Have keyboard, will travel ! - The Behringer UMA25S

My Behringer UMA25S is finally here. When I placed my order, they had just been released and mine, apparently, is one of the first batch to be shipped over from Behringer City, China ! :o)




Well, so far, I am utterly impressed by this tiny bundle of fun. It is indeed very slim, and the half action keys take a little getting used to, but they are very capable and a tweak of the velocity curve had things ringing true very quickly. It feels light yet substantial and the sockets and connections at the rear are flush, firm and snug fitting. Also, the knobs and slider feel very good to use. Not loose, not tight, just....well, kinda right :o) I guess that man they pay to make sure that knobs and buttons "feel" right in use is a worthwhile investment. Thank you Lo Zhan ! ;o)

Not a vast deal more I can say about the keyboard as it is a simple affair but the Behringer ASIO driver (a derivative of the Ploytec USB Audio driver which I have used before with great success on my Event EZbus) installed first time and instantly provided 7ms stable playback latency. It was just great to have a full blown Reason track playback with no crackles on my work laptop that is designed more for running business apps than music stuff. EmulatorX & Proteus VX were handled with consumate ease too.

It's been an overall joy to install and use ! I immediately found an error in the manual though. They refer to a table that lists the preset templates included with the UMA25S but that table doesn't exist. I dropped Behringer support an email late last night and had a reply waiting for me when I logged on this morning ! How's that for service ! They are sorting it as a matter of urgency :o) I don't mind mistakes. What I mind is when a company abdicates responsibility for them. No sign of that happening here, I'm pleased to say.

The supplied gig bag is nicely padded, the headset is functional and sounds pretty good and the straps are more of a gimmick, but they do what they set out to do :o)

Hats off to Behringer once more for delivering a simple, robust product at an amazing price ! Oh, did I mention that whilst I paid £79.99 for mine, Digital Village have now dropped the price to £67.99 ! An amazing deal ! When I spoke to them last week, I was told that they had received 8 pallets full of these babies and only one unit was available for sale as all the others were already sold. I'm not surprised !

Well, the real proof is in the long term performance of this thing, and you can be sure to hear about that from me ;o)

Behringer

Behringer.

What's the first thought that came into your head after saying that word ?

Cheap, mass produced crap ?

Ripped off intellectual property and blatant plagiarism ?

Excellent value for money ?

Budget but good ?

If it wasn't for Behringer, I'd never had got a chance to start exploring my musical talents on my restricted budget ?

I'm pretty sure it would be one of those, and probably one (or both) of the first too, I bet.

Wherever I look on this big ol' internet, I find "purists" slating Behringer for their (lack of) quality or their bare faced cheek in producing something that "is so obviously a rip off of product XYZ". And at the same time, I find stuff about how affordable and how surprised people were with their gear.

Now, my experience with Behringer is fairly limited so far, but I have to say it's been good. The only bit of Behringer gear I currently own is a set of HPS3000 headphones that have lasted me a good 4 or 5 years and still work and look like new. that's more than can be said of the very expensive Senheissers they replaced !

What has prompted this post is the fact that I have just ordered Behringer's latest toy, the UMA25S...




(more on this when it arrives !).

In my search for an affordable solution to my mobile music making conundrum, I stumbled across this and at £79.99, it seemed too good to miss ! Of course, people have been saying to me since that it will only last a few weeks, or it's performance will be so poor that I will be chucking it across the room. All based on their pre-conceived idea of Behringer and it's "quality", as many of these people have enver even owned Behringer gear. They just believe the hype.

It is true that in their early days, they did indeed produce some questionable products of questionable quality, and it seems that label has stuck as it always tends to do.

I've worked in retail in the past and know all too well what boxshifters are. Create some crap, dress it up, pile it high, sell it cheap. Turnover is that good and profits are that healthy that they far outweight the number of returns.

But it seems that Behringer are definitely not box shifters. They seem to be a company who are progressive, forward thinking and above all, committed to producing quality products at the best possible prices, focusing on the largest segment of the music making market, the cash strapped home and amateur musician.

How do I know this ? Well, it's clear from reading the many and various articles on the company and their ever increasing sales, innovation and manufacturing expansion. Whilst reading about them, I discovered the following two part video diary made by Australian Music Magazine, Audio Technology (think SOS but with a beer and a BBQ !), whilst on a tour of Behringer's China facility.

It's contents surprised me, as well as the guy who made the video diary itself, it would seem. Whilst Chinese factory production seems strange to us in the west, Behringer certainly seem to have taken a lead on utilising their skills and work ethic. I found it very compelling viewing.

See for yourselves...

Part 1



Part 2



I think it's great to see a company with so much enthusiasm doing so well and challenging the existing hierarchy. And how many other manufacturers feature a product specific forward written by the company's owner and founder (who also remains head of R&D) ?

Uli Behringer is making his mark. (yes, that is his own LinkedIn page !)