Reviewing Behringer’s “counterfeit” synths would be “boring content”, says Benn Jordan
The journalist and product reviewer goes on to call Behringer’s DeepMind 12 “the last original product” made by the brand.
Image: MusicTech
[UPDATE 9 October 2023: 22:06 BST: Benn Jordan’s video has been removed]
Producer, music tech journalist and creator Benn Jordan has weighed in on the ongoing feud between Behringer and music media, stating his reason for not featuring Behringer’s products on his channel.
The response was made in a video posted to his YouTube page, which predominantly explores Moog Music’s June acquisition by InMusic and the reasons behind its reported recent sacking of “more than half of existing positions” at Moog Music’s Asheville manufacturing plant.
In the video, Jordan responds to Behringer’s recent claims that “many media outlets and ‘influencers’ have decided not to support them anymore because they don’t pay for ads, don’t provide free products for reviews or they simply don’t like them for whatever reason.”
“One of the reasons I haven’t featured any Behringer products on this channel,” Jordan responds, “is because the company has sued people for criticising the company.
“Another solid reason why I don’t cover their products is because they trademarked a journalist’s name and then tried to make an anti-Semitic meme out of him.” Here, we should point out, Jordan is referring to an incident in 2020 when Behringer made a fake product called the ’KIRN CorkSniffer‘, later issuing an official public reponse.
“The number one reason I don’t feature Behringer products on this channel,” he goes on, “is because I’ve already featured Mutable Instruments modules in a stream. I’ve already featured [Make Noise’s] Maths in a ton of videos. I did a [Moog] Mother-32 video, and I did a [Moog] DFam video. Making another video about your counterfeit versions of those things is literally the most boring content I could create on this channel.
“Now, about a year before I started this channel, I paid the full retail price for [the DeepMind 12], and I still think it was a good value. Do you remember this? This was like the last original product that you made, Behringer. But you know what, sure, you do you. Keep fabricating reasons and crying publicly on your official company Facebook page about it.
“Anyway, it seems like Behringer intends to make flea market versions of Moog’s entire product line. Many people shrug and say that it was fair competition, and that Moog lost. I disagree.”
Also in the video, Jordan explores possible reasons for the layoffs of Moog Music employees, citing that, in his view, they may have been related to InMusic’s alleged transition to overseas labour. This transition, he highlights, apparently marked the end of an era where Moog, a relatively large company in the United States, could design, manufacture, test, and distribute musical instruments locally.
In a video posted in July 2023, Jordan discussed the recent acquisitions and changes within various music-based software and hardware companies. In this, he predicted layoffs for Moog, Apple and Spitfire Audio.
Subscribe to Benn Jordan’s YouTube channel.
