Reporting on Behringer’s latest ‘news’ frequently requires us to head back through the archives to remind ourselves if the products being discussed have been mentioned before. Both the Polyeight and Model 15, for example - emulations of the Korg Polysix synth and a self-contained Moog modular system respectively - were mentioned some time ago, but are now a little further along the development road.
The Polyeight isn’t a straight Polysix clone - we learned back in 2021 that it adds an extra two voices of polyphony. However, the number of octaves on the keyboard has been reduced from five to four, which is likely to grind some people’s gears.
Indeed, posters to Behringer’s Facebook page have already pointed out that having only four octaves of keys on an eight-voice polysynth could be a little restrictive. The company says that it respects this view, but hasn’t indicated that it has any plans to change the Polyeight’s design.
No word on a price or release date for this one, but Behringer says it’s sounding “beautiful”.
The Model 15, meanwhile, has a semi-modular architecture and is designed for those who are after the sound of Behringer’s 55 series but aren’t quite ready to brave the world of Eurorack. It seems that we should be seeing this one pretty soon - Behringer says it’s getting it ready for production - and the target price has been set at $249.
