Behringer Spice

I owned the Moog Subharmonicon a few years ago. This clone was what I was willing to pay for, now that I wanted the rare functionality back in my setup. But no, Behringer didn't hit the mark with this one. The sound is lacking. Week oscillators and a filter that doesn't help much. Speaking of the filter... Behringer calls it a "Multi Mode Filter", but it's not. It's an ordinary lowpass filter with low end cancelling resonance. The sound of the combo is far from "Moogish", at least to my ears.

Now to the firmware. Behringer could of course copy hardware by analysing a Subharmonicon unit. But the software had to be developed in house, since Moog would hardly be so kind as to hand the source code over. The result is a less than perfect firmware. There seems to be a timing problem that sometimes makes a sub hit a different note than expected. And I can't get the fine tuning (a hidden function) working at all. I had no problem with that on the Subharmonicon. There are probably other bugs as well, but I have allready decided to return the unit and not spend more time with it.

Mycket bra och användbar maskin, den gör sig bäst med "happy misstakes" dvs att först programmera något grundläggande och sen vrida på olika polirytmiska förändringar i sequencern tills den gör något knäppt eller fantastiskt. Det är en kopia av subharmonicon, med exakt lika mycket tondjup. Fast MIDIn gör den extremt mycket mångsidigare. Jag köpte två i misstag men kommer inte lämna ifrån mig någon av dem om det säger något. Den här gett ifrån sig fantastiska små figurer till nya låtuppslagvarje gång

I’ve had the Behringer Spice for about a month now, and I have to say, it's been a bit of a struggle. While I was excited to dive into the three oscillators, I’ve found it difficult to have fun with it. The sound is challenging to control, and while it's sometimes fun to fiddle with, most of the time it just doesn’t seem to come together.

One of the most frustrating aspects is the tuning. Even after going through the Quickstart guide and calibrating the synth, I find that it’s still often out of tune. This makes it hard to get a satisfying sound, especially when compared to the Behringer Crave, which I loved from the first minute of playing.

The sound itself can also be downright unpleasant. Even with all the VCO levels set to zero, it still emits a harsh tone, and I’ve experienced moments where it sounds defective. The resonance and cutoff controls don’t seem to add much character or flavor to the sound, leaving it feeling flat and lifeless. The decay is another puzzle—no matter how I tweak it, it never seems to behave as I expect.

In short, the Behringer Spice feels like a mystery to me. While it has potential, the lack of intuitive control and inconsistent sound make it hard to truly enjoy. If you're someone who appreciates the instant gratification of a synth like the Crave, the Spice may leave you frustrated. I’m still holding out hope that I can get the most out of it, but so far, it’s been a challenge.

It is really hard if not imposible to tune the oscilators and the suboscilators. i did eveything the manual says regarding the calibration and tunning process and i did not manage to get the oscilators and the suboscilators in tune along different octaves or even notes withing the same octave in both note modes equal temperament and just intonation.

The sound of the oscilators it´s great but the tunning difficulties made it a "fail "device for me.

I returned the unit after expending too much time with the manual, device, tunner etc and not being able to get anything consistent out it.