Victor? More like "vector"!

OK, now Uli's team of design copyists have cranked out (or will soon, I should hope!) something truly astonishing. What this is is a modular oscillator that's based on the tone generation in the Prophet VS. I would figure this is something that spun out of their efforts to create these little Microfreak-ish boxes they've been teasing. This is far more important, though...

First up: pretty much NOBODY without a bushel of ca$h will ever get their hands on a Sequential Prophet VS. Ever. I kid you not.

And secondly, all of the voice oscillators in the VS are "ganged" to the one joystick, so you can't easily impose different vector patterns on each one. This, however, fixes that issue, since the module has its own vector joystick and you can save vector patterns per modules. Think something along the lines of the Korg Wavestations or Yamaha's SY-22 and the TG-33, but sounding a lot beefier...provided they do their homework on the design.

In short, what you have here is a wavetable oscillator that outputs four different signals, and the joystick lets you manually (or under CV) morph between these, then save the vector "path" so that it's reproducible. Definitely NOT a normal VCO.

Drawback: it's Behringer. And since it is, some people will want nothing to do with it. This one might be a gamechanger, though...

Hi Lugia, All,

Are you specifically referring to Behringer Eurorack module Victor with its oscillator based on the Behringer Pro VS Soul? That might be indeed interesting if that's what you mean :-) How about the Pro VS Soul itself then? For me it's a bit too "mini". Let's hope Behringer comes with the real Prophet VS :-D I am just watching a video of the Prophet VS, interesting that the cut off comes as a slider and not as a knob...

Since we are mentioning here anyway that B-word, how about the upcoming Proton, Kobol, Kobol Expander, DS-80 and Pro-16? All quite interesting though the Pro-16 is a copy of a still existing Sequential Prophet 5 synthesizer, so I don't feel too happy about that one. Still interesting one but from a... how to say this...? From a human-respect-point of view not so nice but then again... let's not start that discussion again ;-)

Behringer announced lately tons of new synths, I think the above ones are the summarised interesting ones, well at least that's how I see it :-)

Edit: Whoops, I forgot to mention the VCS 3, interesting too!

I remember you mentioned in another post about the BCR32, you recommended it highly, then if I remember correctly (so please do correct me if I am wrong) you mentioned that it will not be released, however I heard (okay, rather rumours) that Behringer will continue with that, so that's yet another interesting one!

Kind regards, Garfield.

EDITED Apr 12th 2022, 23:16

No...I know the BCR32 is going to come out. And that's actually important, as they did collaborate with the people who did the ZAQuencer firmware for the old BCR2000, so it should function along those lines. It's something I'm waiting for PROVIDED it doesn't turn out to be one of Uli's BS product info drops.

But yeah...it's a Prophet VS oscillator, which is key to the sound of the P-VS. You lose the polyphony here, but you apparently retain the rest of the bits that make this a killer VCO. As for the "Soul", though...I was intrigued until I saw what they were touting as "prototypes", which just look ugly and ungainly...no fun to play!

One of the big problems here is Behringer itself...and not merely Uli. Their practices of ginning up customer interest with these "teasers" is, ultimately, annoying and a tad deceptive, particularly when one of these teasers drops and gets everyone all hot and bothered about something that won't be in stores for perhaps YEARS. If even then! Just another fine example of how Tribe really doesn't give a flying f**k about communicating the real info or whether or not the synth-buying public is annoyed at these antics. They need to double down on getting projects out the door instead of showing us renders of something "conceptual".

F'rinstance, they've apparently now got a Buchla Easel retread, it's got a price tag, pics, blahblahblah...and it's just as likely to be out in 2032 rather than 2022. I might get it...but Uli's heading into MY turf here, having used a 200/300 hybrid system back in the 1990s. If it's not up to snuff, I'll be PISSED.

As for the "Soul", though...I was intrigued until I saw what they were touting as "prototypes", which just look ugly and ungainly...no fun to play!

-- Lugia

Actually the same I was thinking about the Soul, it looks to me that I will not be interested in it. That Prophet VS oscillator though, that indeed might become an interesting module, however I want to have it tested at my dealer first before I think about buying it.

Okay and indeed regarding the BCR32, we have to be patience again to see when it becomes available and if indeed, if it's really that great as we hope it's going to be :-) Well, let's see...

That leads me to your already mentioned conclusion about the huge number of B.'s "teasers" the recent weeks/months and wondering how much of it ever will be produced and released on the market, besides the next important question... when will it be available? To me, this becomes a rather "irritating" experience getting to know about those "teasers" but nothing much else than that...

Again, anyway, let's see... Thanks a lot for your opinion & feedback and kind regards, Garfield.

That leads me to your already mentioned conclusion about the huge number of B.'s "teasers" the recent weeks/months and wondering how much of it ever will be produced and released on the market, besides the next important question... when will it be available? To me, this becomes a rather "irritating" experience getting to know about those "teasers" but nothing much else than that...

-- GarfieldModular

100% with you there. I have a great deal of annoyance at B.'s dropping teasers and then not offering any concrete follow-up info. For example, the PPG clone...wanted it, it's not out, so fukkit...went with a Sledge instead. Similarly, they keep making noises about their VCS3 clone...which I would be in line for IF it comes out, but B. just drops teasers and nothing concrete about this one. And where's the Solina clone? They might want to finish CURRENT projects FIRST before whipping users into a frenzy!

Look, if Uli wants a synth to copy, one that definitely benefits from the current tech AND which can be copied in its entirety and sell for about a grand...there's the Crumar GDS. Crazy-complex stuff for the late 1970s/early 1980s, it was the predecessor for the DK Synergy and Synergy II. But with the present-day tech, you could use a computer ed/lib to store patch data as well as to pass various signals (clock, for example) to the synth via USB, eliminating the need for the computer side of the instrument. And the internal microprocessors, RAM, etc are now nowhere the prices they were back then, which kills the expense aspect.

But the important part? Well...amazingly enough, that synth engine is 100% PUBLIC DOMAIN. I kid you not! It was originally developed by Hal Alles when he was working for Bell Labs in the mid-1970s, and given that the Bell Labs patents are open for public use without royalties, there's no way in hell anyone could scream "KNOCK-OFF" about it. Also, Hal Alles's prototype is still very much in existence, and it's housed at Oberlin's TIMARA labs. Studying that would be productive, along with a Synergy or Synergy II IF they can find one anywhere; it's not like these grew on trees, after all!

C'mon Uli...if you want to pull off a HUGE win without infringing patents and angering your putative customer base, THAT is the project I would suggest. It'd be a win all around! We're talking a synth that was used by the likes of Wendy and Klaus...so clearly, it's got loads of mojo, otherwise those two alone wouldn't have had anything to do with it.