SYNTH ANATOMY uses affiliation & partner programs (big red buttons) to finance a part of the activity. If you use these, you support the website. Thanks! A new teaser suggests that Behringer will present the TD-3-DF Synthesizer on Friday, a clone of the TB-303 Devil Fish by Robin Whittle In February 2020 I reported in an article about the Behringer TD-3-DF, a clone of the Roland TB-303 with the Devil Fish modifications. It adds a lot of functionality to the 303 bassline synth including internal filter FM, filter self-resonance, muffler (post-VCA soft-clip distortion), push-button for manual accent, and more. The full list of modifications is available here. A little more than a year after this teaser, the signs point to release. In a new YouTube video, Behringer teases a new instrument with the words Acid, Mean and Deep. As some wrote in the YouTube comments, Acid means TD-3, Mean for Devil, and Deep (in the ocean) Fish. Behringer will release it on July 9th, so this Friday. Behringer devil fish clone Behringer TD-3-DF The original TB-303 Devil Fish comes from Robin Whittle, who made this modification popular. He was also interested in working with Behringer on an affordable TD-3-DF. Both had contact in 2020, but could not agree on an official collaboration. For one, Robin wanted better components for the “murdered out” bassline Synthesizer version. He said: I insisted on sealed tact switches and some other requirements about the feel and longevity of knobs, pots and switches. (The little RK09K ALPS pots we use in the Devil Fish are excellent in every respect. Not one has failed or even become noisy, as far as I know, since 1993. Behringer used the same kinds of pots, with knobs, in some of their 1990s mixers.) Also, they didn’t find agreement on the financial side: I was keen to proceed, since Behringer could produce a good instrument, en-masse, and sell it globally, at a price far below what we can do from home – and so bring Devil Fishes into the hands of tens of thousands of musicians. However, Uli was unable to accept these commercial terms. It emerged that he expected me to help with the design, endorse their product, and effectively license his company to produce it, and any variations, without limit, without royalties and in perpetuity, for a one-off payment of USD$15k. I rejected his offer for a number of reasons – not least because USD$15k would be a small fraction of what we would have earned with the royalty arrangement. My 2 Pennies And as I wrote in 2020, there are no legal options that prevent you from cloning the Devil Fish circuit. This gives Behringer free rein to bring its clone to market. On the part of the community, and especially for Robin Whittle, this is anything but nice. It a bit lame when you already have contact with the original developer, who is also interested in the clone and they still cannot find any agreement. And as a reaction of defiance (“because we can”), Behringer clone the Devil Fish though. That’s not nice, to be honest.
We’ll see what Behringer presents on Friday. I’m sure it’s the TD-3-DF and probably without collaboration with Robin Whittle. |
