Behringer: История и развитие компании аудиооборудования

Audio equipment manufacturer

Behringer is an audio equipment company founded by the Swiss engineer Uli Behringer on 25 January 1989 in Willich, Germany. Behringer produces equipment including synthesizers, mixers, audio interfaces and amplifiers. Behringer is owned by Music Tribe (formerly Music Group), a holding company chaired by Uli Behringer.

Uli Behringer was born on April 13, 1961 in Baden, Switzerland. His father was a church organist and nuclear physicist; his mother a pianist and interpreter; his uncle a professor of composition at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich; and his aunt a classical singer and pianist. At the age of four, Uli Behringer started to learn piano. When Behringer was five years old, his father acquired the organ from a church being demolished. He then helped his father integrate the organ with over 1000 pipes(?) into the family home. At the age of 16, he built his first synthesizer, the UB1.

While Behringer products were manufactured in Willich, Germany, many of the individual components were imported from mainland China. In 1990, to lower production costs, Behringer shifted production from West Germany to mainland China. Initially, subcontractors were engaged to produce the equipment. By 1997 Uli Behringer had relocated to Hong Kong to better supervise manufacturing quality.

In May 2000, Behringer acquired the rights to the entire CoolAudio technology from Intersil Corporation, a US based semi conductor manufacturer specializing in integrated circuits for audio applications. The acquisition included an intellectual property portfolio and licensees such as Alpine and Rowe, among others.

In 2018, Music Tribe opened its own factory, Music Tribe City, in Zhongshan, Guangdong, China. The factory handles the production and distribution for Music Tribe's 12 brands, including Behringer products.

Since 2016, Behringer has become a manufacturer of synthesizers and drum machines, which includes original models and recreations of analog hardware. Although some manufacturers, such as Curtis, are unhappy about their products being cloned, Behringer said that creating clones of older hardware is legal where the patents have expired. In 2016, Behringer released its first commercial synths, the Deepmind 12 and Deepmind 6. Shortly after, they followed up with the Deepmind 12D which was a desktop alternative to the Deepmind synths. The design of the Deepmind was inspired by the Roland Juno 106. Their second original synth was the Neutron and their third was Behringer Crave, a semi modular synthesizer released in 2019. The next synth was the Model D, a desktop clone of the Minimoog. The following year, the Poly D was released, with the same "D type" circuits as the Model D, but now with 4 oscillators and a keyboard. Since 2018, Behringer has recreated synthesizers and drum machines including the Roland TB 303, Korg Monopoly, Arp 2600, Arp Odyssey, Roland TR 808, TR 909, Roland SH 101, Minimoog, Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 and EDP Wasp.

In February 2006, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined Behringer $1M, issuing a Notice of Apparent Liability against Behringer, claiming that 50 of the company's products had not been tested for conducted and radiated emissions limits as required by US law, and noting that Behringer continued to sell the products for a year after being notified.

In June 1997, the Mackie company (now LOUD Technologies) accused Behringer of trademark and trade dress infringement, and brought suit seeking $327M in damages. The claims were later rejected by the court. In their suit, Mackie said that Behringer had had a history of copying products by other manufacturers and selling them as their own. The Mackie suit detailed an instance, in which Behringer was sued by Aphex Systems for copying the Aural Exciter Type F. In that case Aphex Systems won DM690,000. In 2005, Roland Corporation sued to enforce Roland's trade dress, trademark, and other intellectual property rights with regard to Behringer's recently released guitar pedals. The companies came to a confidential settlement in 2006 after Behringer changed their designs. In 2009, Peavey Electronics Corporation filed two lawsuits against various companies under the Behringer/Music Group umbrella for patent infringement, federal and common law trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trademark dilution and unfair competition. In 2011 the Music Group filed a countersuit against Peavey for "false advertising, false patent marking and unfair competition." In 2017, Music Group filed a defamation lawsuit against Dave Smith Instruments, a Dave Smith Instruments engineer, and 20 Gearslutz forum users. The case was dismissed as a SLAPP lawsuit.

In March 2020, Behringer published a mock video for a synthesizer, the "KIRN CorkSniffer", which appeared to mock the music technology journalist and synthesiser developer Peter Kirn. The video received criticism and accusations of using antisemitic imagery. Uli Behringer issued a response on Facebook, saying the video had been intended as "pure satire by our marketing department". The apology was deleted the following day.