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Comment by ZenoArrow | Hacker News Reader

I don't know why you're being downvoted, that is largely what Behringer is known for, affordable clones of more expensive gear. It's not everything they do, but it's a decent chunk of it. I'm glad they produce audio gear for the masses.

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That is one way to look at them. The other is more akin to a parasite, wait for small companies to invest and innovate and once a product is proven in the marketplace, copy it. I don't really want to judge them, cheap music gear is certainly good for consumers but talking to small manufacturers over many years I've yet to meet anyone who likes them. If anything smaller players are now extremely careful to open source stuff exactly because of them.

Many of those instruments are based on 40 to 50 year old designs. They've released products that were simply not in the market anymore, or second-hand at exorbitant prices. That's not parasitic. Their production processes might not stand up to scrutiny, though.

> If anything smaller players are now extremely careful to open source stuff exactly because of them.

That's the problem with all open source. If you open source something good, someone else is going to run with it.

Well, they’re also known for cloning newer devices, such as (which I didn’t realize until recently) the Korg Volca line, which were already rather cheap devices to begin with. I admit that I don’t know the exact details on those devices from Behringer apart from small snippets I’ve seen popping up in videos and perhaps they’re adding something new to it, but they sure seem very similar to the Volca designs.

The vast majority of the time, they're not cloning devices from small companies, they're cloning classic devices from large companies. The types of devices that have had their prices artificially increased due to demand from collectors.

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