One blogger's take on the whole thing: http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/01/new...visual-aid.html

From Behringer's product listing:



Vintage distortion at your feet—from screaming loud to whisper soft!

Here’s an authentic, classic distortion effect—the warm and emotive tone that has ruled rock for the last 30 years. This BEHRINGER product has been designed to compete head to head with the Electro-Harmonix® Big Muff®*. With the dedicated Sustain control, your guitar will learn how to scream! You get a status LED for effect On/Off and battery check, and there is a true hard-wire bypass for ultimate in signal integrity. The VD1 runs on a 9 V battery or a DC power supply (not included).

* Let’s be clear. This is exclusively a BEHRINGER product. It is not in any way associated with and has not been approved, licensed, sponsored, endorsed, designed or manufactured (or anything else for that matter!) by Electro-Harmonix® or anyone other than BEHRINGER.
All Trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners and are not affiliated with BEHRINGER.

http://www.behringer.com/VD1/index.cfm?lang=ENG

No learning curve at all. Flagrant as all hell. The Boss boxes especially - 20 solid years of good will they are trying to trade on.

And ask youself, would you rather get a Big Muff or VD?


Bear

Some of these classic pedals sort of suck. I know MXR went bankrupt years ago. And, now, Jim Dunlop owns the brand. I liked the MXR. They were pricey then and they're pricey now.

Kurt Cobain had good taste in pedals in my opinion. If you find his gear lists then you'll find some good pedals.

It's blatant all right, hell it looks like an MXR if you cross your eyes a little...

I've had a few pieces of Behringer gear over the years, and I still use their headphone amp. But they are steadily proving themselves to be a bunch of jerks. I read somewhere that they were at NAMM telling people that Roland had licensed the rights to them? Anyhow, that could be incorrect info but I guess at this point it's hard to put it past them.

What is the line they won't cross? At what point does their marketing department say "we can't do that"?

War

Apparently, they don't.

Exactly!

War

Has anyone actually tried these yet?

It would be great if they were good!

That kind of thinking is exactly what has kept Behringer in business so long.

Bear

So long...or is it too[I] long?
Seriously though, I use their headphone amp also and it does what I need it to do, but these pedal knock-offs are downright thievery. I guess Boss needs to try to protect their image a little more...c'mon they're the same color for crying out loud!!!

I think a lot of folks use that headphone amp...

War

True, the headphone amp is apparently a completely worthwhile product. I wonder who they stole it from.

Bear

Fair enough question, but I can't recall seeing one that looked the same from any other company.

By the way, I'm also guitly of owning their HA4600 headphone amp!

Joel

I just wish they'd make some nice Neve and API preamps and some Universal Audio compressor clones.

This is too far, this time, I'm afraid. Too far. Copying Genelecs was one thing, cloning Focusrite was another, but at least in those cases no fool in their right mind would fall for it.

This time they're preying on the millions of kids who want guitar pedals and will believe that if it looks the same (but is much cheaper) then it is the same. Difference is that you get a lifetime of use out of Boss pedals and nothing Behringer I've ever used except for the DI100 DI boxes feels like it will last for even a fraction of that. These pedals are DIRECT competitors with the proper ones in a way that the Truth monitors never were.

I won't cut my nose off to spite my face but I'm beginning the process of trying not to put a single penny in Uli's back pocket ever again.

I was looking for a cheap pair of monitors and i found:

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i-ROL-MA8BK.html

Then to my suprise:

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i-BEH-MS16.html


Duh? Do they save money by NOT hiring design people?

tex, it makes me wonder if we should do a behringer knockoff page.

Something tells me "go with the Roland"

this is good news, i was actually considering taking my chances on one since i need one pretty bad and with the cost of a few sets of cans and some other things i need at the moment it won't leave much money for something better.

I seem to recall Scott Dorsey once commenting that he took apart the Behringer headphone amp and found it so badly under-engineered it was frightening. I suppose that's what you get for next-to-no-money, though.

From what I read here and the web, i'd never touch behringer given the choice. But
a friend of mine who has been doing PA's and synths, likes their stuff, i think because
its cheaper (like some Mastering thing (anti-feedback?) he has. the stuff seems to
work for him. BUT... everyones standards are different. I have a rogue wah-wah
pedal i use 1 every 3 years -- weither i need to or not. its "fine".

Rogue is another one of those companies. although i think their stuff is worse.

Jay

The irony being that that would be the only piece most people say is okay.

Bear

Their PA stuff is actually ok. The power amps are reasonably clean and efficient, and the cabs are as good as the Peavey and Yamaha equivalents that cost a bit more.

I'm just an average consumer who likes to mess with music gear as a hobby -- so here's my 2 cents -- I think that most music/recording equipment is way overpriced.

For example, I wanted a small digital multitracker a few years back to find that i'd have to pay around 600 bucks (canadian) just to get the very lowest end device. Same goes with almost anything else I've bought -- pedals, effects boxes etc..

For me anyways, I think that behringer's effect in the market will be to force down the prices of their expensive competitors -- somewhat like how there are many more decent lower-cost condensor mics on the market now than 10 years ago. and I don't have an issue with that at all..

They are cheaper cuz they steal technology and ideas from others who are "expensive" because they pay developers to create the gear in the first place.

but most music/recording equipment is not aimed at the average joe blow. most stuff is for serious engineers. latley, the market has been shifting towards the home recorder, but other than behringer, art, and a handfull of others, this is still stuff for pros.

i own a behringer mixer. it was cheap. it combines audio. i expect no more from it.

but these pedals are obnoxious. this BS wouldn't fly with music. there would be a huge lawsuit if these were songs that behringer was ripping off. roland should sue.

by the way, i'm new here. this looks like a great forum.

hello.

I think they've changed the look of the pedals since Roland complained though.

I don't buy the "research and developent" cost angle -- I work in marketing, and when we price product, yes development plays a role, but in the case of a well established name, the markup comes from brand more than anything else.

In the case of ultra-high end brands, its just 2 different markets -- the average guy will go for the lower end and all the "pros" will get the real article... I don't think its a huge issue.

Well if I were to create a product and someone copied it as blatantly as some of the behringer product are, there would be hell to pay. It's just a rip off plain and simple. A scumbag tactic.

That's all. I meant.

Didn't Behringer get into trouble a few years back for ripping off Mackie designs for their mixers?

That's nice. I say they did copy roland...among others.

Ty Ford

"It depends on what you think the definitiion of 'is' is." Bill Clinton