Behringer Syncussion SY-1 Drum Synthesizer: Now Ready and Shipping!
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The Behringer Syncussion SY-1 is now available! Almost three years after first announcing it, Behringer is now shipping the replica of the drum and percussion synth from Pearl of the same name. You can order yours today.
Behringer Syncussion SY-1
Coming from a manufacturer of acoustic drums, the Pearl Syncussion SY-1 was originally developed as an expansion for acoustic drum sets. It even shipped with a couple of drum pads back in the day. Like other accidental icons, however, the 2-channel drum synth was later discovered by electronic music producers and used in ways not envisioned by the manufacturer. Thanks to its ability to produce a wide range of pitched and unpitched percussive sounds outside of the traditional drum categories, the Syncussion SY-1 is especially popular with producers of techno and similar styles.
In the summer of 2021, Behringer first announced that it was working on a Syncussion clone. Like other Behringer synths, this one took a while to materialize, but almost three years later, the Syncussion SY-1 is now finally ready and shipping.
The Behringer Syncussion SY-1 arrives in the familiar desktop enclosure that also houses the Model D, K-2, Cat, Toro, and others. You can also remove it from its housing and put it in a Eurorack case. While the original had two vertically stacked channels, Behringer put the two channels side by side.
That said, the channels themselves offer exactly the same tone shaping possibilities as the original. Each channel has six oscillator modes, including single oscillator, FM, dual oscillator mix, dynamic oscillator mix, FM/noise mix, and pure noise. You can further shape the sound using the tune, decay, and filter sliders. The sweep function is essentially a pitch envelope with an adjustable range and speed. Furthermore, the Syncussion SY-1 offers an LFO with square and triangle waves per channel.
In addition to a MIDI input, the Behringer Syncussion SY-1 features tune and trig inputs per channel, so you can use analog CV and trigger signals from your Eurorack or other gear. The channel audio outputs on the back are mirrored on the panel, which is great if you’re using the SY-1 as a Eurorack module. There’s also a headphone output and a mute input, as well as a USB connector on the back.
Price and availability
You can now order the Behringer Syncussion SY-1 from Thomann* for $181 / £172 / €199.
More information about the Behringer Syncussion SY-1
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One response to “Behringer Syncussion SY-1 Drum Synthesizer: Now Ready and Shipping!”
The original must have been triggered by CV only, as the original unit was 4 years before MIDI. And with only a Trigger In, it must have been shaped, altered, in realtime with the sliders while recording. Wonder what the MIDI implementation of the clone is? Can you alter the sliders with MIDI controller knobs, or is it as the orginal was? Looks good fun anyway, heard about it, but never seen or used one.