How about a little mixer for your Behringer mini-synths?
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Behringer had a meeting of engineers and came up with a draft proposal for a mixer and power hub for the new Soul/Spirit mini-synths. What do you think?
Mini mixer
Apparently, a lot of people had been asking for Behringer to come up with a little mixer and power hub for these forthcoming mini-synths. It would make a lot of sense and be a great way of pulling together a handful of these miniature desktop boxes.
The draft proposal is pretty basic but totally functional and offers 4-ports of USB connection for power and 4 channels of audio. The MIDI In port makes it easy to add MIDI controller and Behringer suggests that it could create an instant Poly Chain between the connected synths. Adding a reverb effect has also been suggested. The Mute switches on touch plates at the bottom is a nice touch and sort of keeps the design in line with the synths.
The biggest complaint I can see in the Facebook comments is the use of MicroUSB ports rather than the more widely liked USB-C ports. It could also have a USB Host port to make it easier to plug in a USB MIDI controller.
Update: Behringer has said that in response to comments they will be replacing the MicroUSB for USB-C – that’s pretty cool.
Otherwise, it’s a great idea and they should definitely do it. It’s only a sketch but what do you think?
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21 responses to “How about a little mixer for your Behringer mini-synths?”
It’s a midi controlled mixer! It would be nice to have midi cc’s for volume, pan, and mute!!!
Echo that if they don’t intend on having anything MIDI controlled on the mixer itself, the ports don’t add any value. If they also wanted to have several thrus and have it act as a thru box (maybe 1->3) with no MIDI stuff going on in the mixer, then it would be a simple space saver.
Adding reverb isn’t that helpful, add at least one effects send, preferably two.
I do like the mute button idea, but wonder if it is a waste of space. They may be trying to be a little two cutsie…
On the inputs, it would be nice if they accepted either mono or stereo… Where if it were mono, some little expansion of the sound to make it more suitable for a stereo field would be nice.
poly chaining built in? cool!
How do the USB connections work? Looks like a device type socket here , same as on the mini synths. It’s also a shame to see all these giant DIN sockets on the synths, midi over TRS on both the synths and this mixer would mean this could be a little 4-in/4-out midi port, a lot more flexible.
People will moan about either choice of MIDI port 😀
I think people in the forum post about it have been more concerned about the tiny usb plugs. Which I get also, its usually the female side soldered to the boards that go really quickly with them. I think they mentioned USB-C is hard to get the components for.
The synths would be powered by USB and carry midi over USB also, so the idea is the mixer would provide a master midi sync and power to multiple synths and also with the poly chain you could probably have one synth play a sequence and have it cycle notes between all the other synths, fun 🙂 I get the idea of Midi over TRS, although while I have that on an SQ1, I have to be really careful where I store that tiny adaptor lead! The large plugs feel a bit cumbersome these days but its great for backwards compatibility (And extremely durable, I have 30 year old midi leads still working, not so much my tiny jack leads)
Robin & Veng: Agree that either option will cause grumbles, I think I felt a lot better with midi over TRS when I realized it had been accepted as a midi standard. And I’ve got a draw full of short and long TRS cables already, and almost enough little TRS to DIN adapters to start my own landfill.
Midi/power over usb makes sense but what kind of cable will connect the synth to this mixer, it looks like it’s micro-b on both boxes.
Poly chain is a great observation, with voices for $49/99!
This is by the looks a very quick engineer draft today from some of the suggestions in a post. I’m speculating if this being the smaller casing, would be something cheap like the $49 price point. They could probably offer a larger specced up version for $99 also maybe? would be interesting to see how far they take it.
Hey Uli, how about a UB-Xa first !
Mmm, nobody seems to be able to do a really good mini mixer.
The Volca one was a bit poo.
This one I get is still just a design but I’m not digging it. Why the reverb? Or more importantly is the reverb applied to all channels? It looks like it’s on or off to me. As said before a send and return would be much better.
Also, I feel that with all those USB ports this is going to be noisy and hum like hell.
Hmmmm… No, the mixer shouldn’t be this simple. It’s not a good design, looks just like a large USB hub.
A better idea would be to take a Xenix mixer (with FX integrated) and add the USB ports on it. That would be way more functional and creative.
Oh and yes… why not the USB-C ports? C’mon, it’s 2022!
Totally agree! We need USB-C hahah! No, really! The mini USB makes me nervous. Apart from that it immediately renders the whole system to the status of toy. I, mean in a way they ARE but them again, you probably could play a gig with a proper controller. Yeah, CC etc would be awesome.
Yeah, micro USB at a 90° angle… you’d be lucky if they last 3 months
If they really want suggestions here you go.
1. Midi trs and usb to power and connect to their units.
2. Usb on the back so the connections won’t get broken.
3. Volume, effect level, and mute buttons.
This is enough at this property point
It looks like this will function as a USB MIDI host with DIN MIDI in and optional note assignment to polychain synths that don’t support it. That in itself would be great, thr mixer is just a bonus.
they will all be USB-C now.
use a right angle USB adapter if you’re afraid of breaking it off.
I wish someone would make a small simple line level mixer with 3.5mm jacks – lots of them. No mic preamps. And no built-in controls (maybe some level/clipping LEDs)… But with a MIDI socket & USB host port so you can add your controller of choice. Basically a miniature version of the ancient Fostex DCM100.
I think a lot of people are missing the point here but what this will allow you to do especially with the spirit ($49) synths is quick and easy polychain them- meaning that since they are 4 voice synths you can for around $250 have a 16 voice analog synth which is absolutely insane
How about Behringer actually releases a product? We’re getting posts about what might as well be 3D renders. Some of Behringer’s recent “releases” have taken 1.5 years to show up in the USA in limited quantities. I read they’re already talking about chip shortages for this series.
These stories should be prefixed with some kind of caveat, “probably 1-2 years away”. Let’s see if we can actually buy these synths in 2022.
Quarter inch outs would b better
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