According to the latest information, Behringer is planning a TD-3 Bassline Synthesizer with Devil Fish modifications but without an official collaboration.
Behringer reactivated the acid vibe in electronic music thanks to the TD-3, a super affordable clone of the Roland TD-303 analog bassline Synthesizer. If we hear classic 303 patterns in music in the next few years, we can thank Uli. However, the TD-3 is not the king of all 303 synthesizers. If you want to bring your synth to its limits, you cannot avoid the Devil Fish modifications.
But what is different from a normal TB-303, TB-3 or TD-3? Well, it’s quite a lot: internal filter FM, filter self-resonance, muffler (post-VCA soft-clip distortion), push-button for manual accent, accent sweep with three modes, better bass response, overdrive pot to control the level of the oscillator to the filter… the full list is available here. According to the latest official information, Behringer also wants to release a version of its TD-3 in a Devil Fish version called TD-3-DF (murdered out analog bassline Synthesizer).
Devil Fish Modification developers (Robin Whittle…) would also be interested:
Tina and I were excited that there was to be a TB-303 clone from Behringer. I hoped that we would be able to fit circuit boards inside it to give it the full Devil Fish modifications, and now we have one (2020-02-04) it looks like this will be possible. See the main Devil Fish page for some notes on the TD-3.
Later, Uli wrote to one of the developers of the Devil Fish modifications on 10th November 2019 and said:
Hi Robin, my name is Uli Behringer, leader of Music Tribe and Behringer. We have just launched our TD-3 version, which is our homage to the much love 303. We would love to design a Devil Fish Version and reach out to you to see if you are interested to collaborate with us. That would be awesome. Uli
However, there will be no cooperation because the proposed changes were not accepted by Uli. They wanted other pots and switches in the new TD-3 version that would affect the quality.
I insisted on sealed tact switches and some other requirements about the feel and longevity of knobs, pots and switches. (The little RK09K ALPS pots we use in the Devil Fish are excellent in every respect. Not one has failed or even become noisy, as far as I know, since 1993. Behringer used the same kinds of pots, with knobs, in some of their 1990s mixers.)
Also, they will not be a collaboration because of different opinions on the financial side:
I was keen to proceed, since Behringer could produce a good instrument, en-masse, and sell it globally, at a price far below what we can do from home – and so bring Devil Fishes into the hands of tens of thousands of musicians. However, Uli was unable to accept these commercial terms. It emerged that he expected me to help with the design, endorse their product, and effectively license his company to produce it, and any variations, without limit, without royalties and in perpetuity, for a one-off payment of USD$15k. I rejected his offer for a number of reasons – not least because USD$15k would be a small fraction of what we would have earned with the royalty arrangement..
No Patents On Devil Fish Circuitry
According to the developer, there are no patents or any other legal arrangements by which they can prevent anyone from copying the Devil Fish circuitry. This is probably also true for the naming and layout of the controls. Since the circuits are not patented, we will probably see a Behringer version this year, as this is a huge invitation for Uli to clone it.
We’ll see if Behringer will clone this beloved Devil Fish version. But I’m pretty sure that they will do it.
Source: Robin Whittle Statement
More information here: Behringer
Behringer TD-3 is available at our partner
And the mad drive to “cheap, cheap” will allow people to blithely ignore Behringer copying yet again pretending to be the Robin Hoods of the music business while in fact running a high profit company based in a tax haven to avoid paying taxes. And they are a huge company so when they blatantly copy products from smaller companies so many musicians block their noses pretending cheapest price wins, but this time Robin Whittle will get screwed.
For those interested, here’s Uli Behringer’s response in full: https://textuploader.com/16l0e