Behringer Wave Is Here! The Classic Wavetable Synth Is Reborn
Behringer making Waves!
4,6 / 5,0 | 
[11 December 2024] The wait is over. The Behringer Wave, a remake of the classic ‘80s PPG Wave, has dropped – and it’s got an unbelievable price.
Behringer Wave Is Here
It took the company four long years, but the Behringer Wave is finally on sale. The Wave is a remake of the classic PPG Wave, the original wavetable synthesizer that blew minds when it appeared in songs by Tangerine Dream, Depeche Mode, and so many others.
Classic Hybrid Polyphonic
The Behringer Wave (and not the BBG Wave as it was originally announced) is a hybrid polyphonic synth with eight voices of polyphony, two wavetable oscillators per voice and a V2044 24dB/Oct analog filter to take the aliasing edge off. It also offers a sub-oscillator section with 64 fixed sub-oscillator waveforms for extra weight. The Wave also sports two ADSR envelopes to alter the wavetables and volume. A third envelope (AD) plus LFO round out the modulation.
The Behringer Wave can do both 8-bit and 12-bit wavetable synthesis (Wave 2.2 and 2.3 modes) with 30 factory wavetables on board comprised of 64 waves each. It can also support user wavetables and do custom transients. You can also layer up to eight different parts (yes, it’s eight-part multitimbral).
Behringer Wave features a four-octave keyboard with velocity and channel aftertouch plus pitch and modulation wheels. There’s also a polyphonic sequencer and dual arpeggiator.
In terms of connectivity, the Wave has MIDI in the form of both USB and DIN in/out/thru. The Main Out section gives you two output jacks, channel one and channel two, plus headphones, while the Channel Out section has a separate output jack for each of the eight parts of multitimbrality. There’s also sync in and out, CV and gate in and jacks for expression and sustain pedals.
Behringer Wave Price and Availability
The Behringer Wave looks and sounds great. It’s also extremely affordable as you might expect.
It’s available now from Thomann* for $566 / €639 / £522.
- Behringer Wave product page
Behringer gets into wavetables and reveals their PPG Wave prototype
[11 August 2020 / Robin Vincent] We saw the insides of a mystery monster synth back in April, now Behringer reveals that it’s a PPG Wave clone called the BBG and it’s got a prototype.
Behringer BBG Wave
We guessed back in April that it was likely to be the PPG Wave that they were working on. The internal design hit a lot of Wave markers. Behringer has now confirmed this and posted an image of what we can probably assume is a fully working prototype. Although all we’re getting is a single closely cropped photo – no sounds, no demo, no video. Tantalising isn’t it?
The layout perfectly matches the PPG Wave 2.3 albeit without the huge bulk at the back. This is a compact clone with the panel taking up less space than the keyboard. Gives it a slightly unbalanced look in my view. They’ve also shaved off an octave somehow.
Lots of questions remain like is it the 8-voice bi-timbral 8 bit 2.2 version or the multitimbral 8-voice 8-part 12 bit 2.3? No other information was forthcoming.
It’s visually a classic but I think that wavetable-based synthesizers have probably improved a lot since the PPG was released 30 years ago. Consider the Hydrasynth and Argon8 as examples of wavetable evolution. The PPG was instrumental in bringing digital wavetable oscillators into being but a lot has happened since then.
Anyway, more information when we get it.
More information
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2 responses to “Behringer Wave Is Here! The Classic Wavetable Synth Is Reborn”
We’re gonna need a bigger landfill..
Hydrasynth is fantastic, for me the best-ever wavetable, but it don’t do 8 and 12 bit emulation for that crunch. This is a synth that might do very well in techno, EBM and darkwave. Where modern wavetable almost sounds like ‘synthetic sounds that might be new instruments’, this one sounds proud of being synthetic, very electronic. Another good one from Uli. Where’s me EMS VCS Uli, I’m gagging for it here, pal.