Apart from price point, free editors for PC and iPad, aftertouch, calibration options per section, adjustable fan speed…
We had the luxury of borrowing a Behringer DeepMind 6 for over a year from a good friend, fellow synth head and podcast creator Gijs de Bakker from soundseekers.nl. After designing a bunch of sounds for this very affordable 6 voice analog poly synth we would like to share what we love about it.
The operating system (OS)
After working with the DeepMind 6 for almost a year and reading the manual you can tell that a lot of thought went into the OS. The user versus machine interaction just works. For starters it has a lot of handy shortcuts like pressing [Prog]+[Compare] for an initialized presets.
It also has a lot of prepatched ‘cords’ or routings, so that you don’t fill up the matrix too quickly. They appear in different sections of the synthesizer. Like ‘pitch mod sources’ which you can access in the oscillator section by pressing [Edit]. So it is easy to setup Aftertouch to pitch modulation in the oscillator section or apply filter modulation in the VCF section. You guessed it, also by pressing [Edit], selecting a source, like for example LFO2 and apply it via aftertouch or the modwheel or both!
And what to think of the redo function when switching presets: by pressing [Compare] after accidentally switching to another preset will revert to the previous edit buffer. A life saver!
You know that feeling that you’ve setup everything correctly, but you badly want to reorder the effects to explore sonic possibilities. With this OS you can by holding [FX] and pressing [bank up/down] or turn the data [rotary].
Filling the modulation matrix is a piece of cake
The modulation matrix, or mod matrix, offers 22880 possible mods and are all automatable. Please let that sink in for a while, since we are talking about an analog synthesizer ladies and gentlemen! It is insane if you ask us! 😀
To fill the matrix the clever guys at Midas thought of something too. Just press and hold the [Mod]-Matrix button and then press the [LFO1.Edit]-button or [Mod Envelope]-button to select as a source. Whilst still holding the [Mod]-Matrix button wiggle the [LFO2.rate]-slider to set as destination. Adjust the modulation depth to your taste and it is done! Once you get familiar with this way of working you design sounds fast and more easily.
The filter (VCF) section
The filter section features an high- and lowpass filter. The first is 12 dB, the second is resonant and has two slopes to choose: 12 (2-pole) or 24 dB(4-pole). It also has a boost-mode. Which will emphasize the lows by boosting the low end with 6 dB at 100Hz with a bell that has a broad Q. The combination of the two filters is a god send for sound design purposes. You can even create a sort of bandpass filter this way.
Loopable envelopes
Next to adjustable curves the envelopes have another bonus, they all can loop! So for example you could introduce a sort of third LFO by looping the Mod Envelope. If you assign this to the rate of LFO2.rate which is modulating the filter cutoff and play with just the Attack, Decay and the curves of the Mod Envelope you can get really bizarre modulation signals and results.
The effects
The DeepMind 6 and its 12 voice counterparts (12 and 12 Desktop) are equipped with 4 great sounding effect processors which were used from TC Electronic. These 4 are really broadening up the sound design possibilities of these synths. You can choose of 10 effect setups and between serial, parallel and even feedback loop configurations. This can result in very spacious sounds and out of this world sounds if you combine them with the previous things we just described and like.
YouTube
More Information
For more information about the DeepMind 6, visit the product page on the Behringer website: Behringer DEEPMIND 6
Disclaimer: We use affiliate links. When purchasing gear via the following links you support our website, YouTube channel and make videos like this possible (at no extra costs to you).
Check out our recommended gear affiliate page here: https://thmn.to/thocf/1qcjdhepq0
Consider purchasing the Behringer DeepMind 6 here: https://thmn.to/thoprod/416831?partner_id=98616
Or its bigger brother, the DeepMind 12, here: https://thmn.to/thoprod/402983?partner_id=98616
Or if space is limited the DeepMind Desktop 12D here: https://thmn.to/thoprod/416130?partner_id=98616
