Behringer Pro VS Mini Hybrid Vector Synthesizer Reviews

The features are excellent. The sound quality is excellent. The form factor is excellent. The price is excellent. No wonder these are always on backorder. Just get one and find out for yourself.

I've been using it for film score type sounds (synthetic bells, glass, plucked, and rhythmic/evolving). Psychedelic and dark keys/pads are also accessible within minutes.

I've also been able to recreate some 80s favorite synth sounds like Hall and Oates keys, and theme song to the "There Is A Darkside" series. It has a distinct 80s digital synth sound that allows the range to sound dated,-or 'of the future'.

Get past the initial 10min invested in learning it, and creating original sounds from an "init patch" will be manageable quickly. This one is a winner.

I will also mention, as others stated:

-Filter sounds good, gets nice and squelchy, and retains smooth analog characteristics. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's buttery and adds an instant layer of depth to almost all patches I've tried it with. Impressive.

-As another review mentioned, troubles with the sequencer and recording. Following the instructions in the manual, and having tried dozens of times; I too have been unable to get this feature to work at all.



-The buttons on the keyboard are stiff and unresponsive intermittently, resulting in many missed notes when jamming. Sometimes it takes considerable force to trigger the notes, or the second-third-fourth time pressing the button. I don't mind much, as I am setting it up to be controlled by a keyboard tonight. But this function will be missed when I have to operate with a portable setup.


I am more impressed each time I sit down with it, though. The range of sounds one is able to make from scratch is wondrous and fulfilling.

First impression left me bummed out, but it was only due to my superficial understanding of an unfamiliar interface.

I have found it quite useful for musical, experimental and sfx sounds. Calling this a toy is likely the result of not spending enough time with it, or that the person using it is the toy.

WOW.

Just wow. This synth has that FAT analog 80s sound, hard to find in modern synths.

Upgraded the sounds with the new Ultimate Patches sounds. My fave synth by far now.

this little thing is well worth the money. I've been using it to make simple background music for "scary" YouTube videos, and it works very well for my purposes.

There is something truly special about the sound of this synthesizer. It just has that punch and depth that fills me with joy every time I program a sequence into it. The analog filters sound incredible, and the chorus effect is musical and useful! I am blown away that this kind of inspiration came in such a small and affordable package.

The cynics are already on social media calling the Pro VS Mini a glorified toy. The first 1984 Macintosh was a glorified toy with only 128K of RAM (it could say "Hello"), but this little gizmo is well worth its $ price.
In the "toy universe," the Pro VS could be a transformer.
Out of the box it's this fun, portable gizmo you can carry around with you and listen to with headphones. But when you hook it to a MIDI controller and plug it into an amp or PA, it "transforms" into a 4-voice synth with a variety of amazing sounds and fun sequencing. The string and analog synth patches are very fat. Percussion sounds OK, but not the best. One of the things I like is being able to play my MIDI controller and the little touch keyboard at the same time. Whenever I go portable with it, I'm going to take my '80s RadioShack walkman headphones. Research has shown that retro gear sounds .03% through RadioShack headphones than modern ear buds. I am definitely going to take this onboard when I fly in March and April.
The Pro VS isn't retro per se, but it is modeled on the mid-'80s Prophet VS. As you can see, I now have "Dueling Behringers," having purchased the Wasp last July.

Functions: After spending a few hours with the new Pro VS Mini - resulting in a short piece of music attached to this review - I can say I'm very impressed! It's a highly capable little vector synthesizer featuring 128 waveforms, a great sounding analog filter, amp and filter envelope generators - albeit shared by all four voices - 2 LFOs, a chorus effect and most importantly the mix envelope gives a plethora of tools for sound design in a little portable device. The program bank can store up to 32 patches, there is an arpeggiator and a 16-step sequencer. 16 sequence patterns can be saved (along with the program used).
It's obvious that - as opposed to the Pro-800 - Behringer's aim with the Pro VS Mini wasn't to make an improved clone of the original 1980s synth, but capture the vibe and sound of the original in an affordable, pocket-sized unit. So before I could start complaining about the missing features on the Mini (true polyphony, glide function, and probably others I'm not sure about because Behringer has only released a Quick Start Guide instead of a full manual) I realised I had to appreciate this instrument for what it is: A very affordable yet great quality portable vector synthesizer with a lot of useful features.

Sound quality: Amazing. It has that unmistakable 1980s raw early digital type of sound that can be mellowed down by a warm and delicious low pass filter that can self-oscillate beautifully.

Aesthetics / feel: After the great build quality of the Pro-800 I wasn't surprised to see the Pro VS Mini live up to the standards. Best compared to my beloved Volca Keys the overall quality is just as good if not better. Although the Mini doesn't have a battery compartment and its own speaker, it's much "skinnier" than a Volca, which in my book adds to portability as I'd use a power bank and headphones on the go anyway. It's also powered by USB-C, a very welcome feature. The rotary knobs feel identical to those on the Volca. The layout looks well thought-out, the functions are clearly marked. The OLED display looks beautiful and very informative, just the right size.

Many on videos and elsewhere say the sound is a little cheesy; there's even a video that compares it to the Prophet 1986 Pro VS with a very expensive oscilloscope pointing out how the Mini has a lot more stepping, etc. But my goodness, folks, it IS only $! I think the Pro VS Mini sounds much better than it has any right to based on the price point and sounds far better than expected. Another common criticism I did not experience is the loose vector joystick. Mine seems to have enough resistance and I have yet to experience any sort of drift some early videos mentioned, so I think Behringer may have made some adjustments.

Pros:
Value for the price is exceptional. Fantastic filter for such an inexpensive synth, and I was surprised by how much warmth the chorus can add. Some of the waveforms sound a little too bright or even brittle for my taste, but it's amazing how much warmth the right amount of filter and chorus can add to a patch. Good that those features are readily available with dedicated knobs.
Once you learn how to set it in motion, the vector mix can do some really exciting things I haven't heard on units 10x the cost.
More than anything, just jam-packed with features. You can get some really complex and evolving pads if you can put up with just a little menu diving.

Cons:
Pressure keybed is virtually useless for live performance, other than maybe a sound effect or two. Good thing there's plenty of inexpensive midi controllers out there.
The owner's manual is a joke other than for referencing where to find the 128 available waves. I suggest anyone interested in buying the Mini look up demo and tutorial videos--there's lots of good ones out there, and with that knowledge I was able to start tweaking and building patches in minutes.

In short, highly recommended especially for those into lo-fi and darker electronica with lots of pads--ambient, trip-hop, etc.

Sounds great. I almost bought the original when it was new. Always kind of wish I had. Now I can revisit those days with this great 80's-sounding synth. Overall, it reminds me of the band "A Split Second". Effects really bring this unit alive. Even a cheap Baby Cube sounds good with it. The first one I received had a broken vector joystick. But, it was replaced satisfactorily. Thanks, Sweetwater!

Pros: This is exactly what I hoped it would be, a pretty capable vector synth. Not sure if it sounds like the original, but it sounds amazing. The presets don't do it justice. Watch the programming videos on youtube, the manual has very little info beyond what the buttons are for.
$? Really this is a steal, how can you go wrong?
Cons: 4 voice polyphony and a single filter reminds me of my old Korg Poly 800. You have to be accurate and make sure you don't hit 5 notes! Some trial and error is involved in selecting which filter triggering works for the style of playing you are doing. This can also be part of the charm once you know how the filter behaves.
The arpeggiator is, as far as I can tell, not working correctly. It plays a few notes in a random order then stops until you play more notes, then it will play a few notes in random order again. Again the manual is very sparse in this function. I cant get it to sync with midi.
The sequencer is practically useless, unless I don't know how its supposed to work. I cant find a step entry mode. In grid mode, every time I hit the first note to record, the sequencer starts playing, if you try to hit notes on the 16th note grid, they will quantize to the nearest 16th, and if the note you played is longer than a 16th, it will double trigger the note. I have found it impossible to get any usable results. And it wont record velocity information, all notes are stiff and same velocity. There is a swing function, but in my opinion, the first swing setting 55% is too much, the subsequent settings are way to much at 60 65 70. Really 51%, 52%, etc settings would be more useful.
That being said, I didn't buy this for the sequencer, so not a big deal for me. Hopefully these things will be corrected in a future update.
The output is mono. stereo jack, but mono out. I would have rather seen maybe stereo chorus or some form of stereo on the output, instead of a half baked sequencer.
The output lacks a bit in the low end. Add some reverb, delay, stereo chorus and a bunch of low end EQ, and it will sound like a Monster!

Can't wait for this to ship! So exciting!

The instrument is well made and works great BUT the instruction manual offers little or no help as to how to use the unit and its many features.

There's no doubt that the small, easy to place form factor is very convenient. And some of the sounds are retro-cool. Unfortunately, there are only 32 of them. (Which seems very odd in this day and age of cheep memory.) But there are some problems that make it hard to deal with. 1) The software used to program settings on it ("Synthtribe") is useless. It simply does not work. It gets stuck in a loop, asking the user to "Update Firmware" over and over... 2) The joy stick is useless. It does nothing. So this thing is almost a thing, but it's just frustrating.