Behringer to offer free plug-in emulations of classic synths in its upcoming free DAW

Following a hot streak of hardware synth announcements, Behringer has set its crosshairs on software emulations. The brand has announced plans to release a collection of affordable and free virtual instruments inspired by classic synth icons.

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Behringer’s current mission statement is to “empower musicians by providing them with great products at very affordable prices,” according to a recent post on social media. Its ever-growing catalogue of hardware synthesizers – inspired by instruments such as the Moog Minimoog, Korg Mono/Poly and Roland TB-303 – is a testament to that goal, in truth.

Two years since Behringer declared it would create a free DAW, the brand has now shared images of three plug-ins that are set to be available in the software. The three soft synths are emulations of the Sequential Prophet-5, the PPG Wave 2 and the Oberheim OB-Xa.

Although Behringer’s physical reproductions of these synthesizers are not yet available, the company says that these software counterparts will communicate with the hardware. In theory, this likely means that you could control your Behringer UB-Xa soft synth with a hardware UB-Xa, or vice versa.

In a post, Behringer said:

“With our upcoming free DAW, we will also be including some free VSTs as well as other plug-ins where we’ll charge a small amount.

“For this purpose, we assembled some of the world’s best VST developers and together with our highly experienced Danish TC Electronic team, they’re now developing truly outstanding VSTs. Best of all, they’ll seamlessly integrate with our hardware synthesizers.

“Once our DAW is ready, we’ll roll out the whole package. Offering these tools for free is our contribution to empowering musicians around the world and especially getting kids into the world of music synthesis.

“We’d like to invite all VST developers around the world to join us build the most amazing free DAW and get your plug-ins integrated.”

Of course, much like many of Behringer’s announcements, the products do not yet bear a release date. The brand claimed recently that global chip shortages are halting the manufacturing of hardware synthesizers. And, although there’s no launch for the software yet, you could be part of the team that helps get the Behringer DAW off the ground.

Behringer concludes the post with: “Help us contribute to the empowerment of musicians and the musical education of kids. Contact us at joinus@musictribe.com and we’ll put you in touch with our developers from TC Electronic.”