Behringer has finally officially released its first VST plugin (also as a standalone synth) called Vintage. I will put a link to a playlist of videos about it right at the bottom. So now it has had an official release here is my short review!
According to Behringer the features of Vintage are as follows :
- Synthesizer engine based on meticulous modeling of legendary analog vintage synthesizers
- Two high-quality oscillators with hard sync function and selectable waveforms including sine, square, saw, noise and sub-oscillator
- Two versatile filters featuring 12/24 dB switchable low, high and band pass, notch and formant modes, plus selectable drive curves for lush harmonic saturation
- Filter ADSR controls are easily accessible and a flexible routing scheme allows for serial or parallel filtering
- Noise generator with color knob controlling low pass cut-off
- Following the filters, two amplitude modules allows for panning and levelling with controllable ADSR envelope
- Dual LFO to modulate oscillators, filters and amplifiers with separate controls for rate, attack, delay, retrig and waveform
If I had to say what the specs remind me of – its kinda like an old Juno 106 but with 2 x oscs. Problem is, it sounds nowhere near as nice as an old Juno! My overriding view of the sound is well erm basic, very basic. Like a VST from a decade ago. There are just much better VST instruments around including free ones I’m afraid! This isn’t to say it is all bad, it doesn’t use much cpu really, and having a standalone which supports ASIO out the box is good (not all standalone synths do!). But – and it’s a big but – this synth needs extra work to cut through the mix really, it just seems perhaps a bit too polite and simple sounding. When other free synths come with half decent FX as well it just seems a bit half arsed, especially when Behringer cocked up the original release soooo bad. They also talk about how it was going to be a $99 synth, and if I’m honest, Behringer would have been laughed at so bad if they tried to charge for this… so they don’t charge but make a case for a donation complete with donate button, on the standalone version. I can just about give them a break as it is their first VST, but Behringer this is a C for effort at best, combined with the cocked up launch and thus I can onlu suggest you check it out – but if you are wary, then they require you to sign in with a valid email to get this registered, and I’ve already seen plenty of people complaining about them grabbing email addresses in 2024 as privacy and data concerns are high on many peoples agendas.
If I am totally honest I’m finding it hard to be enthusiastic about Vintage. I’ve heard better, used better and it sounds, well it sounds basic. When others have better sounding VST instruments and include features like arp, sequencers and FX, it is hard to get worked up and positive about this.
This is a synth that is crying out for decent FX added. Adding a simple chorus, phaser or reverb would have made this so much better – even if the CPU usage took a hit. It is a solid VST if we were back in 2010, but these days the market has moved on….
Behringer Vintage
Free new VST from Behringer. Basic sounding VST, low CPU useage, needs work to cut through a mix. Unspectacular start from Behringer here and to be honest much better sounding free instruments out there. They will need to up their game if they want people to actually buy these products or even use them…
Pros
Easy to use
Good price (Free)
Low CPU usage
Cons
Basic VST with a basic sound
Needs work to cut through a mix. I have also heard a fair few random pops and clicks
Registration requires a valid email address. We all know that Behringer will be sending plenty of emails your way…
@3dcadmin I'm glad I clicked on "Read more >" and read your whole review. I was about to be excited about this, as I'm a sucker for new analog sounding vsts, but I can't see myself doing much more than installing this and then forgetting about it. 😀
I wished for more, I really did….