Behringer DeepMind 12

Fantastic Synth

Built quality of this thing is next level. So good and durable. Screen a little bit small, and need some deep diving in the settings, which can be challenging in the beginning. That analog sound though!!! For this price a no brainer

Getting back into synths

After much research, decided this to be my first analogue synth. In my teens I had a DX7mk2, and in 2018 I received a Yamaha MX61 for my birthday. Loved the MX61 it but wanted way more. Now having my deepmind over 3 years, absolutely love it! Lots of capability and the effects take it even further.

A great synth, not just a great budget synth

The DeepMind has quite an ingenious design. Each voice is quite simple, but it is capable of surprising results. This synth's unique character is shown with the unison modes, which, with "uni voice" as a mod source, go well beyond the usual "thicken the sound" function of most other synths. For example, go to unison-2 or unison-3, set a mid-resonance 2-pole filter and map uni voice to filter frequency for formant-like "dual filter" sounds. For this reason I would definitely recommend against the DeepMind 6: you really want all 12 voices, especially since you need unison-2 just to get two sawtooths.

The osc section is limited. Osc 2's tone mod is quirky but combined with sync can make some interesting sounds. It would be great to have more waveforms on both oscillators but at this price the engineers obviously had to make some careful decisions and I think they've made a very unique, characterful instrument.

The filters sound fantastic at all resonance settings and are very versatile. At high resonance the low end largely disappears and it behaves more like a band-pass filter, which is actually very useful despite any comments of the DeepMind sounding "thin" (if all your synth sounds are "fat" then your mix will be pure mud anyway).

Admittedly, this synth sounds a bit dry with no FX, moreso than other synths. This is where the excellent FX section comes in. It lets you stack four effects with various routing options, some with feedback. You can do four reverbs in series, four band pass filters in parallel, whatever. The reverbs don't reach Strymon territory but sound great. There's no shimmer reverb but you can make one by putting a pitch shifter in the reverb feedback path. The two multi-band distortion/drive effects are also very versatile. Most FX parameters are mappable in the mod matrix, so you can e.g. dump the reverb buffer when playing a new note. In this way, the FX section becomes part of the instrument and not just an extra, and contributes to the synth's unique character and sound.

The DeepMind has lots of little features that leave you wondering why synths three times the price lack. Sostenuto mode. Favourites list. There's a "MIDI soft-thru" mode that relays MIDI messages from MIDI in to MIDI out (in addition to the usual MIDI thru port). This is a great feature not found on many keyboards. It means you can connect a sequencer to MIDI in, and MIDI out to another synth, so the sequencer can sequence both synths and you can play the other synth with the DeepMind's keyboard.

The arp is comprehensive with custom patterns (sadly no ratchet or chance).

The envelopes have fully adjustable curves - even the sustain portion has a "curve" parameter that acts like a second decay or attack after the main attack/decay. The envelopes are loopable, syncable, slewable, delayable and can be phase-distributed across voices. Almost everything is a mod destination, including env shape and curves, pan, porta time, drift, arp gate, FX params and other mod slots. Hold mod and wiggle a slider/press a button to set mod source/dest. It really feels like a lot of attention to detail was put into this synth. Some of these options require you to open a menu to get to them, but it's really not bad at all. Most sound shaping and adjustment can be done with the main sliders on the panel.

Build quality seems great: the case is all metal. I think the whole thing looks fantastic and a bit retro. The screen is packed with useful info and visual representations of envelopes etc. The screen could be a bit faster to update - it looks blurry when scrolling quickly through favourites.

I think my biggest complaint has got to be the keybed. While it's workable, the black keys are much less sensitive to velocity and aftertouch making playing uneven. Seems like there's quite a bit of randomness in the velocity response, even on the same key. Also, the keys sometimes feel a little sticky: sometimes they won't start moving until given enough force, then it unsticks. It's not a lot of force that's needed, but adds to the uneven playing experience. It's definitely usable but if you're all set in the keyboards department, definitely consider the desktop version (DeepMind 12D). Also another octave would be appreciated.

Other criticisms: there are only 8 mod matrix slots (odd, because it's all in software). You'll never have enough. Although do note that many basic mods don't need the mod matrix: LFOs or envs can be routed to PWM, pitch mod or filters, with mod wheel or aftertouch control, without the mod matrix.

Oscillator 2 level, noise and HPF mod destinations are global and not per voice (this is clearly a design trade-off as per-voice control of these would need more circuitry).

There's a high pitched whine in the audio path. This is normally not noticeable on the line out unless you introduce gain (either in the FX section or externally) but you might want to use a noise gate when recording. (Interestingly there's a noise gate in the FX section. I wonder why that's there...) The whining is much more noticeable on the headphone port, however, and can be a bit irritating.

Another minor annoyance: osc 2's tone mod parameter gets modified by the "param drift" option (separate from "osc drift"), which introduces bell-like tones into osc 2 even if you want to just use it as a square sub-oscillator. This limits the usefulness of "param drift".

Overall, great unique synth with lots of details. Definitely a keeper, but not without a few warts. Definitely worth considering the desktop version if you have enough keys.

Good synth in general

If you are looking for a poly synth Juno style and in an affordable way this is the way to go.

Not bad for the price

I have a home studio, I own several synths and I saw videos on YouTube describing this great product. I was convinced, I seriously love Behringer products, but this one was a failure, talking about built quality, the keys are sticking, as if there is meted epoxy from inside, I thought about opening it to see what is the problem but I didn’t have the time yet. The faders are not all straight as if they were not setting perfectly on the board. When I connect to Wi-Fi a clicking noise is produced. Other than that it is working fine. I don’t know why this product is not as great as the others! I have a poly D and it is perfect, best Key bed and great knobs.

Class 1 keyboard

I never thought that I, a bassman with my home studio, should end up with this keyboard, but I did. I shall never regrett it. Really, I was looking for a motherkeyboard to control my Cubase software, and then this turned up. So now I have both a motherkeyboard with really nice keys and a f..... well sounding and clean sounding synthesizer. What's not to like?

Very good analog synthesizer

This synthesizer is fantastic value for the price. Lots of sounds to change as you like and sounds is good.

Recommended!

Quality vs. Price - Unbeatable!

Older tech but more than capable

The Deepmind 12 is a powerful analog synth.

The keybed doesnt feel premium but this machine can deliver. I would suggest you check out a Youtuber named Jorb who has released tons of patches for this that recreate the JX3P and Juno.

I play this everytime I sit in my studio. Well worth the price. Delivers on what products in the 1,000 range do.

not good for professionals

I did not expect much for the price, but even for such a small amount of money, the quality of this device leaves much to be desired. The noise level generated by the components makes it impossible to rip any samples with lower volumes to the audio. The sound is flat and although the sound generation possibilities are very high, the sound quality is "flat and plastic". As a toy for someone who wants to learn synthesizers - great, but for professional use, it is worth investing in "originals", which the behringer company

"counterfeits".