Cheap knockoffs of mixer designs was always a bit on the nose for me but always saw it as a given in the marketplace. So I’d prolly see that new MIDI controller in the same light. Not overly fussed about them cloning/resurrecting vintage synths when plenty of other companies have been doing the same.
But bullying/suing/silencing critics seems like an absolute dick move. Ditto for the whole Oberheim trademark shennanigans, although I’ll reserve my final personal judgement until that one’s been sorted. Which is a real shame because I might’ve otherwise been quite happy to buy their 303 clone.
Edit: If people are happy to support B regardless, then that’s their choice - consumers gonna consume. Not gonna pass judgement even though I’ve been personally attacked by fanboys on gearslutz.
Any clone, copy, mini version of a revered synth just ruins it for me.
I’m a simple man, i’ve always dreamed of an ARP 2600 or a Synthi/VCS3, yet i haven’t even watched the Behringer 2600 demos. For me the magic is totally gone and there’s no emotion left that’s linked to these pieces of gear once they get the Behri treatment.
Today i’d rather invest in the classics of tomorrow than chase the ghosts from the past.
I’ve been wondering – does Behringer copy digital synths too ? I know there’s the Swing, which has digital parts, but isn’t too far from a rearrangement of sequencers and keyboards that Behringer has done before. And there is Brains, but that uses open source code. So I am thinking more like a digital synth. I can’t think of one off hand.
ADDED: I did come up with another, not yet released, but the LinnDrum is a digital sample player, which i would suppose would be easy enough to copy, and legally permitted given you used samples different from the original.
There may be better protections, but software work-alikes are common and legal. One example, think about the work-alikes for Microsoft Office. There are lots of other examples. Think about browsers. If code is written from scratch, patent and copyright protection can only go so far.
I don’t think the IP is the main issue here, but cloning/imitating a closed software, especially written for DSP or specialized processor is very non-trivial task. It would basically be writing it from scratch and writing a good sounding VA OSC in C for the Motorola or Raspberry processor is more of art than just technology. Think of, for example, Waldorf, grooming their wavetable engine for decades.
Decompiling and reusing the binary code may be possible in theory, but it is both a very complex task and a rude violation of the copyright - would be nuts even for B*
(Not that cloning an analog board is easy, but often the schematics are published and some things are just visible on the board itself)
