Behringer Crave Reviews

Nice

Been using it few months now with some nice results biggest downfall it goes out of tune as you go up & down octaves and can get frustrating

A fine moog emulation.

There are MIDI issues that need to be looked at. Good news is that they can be solved hopefully with Firmware updates.

Orange Mother 32 with clicky buttons

If you want a Mother 32 to a fifth of the price and don't mind that it's Behringer, then this is great purchase.

It sounds almost exactly the same as the Mother 32 and has a very similar feature set, except that the Crave also has a MIDI Out port.

The sequencer buttons on the Crave are controversial. Some people don't mind that they are made of plastic and have an audible click, while other people prefer the tiny rubbery buttons on the Mother 32.

For both Mother 32 and Crave, it's possible to make music with lead, bass and percussion, all with sounds from one synth (search YouTube).

It is also possible to achieve 16-voice polyphony with Crave, by buying several of them and chaining them together.

The Crave itself feels sturdy and has a metal case.

I have used the myVolts Ripcord 12V DC cable for powering the Crave with an USB battery, and it works great here.

In my opinion, it's not the ultimate synth, but it provides good value for money.

Great way to learn about synthesis

Great sound and features and a great way to learn about synthesizers, has a little bit of everything but not too much of anything

Crave - what a beast!

very well made synth, metal chassis. Knobs feel high quality.

Endless fun

Overall good synth

Best VFM I would say, you can experiment allot with this, pretty fun equipment.

Would recommend it to every electronic music artist.

bargain!

fekkin lovin this lil one.....

Entry level monster

Easy to access and hard to master, great for a beginner like myself to get

a hands on experience on what semi modular sounds like. Also a ton of tutorials and info online.

Merita toti banii

Asta e primul synth pe care l-am cumparat, l-am ales deoarece n-am vrut sa investesc banii intr-un Mother-32 (care esential face aceleasi lucruri) fara sa fiu sigur ca ma tin de asta. La inceput din poze nu mi-a placut deloc cum arata portocaliul acela dar m-am obisnuit si intre timp m-am indragostit de jucaria asta. Sunetul pe care-l produce ii foarte cald si poate fi foarte bassos - fix ceea ce cautam pentru productia muzicala, voiam ceva analog cu care sa pot face basslines faine si sa pot sa ma tot joc manual cu setarile.

Imi era greu sa inteleg care-i treaba cu LFOs, Envelopes, Wave shapes etc. doar jucandu-ma in Operator si Analog in Ableton dar dupa cateva seri in care m-am tot jucat cu Crave-ul pot sa zic c-am invatat extrem de multe despre ce inseamna conceptele astea si interfata intuitiva a synthului a ajutat mult.

Inca nu am facut patchuri deoarece vreau sa-l invat ca lumea mai intai dar din cate am vazut in clipuri exista foarte multe posibilitati de a programa melodii generative folosind patch bayul.

Sequencer-ul inclus mi se pare prea basic si folosesc Rozzer (plugin gratis pentru Ableton) sa trimit informatie midi in Crave. O sa cumpar si un Keystep 37 in viitor sa pot face asta fara laptop. Am facut deja cateva trackuri personale cu sunete doar din Crave (plus percutie din Ableton) si pot zice ca sunt foarte multumit de varietatea de care da dovada, daca treci sunetul si printr-un reberb bun devine magic de-a dreptul. Abia astept sa-l invat cat mai bine, sunt sigur ca n-o sa vand niciodata jucaria asta si daca ma las de muzica complet. Recomand cu incredere!

A fantastic instrument

Crave is a fully functional, semi-modular analog synthesizer with a really nice sequencer, for the price of a single modular filter... It's not a secret it clones Moog's mother32, up to the point where Moog's manual helps programming the sequencer (Behringer's short manual feels a bit chaotic). You can see comparisons between the two on yt, but that's completely not the point; neither is the often repeated "great for the price" - the success of (four times more expensive) mother32 makes the case this witty design of a synthesizer is just great, and price has nothing to do with it.

It is highly patchable: you don't see filter's resonance with CV input too often, yet this tiny machine has it... The VCO, VCF, VCA, LFO and the sequencer all have ins and outs. There are few utility modules as well: mixer/attenuator, noise generator, a multiple, and a "hidden" second LFO in the sequencer. All this encourages experimenting with synthesis much as any "large" modular would. The only thing lacking is sample&hold module.

I've learned some fun tricks with it (like VCF feedback for some distortion). It's fun to connect external gear (yes it is compatible with eurorack, 1V/oct and positive trigs), additional LFOs or a random voltage source for irregular sequencer resets. Some people claim the cheapest entry to modulars is getting two or three Craves and I can see this working nicely. Plugging another synthesizer as a sub-oscillator via external input works like a charm too.

The sequencer is a bit tricky to use (that's why it's worth to check out mother32's manual) and is limited to 32 steps: for most applications that's not a serious limitation as the sequences are transposable with either built-in keys or external keyboard.

The envelope is not a complete ADSR as D and R are controlled with the same knob. You can turn sustain off to get AD envelope instead. Sadly the envelope doesn't have CV ins (that would be wicked).

The filter (transistor ladder if you like that kind of stuff) besides usual low-pass has also a hi-pass mode (neat on higher resonance), and self-oscillates on a wide range of frequencies.

The LFO gets into audio range as well, though getting it tuned with the oscillator is doable only for a short frequency range (say 1 octave).

On the build quality: it's nice. The jacks are not screwed to the front-panel but so far sit well. Knobs are fine: you can twist them with one finger if you're busy, but you can also move them quite precisely. The built-in keys feel good to me. They are enough for transposing sequences with a left hand while playing the other synth with right one. Entering sequences from them is also fine, I rarely connect external keyboard to it. I've heard people complaining about clickiness, but somehow my unit is not that loud...

To sum up: it's a fantastic education/tinkering toy and a really nice, useful instrument with wide (and wild!) palette of sounds. After 9 months of everyday use I'm more than happy, I would buy it again, I would pay double that price too, and I do recommend it to everyone who wants to put their hands on semi-modular analog but don't want to invest into a large modular rack or (b)ARP 2600.

fat sound and sturdy body at a low price

Fat sound with great sequencer and modular capabilities in a very sturdy body

Excellent intro to modular

Feature-rich, compact and sturdy, there's little not to like here. Plenty of patch options, a great sounding oscillator and filter, and a very functional sequencer. Knobs feel sturdy with a nice amount of resistance. A great budget introduction to the world of analog patching.

una bomba

una bomba per il prezzo che ha. Clone perfetto del mother 32

Great introduction

Great and simple introduction to modular synthesis. Of particular note is the fact that it contains not just a decent sequencer but that it is also capable of ratcheting.

Amazing

An awesome and super fun little synth. It definitely takes time to get used to it if you are a beginner but once you do, it's potential is as far as you can think. I absolutely love this synth. The synthtool and Behringer software should be the first thing you download when buying this synth. It will show you the way. I recommend this product to anyone.

PS

I also own a Mother-32 and they are alomost interchangable at about a third of the price.

Simplement parfait

Il n'y a pas grand chose à dire si ce n'est que pour son prix, il est imbattable.

Un seul oscillateur de base mais il y a moyen d'en avoir au moins 3 si l'on compte le lfo qui peut monter assez haut en fréquence et également la résonnance de filtre qui peut entrer en autorésonnance.

Le système de patchage permet énormément de combinaison.

Bref! C'est un plaisir de chercher des sons avec le Crave.

Good Synth

2 weeks review so far awesome synth mostly works best for Bass Lines , very heavy and clean sound knobs and build quality is on the top ends.

would definitely recommend for any start up on modular synth as very easy to learn and remember the patches as you go working on your sound design there is a few noisey clicks that happened through through out my journey working with this synth but gonna explore deeper and would update

for the price an absolute bargain

value/price this unit is the best you can find

do not be fooled thus this is a pretty complex machine to use

so good if you have a deep knowledge about subtractive synthesis and want to go closer to modular

not good if you're a beginner, better look for a Korg in this case

It's a steal for the money

It is a really good synthesizer. I've used this one in different situations like Music Production in songs and movies. Extremely easy to use and comfortable, I would recommend it to get more used to Modular synthesis too!

Good clone

Nice Moog M32 clone, sounds same good as Mother-32.

Pros:

- Price - four times cheaper than original.

- Sound - sounds same good as original.

- Build quality - sturdy metal case, fake wooden sides, looks

like decent quality product.

- Can connect several units together to work as one synth

Cons.

- Buttons are not very good - slippery plastic and noisy,

hard to turn the knobs.

- No 6.3mm output - need to use converter

- Patch bay layout - not very convenient to connect to other synths, i would preferred right side patch bay like on Neutron and Mother-32.

- No patch sheets