Behringer DeepMind 12 49-key 12-voice Analog Synthesizer Reviews

I am reviewing this synth after owning it for a little over two years. It is the first and only analog synthesizer I've ever owned, thus I'm still not that knowledgable in operating it, but that doesn't matter, because the DeepMind 12's factory sound patches deliver amazing music-making possibilities without any further alterations. Even just having a small amount of knowledge (like me) using the faders and knobs goes a long, long way in making great music.
The main thing is I don't allow myself to be intimidated by all the editing features this massive editing machine comes with. I encourage making music with it on your gigs or studio straight away, and learn on the job. DeepMind 12 can do it - on its own. All it needs is a keyboard player to hit its black 'n' white keys.

I've had my DM12 for a short time and have had an awesome experience. It's my first hardware synth and the speed at which I can navigate the controls vs using a soft synthetic is really noticable. It's a sturdy unit and I appreciate the ability to save and recall patches. I run it through Ableton to record midi. The unit is everything I had hoped it would be. The sounds are rich and warm. The presets are incredibly useful. I have much more to learn, but no complaints.

Amazing for beginners or veterans. Gear--that is much more expensive than the Deepmind 12--keeps rotating in my home studio but this remains right where it is as one of my most commonly used synths. Analog signal paths with the best effects engine of all synthesizers ever released, for ~$. I've matched this to sounds on my Prophet, OB-6, and Moog. With the right technique you can get scary close. It's honestly just ridiculous that this exists at its price.

The DM12 is my first synth . I got it from Hayden Flack at Sweetwater last August. Hayden has been very helpful working with me at SW. He makes the buying process easy snd he always has great advice for me.I really appreciate the honest helpful service I get from Sweetwater. The Deepmind has massive amounts of presets to choose from. It slowed down my sound creation training because the presets have been so useful. I can do adjustments to whats already created , but I find I can use them just as they are most of the time. I am impressed with the build quality. The key action feels really nice. I think I made a great choice for my 1st synth. If your on the fence I recommend saving your money and getting a DM12. I don't think anything available is near the value at Behringers price point.

Excellent, excellent instrument. Easy to learn and lots of support from Sweetwater.

I waited for Behringer to come out with their rumored Jupiter 8 clone but then watched several demos online where people compared the DM12 to Jupiter 8 and to the Juno synths and I couldn't tell the difference without looking. I'm sure anyone out there with a $37k Jupiter might argue this point--but I am not one of those fortunate folks. For the price, this is an incredible synth. Right out of the box I was jamming. Nice 4-oct keyboard (similar to the Model D and the MonoPoly boards). The LCD screen is easy to read (for my old eyes) but mainly I love the sliders and going crazy creating my own sounds. For comparison, I own a Moog SubP and a Prophet8 module and the DM12 fits perfectly between them. If you love ambient pads as much as I do, you will have hours of fun with this synth.

Easy to set up, easy to use, over a thousand presets of all kinds of genres, 12 voices - what's not to like? It's been over 24 hours and I STILL haven't gone through all the presets! I didn't hear any fan noise, and everything I need so far is in the top menu!
Guitar, bass or keyboard - everyone needs this synth! You won't outgrow it. Learn to create patches and replace any patches you don't like or can't use (there won't be many of those, I don't think!) and this way you can grow with this synth! Don't know how to create patches? There's several sound sets available to replace the ones you don't like! This synth is a keeper!

Been eyeing this Deepmind 12 for a couple years. Very happy with it. The Modulation Matrix and the onboard FX really steps this synth up a couple notches. I've heard other people complain that this only has two oscillators. However, the wide palette of harmonic content you can send to the VCF is amazing. I do not miss a third oscillator. If you send the Osc. 1 sawtooth to the Vintage Pitch FX and set channel one 6 cents higher and channel two 6 cents lower you get the classic Moog style PHAT sound. All without losing the 12 voices. Sweetwater is a joy to order from. I got my synth next day. And, they contacted me to make sure I was happy with my purchase. Will definitely order from Sweetwater again.

When I first got into synthesis, I bought the deepmind 6. Enjoyed it a bit and then decided to return it fir carious reason. Now that I'm more familiar, I understood I made a mistake and grabbed the 12. Such a joy. At least I now have the 12 voice version.
If you ever looked for a Juno 106 clone, this probably gets the closest to it.
Highly recommended.

I enjoy playing this synth.

Pros: Lot's of sounds can be made. More sounds than I need. Semi-weighted keys 49 keys.

Cons. Compared to Behringer Poly D, not as immediate playability. Almost to much stuff to go through to start playing, where as Poly D is a twist of a knob and instantly playing. Overall, when the deepmind 12 and Poly D are together, I have a really good time.

People rip on the fan noise, but since pulling it out of the box I haven't notice it while playing

Purchased the DM12 for ElectricKennyLand's recording studio in the Poconos. Among the many high end keyboards there, this analog synth is a stand out! More sound creations than you can ever imagine for your next hit record!

This synth is beyond what I expected. A lot of people say it is limited because the second oscillator only has one wave form. Just double up the first Osc blend in the second with some PWM or sync! You have 12 voices, so if you put it in Poly 6 mode, then you can have 4 Oscillators per note with 6 note polyphony. That's pretty rad. You can Mod matrix almost anything on the synth and so this can give you super thick sounds. There is an extra filter and an extra digital pitch oscillator in the fx that can give some interesting results. Also, it is not very menu divey at all. each section has its own dedicated menu button. The FX is a bit menu intensive, but there is a touch screen app for PC, Mac, and IPAD so that you can have easier access to that, along with a Patch blender witch is very neat. Chord Mode, arpeggiator, and control sequencer are very very nice also. You can double your oscillator pitch or add an octave with chord mode making custom chords. You can also assign different keys to different chords. No multi device voice splits, but you could run a pitched sequence in the control sequencer, hold down a key to play a sequence, then play shorter pressed notes over it (which is very fun, and sounds great). You can also turn half the keys off locally and but they will still send midi, so you can have a second synth playing on a split, per say. SO basically , this is a 24 Oscillator, 24 LFO, synth with 3 custom envelopes and a 2 pole and 4 pole filter with 33 fx across 4 separate modules. If there is anything I would change it would be add more than 8 slots for the Mod Matrix and maybe add some extra control to the unison voice mod matrix sources like Oscillator 1 volume. Maybe there could be some way to change the filter or amp to adjust low frequencys besides just a bass boost button. Also the compressor is a little confusing. Another common complaint is the fan noise. You can turn down the fan speed, no problem and it isn't noticeable. Keybed is great. I think if this was just a midi controller it would be almost worth as much as it costs with all the other features. Overall I give it an A.

This synth is fantastic value for the price. Definitely one of the best synths you'll find under $1,000. Best of both worlds with analog, polyphony, and digital settings. One downside would be the slow refresh time between presets, but you really can't complain for how much you get for $... I would recommend this synth for anyone wanting to get a synth with a lot of variety and quality for less than a grand.

My 1st synth was juno 106, bought in 1986. Was a great synth at the time. Sold it for digital rolands and dx21. Owned digital synths ever since. This DM 12 is my return to analogs. I love it and think that it is much better than that old 106! Awesome fx engines and cool sequencer, and 12 voices. Has phat analog sounds and even a couple that are almost FM or wavetable. For the money, you cant go wrong. Buy 1 or 2. Wont be sorry. Oh yea, it had over 1000 patches.

This is my first hardware Synth and I'm glad I bought this.It lets me play around at different levels of complexity.Good to learn synthesis on one hand and sound wise covers all my Synth needs.i hardly switch to software synths now!

I just bought my synth yesterday. It is just amazing. Analog goodness at its very best. Behringer really outdid themselves on this one. I am reminded fondly of the days I had a Jupiter 8. This synth is the best of analog and digital effects. It doesn't get any better than the DeepMind 12. It was love at first note.

This is quite the synth...definately old school but with so many bells and whistles you will not beleive your ears...Fat sound abound...and I just opened the box....well worth the spend...more as I grow with it

WOW. Was loving it already, but upgraded it with the 333 Ultimate Patches and free Behringer editor/librarian and can't tear myself away from this thing now.

Best DCO analog synth hands down - very capable of analog PLUS some digital type of sounds. Can't wait to see what Behringer has for a successor!

I love this thing so much its difficult to step away from it long enough to write a review. Obviously, the features & versatility for the price are outstanding. Also, the build quality (metal chassis, real wooden end cheeks, solid feel) seems as good or better than synths costing twice as much & up. The sound doesn't disappoint either, from high to low & from dirty to sweet, I can't find reasons to complain.

Yes, the little display screen & its menu format is nothing to write home about. But its limitations are easily overcome in a couple different ways. First, there are numerous handy shortcuts to get straight to what you want. Now that I have the ones that I want memorized, its easier than navigating my smartphone. Second, the editor app (available on Behringer's website) is a boon to learning the system. The essential details of most features, parameters & routings are displayed in a way that's so much easier to see & understand. I'm finding that as I get more fluent, I have the app off more than I have it on, but I definitely consider it a must-have, both for easing the learning curve & also fine tunings & programming the arp & control sequencer.

There are some great sounding patches (programs Behringer calls them) that make it possible to have a ton of fun with it right out of the box. The ability to dissect & compare each component of those patches is an awesome learning tool.

Having played pianos since childhood, I'm unlikely to ever be satisfied with a synth keyboard's feel & playability. But with that in mind, on a scale of Dude-seriously? To OMG! I'd give the keys a solid pretty-good-for-a-synth. The manipulable velocity sensitivity & after-touch curves are excellent inclusions.

The cooling fans do make noise. But its one of the caveats of so much good stuff being packed into such a compact chassis. Most of the time I don't notice them when I'm playing. By way of comparison, the fans are far less noisy than the periodic hum of my refrigerator & I've managed to get used to that, so I don't think it will be a problem.

The last thing I'd mention is probably irrelevant but a nice bonus nevertheless. It looks nice. There's something subtly elegant about the design that suggests it wants to be taken seriously as a musical instrument.

First, I want to thank Scott Augustyniak for being the most incredible sales engineer. He has supported me over the last 10 years and has always been there when I needed assistance.

Now onto the DeepMind. Before I made my purchase, I researched analog synths for months. I've listened to every analog synth out there. When you add in the price factor for 12-voices and a true analog synth, this is the best out there and it's not even close.

Sure David Smith and Moog make incredible analog synths, but for most musicians, it is out of their budget. The DeepMind offers similar performance at a fraction of the cost. This is no toy synth, this is a truly professional piece of gear. I have a Roland Juno Di, Arturia Keylab49, Spectrasonics, NI Komplete 12, Arturia V collection 7 and a host of other VI plugs. But there is something special about a real analog synth that software or a digital synth just can't emulate. Just like a grand piano can't truly be recreated digitally. The feel of a grand; the physical interaction with the instrument as the stings resonate and surround you with lush overtones, just can't be reproduced digitally. Same with analog synths.

I highly recommend purchasing this synth. You won't be disappointed. Even if for some reason this isn't for you, Sweetwater has an amazing return policy, so you can't go wrong. However, I think you'll find this one is a keeper.

I like it a lot it"s super amazing

This is no doubt the best synth I have owned for the price point and quality. Kudos to Behringer & Daniel Fisher for my owning one. Again Sweetwater comes thru with flying colors. Thanks.

I've had my DM12 for a while now and have added new patches and explored it deeply. This is a fantastic synthesizer. You cannot go wrong with this. The free editor app is so convenient to have and use as well.

bought 2 of these for 24 voice with a Model D and Im all set

This has sparked a creativity in me I didn't know I was capable of. My family will have to pry this out of my cold dead hands when I die.

I can make sounds I have never heard before with little effort. I can have soundbeds created in minutes on multiple tracks in my DAW with this. The FX engines are worth the price alone.

If you're on the fence at the... price point, just get it already. Stop waffling. It's worth every single penny and more.

For this price I was expecting it to feel pretty cheap. Boy, was I wrong! I was startled by the solid weight, high quality keybed, smoothness of the sliders and overall beauty of this synth! I've only had it for a day so far and I'm lovin' it! I had been watching YouTube videos to hear it before I ordered mine, not realizing that the patches I was so impressed with were not the factory patches, but rather patches created by "GEOSynths." So, when I played through the factory patches right out of the box, I was somewhat disappointed. they were over processed, way too wet for my liking, and became boring pretty quick - all sounding so much alike. But, when I realized my mistake, I ordered the sound banks from "GEOSynths" and WOW!!!! What a machine!!!!! I'm also ordering the "Classic Synths" sound set from AnalogAudio1 which really makes this synth shine!!! I sold 3 other keyboards to get this one and I'm not disappointed at all! (One was even a MicroKorg and another was a Korg Monologue!) This is finally the analog synth I've always only dreamed of owning! It's especially nice when using the Deepmind 12 iOS app on my Macbook. I highly...and I mean HIGHLY recommend this synth!!!! Unbelievable for the price!!!!

First of all I like to thank to the sales team and my emails asking about this synth but I want to say this synth I've been waiting on for years now after the Korg microkorg I had a lot of mixed feelings about it but after months of reading reviews and YouTube videos I decided to jump on this and the price drop but I'm glad that I got to own Behringer first keyboard that they came out with I had korgs Roland Yamaha Alesis Dave Smith's but there's something about this board that WOWS me maybe the sci-fi sounds but I'm hoping this board will be put in a book one day I sold my Roland Juno DS synth for this one and glad I did not missing it at all looking forward for more keyboard's to come out by Behringer

I recently purchased this synth after the price drop. For the price, it's amazing and inspirational. I have only made my way through 20% of the patches, but I have laid out many new song ideas. The sounds are easy to edit from the hardware, and the software editing interface rounds out the editing capabilities. The keyboard has a nice feel to it, and the synth is pretty solid. The effects and sequencer really add to its capabilities. I would buy again.

This synth is wonderful!! It is inspiring to play. The oscillators are smooth and just oh so sweet! Everything is accessible from the panel and the edit menu button per section is very useful. The build quality is great and worthy of being designated a "flagship" synth for Behringer. It's a beautiful, capable, and affordable analog polyphonic synth; can't say that too happens too often. Behringer has really changed the game here, with the FREE standalone app for Mac, Windows, and iOS, and topped off with a 3-year warranty!! Whaaat!!! Absolutely unbelievable and so welcomed. Thank you Behringer! As always, my Sweetwater Engineer got this to me super-fast in two days! Thanks Tom!

This thing is really deep. And I"m just scratching the surface. Just checking the factory presets you can tell right away how powerful and versatile the deepmind 12 really is. I"m feeling like a kid with a new toy.

In short I feel like I've 12 Moog Prodigy's stacked with an effects bank and free modulation routing between them. If you owned old analog synths in the past, you will experience a hard hitting feeling of deja vu.
I've had the unit for over a week and have only made it to the end of bank B (they go to H) because nearly every patch that comes up gets my attention and I start creating.

The panel quality reminds me of the Moog/Radio Shack Rogue in build quality. Not the best. Not the worst.
Can't be beat for the price.

The Behringer DeepMind 12 has exceeded my expectations after playing with it for 6 hours. It's a great polyphonic synth upgrade from some of the smaller popular models from Korg. All in the patch banks are bad, the TC electronics effects are pretty solid, and the build quality is great. I would recommend checking out the various youtube videos out there on patch creation, with the Desktop / iPad app though, it's super easy and fun! I won't hesitate to recommend this synth to others.

I read a lot of reviews on guitars, keyboards, sound equipment and software.
The one common thread that I look for is ...does the instrument inspire the musician to
create Great music?.
I avoid the drill down of whether the knob is wobble or the filter doesn"t do this.
The instrument should first and foremost sound amazing, excite , inspire and motivate
to musician.
That said, I don"t care about the brand....close your eyes, play the instrument and listen.
The Behringer DP12 has a beautiful sound.
The creativity option is there with "deep" tweaking.
I think it was brilliant and welcomed to integrate DSP effects. This combines the warmth and
the broad timbral palette of analog with modern digital elements . If you want a vintage instrument there
are plenty of paths that will achieve this goal. Behringer invited TC Electronics and Lexicon to
contribute to the effects chain which provides some of the arguably best reverb and delays in the business.
12 note polyphony.....great
After touch ...nice
Lots of deep editing....sweet
Sound.....Fat and complex
Built in FX—-finally
iPad editing and wireless connectivity......future thought
Let"s embrace the beauty of analog and marry it with modern capabilities ....Yes!

i bought this with hesitation not because im a behringer hater but because of this being their first synthesizer. first of all i was blown away by the quality and sheer versatility that it has. it can be warm and vintage or cleaner with its own character. I have owned synths from arturia, korg, roland, and i have a 22 space modular and the deepmind melds the best out of all of them with my 5u modular which is as pure analog as it gets. ive made sounds from moogy basses to 80's pads with ease. the fx are just an added bonus, most of them sounds great and have all the parameters there to adjust. its overall a very musical instrument and expressive but can be dirty and raw when wanted. ive made some sounds that are just out there haha. you wont find another synth quite like this and especially at this price range.

Wow! Analog oscillators, great effects, metal chassis, and wood ends. Its like the 80's again woohoo!

Kurt, my sales specialist, sent me this one and I didn't know what to except. The scope is amazing with continuous real-time data feeding my brain while I tweak any voice at will. The interface is simple for subtle to drastic real-time sound manipulation. The advertisement is pretty understated and the value is incredible. Read more about it on the product web page. It was quite clever of Behringer to pack so much power into a little package. I haven't been able to stop playing it and also learning what new thing it can do. I never really understood what all of the analog lingo was about until I saw it displayed on the handy scope. This is a fantastic teaching tool. I hope they expand this eventually into a larger size synth with an HD display. I'm buying it for sure. The 12 voice capability is complex and fun. I'm glad I bought this. I haven't been this excited about "another synth" in a long time. Most are just the next generation upgrade but this one is uniquely different and not complicated to learn and 100% affordable. How did they do that?

I'll start first by saying the first one I got had some defects that were fairly minor, but mattered to me. The volume knob was not working properly, and the keybed was so noisy that I wondered if I had bought a very inexpensive Casio. However, everyone at Sweetwater worked hard to get me a replacement as soon as possible. This thing is in such high demand that it took awhile to get one, but ever since I've gotten the replacement, I'm absolutely blown away. Gone are the issues I had with the first unit. For the price, I don't think anything else can touch the DM-12. I even wonder, at times, since I got it, if I even need the Korg workstation I have any longer. Time will tell. Especially good about the DM-12, for my purposes, are the filters, the arp section, and the effects. I think it's a synth that can easily be crossed into all genres of music, unless what you need is real instrument sounds. I find it very intuitive and easy to use; everything is laid out clearly, and easy to get to. Menu diving is a rare necessity, and is simple and quick. I am an ambient music composer/hobbyist, and could very easily make a track with one sound, and no over dubbing on the DM-12. The complexity one can get into with just one patch is stellar! Build quality is solid, and it has a heft that leads one to believe it's durable. So far, so good. The only two complaints I have about it are that it's not multi-timbral, and it has no on-board sequencing, aside from the arp. If it had these features, I've no doubt I would not need my workstation at all. VERY happy to have the DM-12.

This is one really powerful synthesizer. I've been playing keyboard for ten years and all I found I didn't like is the menu is hard to find sounds you need quickly. You can organize it but it takes a lot of time to get it right.
Fortunately they are doing updates for it all the time so it'll only get better.
And really the fx alone are probably about the price of the whole tag price if you bought them separately haha.
The limited square and saw wave oscillators can be shaped in many ways to get different wave feels. I use the Midas equalizer built in to shape the tone of the oscillators and have gotten pretty close to a sine and triangle

As soon as I turned the Deepmind 12 on I was blown away, everything it does is huge. All the sounds are bigger and have so much texture they're dripping with amazing little artifacts. This synth with so amazing I took my time to write a review, that never happens. Behringer's Deepmind 12 will be the main synth in my studio from now on.

No Joke, sold my CS-30, Pro One, SH-101, TI and Radias and put the money into my retirement fund. Use just a small fraction of my funds and bought a DeepMind 12 and I am happy as a pig in $#@T. Thank you Behringer for making synthesizers affordable.

Fate destroyed my studio ------ DeepMind 12 --- Awesome
First rebuilding block - internet inside - direct talking to my iPad WOW Thousands of sounds,
easy to program - so much SFX in it- FX become a part of the programming of great sounds- I love this synth -
- so much creative help all over You Tube - GREAT

Thank You SweetWater- thank you Uli !!!!

This is awesome, the sounds are amazing however this is a deep and in depth keyboard with lots to learn. I love playing it and making new sounds every time I am in the studio. Sweetwater is my #1 source for instruments and gear.

Tired of playing "plug in" software sounds with midi controllers? I was. I'm done with spending my time clicking on computer menus and loading software. But above all, the QUALITY of the preset SOUNDS coming out of the DeepMind 12 are amazing, and limitless tweaking is available at your fingertips in real time with all the sliders, and built-in effects. And a nice feature for me (I'm primarily a bass player): the ability to quickly assign whatever chord you can come up with to single key. I'm soooo glad I waited this long to finally buy a polyphonic sythn (for composing). The DeepMind 12 meets all my needs and then some. Wow. Just Wow!

The only feature I would have liked: a semitone transpose button. It has an octave shift button, but you need to go into the menu to transpose by semitones. But that's a nit pick. At least it can be done (many keyboards don't have this feature.)

I wanted a analog polysynth to replace my Roland Alpha Juno 2 and decided to try the behringer deep mind. Everything is solid built and it sounds incredible! I'm ready to sell my other gear now! One downside is that there is no quick way to access patches, which can make playing live tricky if they are next to each other in the menu. Having said that- it's easily over looked because this is truly the best deal you could have right now! Stop reading and just buy it already!

An almost perfect synthesizer in every sense of the word. My only complaint is that I wish they had "rubberized" the pitch and mod wheels. They are plastic and your fingers slide off of them easily. I suppose one would put a piece of thin rubberized adhesive tape on them, lol!

I love that the downloadable firmware corrects any "bugs" that may been present upon leaving the factory. I ran the firmware and now this synth works like a charm. Definitely in the big leagues of Virus, Prophet, etc. This will definitely go down in the annals of great synths. The Deep Mind 12 editor is also available and is a great way to customize your patches on your computer with the DM12 hooked up via USB. I am SO GLAD I purchased this wonderful piece of synth equipment!

It’s unbelievable! The DeepMind 12 sounds fantastic – and you can hear the analog difference which is quite warm, as compared to my Roland JP-8080 (which is the only other poly synth I own besides a Waldorf Microwave Rev1). My other synths are mono's (four TTSH's, MS-20 Kit, Korg Odyssey and Minimoog Voyager). The filter is sweet too! It's smooth and everything you expect from an analog VCF; not harsh or sterile, it's very musical. This will be my main poly synth until Behringer comes out with another showstopper! (hopefully a descendent of the Jupiter 8)

My plan is to go old-school and use outboard effects more than the internal effects (same as I do with my other synths). There’s nothing wrong with the DM12’s effects, but I want my own sound. So I bought the Boss CE-2w and I’m also getting the MXR Custom Shop Script Phase 90 and the Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress Flanger. I also run my synths thru preamps and all sorts of crap to get the sound I want – kind of like Depeche Mode does.

I still have not figured out what is wrong with it. I still have not found a catch..!
I feel like there HAS TO be one...
First off.. I played it. It sounds amazing. Vivid, vibrant sound, that reminds me of a Juno 106...
Then I pressed the "Boost" button... now it feels like a Juno 60 or a Prophet even...
Then after playing around with the synthesis engine, I tried out the voice modes....!!!
Instant 80's analog synth vibe... sounding like an Oberheim at times, or like a full-fledged Prophet tone.

I frankly am blown away by the sound.
I usually play it in FX bypass mode.. but the effects sound great too..!
The Chorus has a very nice Dimension D type of sound, and the main "Chorus" sound is excellent sounding. Subtle and rich.

The pad sounds I make have that perfect glue to them.. I felt like, when using the Elektron Analog Keys in Poly mode, just feels like 4 separate sounds when I play a chord.. Like it's missing the old vintage "glue" to the sound. This one has it!

The arps sound really rich and powerful.. can be just as powerful as my Moog synths, but with its own flavor of course.

This is one of the best experiences with a synthesizer I've ever had. Really a remarkable job they've done with it. Cheap where it's allowed to be cheap, and definitely no cheapness in the sound.

In electronic music very few times do I immediately feel completely confident with a synth that I just jump on the computer and lay down a track. That changed when this beautiful example of what can happen when fans of synth tech design something as robust and complete as the Deep Mind 12. I am blown away by the quality and its EXTREMLEY rich sound engine. Peace Christo (filmmaker,sound designer, synth junkie)

My Analog synth ownership is confined to a Tetra, a Tempest and the Deep Mind 12. I have played others however. I also own the latest model of the Kronos and have a Korg Radius and a MOTOR 61 which I happen to like believe it or not. I dumped my old Novation ReMote 61 with that horrific Automap software. Nice FATAR bed, but not any better that that on the Motor 61 for the most part or the DM12. I use SONAR Platinum and have too many soft synths to name, or to bother with most of the time. I have all of the Waves software, plus lots of other software so I am pretty much set with all of that I think. I only need to spend the time my new toy deserves in order to be able to get the sounds I know it is capable of making out of it.

My Analog synth ownership is confined to a Tetra, a Tempest and the Deep Mind 12. I have played others however. I also own the latest model of the Kronos and have a Korg Radius and a MOTOR 61 which I happen to like believe it or not. I dumped my old Novation ReMote 61 with that horrific Automap software. Nice FATAR bed, but not any better that that on the Motor 61 for the most part or the DM12. I use SONAR Platinum and have too many soft synths to name, or to bother with most of the time. I hav allof the Waves software, so I am pretty much set with all of that I think. I only need to spend the time my new toy deserves in order to be able to get the sounds I know it is capable of making out of it.

Have had this beautiful synth since last Saturday. It can keep up with my imagination...what can I say. The system holds its own, and does not lock up, or sputter, or loose my respect...I've missed meals and more playing this beautiful piece of gear!!!

To the folks who designed and engineered this synth, a big thank you!!

Thank you Carson, and Sweetwater, for all your very awesome support in whatever I need from you folks.

Kudos to Sweetwater, my sales rep Mike and to Fed X. I got one of the first DeepMind 12's in the country today, even though we have been in the middle of an ice storm. After unboxing it I looked over the quick start guide and I ran a couple cables to my mixer. Ready to test some presets.

I own a Nord compact stage and anyone who owns a Nord knows how intuitively they are laid out. The knobs the buttons all make sense and you are almost instantly familiar with the instrument. I had the exact reaction to the DeepMind 12. I know there is a lot of depth there, but I somehow suspect it will be easy enough to explore based on this impression. Nice keyboard and all knobs and switches are smooth and feel like they will last. After spending a while going through presets tweeking knobs and pushing buttons to see what they did, I can say the tones this things generates are clean and pure. Can't wait to start from scratch on some of my own, but I am going to get back to having some fun tweeking for now.

Hope someone starts a tone archive.

Great keyboard! Has tons of presets, a great tone and plays like a charm.

This synth goes really, really deep. Vast and well thought architecture, easy accessibility a'la Roland Juno (actually the front panel is definitely inspired by Juno 106!). Very distinctive sound with a ton of great (and I mean it!) effects. People tend to say that it is not possible to create good sounds not using Deepmind's onboard effects, which I find totally not true. Go dig through the manual, see all the unison settings, play with a sequencer, jump into a complex modulation matrix.

Oscillators sound really raw, rough and analog. Oscillator 1 includes both saw and square with PWM waveforms that can be switched on/off separately, so it is very much about having two oscillators in one. Oscillator 2 is a square with PWM one. You can sync them, you can add a noise osc. No sub osc seems like a minor flaw, as you get saw + square in Osc 1.

Great and flexible sequencer/arpeggiator, good sounding filters (LPF 2/4-pole and HPF), great (let me repeat this) effects with many routing options and tweakable parameters.

I already mentioned absence of sub osc, another two things I would complain about are: 1) plastic slider tops, way too easy to remove, too cheap and uneven visually (at least on my unit), 2) the general roughness, even "darkness" of sound, which is actually a great feature on one hand (this synth seems more "analogish" to my ears than His Majesty Moog Subsequent 37), but on the other: requires more work when mixing and finding the right place for Deepmind sound in the whole track (precise lower mid-range cuts all the way plus boosting the highs).

Summing things up: Deepmind sounds different than any other of my synths, being my first choice for rough, restless pads and drones, dreamy seqs and sometimes basses. There is a lot of discussion going on about Behringer's strategy of cloning things and selling them cheap, I may not like it, but still I have to admire that Deepmind is a very solid design turned into an amazing machine.

For the price you pay - definitely the best poly analog you can get, incredible, unbeatable value and a creative, effective tool to work with. Highly recommended!

I have very happy with my Deepmind 12. It is a great sounding synth that punches well above its weight class. I love the onboard effects, keybed and having access to most of your commonly used controls. I would definitely buy one again.

If I had any complaints it would be at times the knobs on the faders seem a bit cheap and I would really like to have 4 dedicated knobs real-time "playing" the effects. If you want to mess with the delay time or mix of an effect in real-time, it is not very easy to do. None of the items mentioned impact the sound. If you are looking at one of these, buy with confidence, it is a great sounding and playing synth.

Thanks to Ian I purchased 2 deep mind desktops and 1 keyboard for a project,we were looking at a roland JD-XA but decided to go with the deepminds instead. we removed the wood panels on the desk tops and bolted the two together and made new wood side panels(to accommodate the wider desk tops) for the keyboard, mounted the desktops to the keyboard. with midi cables seems to be working great, like a sound onion multi layered.all can be controlled by a DAW (3 12V sound engines) or controlled by the keyboard.we bought a matrix-brute a year or so ago and needed an poly synth to accompany It.Most of our other keys are from the 70's and 80's and needed a sound upgrade. It is easy to style Tangerine dream using all three. Ive been working with these for about 2 weeks and still I'm impressed with what these can do. The down side of these they should have included a keypad for direct patch entry having to scroll though all the patched to get to one you need is a pain, from say A5 to G67( I haven't used the editor program yet) I assume that issue is addressed there, another issue I see is when changing patches some will start screaming at you without touching the keyboard it's more of annoyance I will also assume it's a software glitch the will be addressed with future software updates. these are using 1.1.2 and the new update is 1.1.4
but over all we are pleased with out purchase

This synth has so many routing options, so many effects to choose from, every time I turned it on I found something new to play with. This is a pad machine, and the keys feel really nice to play on. As someone who's primarily a guitar player, I found myself having so much fun on this bad boy. It really is worth the price if you're looking for something to craft all sorts of exquisite, lush sounds with plenty of character and depth, this synth is gorgeous to listen to.

The only things I feel that are keeping it from being a 5-star are that the two wave shape types feel kind of limiting, and while they sound okay as a base sound, I really wish there was more flexibility there. And all of the menu diving is kind of annoying to grasp, but considering the form factor of this synth, it's fantastic they've crammed so much into such a small package. Haven't gigged with this or anything, so I can't speak to the build quality, but so far everything has worked fine and I've been very happy with it. Nothing's broken and the sliders all work wonders.

I was going to say for the price, but this thing is a neat little synth all around.... Build seems to be better than I would have expected too ! I very much look forward to getting some time in on this as it does truly appear to have some serious potential !

Before the price drop, I thought it was a steal. Now I kind of feel bad paying this company so little for a really great synth. Construction quality and finish are excellent. The build is actually no different than some of the vintage Roland synths I've owned, including the Jupiter-8. Yes, there's a fan, but it's intended for warmer conditions to keep voices in tune and can be turned off for normal room temperature use. The sounds are also great. There is a lot of reliance on the effects section for many patches, but that's primarily why I got this synthesizer. The effects are top-notch, but I found the dry, base-level sounds to be of decent quality with or without the effects. The bad reviews of this product somewhat mystify me, but I guess there are lemons in every batch. This synthesizer may be cheap to purchase now, but I think prices will shoot up on the second-hand market after it's discontinued and becomes another classic.

I got my DeepMind 12 synth Thursday 2/22. I played it almost all night, but left for the weekend the next day and couldn't take it with me. That night I was happy with it, but more overwhelmed than I expected. I got back yesterday and have been doing pretty much nothing besides playing it since then. It is a dream.

I LOVE analog synths but have never been able to dive into anything as multifaceted as this, as I am usually on a tight budget, using software, or borrowing gear to record with. Owning something like this is super helpful and I'm unaware of anything in the modern market that comes close at this price point.

The main reason I have it at 4.5 stars and not 5 is the App that goes with it. So far it's clunky and not that helpful. I'd rather just stick with the rudimentary menu on the synth itself than focus on other bells and whistles. That said, the app is definitely not what sold me on this thing, and I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. All in all, definitely worth it from what I can tell. I'm excited to get more use out of this.


WILL UPDATE if I run into any issues, but Sweetwater has always been good to me, and so far so good with this deeeeeeeeep synth. <3

I could not give a 5 star because I haven't played with it a lot yet, so i'll call this a pre-review, Has a lot of nice presets but that is as far as I got, the manual is easy to follow , unlike the Casio XW-P1 manual that I am still trying to learn. I'll give you a update as soon as i have time to do it, until then I'll say it's built like a tank, keys are good and solid, and the sounds, well just set tight before you take off.

The Deepmind 12 is a great synth for the price! The keybed feels proper and the analog sound is pretty thick. I also like the built in wifi for easy connectivity to my IPad for voice editing. Plus the built FX are impressive and the mod matrix is straight forward. It's a very user friendly 12 voice ax.

Deep Mind-12 Analog Synthesizer, made by Behringer.
I purchased this synthesizer few months ago.
I chose this synthesizer over others because of futures, the specific analog sound, great design, portability, and price.
It's hard to beat that price and getting such a great gear with true analog 12 polyphonic voices!
There is simply nothing like this on the market right now.
The synthesizer it's simple in design which remind me of Juno 106/60 on steroids!
Deep mind 12 in terms of sound and desin it is way more advance than Roland Juno 106.
The sound presets are good, some of them are useless but you can also find something inspiring and sounding great.
So far I made more than 50 sounds and I can honestly say that this synthesizer have a great potential!
You can re-create some geeat sound from past as well create something new interesting or inspiring.
One of the greatest strengths is the advanced effect procesor.
I can't understand, why the other brands like Dave Smith or Moog synth's, can't offer decent processor affect for twice amount off money?
The second streing of this machine is, that you have ability to go very deep into parameters envelope of sound and assignments two the different controllers.
The key-bed fils nice, much better then my King Korg or Korg Poly 61.
The aftertouch it's there but the pressure sensitivity it's not consistent across all the keys.
The build quality it's great, however you can find some little things here and there that could been improved, no biggie.
The control like sliders feels all right, I wish for a few things like filter cutoff and resonance, I would prefer knobs over sliders.
There is no shortcut to favorites recall sounds for live performance, so you have to dedicate some area bank for the patches order.
The 44 keys are probably enough for the most people but as a life performer I would prefer 61 key.
That being said, keyboard is for the pretty lightweight and portable.
I don't think you can buy better product for the money!
What are you getting is great analog synthesizer that sounds good, but you can make your own patches to sounds great!
I recommend this synth to everyone who is looking for something different and also for that warm and fat analog sound.
Besides the fact that you can create great sounding pad's, synth's, string's, bass sounds and more.
Yes you can create great sounding screaming and soft lead's, that can closely resemble sound likes; Moog Phaty, Sub 37, the sound character in some regards of course.

Bottom line:
There's a lot of things to like about Deep Mind 12.
The price and build quality is great.
There is a great potential with making new sounds.
I would definitely buy this keyboard again!
Great job Behringer!

First off: there are a couple of software bugs with WiFi connectivity and editor and iPad app functionality to sort out, Behringer says these are in the works.

Second: I bought this after being underwhelmed by a bunch of YouTube reviews and my brief time in front of one at KnobCon. I took a chance and I'm extremely glad I did. The sonic depth of this instrument is massive. The filters are excellent, the oscillators are simple but sound fantastic, the modulation options are endless. You can get this thing to sound like a full on Vangelis era CS-80 with no problems. The patch memory is vast and there are the usual assortment of 80% flashy "look what I can do" sounds that you'd never realistically use for music. So don't judge by the presets or you'll get the impression that this is a sound effects machine with a bunch of pre-programmed arp sequences. Ok, dial up CS Strings and judge by that.
This machine is metal and wood, its heavy, its solid, it feels like a tank. Other than a couple of software bugs, which are being worked on, I have no issues with this box so far.

I received my DM12 last week very quickly and in perfect condition (thanks Sweetwater and FedEx). And after a full week of discovering it, I'm impressed that such a new analog polysynth is this good, from a company that never made one before ! I'm loving it. The sound quality is absolutely great.

And as a bonus, I have some money left to buy other gear !

BTW, my unit didn't have any quality issues other than a few minor bugs that were quickly corrected with a firmware revision easily downloaded and installed in minutes via USB.

I own a arsenal of synths virus, prophet 12 & 6 the OB6, Moog Voyager, Sub 37, just to name a few. But this thing is very different from them all. Even when there's no effects applied to a patch it sounds like there is. The ambient sound is amazing the Arps are very different sounding from my other synths which I love. The build quality is pretty good only complaint I have is when I un-boxed it, one of my faders were bent, thankfully I was able to grab some pliers and bend it back without breaking it. I've only had it for two days so that's all I say for now.

A lot of us have been waiting a long time for this synth. Through a myriad of teasers and release dates, it's finally here, and better than i could have imagined. First off, a quick word on build quality. I've always been hesitant before about sliders on a synth, as they never seem to be as solid as their knobby counterparts, but I am pleased to tell you they are pleasantly firm with little to no wobble. The body is metal, and solid as well, and the keys, while obviously synth action, are a joy to play. But, what really counts is the sound, and the Deep-mind 12 delivers! You can see where it's limitations are just from looking at the specs, no sine/triangle waves, and the 2nd osc is like a weird square variant, with unique tone adjustments. Now if this were a mono synth, it might fall flat on it's face with options like that in the current sea of monophonic analog to choose from, but when you add the other eleven voices, you forget everything and just lose your self in these lush soundscapes you could previously only achieve through spending quite a deal more or layering several monos together. At times, it's a touch of magic that, at least I, had previously not discovered.

Now, it's not perfect, but it does what it does extremely well, and paired with my other keys, it's unique enough to earn it's place amongst them. As for the digital effects, aside from the delay, most effects I apply are in the box anyway, so their digital nature does not affect my opinion, and they are very nice indeed to have them at your finger tips instead of a pedal board or rack. For live purposes, I think this will be indispensable.

If you get a chance to demo it, or check out some youtube vids, you'll see this is a classic in the making!

A huge shout out to Anthony Longano, who throughout the years has always helped acquire all the tools I could ever need (want), Cheers man!

I initially got a dud and sweetwater promptly replaced it, with the new unit I notice the keybed isnt the best. Poly aftertouch often feels like its intermittent and you hear these clicks out of the keys that does not sound like it can handle it. I havent delved into preset packs as Ive barely made my own sounds but so far as I know the otiginal presets are unable to be organized by or labeled(when hitting prog and wheel for easier navi) as what type of sound each one is(keys chords bass etc). This is something I grew accustomed to with the microfreak but the one thing thats awesome it does that the mf cant(at least in my situation) is that the seq and arps work synced already to daw. I also dont like how turning the knob or hitting yes or no will change to other vsts and what not in my channel rack(fl studio) but thats more of a daw issue than this. Miner issues aside,for $, pure analog bliss with 49 keys and built in effects, I dont think there is any competition!

I have been surprised buy the quality and sonics this synth can produce. There are a few quirky things but nothing that would stop me from getting the job done.

The DM12 is a really solid sub-1k poly synth that I've really enjoyed digging into. It's capable of a lot, but it takes time to understand its capabilities. It is an excellent synth for someone new to synthesis to really workshop on, like me. I'll break my assessment into pros and cons:

PROS:

-Great feeling keys
-Very extensive effects and modulation section. If you learn how to work these two features to their full range of possibilities, this synth can deliver just about any tone you're after. (The desktop app is very helpful for working with the FX)
-Incredible mono synth sounds in minutes - unison mode + a little detune makes some awesome lead tones
-Lots of outputs/CV options, including sustain and expression inputs
-Behringer documentation is so-so, but there is a huge collection of tutorials and patches available online.
-"Boost" functionality helps make up for low-end loss when you crank the resonance - a feature I want on every synth

CONS:

-DO NOT expect this synthesizer to sing for you right out of the box. Unlike a Moog or some flavors of Korg, the oscillator structure is *extremely* limited - just a saw and square wave. Getting anything past aggressive sounding leads or simple pads takes patience and practice. The whole idea AFAIK with the DM12 is that the superb FX and modulation options make up for the simple oscillator structure - but that means you have to really build some sound design chops to make things happen!
-The limited oscillator structure means that EP-type tones are generally not great, even with tons of FX/mod
-Presets are hit or miss. Some are absolutely nutty, some are drowned in FX and sound like mud.
-No mono output! Don't listen to the sound guy - plugging into just the left channel gives you JUST the left channel, with no option to squeeze things down to mono. There are tons of options for dope sounding stereo tones, so it feels a little silly running it in mono, but we all know it's necessary from time to time.
-No external inputs - I wasn't terribly bummed that the DM12 couldn't process external signals, but my keyboard rig is built around all my keyboards flowing into each other and into my Korg SV1, which acts as a single output.

TL;DR: This is a great synth for someone wanting to dive head first into synthesis. Right out of the box anyone can get great mono synth patches. Beyond leads and pads it takes a lot of experimenting with the mod matrix and the FX section to get solid tones. Someone who really digs into this synth can expect to get incredible tones once they master it - heard some pro made patches come close to CS-80 and Prophet tones.

would have ever considered this synth if it had not been for my buddy who has had every type of Synth since the early eighties. One thing he regretted was getting rid of his juno 60 and 106 and mentioned how the deepmind can get close especially with it's tone shaping and the ability to save your own patches. This thing is the best analog synth for the price. What surprised me when I opened the packaging is that the build quality is like something that was made in th 70s and 80s it's made out of metals and wood. You feel like you are getting a solid instrument. This thing is built like a tank at 18lbs! I am not sure why Roland feels so cheap these days. The only reason why I am not giving this 5 star is the sequencer is a bit confusing and the iPad app is a bit finicky and is not supported by the latest IOS 14.5.1 altho once it remains connected the GUI interface makes the deep mind so much easier to apply the effects chain on. Out of 1-5 star for sound it is a 5. Seriously if you are on the fence about this like I was,don't be. buy it! You will not regret it! By the way it records nicely and sounds so rich and warm but if you want it to sound more modern, bright and polished it can do that too! Is it a juno 106 replica?No. Can it sound like a Juno? Absolutely.. I believe it can sound like any vintage or modern day synth and has its own way of achieving it.

I would have ever considered this synth if it had not been for my buddy who has had every type of
Synth since the early eighties, one thing he regretted was getting rid of his juno 60 and 108 and mentioned how the deepmind can so close especially with it's to w shaping and the ability to save your own patches this thing is the best analog synth for the price. What supposed me is that the build is like the 70s and 80s made out metals and wood this thing is a tank. I am not sure why Roland feels so cheap these days. The only reason why I am not giving this 5 star is the sequencer is a bit confusing and the iPad app is a bit finicky, altho once it remains connected its interface makes the deep mind so much easier to apply the effects chain on 1-5 star for sound however it is a 5.. seriously if you are on the fence about this like I was but it! You will not regret it! By the way it records nicely and sounds so rich and warm but if you want it to sound more modern and polished it can do that too!

Manipulation of sound is extensive, but you have to be willing to spend the time to learn the system.

Opportunity for personalized, unique sound patches is high.

Negative: keyboard quality is bad, very cheap.

Purchased to add some analog body to our studio setup, the DeepMind 12 gave us exactly what we were looking for with the ability to sculpt new sounds for various musical genres. Out of the box several of the presets added warmth to some EDM tracks that you cannot get from a VST.

Has anyone noticed that the sliders seem to have a lot of play in them? On a couple of samples, I have seen the sliders have a lot of side-to-side (rocking) movement and they don't seem as "tight" as the other controls on this synth (or what you would expect).

Other than this, the factory patches and effects are really well done.

First, the pre- and post-sales assistance from Sweetwater was very good. Fast, to the point and professional (bravo to Matt).
About the equipment itself, it is a more-than-decent instrument, however still in its infancy period of life. On one hand it looks well done, with attention to quality, on another, the keys make a chip click when you hit them for, say, forte, and the faders are a bit too wobbly for their function, what makes you doubt if they survive being slid back and forth thousands of times during the natural use of the instrument.
The other very important, albeit temporary, lack is the non-functioning volume control by the external Pedal/CV. While the option is available (in General settings) and the pedal is seen by the instrument (you can check it in Calibration mode) the link between the two is not there yet. Behringer confirmed to me that they know about this bug and work on it.
Focusing on the instrument as a synth, for this money you get almost unlimited options for your creativity. By default the DM12 comes with 1024 preprogrammed patches, however, in my case most of them require interventions in order to be used. You can create new patches, modify the existing ones and spend as much time as you please playing with it. For connectivity, DM12 connects to your computer through USB (very helpful option) or Wi-Fi (a bit less effective, as it requires creating a hotpoint). It also comes with tablet/PC (in my case, iPad/Mac) application that puts all DP12 parameters and their actual states on your screen, allowing you to manipulate them way more comfortably than on the DM12 native screen. Here, however the good ends. The help for the app is scarce-to-none (at least I did not find any), some functions (like add a new bank) behave strangely within the logic that cannot be easily guessed. Also, for the instrument with such a richness of options the manual is typically Behringer-ish, i.e. modest at best. Until they create something more exhaustive, be ready for a lot of guessing and experiments.
So, finally, is it worth having, or not?
Putting aside the actual missing elements (which, I hope, will be addressed by Behringer soon) DM12 seems to offer one of the best functionality/flexibility/quality/price ratios available on the actual market. But, as always, the beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
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Witold Suryn

I for one am not one to leave reviews on gear so this is an exception. I thought I would give my perspective as the owner of various new and vintage gear in the same category as the DeepMind 12.
Behringer is not a company know for synthesizers and a modern analog polysynth from such a company would seem an extremely daring venture. Behringer has a history of creating products that appear as more cost friendly copies of more expensive hardware and as a result have a reputation that does not always get shall we say an A rating. My personal experience has been pretty good as I own several Behringer mixers and they work great and have experienced little issues.
There are several reasons why I picked up the DeepMind 12 even though I own gear that directly competes with it such as a slew of Dave Smith Instruments gear such as Prophet 6 and Prophet 08 keyboards and more.
The first reason and primary one is the polyphony, and the unique ability to play unison chords which really no modern analog polysynth with the exception of the Alesis Andromeda can do and I own one of those too.
The other reason is the modulation capabilities which are quite deep and I will not go into detail as Sweatwater and the web has all the info you could ever need.
My other reason for purchasing the DeepMind 12 is the size, it's very portable and would seem great for gigging as I plan on using it live.

Final reason is the sound, for a relatively simple design even with the limited oscillator design it's quite versatile.

The design pays deliberate homage to the Roland Juno 106 and the designers reference this. They have attempted to recreate the 80's Roland styling in physical design and in sound.
When I was beginning in my early teens to have an interest in synthesizers the Roland Juno 106 was new and many musician friends had them as they were a very affordable synths for the time. With six voices and great sound much to the credit of the analog chorus you could do most of those 80's sounds that were popular at the time. The main shortcoming for me was the fact that the 106 had just one oscillator per voice and sub oscillator but with the applied chorus it could sound lush. In my opinion the Deepmind 12 is analogous as a modern take but no copy, it has it's own personality.

The DeepMind 12 is an incredible value for $1000 as most synths in this category go for at least twice as much. The sound is really good! I have seen some negative comments from other reviewers that I believe are biased based on all the virtual synths they have had experience with. The Deepmind 12 does Not sound like a virtual analog!

To be honest I was skeptical, my experience with companies that do a first off keyboard synthesizer has not been so great as is one of the reasons I don't own an Arturia Minibrute anymore. There have and are quality concerns with the DeepMind 12 I so far have experienced none of great concern.
When I received my DeepMind 12 I could clearly see that Sweatwater had inspected the unit before shipping.

-What I really like.

Voice stacking, Unison Chords! (playing not just Chord function)

Great modulation capabilities.

Great arp and sequencer.

The wifi functionality is not mentioned hear much but it's a unique addition.

And the ability to use the iOS App editor.

Three year warranty!

-What I dislike and concerns.

Limited second oscillator design.

Digital Modulation effects such as Chorus and Flanges could be warmer.

No keyboard splits have at least two sound at one time.

And the one often overlooked potential for trouble and irritation is the cooling Fans the synth has TWO.

So to put it simply if you are in the market for an affordable flexible polysynth you won't find anything close with the exception of going in Korgs Minilogue direction for half the price of the DeepMind 12 but still you'd come up short.

I have had my beautiful new DeepMind for not quite a week. It has been many years since I've had a truly analog synth... and until now, I just could not get too excited about the analog gear. It was either too expensive, or simply didn't do much for me. I have to say now, after spending just 4-5 hours on this synth, I am AMAZED! The sound is stunning...and it's clearly capable of doing almost anything a person could want a synth to do. And for the most part, the programming interface is very easy and intuitive, not to mention deep. It does have a few disappointing limitations, and I find myself surprised that I have more editing capability in several of my iOS synth apps than I do in this. Where it blows anything else I have out of the water is its superb real time editing and modulation capability, as well as stunning sound quality. I thought the fact that it's not multitimbral would be an issue for me, but its complex depth in sound shaping makes up for its lack of multitimbrality. The biggest disappointment is build quality, which is mostly evident in what appears to be a rather cheap keybed. Assertive expression on the keys reveals key noise that I have not experienced in any of my other keyboards. Otherwise, build quality seems solid and robust. I did have an issue with the power cord being loose and falling out of the jack, but the always superb and supportive staff at Sweetwater were very quick to get me a cord that works perfectly. Thank you, Sweetwater Sound.

For the money, this thing is number 1. It's powerful, the mod matrix is fantastic, and the sounds are great, assuming you're looking for something "Juno-ish."

This is my fifth Behringer product, and my fourth of their synths. I've never had a quality issue with any of them, this one included thus far.

I only real gripe with the Deepmind is that they give you 1024 presets to select from, but no slots for user saved presets. This means that you have to overwrite an existing preset to save another, and makes curating the presets a bit of a pain. There are plenty of basically useless sounds to overwrite, but keeping the presets organized can be a slog.

While I'm not "blown away" by my 1st impression (like everyone else here, apparently), I will say the DM12 seems to have something redeeming about it.

So far (still mostly in bank A) the presets sound either too thin or too mid-ranged and muddy. Everone says it takes some "deep editing" to get stuff right. I dunno, I was expecting it to sound a whole lot better right away. A good synth should have good presents, period. The YouTube videos have it sounding awesome, so maybe I need to mess around with it more. The effects sound good, but, again, you gotta tweak the parameters to get stuff sounding better. I think this is where soft-synths excel. Soft-synth presents generally sound great, then you can tweak... where with the DM12, well, you're kinda starting almost each preset from crap, then "polishing the turd" from there. Just my 1st impression.

Even though I'm used to 60-70 key synths, I think the 49 is just fine. the octave buttons work great. There's no key splitting/partitioning, so less keys is ok with me.

Can't use the scroll wheel to quickly go through individual presets, only adjust parameter values... now that's odd. Maybe you can? Guess I'll read the 5 page manual tomarrow, lol. That's actually cool, though. I opened and paroused my Yami Motif XS manual ONCE. Hate those Roland manuals.

Wobbly sliders and those too-soft buttons make it feel like that Roland Gia, or whatever that thing was... but the LED wheels are cool, just a little all-or-nothing initiation-wise. A rubberized touch surface on them would be nice.

The overall look is beautiful (except I woulda preferred an amber-lit display. The wood sides are awesome, all quality synths need them... and the panel LEDs are VERY analog, but accurate, pulsing with the oscillators and arps to help visualize and match-up tempos and swells. Not sure if it was intentional advertising pic angles, but I thought it was gonna arrive looking bigger and be heavier. Nope, she's smaller than my Nord A1, bwahaa... joke's on me. Another nice surprise, because I can't be lugging heavy synths around anymore... I'm too old and fat.

The built-in fan really adds character! It's really not noisy, anyway. I actually sped it up easily in the global edit menu so I could hear it a little more! It's like a little CS-80, lol. Speaking of... I found that cool CS-80 Strings Vangelis patch. Too bad you can't split the keys in dual mode to do an awesome Chariots of Fire. Nord Lead A1 to the rescuuuue.

I only did bank A so far, so I still have a BUNCH of presets to go through. Without the fast scroll wheel ability, I think the scroll journey is gonna suck. I really hope better stuff is strewn within the myriad of banks, like characters within the world of Tron. I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Yeah, the menu control designer should be shot. And It's 2018, so why are we waiting for each preset to slowly load on an 8-bit style display? It's like an old Roland Juno 60 with a Commodore Vic-20 run menu. Man, that's dating myself. Things like this really make me question wether we really landed on the moon.

But it has calibration capability! And detune! I'm telling ya, she packs a few surprises. I actually already like it better than the Prophet 08 and the Dave Smith/OB I returned. And at thousands each, no way I was keeping those.

I think this also an excellent synth for a beginner. My 9 year old daughter will love tweaking it. She'll probably snap a couple of the slider knobs..but, at $600, who cares? Maybe we'll play it through a cranked, distorted Marshall Plexi like Eddie Van Weinerschnitzel to get a modern "Cradle Will Rock" sound, or something.

Seriously, even though my Nord Lead A1, Yami Motif XF, and Roland Jupiter 80 all sonically kick it's butt, the DM12 is fun, with a few suprises. And, again, at this bargain price, you really can't beat it. Well, except with soft-synths. Like OP-X, and Arturia's V-Collection. But I'm gonna keep it. She's growin on me. Thanx to Brendan, for the Sweet price!

Sounds pretty good with effects and/or stacking voices. A good candidate for an additional synth to add to your collection. Not so much great at any one task. The effects are pretty good, and being able to use them in the mod matrix adds a lot of depth to the synth. Build quality is not great. Keybed is very squishy. Display isn"t great. Wifi connectivity editing is great. All in all it"s a capable instrument with a good feature set and a nice workflow. If you"re a synth nerd you might just want 2 or 3. Especially with fhe drop in price. The bottom line is that sum of the DM12"s parts add up to more than it"s price tag.

This synth feels like the lowest common denominator to me - I understand it's appeal, and if you truly need a poly hardware synth, this isn't a bad choice, but you'll always be yearning for something better sounding, I know I did when I owned mine - I replaced this synth with a monophonic synth (The Grandmother) and vastly preferred that to this, and at the end of the day, it's because, despite this synths larger feature-set, it doesn't hold a candle to the grandmother, or other, more expensive poly instruments in tonal quality and consistency of sound.

Want to know why a prophet rev 2 is over two times its price? or why a prophet 6 is nearly 3 and a half? Because it just sounds better, has more sweet-spots, is consistent in a studio, looks and feels better, and is made with better care. Other poly's from other companies feel like real instruments, like a nice boutique guitar - this? More like guitar hero.

I was quite frankly disappointed. I spent a couple of hours tweaking this thing. What I discovered is that when I tried to create a new sound I inevitably need to use the effects to bolster it. The basic synth sound lacks clarity. It makes perfect sense that they included a boost button to increase whatever frequencies are lacking . The synth has a weak bottom end and requires the effects to make it sparkle on the top end.. I did a compare with my OB6 and there was no comparison. The OB6 is a six voice synth but it's tone was far richer than the Deepmind. This is definitely an entry level synth and will work well in live situations but not something I would use in my studio. M

Greetings. If you are looking for a very capable entry analog synthesizer this is a good choice. It is a very powerful and capable synth for the lower-end market. It has a lot of really nice functionality.

However, if you want something that will;

(1) Hold up physically
(2) Sound professional
(3) output clean audio

Don't buy this!

(1). The manufacturing is very poor. The hardware is cheap and flimsy. The engineering is not good. The fan is noisy and I guarantee it will get worse in time.

(2). Out of the box the sounds are marginal at best. Most of the presets are useless without major tweaking.

(3). The output (even when nothing is playing) is noisy. Think "HISSSSSSSSSSSSS". This is not tolerable in a studio with good equipment. That hiss never goes away.

Not good. It's worth it to spend more and get a real synth like a DSI X4 or Moog Subsequent 37. There are many other professional grade analog synths to chose from and the Deepmind is not it.

The DM12 has served as a learning experience for me. After spending many hours with this instrument, I have learned that I vastly prefer knobs to faders, and I now know to avoid hardware reliant on menu diving like it's the plague. I hate designing patches for the DM12, which hurts me to say, considering what an avid enthusiast of sound design I typically am. It takes so long for me to design anything half decent. If you're a fan of presets and endlessly tweak-able menus inside of menus, this is the synth for you. If you're someone who likes to craft their own sounds from scratch or an easily distracted person that doesn't have hours upon hours to try to circumvent the DM12's lack of a clear, linear workflow, stick with your monosynth.

The included effects are nice and lush sounding, but be prepared to hit the FX button like eight times if you want to modify one of the parameters. My main gripe is that if you want to edit anything, you have to sit through a a lot of button pushing/fader sliding/knob turning to access the menus inside of menus inside of menus inside of menus.

The mod matrix is where the power of the DM12 is, and I have nothing bad to say about it.

The Behringer's Deepmind12 isn't a bad instrument, per say, but it certainly isn't for me.

Firstly, one of the keys was squeeky, and another key the middle C was crooked. Secondly after changing a patch the synth would sometimes freeze and not be able to make a sound, so I would need to reboot it. I returned it for both of those reasons.

Otherwise it did sound good.

This is just my honest review. Having owned (3) Juno 106 synths in the past from when they were first released. I was thrilled that Behringer had patterened their keyboard exactly after the 106, with a bit more added, which made it fun for me to jump right in.

I tore into the keyboard ( actually had some patch parameters from back in the day on paper) and wanted to make this sing. I was loving it until... it froze up just tweaking it on the fly while playing it! It stuck! I had to power down and wait 10 seconds before for reboot to assure reset.

It came with the latest bug fix and firmware update also.

I proceeded to overlook the glitch, but just minutes into trying again, it again froze up.

Reboot, and try again. This continued Even with using factory sounds ( which i actually got it to crash switching between their sounds ) just like you would do on any normal synth, it crashed again.

Touring is what i do, and withing the first 2 hours of playing with this, i realized it was not anywhere near as great a keyboard to most stuff on the market today, because it could not be depended upon in a real live setting, let alone just studio work etc. i was so disappointed, i did not want to even try another. I sent it back the next day.

I was at NAMM this year, and spoke briefly to their people at Behringer about it, but i was not given anything more than a hmmmm , a nod of the head, and we will pass this on.

Sweetwater as always are perfect about taking care of their customers, so the low rating is on the product itself. 5 stars for Sweetwater, 1.5 for Deepmind 12

I would not even recommend it as entry level into synth since it definity has a computer on board, and that is where i believe the failure is. It could not handle its own processing and overloaded switching and adjusting the LFO, VFC, and patch changes etc.

This was my personal experience only.

It appears there are major issues with quality control. My list of problems gets longer the more I use it, Sweetwater was nice and sent me another one, I guess at least. It was supposed to need a signature. The first one did. Then UPS left it on the porch and by the way the first one was shipped, it was in it's Behringer Box that looks like a big advertisement, saying look here, a brand new synth for the taking and someone did. So now I have one that doesn't really work, what does work is not all that impressive. I may just return what I have and let aUPS and the Rochester P.D. figure out what happened to the second one and start saving for a Modal 008.

I wanted to like this product. I think that it has excellent capabilities and will be a nice synth once the bugs are worked out. I pre-ordered the DeepMind 12 and it was dead on arrival (voice and dsp did not load). Sweetwater was very accommodating and sent me another DeepMind 12 without question -- their customer service was excellent. Unfortunately, the second DeepMind 12 had the exact same issue. I don't know if its poor component quality or soldering what have you; but, it's clear to me that the synth is a little sensitive to travel. I'm sure not all DeepMind 12's have this particular issue but two in a row is hardly a coincidence. That being said, I have no doubt that if you were to receive a faulty DeepMind, Sweetwater would be happy to send you a replacement until you got one that worked properly.

Firstly, the sound of the synth. Whatever I was playing, preset or my own sound, there would at random times be a crackling sound coming through, mostly on pad sounds. Even when just using the raw analog path and no FX this noise/popping sound would be present. There is also a digital aliasing type sound when playing in the upper octaves, which may have something to do with the FX programs, or it may not, but either way it sounds very obvious.

Then there is the build quality. On the unit I recieved, the pitch bend wheel was out of allignment, it was snapped to center, but the pitch was up by a semitone. (latest firmware did not resolve this) As for the keybed, one of the keys kept getting stuck down, still triggering the note, and the keys seemed very uneven. This became more apparent when using Aftertouch; on the same patch slight pressure would push A/T to max on some keys, while others required so much force, barely triggering the A/T, that the keyboard started to tip forward on the stand.

The synth is fairly easy to get around and program, split almost evenly between the front panel sliders & some menu diving, but it seems there is a lack of a User bank and no way to store Favorites for quick access. Patch browsing & sorting can be very time consuming without this feature.

I think Behringer are on the right track here, but this synth feels (and to a certain extent, sounds) very rushed. If Behringer can sort out the hardware problems and some of the signal path issues in a future revision then I may be tempted back to it. I think as an idea it has great potential, but the reality is less than stellar and certainly doesn't live up to the hype in my opinion.

I would like to add that due to the outstanding customer service at Sweetwater, returning the DeepMind for a refund was not a problem.

I have owned a deepmind for a couple years. Initially when launched the synth had a ton of bugs that needed to be addressed with firmware updates. The firmware has not been updated to my knowledge in over a year. The synth at first sounded pretty good to my ears but as time has gone on I have done a fair amount of discovery in the endless menu diving only to conclude that the deepmind sounds very 2 dimensional. The effects are over the top, and it helps to turn them off and use external effects or DAW effects in a mix. The sliders are as cheap as can be and do not stand up to repeated use. The arpeggiator is pretty good but the software for use with a Mac is terrible and crashes all the time. The presets are not good at all, in fact you should just try and create your own patches as the stock patches are over the top and pretty much unusable. The fan noise is awful and really a shame if you are in a quiet studio, even slowed down it's loud. For the money I like vintage poly synths more. A good place to start for a nice sounding poly is a Roland JP-8 or a Juno 106. Ultimately I think that this synth will not stand the test of time and that many soft synths sounds superior and cost far less money. Even the boutique range of synths blow this synth away. If the goal is to try and get a sequential or Juno on the cheap, you will come up short. This synth may emulate some of the Juno 106 sounds, but so do free soft synths.

...well it is a very convoluted product, a copy of a Juno 106 but sounds thin and weak.
Mine had issues with Keybed so returned it and got the far superior Rev 2 desktop.
The Rev 2 does NOT rely on an FX engine to make up for weak osc or voices. So happy with my Rev 2 now.

I bought this after reading into all the hype. It sounds very compressed and does not sound analog. If you are into music for film then yes, get it, but there are plenty of other synths that can cover that. If you want raw analog that you get from a Juno 106, 60, Jupiter or OB forget it. Also, screen was crooked as many others have complained about. I still have high hopes for Behringer's new releases of copycat synths and thus far the Model D sounds terrific in videos I have seen.

I was pretty impressed with the DeepMind in the store. But the sound depends too much on the effects. I could not get good results building patches from scratch. It sounds thin and not musical to me. The boost button feels like a bandaid solution. There is also a fan that makes just enough sound that I found myself wanting to keep the synth turned off when I wasn't using it. My pitch wheel broke after about about a month and I was able to get a refund.