from the Behringer Model D Minimoog clone. Theres also a new versatile step sequencer, which will apparently feature in other forthcoming Behringer synth clones. This offers up to eight banks of eight sequences each, each of which can be up to 32 steps long. The sequencer can also sync to MIDI (the Crave includes five-pin and USB MIDI connectors) and be transposed via incoming MIDI notes. Whats more, many useful step parameters such as accent and glide time can be set on a per-step basis. CV control of the sequencer is also extensive.

All this would probably be sufficient to pique a lot of interest in the Crave anyway - but the killer blow is that its set to retail for $199 in the US. UK pricing is not yet confirmed, although it will cost 149 Euros on the continent, so a UK price of just below £140 seems a good guess. Moot Booxl s introductory video can be found here. Theres also already a good clip of Youtube synthesist Mr Firechild showing us what the Crave can do here. Party like its Winter 1981, people.

http://www.behringer.com

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