Clay Lespool
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2024
I was worried as a newbie to modular that this would be overwhelming but the documentation is great and the sounds this thing spits out are UNREAL. I will never fully tap it full potential I would guess but I love it!
The Jerg Nexus
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2023
My Eurotrip journey kind of went backwards - I bought individual, recent modules, but then built a Behringer System 100 before finally ordering the "all-in-one" Behringer System 55.I think I enjoy playing with the System 55 the most, out of all my racks.The assembly quality is great. All the knobs are tight and smooth. I'm happy with the system as a whole. The only assembly required is to connect the two cases together with the included brackets. The brackets fit perfectly and I was able to do it myself, but having another person to help would make the process easier.The included modules are very discrete in function, and some of the oscillators require daisy-chaining frequency and width controls for each oscillator used in a voice. If you were to purchase 2 or 3 packs of the 8-count 3-foot, 1.5-foot, and 6-inch 3.5mm TS cables you would be set. Also if you have a mixer, you will find a pair of 3.5mm male to 6.5mm (quarter-inch) male cables useful, as the mixer module outputs are 3.5mm. That's probably about $150-$200 extra in cables you ought to buy if you have none, so factor that in to your cost if you are just getting started.This probably isn't what you should buy if you are just getting into electronic music / synthesizers for the first time. It really is a special-interest item for those who are interested in recreating the experience of playing with the original modular systems from the 1970s. It has a few quirks about it, like the V-trig and S-trig gate format mixtures, and the use of fixed +/- 6V voltage outputs to bring the oscillators outside of the control range provided by the panel interfaces.Definitely watch the Tim Shoebridge videos on YouTube to be sure this is something you want before you buy it.For the price, it's fantastic and I love it. The quirks are not things that I notice and workarounds are provided by modules included in the system. Don't let them be a deciding factor if you are thinking of buying this.The one thing that I did not see mentioned anywhere is that if use use the 921A and 921B combo for your oscillator, you do need to connect the width control if you plan to use the square wave. If you leave the width control disconnected the width will be 5 or 10% by default, instead of the 50% you would expect. So if you think the square wave sounds weak or thin, it's probably because you didn't do this.I hope you enjoy playing with this as much as I am.