I used to hate wallwarts power. A good old IEC socket inspires quality and reliability! but then I realized an advantage is that any power supply can be used with these products as long as it can match the Volts and supply enough power. That's where the Cioks DC7 comes in. Those pedalboard power supplies aren't for guitarists alone. You can probably power 4 or 5 Behringer synths without overload--and all from one plug that is not a wallwart.
I love the original for its amazing frequency range; clean highs and rumbling low responses that vibrate my floor. A must for any studio, small and too big. Easy to program and fun, come to life again!
5:44. you can very easily tune to a 5th (or any other interval) with the chord memory function, which is faster and more accurate than a knob anyway. I own an original Mono/poly.
Yes, that was kind of a big "miss" in this review. This feature is also very useful for used with the effects (cross-modulation and sync). Also, the TUNE knobs could have been labeled FINE TUNE, because that's their main purpose. DETUNE is for intentional detuning. VCO intervals are done using CHORD MEMORY, as Daniel said.
I just got mine from Sweetwater for my birthday, which is Sunday. I'm not going to open the box until then. After I get a few hours in with it, inspired by your example, I will work on my own one synth song! Thank you for your inspiring video!
Jamie, the video editing is incredible in this session. At least four cameras (left, right, front and top) plus b-roll, my head was spinning :) Really nice format. Great audio mix as well. Gratefully.
@@GEOSynths How much of that was "real-time" switching verses post editing? The level of effort for post video editing can get insane. However you accomplished it is well appreciated. I think the top down and front facing are of most value however.
@@winddealer1 No switching, as the Atem Mini is only 1080p, though luckily I was recording the output of the front Camera in Ecamm live, as the Pocket 4k didn't record to the Samsung...not that i'm bothered, was only my face! :)
@@GEOSynths great demo video, can I ask what cameras you are using? I guess you are doing the cuts in post production and dont like the Atdm 1090p feed? Nice work..!
@@amsynths I have a BM Pocket 4k for the front, Pocket 6k for the right and B-Roll, Sony AX33 Camcorder for the Overhead and recently picked up a Sony A6400 for the right. It's all post editing with syncing up all 4 Cams and cutting, then overlaid with cutaways. I used to do Video Production for a living, but got laid off in 2017, so started GEOSynths. The Atem is great, but just use it for Live Streaming.
Really good review, just a couple of notes to mention, the pitch wheel can be used for filter cut off, not the mod wheel which is patched to lfo1 or mg1 as korg call it on the MP, also the pitch wheel can be used for VCO1 only, great when doing sync sweeps, the only thing you missed was the poly arp which is the best feature on the MP, put it in poly mode when using the arpeggiator, it will cycle through the VCOs, when used with the Xmod and sync you can create very useful and musical sounds that would put a lot of modulars to shame. As a previous korg MP owner, my only gripe with the berry MP is every demo ive listed to, to my ears doesn't sound like a MP, I would be interested to know if they cloned the SSM chips, sounds like a curtis machine to me, however that said I would still buy one, best mono they have cloned so far.
Nice job Jamie! Great music demo showcasing the sonic potential of thus synth. Glad to hear that the build quality appears better than previous Behringer cloned synths. Here's a drink to world peace!
I have owned the original Mono/Poly since 1987 and the buttons in question in the video seem to have that floating feel as in the original. I have never had problems with them, they click and you know it. I am a bit confused about the detune knob on the clone. The original was used to tune in on other synths that were temperature sensitive. I get the impression that this knob was used to span the oscillators apart instead. The fine tuning knobs on the other three can be augmented by the chord memory button to get your perfect fifths, if you so desire. The original has a rich resonant filter with a growl. I want the Beringer because my keyboard has contact issues, nothing to do with the wobbly black and whites. Thanks
Great way to demo a synth by making a complete track with it. Thanks for taking the time to do that. I'm sure it took some time. Hopefully Behringer shouted you one for your efforts :)
Thanks, yes it did take time to do, as you have to make each Sound 1 at a time and sample it for the Drums/FX and other sounds to track them in Logic. I pay for all my Synths and really wanted this one.
@@GEOSynths I had the original back in the 80s and 35 years and RU-vid compression aside I seem to remember it sounding a bit fatter. Will be interesting to hear someone do a side by side comparison with the original.
@@GEOSynths How did I miss this comparison video with the original? It's been out over a month. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bfhPM0HkGtM.html
Great video! I've got an original Monopoly and love running the Arp while in Poly mode so it cycles through the oscillators. Great for rhythmical sequences and other craziness :)
Fantastic! I have the Behringer Monopoly as well. This video is super inspirational! If I can make 1% of the sounds in this video I'll be happy! 🤣 Well done!
hat's off to your mix skills---that bell/triangle-y sound in the way upper left is stretching the limits of where I thought my monitors' sweet spot could possibly go! cheers
Hello! Thanks for the video - it helped in my decision to buy one! Have you ever managed to get the arpeggiator to sync up to an external clock (preferably via MIDI, not the analogue clock pulse input)? I want the Borg M/P arp to be clocked by MIDI Clock from my BeatStep/KeyStep setup OR my Cubase DAW ... otherwise it's of limited use to me in free-running standalone mode. Given what can be achieved from the arp when used in poly mode (with the Borg's so-called "Effects" turned on) this results in some superb bass and lead patterns. Thanks for reading.
I am thinking of getting one of these having owned the original and loving it, but hating the upkeep on such old gear. Would be nice to compare to my Korg Polysix! Great video buddy! SYNTH ON!
Great video - also other some nice tricks you can do . set unison/share. Play 1 note and all 4 oscs. play 2 notes and 2 oscs per note etc. really useful if you play duophinic (unison/share) and set effects to double. you get duophonic with sync/x mod etc. Set to poly and play the arp across many octaves. Set one or more of the oscs to a different octave and even waveform (going lower octave is great). sounds great and very sequencer ike. Then press effects (single or multiple) and get 2nd note to be sync part. Then start dropping oscs by reducing volume but on a chord with uneven no of notes. Back to cross mod/sync/you can control just vc01 bend with other oscs unaffected. Can go crazy in xmod. Sometimes tune the filter as another note (5th) but need the right hand knowing setting properly. There is a secret mode between loo settings to get audio range LFO - useful for vocal type sounds.
My MonoPoly's arpegiator when set to FULL hits a some out of tune low notes at the high end of the arpegiator scale. Is this normal for the unit or did I get a defect?
Hey, I'm interested to what other synths you have. Just in case you know anything about the Korg MS 20, do you think it would be able to handle everything the monopoly does in this demo? Thanks
I’m having what I suspect is an issue with mine. When pushing a note in default setting and no fx. It generates very low the last note I played like a drone. The only way to stop it is to engage arp and then turn off. Or hit the hold button on and off. Strangely it doesn’t happen in ARP mode on a single note. A lot of people pointed to maybe the VCA Adjust. Buy tried and it did nothing as far as I can tell. Did you experience any low bleed? I’m seriously at a loss. Have tickets in with Behringer and Sweetwater. Not sure if this is just normal or a quality control issue. My guess is a lot of reviewers may have gotten pre calibrated and tested units. Because I’m not the only one with the issue. But also there are many without this issue or I guess don’t notice it.
Bax music has a great sale going for these at €457,- I just ordered one and got 5% discount on top so I paid €439,- At Thomann they go for just under €700 at the moment!
Great video! Getting me pumped while I wait on the back ordered MonoPoly. Any chance you gonna drop Singularity vol. 3 sometime soon for the Moog One? Your patches on vol. 1 & 2 have been really fun to play. Can’t wait to jam Moog and MonoPoly together.
@GEOSynths - any idea why my unit seems to have an "endless" release? ADSR - all are set to very short, but i trigger a note - and the note does not stop, like an endless release. it only stops if i switch from unison to poly - or from poly to unison. the tail from the note is hardly hearable, but it is. any idea what i am missing? also i got a 30-50% volume drop if the device is turned on - after approx 20min it gets way more silent. turn it off and on again - full volume. after approx 20min - again, volume drop.
The flat/sharp oscillator fine tuning is a little disappointing. I really like doing the "osc as triad" or "osc as fifth" sound. Would there be any routing workaround for this? Edit: I also need to add that I really appreciate your approach to showing the sound design workflow. As a member of the "slightly older former live act" club, I'm less interesting in features and presets and more keen to listen out for quirks in the workflow (e.g. aliasing, LFO issues, osc tone, etc). The more time you spend on the compositional side of sound design the more my questions are answered. Thanks!
Only way to get a 5th is to use a Square Wave on the LFO and dial it in very slowly to get the pitch, then have it at a low speed. You can also get it close using Osc Sync and using the Square wave again.
@@GEOSynths interesting. Thank you for the insights. And again, please keep doing what you do. When I can get back over to the UK, somewhere just to the south of where you are, to work on the next album, it would be awesome to drop you a line as a synth sound consultant. Too bad we can't "do an 808 State" in the old Granada, but I reckon there would be some amazing adventures possible around those parts. Hi from sunny Australia in the meantime!
Use chord memory for 5th's. when programming the chord you can change the range of the 3rd osc by one octave down (but play one octave up) to get double on the root. Do similar for 4th octave. Can do thirds but limits you a bit more scale wise.
Nice demo Jamie. You do know why wall warts are used so much right? All electronics have to comply with rules about radio interference they can create. Power supplies are huge offenders for radio inteference. Wall warts are perfect since one design can be used for hundered of devices without worry about inteference since it is already approved. Get used to them, they are an economic slam dunk.
Unfortunately there is no digital control data sent out or received by the knobs' either from the midi or from the usb port so there is nothing that can be saved as far as presets as the hardware required to do this is not incorporated into the synth,. All that the USB and midi outputs send out is note data from the keyboard, or as in other behringer synths you can update firmware and change some internal settings from the USB. It's an analog synth that it's parameters are controlled by voltages and not with digital information, there would need to be a voltage to digital encoder built in for every knob and switch for presets to happen (as in other analog synths that have presets) which in this case and in some other cases would make this unlike the original and much more expensive.
@@thirfytash7286 That is true. I know they should send midi cc. Didn't know this Mono/poly didn't. That's why I would go for the Minilogue XD. So much more features and I think it can do what a Mono/Poly does. I know this looks and sounds nostalgic but I lean to modern synths these days. Is adding a preset saving function that hard to build? Even the Korg monologue can do it, and it's cheap as well.
@@synriser6742 it would be more expensive as that would require more R&D and also would need to include the extra material cost, but also they would need to find a way to retrofit all this new technology onto the old design where something like the monologue is designed from scratch which makes it easier and cheaper to design and manufacture, kinda like the deepmind (especially for its size and features). P. S. I have the minlogue xd and it sounds good and the 3rd digital oscillator is really cool but imho it doesn't sound like this, maybe it's because this uses different oscillators, and also uses one separate oscillator for each note is what I'm gathering? But just a tip if you decide on this and you use a computer with a daw for production there's a free vst plugin called snapshot that you can drop into your track that you recorded a synth without presets on and take a picture of the knob settings and write a note for recall, I know not as convenient as presets but at least it's something.
Great song beautiful. Love your show man. Greetings from. Holland. You should look up Johan Timman. Great retro album from a Dutch artist from the past.
Oof I wish anyone but behringer made this, it sounds quite beautiful. Great demo, sounds, and track! Maybe Korg will release a MP2 comparable to the Pro 3 or Sub37. Or with a patchbay like a Minibrute2. Thank you for the video Jamie! What is your recording chain and were any external fx used at any point? I assumed the synth was stereo because of that beautiful chorusing and image in my headphones, but was shocked it was mono lol. I’m interested in learning more about how that detune knob works across the different voice modes and interacts with the individual tuning settings already on each oscillator.
@@EnervatedSociety for the right instrument even if out of my price range I would compromise my food, health, and living situation to obtain. Even with incredibly close vsts etc. However I will not compromise my morals for an instrument from a company like that. "Kirn synth" and lies about giving to children's charities etc etc. No thank you.
@AkaTengu I see, admirable but that's a strange place to draw a line to not compromise your (subjective) morals in my opinion. Especially when you're seemingly misinformed (?) about what went on with Behringer's children's charities, as was the person who initially assumed as much in his video. That's the problem with assumptions, and why I do my best no to make them. They tend to be wrong more often than right. Back to the strange place you draw a line at concerning your morals. I wrote this on my Apple iPhone. My Microsoft based machine/software is sitting to my left, my Mac to my right. I have various products from Samsung and Sony and my good neighbor drives a Volkswagen. Millions use Google and their various products. (like youtube) Tesla anyone? Hatachi, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Texas Instruments, IBM, Intel, ect. Gap, Levi's, Forever 21, H&M, Toys R Us, Urban Outfitters, Calvin Klein. Nestle, Amazon, Walmart, HP, Dell, Ikea. Also Macy's, Target, Abercrombie & Fitch, JCPenny and countless others that sell cotton/electronics/ect. Pretty much anyone who makes electronics. Pretty much every bank is involved. Tiffany and Co, Brooks Brothers, and even companies that may not cross your mind in this context like U.S.A. Today and many other media companies. It's to the point where we rank these companies from worst to best. Thank you child/adult slave labors in Africa. Thank you ethnic minority slave labors in China. Thank you child labors in India. Thank you slave labors throughout Asia. Personally If I had such moral hang ups I'd probably draw the line at the slave labor pool that's part of the 40.3+ million modern day slave problem we currently have world wide but that's just me. I have this thing about logical consistency. Thankfully I enjoy my modern life too much to give it up over such worries just like all of you. So you see, I don't care about Kirn or his feelings about a joke. He's just one random person I never met and he most certainly uses some of the same products I do or he wouldn't be online at all, neither would you for that matter. It's just a strange place to draw a line. >slave labor, thats fine. I'll buy that but a joke about some random on the internet and charities that aren't anyone's but Behringer's business, well that's too far. Can't buy that. Tell me how that makes sense? To each their own I guess. Morals, yeah right, lol.
@@EnervatedSociety what makes you think I or anyone else voicing their opinion on this matter would also not be making decisions based on their morals when making or not making purchase from any other company? That’s rhetorical. I am a small manufacturer of products made in the US and a skilled tradesperson. So choosing where I spend my money and having a discourse about it on a gear review video on a social platform seems perfectly fitting. You seem triggered by the word “morals.” Maybe values or some other concept might be more relatable for you. Cheers.
@@AkaTengu How is it rhetorical? I stated objective facts concerning the wide spread use of modern day slavery by pretty much all major companies regardless of their specialty/products and or wide range there of (this is easily verifiable doing a simple search and it's been known for decades) but I specifically put a focus on what I think is inconsistent logic when drawing a subjective line morally (standards, values, or whatever word you like) at Behinger's (or company X's) perceived negative (imo petty) behavior (name calling for example) to the point where they/you won't use/buy their products and I argue that for whatever reason no such line is drawn concerning the use of modern day slavery by the vast majority of the population in their day to day lives. The mere fact that someone could be on youtube saying they can't or won't buy a product on the bases of morals is laughable to me because Google employs slave labor thus you, I and everyone on here is in fact contributing to the use of slave labor by companies like Google. The fact is we're on here hence my opinion that this line you and others draw is a very strange place to draw such a line considering all of the above. It's like: I'll put up with Google's use of slave labor and use their product (making google money) but I draw the line at Behringer making fun of Kirn and therefor won't use their product.
The sounds are very sonic and transparent but the tuning is off. Can that be adjusted? The arrangement is great. The bass is nice and punchy though it is struggling to hold its pitches.
I used to work at A1 music in Manchester (back in the day) I was the keyboard tech there. The Korg Monopoly and the Korg DS-1 (if anyone remembers that interesting tank of a synth). Thanks for the nostalgia trip. Were the chords purposely detuned or natural detune from the synth ?
Oh, A1, used to get my Gear from the Preston Branch, think the guys name in Tech was Richard. I screwed up on one sound, I'd play the Chord, tune it, but when I played others, it was a bit out, so I put load of Chorus on it...I think though, I had the detune knob turned up and that's why. I also did the track using Firmware 1.03 but the review with 1.04, so there's some difference. I could have gone back and changed that one sound, all the others are mono and Tuning was checked each time. Didn't think it mattered much as i got used to it and it's not about the Music itself, it was to show the range of sounds from Drums, Bass, EP's, Pads, PolySynth FX etc that you can get from it. User error, end of the day.
@@GEOSynths honestly, i think you did a great job of showing it off. Its such a versatile yet powerful synth. Though for me, the deepmind 12 is the way to go for the kind of stuff i write. Loved the vid you did and good to see such an underrated synth come back.
great review! I also have this synth since a few weeks and you definitely showed me some useful stuff :) one question: while making your pad, from 21:52 to 21:54 the sound drastically changed. did you apply an effect there or does it come from a setting inside the MonoPoly ?
@@GEOSynths interesting that you sold the pro 2, as I'm currently looking at either adding the pro 2 or pro 3 to my setup. Why did you feel like you didn't do much with it?
Great track! And good review. I’d say it’s an analog synth. It sounds as good as it should. But does it really sound like the original? As much as I like this synth as far as it’s concept I am not interested in a poly synth without patch memory. I’d probably just re-acquire a minilogue xd.
I wouldn’t buy another Behringer keybed synth until they improve it to a least Fatar standard. Horribly light, brittle UV affected plastics with loads of slop during motion.
Interesting. I've never played a Behringer that had an onboard keyboard, only having experience with the Model D, The Wasp, and the Neutron all of which were triggered with my Arturia keyboard. I also never gigged with one and thus never road-tested the motion stability. I remember in the 70s and 80s there was a small industry of tech guys like Bob Bradshaw who just basically took the current cool but cheaply assembled effects pedals and repacked them for the rigors of the road. As Behringer's are still financially a minute fraction of the cost of the vintage originals I could see this being in demand once again.
I bought a really dirt cheap M-Audio Axiom midi keyboard 12 years ago and I keep going back to it because it's weighting just suits my playing. Some of this really is about personal taste.
Hi, that's a matter of taste. I would tend to the Poly D, better Arpeggio, Sequencer, build in "Roland Juno style" Chorus. But I like the design of the MonoPoly more....
You are a secret funkmeister, Jamie! I could see the sweat spraying as you chopped you chops and funked your bass.... You'll be getting a phone call from George Clinton!
Really a shame that they kept the limitation of the original regarding osc tuning... but I'm hoping something can be done by some soldering and effort...
