Back in May, a leak appeared to reveal 14 unreleased products from Behringer, including an E-mu SP-1200 clone and a Roland-inspired, hybrid drum machine/sampler called the RD-765, prompting budget-minded gearheads to collectively lose their shit across the internet.
This week, a flurry of new products from Behringer have either been put up for preorder or teased through the company’s social media channels, including several that were unveiled in the leak, along with a few totally unexpected drops.
Alongside its long-awaited Korg Polysix clone, Behringer has launched a trio of open-source, ultra-affordable pieces of gear, hinting at a new direction for the company with their user-modifiable firmware: the Kick sampler/groovebox, the Ignite sequencer, and Anima, a standalone DJ system priced at only $400. Here’s what we know so far.
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Behringer RD-765
First up, we’ve got the RD-765, a freshly-unveiled hybrid drum machine that – like most of Behringer’s most popular products – draws inspiration from classic gear of yore. This isn’t a clone of a single Roland drum machine, though, but a kind of Frankenstein that bolts together pieces from four models in the Japanese manufacturer’s ’80s lineup.
Bearing a strong visual resemblance to the TR-707 – the first Roland beatbox that exclusively used samples rather than analogue sound generation – the RD-765 is equipped with eight banks of 176 sounds based on that machine, the TR-505, TR-626, and TR-727, giving you a broad array of vintage-style samples to work with. If all those retro Roland sounds aren’t doing it for you, then you can load up samples of your own using a companion app or sample directly through its 1/4″ input.
Elsewhere, you get a bundle of features that you’d rarely find in a drum machine retailing at £329/$459: a dual-mode analogue filter; a flexible 64-step sequencer with microtiming, probability, polyrhythms and per-step filter automation; and heaps of connectivity from per-voice outputs and trigger outputs to MIDI In/Out and analogue sync. The RD-765 is available for preorder now.
Behringer Polyeight
Another affordable recreation of an ’80s gem, Behringer’s Polyeight is a 49-key, eight-voice take on the Korg Polysix, a 61-key, six-voice analogue synth released in 1981 that – along with Roland’s Juno series, launched only a few months later – brought polysynths to the masses with its accessible price point and straightforward design.
We’re promised a “faithful recreation” of the original, right down to its single per-voice VCO, 2044 low-pass filter, and BBD effects section with chorus, phaser and ensemble. However, it wouldn’t be a Behringer clone without a few modern enhancements thrown in to bring the synth into the 21st century: along with the two extra voices, the Polyeight gains polyphonic aftertouch, velocity sensitivity, a noise generator, LCD display and MIDI/USB connectivity. Priced at £429/$699, it’s also up for pre-order now.
Behringer Ignite
Behringer upended the music tech world this week with the news of Kick, a sampler, groovebox and MPC lookalike with open-source firmware. Spurred on by the recent trend of users using AI-powered ‘vibe coding’ to modify their gear’s firmware or even build their own, Behringer is encouraging Kick owners to develop their own firmware for the instrument by making the code available on GitHub, opening the door for users to “create, modify and reinvent” what Kick can do.
Along with Kick, Behringer has teased a hardware sequencer built around the same open-source concept: Ignite. A 64-channel multi-track sequencer with USB-C, Wi-Fi, five pairs of 5-pin DIN MIDI In/Out jacks, 8 CV outputs, 8 Gate outputs and analogue sync, Ignite is more than capable of acting as the sequencing brain for an entire set-up with multiple synths, samplers drum machines, Eurorack modules or a laptop.
A generous touchscreen is joined by eight assignable knobs for sound-shaping, and a row of 16 RGB step buttons and LED-ringed encoders below for sequencing. The 64-channel sequencer in the stock firmware can program patterns of 16 bars with 16 steps per bar, crafting songs out of multiple scenes of up to 200 bars in length, but there’s no telling what it’ll be capable of once the community starts experimenting with custom firmware.
Ignite really is an ugly piece of gear – its crude, paint-by-numbers aesthetic looks about as basic and uninspiring as they come – but nonetheless, it could become a powerfully versatile sequencer once the vibe-coders get their hands on it. We’ve no word on price or release date yet, so watch this space.
Behringer SP1200X
Behringer’s “tribute” to the classic E-mu SP-1200 sampler has been in the works since 2019, but the company didn’t publicly acknowledge the product until early 2025, when it asked users for feedback on what kind of features they’d like to see in it.
Nearly two years later, and the company has shared an update in a typically hyperbolic Facebook post, telling its customers that it’s “pushing hard” to get the SP1200X into their hands as soon as possible, and that it’s aiming for a price of only $200, which – for something like the SP1200X – is low even for Behringer. It seems as if Behringer’s embrace of open firmware will be going beyond its original product designs and stretching to its clones, too, as the company has also declared that the SP1200X will be open-source.
The company has yet to share any finer details on features or functionality, but the unit looks reasonably SP-1200-ish, and seems to update the original with a larger, full-colour display, stereo sampling inputs and USB connectivity. The big question is whether Behringer will successfully nail the SP-1200’s famously gritty, 12-bit/26.04kHz sound, and what compromises it might have to make to hit that $200 price point.
