Behringer DeepMind 12

261

12-Voice Analogue Synthesizer

  • 49 Half-weighted full-size keys
  • Velocity sensitive keys with aftertouch
  • 4 FX engines powered by tc electronic and Klark Teknik
  • 24 oscillators - 2 OSCs and LFOs per voice
  • 3 ADSR generators
  • Switchable 2- or 4-pole low-pass filter per voice
  • High-pass filter
  • 8-Channel modulation matrix
  • 32-Step control sequencer
  • Envelope Depth
  • Key tracking
  • Remote controllable via iPad/PC/Mac, USB, MIDI or built-in Wi-Fi
  • 26 Knobs and one switch per function for direct access to all important parameters in real time
  • 1024 Programme memories
  • Built-in and adjustable Wi-Fi client
  • LC display
  • Dimensions (W x D x H): 822 x 257 x 103 mm
  • Weight: 8.4 kg
  • Designed and engineered in the U.K.
  • Suitable optional bag: Art.479789 (not included in delivery)
  • suitable optional case: Art.416352 (not included in delivery)
Available since December 2016
Item number 402983
Sales Unit 1 piece(s)
Number Of Keys 49
Touch-Sensitive Yes
Aftertouch Yes
Split Zones No
Modulation Wheel Yes
Number of simultaneous Voices 12
Sound Engine Analogue
MIDI interface 1x In, 1x Out, 1x Thru
Storage Medium Internal
USB-port Yes
Effects Multieffect processor
Arpeggiator Yes
Number of Analog Outputs 2
Digital Output No
Display Yes
Pedal Connections 1x Pedal, 1x Sustain
Dimensions 822 x 257 x 103 mm
Weight 8,4 kg
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£694
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Analogue synthesizer with extensive features

With 12 analogue voices, a modulation matrix, a 32-step sequencer, and four high-quality FX engines, the Behringer DeepMind 12 polyphonic synthesizer comes loaded with features that were not available during the heyday of analogue synthesizers and that other modern devices cannot match, and the whole package is offered at an unbeatable price. The keyboard has 49 keys and can be used to create massive soundscapes, rhythmically modulated sequences, and arpeggios as well as distinctive lead sounds, both on the stage and in the studio. Its analogue signal path provides all of the characteristic warmth of true analogue gear, and the four FX engines with algorithms by TC Electronic and Klark Teknik are valuable additions, especially for live applications. These built-in effects also save on additional equipment.

Polyphonic synth with four FX engines

The DeepMind 12 is endowed with two oscillators, a 12/24dB low-pass filter, and a VCA in its analogue signal path. OSC 1 generates sawtooth and square/pulse waveforms with pulse width modulation, while OSC 2 generates square/pulse waveforms with tone modulation. Each voice boasts three ADSR envelopes as well as two LFOs with seven waveforms, including sample and hold, which can also be synchronised to a MIDI clock. In total, 19 modulation sources can be assigned to more than 130 different destinations via the internal matrix, which offers a lot of scope for sonic experimentation. Since players generally integrate effects into their sound anyway, modern synths have onboard effects as standard, and the DeepMind 12 – with four effects units that can be used in parallel and more than 30 algorithms including reverb, chorus, phaser, and delay that allow the user to enhance the sounds of the synthesizer even further – is no exception.

For live players and sound afficionados

The Behringer DeepMind 12 not only has all of the necessary features for on-stage use, it also possesses a clearly structured user interface that provides quick access to all of the important parameters that players might want to be able to change intuitively while playing. The presets allow for quick navigation, and besides the modulation wheels and the numerous faders and buttons, there are also two footswitch inputs for enhanced control. The ease of access provided by the DeepMind 12's interface makes it very easy for players to generate their own sonic creations, and if they want to delve even deeper into this subject matter, the parameters organised in menus can alternatively be addressed by way of an App (iOS/PC/Mac) or by using an additional MIDI controller, which makes it possible for the sounds to be automated via a DAW.

About Behringer

The company, which was founded in Germany by Uli Behringer and now manufactures its products in China, has been known for affordable and great-value equipment since its very first product, the Studio Exciter F. An array of mixing consoles (such as the Eurodesk MX8000), signal processors, and later sound amplification and monitoring equipment, has made it possible for countless musicians to fit out their home studios, practice rooms, and mobile PAs within budget limits that were previously unthinkable. The acquisition of other companies, including Midas, Klark Teknik, and TC Electronic, meant that new product groups were added - and also resulted in the technical expertise of these companies being incorporated into product development.

Pads and other poly sounds

Even today, 12 voices are still a high number in the analogue world, and it is much more common to find polyphonic analogue synthesizers with eight, six, or even only four voices. Consequently, the DeepMind 12 can be used for "big" chords and multi-voiced pads as well as sounds with a longer release, without having the voices cutting out too rapidly. The sonic structure of the DeepMind is based on the great analogue classics from the 70s and 80s with two oscillators and low-pass filters per voice. Behringer has designed this synth with musicians in mind, and it has proven itself in countless applications as well as the most diverse genres. The design also ensures that players can quickly become familiar with the instrument and proceed to focus and work on their own sounds without unnecessary distractions.

In the spotlight: DCO - Digitally Controlled Oscillator

As with some synthesizers from the 1980s (e.g. the Roland Juno and JX series), the oscillators of the Behringer DeepMind 12 are designed as DCOs. By mistake, these are often classified as "digital". In fact, these are actually analogue oscillators that are only digitally controlled and are indispensable in a polyphonic synthesizer and for achieving reliable tuning stability. This technique prevents the well-known analogue drift in pitch, which occurs mainly due to temperature fluctuations over a longer period of use. However, the actual generation of the waveforms is fundamentally analogue.

261 Customer ratings

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186 Reviews

m
Decent sound, good feel, good features
makoivis 15.01.2019
The good:

The keybed is great, same keybed as the OB-6. Good feel even though I prefer the stiffer yamaha keybeds. Aftertouch has a controllable range.

Voice calibration is dead easy. VCF tuning may need occasional calibration if you use self-resonance for bell sounds, but this is a quick process.

There's very little menu diving. The most common controls are on the panel, and the most common options are on the first page of the menu. Lots of thought has gone into this and the result is easy to use.

Modulation is easy to set up. Hit mod button, pick mod slot, hold down mod button, nudge the source, nudge the destionation, adjust depth and done.

Envelopes have retrig. No note sequencer, but the arpeggiator is flexible and the control sequencer is useful. Control sequences can't be saved and shared across patches AFAIK, but arpeggio patterns can.

Preset management via the app is okay. Not the best, but far more convenient than faffing about with sysex.

The bad:

The second oscillator doesn't do a saw wave. In practice you can deal with this by using two voices in unison. This means the DM12 is definitely the one to get over the DM6, so you can still have six voice polyphony.

The volume of the patches is a bit all over the place, and you can't store main volume per patch, only VCA volume, which in turn changes the character of the sound. Volume can range 15dB or more between patches. Luckily the front panel volume knob is conveniently placed on the left hand control section.

The sound:

The bass sounds aren't the beefiest, you need to find a sweet spot to get truly nasty bass sounds. However, pads, arps and plucks are easy to make and sound great. Creating patches is a ton of fun and the sounds are inspiring. Most of the built-in patches are a bit naff, but if you know anything about subtractive synthesis it's dead easy to dive in and start building your own library.
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A great synth, not just a great budget synth
Sawtooth Enjoyer 07.04.2023
The DeepMind has quite an ingenious design. Each voice is quite simple, but it is capable of surprising results. This synth's unique character is shown with the unison modes, which, with "uni voice" as a mod source, go well beyond the usual "thicken the sound" function of most other synths. For example, go to unison-2 or unison-3, set a mid-resonance 2-pole filter and map uni voice to filter frequency for formant-like "dual filter" sounds. For this reason I would definitely recommend against the DeepMind 6: you really want all 12 voices, especially since you need unison-2 just to get two sawtooths.

The osc section is limited. Osc 2's tone mod is quirky but combined with sync can make some interesting sounds. It would be great to have more waveforms on both oscillators but at this price the engineers obviously had to make some careful decisions and I think they've made a very unique, characterful instrument.

The filters sound fantastic at all resonance settings and are very versatile. At high resonance the low end largely disappears and it behaves more like a band-pass filter, which is actually very useful despite any comments of the DeepMind sounding "thin" (if all your synth sounds are "fat" then your mix will be pure mud anyway).

Admittedly, this synth sounds a bit dry with no FX, moreso than other synths. This is where the excellent FX section comes in. It lets you stack four effects with various routing options, some with feedback. You can do four reverbs in series, four band pass filters in parallel, whatever. The reverbs don't reach Strymon territory but sound great. There's no shimmer reverb but you can make one by putting a pitch shifter in the reverb feedback path. The two multi-band distortion/drive effects are also very versatile. Most FX parameters are mappable in the mod matrix, so you can e.g. dump the reverb buffer when playing a new note. In this way, the FX section becomes part of the instrument and not just an extra, and contributes to the synth's unique character and sound.

The DeepMind has lots of little features that leave you wondering why synths three times the price lack. Sostenuto mode. Favourites list. There's a "MIDI soft-thru" mode that relays MIDI messages from MIDI in to MIDI out (in addition to the usual MIDI thru port). This is a great feature not found on many keyboards. It means you can connect a sequencer to MIDI in, and MIDI out to another synth, so the sequencer can sequence both synths and you can play the other synth with the DeepMind's keyboard.

The arp is comprehensive with custom patterns (sadly no ratchet or chance).

The envelopes have fully adjustable curves - even the sustain portion has a "curve" parameter that acts like a second decay or attack after the main attack/decay. The envelopes are loopable, syncable, slewable, delayable and can be phase-distributed across voices. Almost everything is a mod destination, including env shape and curves, pan, porta time, drift, arp gate, FX params and other mod slots. Hold mod and wiggle a slider/press a button to set mod source/dest. It really feels like a lot of attention to detail was put into this synth. Some of these options require you to open a menu to get to them, but it's really not bad at all. Most sound shaping and adjustment can be done with the main sliders on the panel.

Build quality seems great: the case is all metal. I think the whole thing looks fantastic and a bit retro. The screen is packed with useful info and visual representations of envelopes etc. The screen could be a bit faster to update - it looks blurry when scrolling quickly through favourites.

I think my biggest complaint has got to be the keybed. While it's workable, the black keys are much less sensitive to velocity and aftertouch making playing uneven. Seems like there's quite a bit of randomness in the velocity response, even on the same key. Also, the keys sometimes feel a little sticky: sometimes they won't start moving until given enough force, then it unsticks. It's not a lot of force that's needed, but adds to the uneven playing experience. It's definitely usable but if you're all set in the keyboards department, definitely consider the desktop version (DeepMind 12D). Also another octave would be appreciated.

Other criticisms: there are only 8 mod matrix slots (odd, because it's all in software). You'll never have enough. Although do note that many basic mods don't need the mod matrix: LFOs or envs can be routed to PWM, pitch mod or filters, with mod wheel or aftertouch control, without the mod matrix.

Oscillator 2 level, noise and HPF mod destinations are global and not per voice (this is clearly a design trade-off as per-voice control of these would need more circuitry).

There's a high pitched whine in the audio path. This is normally not noticeable on the line out unless you introduce gain (either in the FX section or externally) but you might want to use a noise gate when recording. (Interestingly there's a noise gate in the FX section. I wonder why that's there...) The whining is much more noticeable on the headphone port, however, and can be a bit irritating.

Another minor annoyance: osc 2's tone mod parameter gets modified by the "param drift" option (separate from "osc drift"), which introduces bell-like tones into osc 2 even if you want to just use it as a square sub-oscillator. This limits the usefulness of "param drift".

Overall, great unique synth with lots of details. Definitely a keeper, but not without a few warts. Definitely worth considering the desktop version if you have enough keys.
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Nostalgic and groundbreaking synth for the money!
David6954 06.02.2017
I did a great deal of research before buying this synth. It needed to be robust enough to use in live gigs and also provide the range of sounds I needed. Having bought a Roland Juno 6 back in 1984 (still working!) the similarity of front panel layout appealed but the Deepmind 12 is SO much more. I will probably no more than scratch the surface of its functionality but having built it into my keyboard rig over the last couple of days I am already able to see huge possibilities.

The sounds are great, the editing is straightforward if you have a modicum of trad synth skills and the manual (downloadable from Behringer - you only get the Quick Start guide in the box) is remarkably user friendly.

The presets are impressive but for my uses are 'of interest only' but the modular section is amazing - being able to modulate everything with everything else is suprisingly flexible. You can almost have two patches either end of the Modulation wheel, which can be very useful in the Live situation.

Patch changing is pretty good although I use a Roland digital piano as the controller - normally just to send patch change info - its display has less to do and is therefore that bit clearer (and closer to my failing eyes!)

The unison modes are great if you love big synth leads - detuning 12 oscillators for a solo will ensure your guitarist is inaudible for the rest of his/her days!

For the price, it's a winner. You're getting at least twice as much bang for your buck than any competitor. It's been designed and built with care, precision and insight. I love this beast and I've only had it four days!
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Class 1 keyboard
mikkelsenbass 13.11.2022
I never thought that I, a bassman with my home studio, should end up with this keyboard, but I did. I shall never regrett it. Really, I was looking for a motherkeyboard to control my Cubase software, and then this turned up. So now I have both a motherkeyboard with really nice keys and a f..... well sounding and clean sounding synthesizer. What's not to like?
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