Published
Sun, Sep 3, 2023, 08:00
- It's the latest in a string of new products from the company.
Behringer is ready to ship its latest synth, a remake of a super-rare French machine called an RSF Kobol Expander.
The new instrument comes as a module—no keyboard—and is priced at $199/€199. Pre-orders are open on most of the major instrument websites that sell Behringer's gear, with delivery expected in a few months.
The Kobol Expander was a two-oscillator monosynth created in 1979 by a short-lived French company called RSF. Only around 800 were made but they have since become highly sought after and celebrated for their sound. The Behringer remake is an exact copy of the first iteration of the Expander, with the addition of MIDI and a headphones jack. Like the original, it's semi-modular, so you create modulation pathways by plugging in extra cables.
Behringer has been busy over the past few months. As supply chain issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have eased, the company has ramped up production, releasing many of the synths it had long been promising. These include the JT-4000 micro, which is a $49 clone of a Roland synth; the Pro VS Mini, a pocket-sized version of Sequential Circuits' Prophet VS; a remake of Moog's Taurus bass pedal system called "Toro;" and an analogue drum machine called Edge.
Several Eurorack modules, some guitar pedals, a line of studio headphones, an ARP-style string synth and numerous desktop mixers have also hit the shelves over the summer, and the company has been teasing more upcoming products, including clones of Buchlas, Oberheims and Moog gear.
Behringer continues to divide the community, with many praising it for making rare old synth sounds available for entry-level prices, while others criticise it for copying other companies' designs and pursuing aggressive tactics.
Despite criticism, sales seem to be strong. Behringer says it's already sold more than 50,000 of its Pro-800 synths, a Prophet-600 clone that was released earlier this year.
Watch a video about the Behringer Kobol Expander.
The Behringer Kobol Expander is available to order now for €199 / $199.