The Behringer Cat is a clone of the cult synthesizer OCTAVE The Cat, which at that time (1976-1981) was the attempt to get an Arp Odyssey and a Minimoog under one roof. "The Cat" turned out to be independent enough in sound and features and only adapted ideas of the two models. With his Behringer Cat, Behringer dispensed with the 3-octave keyboard of the original in favor of the compact, rack-compatible housing.
Sound generation and filters
The Behringer Cat has two oscillators that generate the waveforms sawtooth and square wave. Oscillator 1 also has the triangle waveform and can modulate the pulse width manually and via LFO or envelope. Oscillator 2 can handle two different sync modes. Both oscillators also have a suboscillator, so deep bass and brilliant lead sounds are set up in no time. Due to the layout the noise generator is not located directly in the oscillator section. The level-tuned waveforms are fed into the resonant low-pass filter, which is very close to ARP. The VCA as the last link in the signal path can be modulated with either the ADSR or AR envelope or set to pull-through. The latter is perfect for using the Behringer Cat as an analog filter box.
Modulation
In addition to the higher-level glide control for both oscillators, the Behringer Cat is equipped with an LFO (sine, square wave sample & hold) for modulating pitch, pulse width and filter. The two envelopes can be routed to filter, pulse-width modulation and each oscillator individually. Making use of this selection is probably also a feature of the Odyssey. A highlight of the Behringer Cat is definitely the cross modulation between the two oscillators, which is accentuated by the envelopes.
Behringer Cat - overview:
Clone of the Octave The Cat Synthesizer (1976-1981)
Desktop synthesizer
Analog
Monophone or duophone playable
Two oscillators
Two suboscillators
Hardsync
Noise generator
LFO
Lowpass filter
ADSR envelope
AR envelope
Audio input
Inputs and outputs for control voltages
USB & MIDI
16-fold polychain
Introducing the CAT Synthesizer
Features:
Manufacturer:
Behringer
Construction / Number of Keys:
Desktop without keyboard
The Cat offers everything you'd expect from a Behringer clone, right down to the slightly odd note priority of the original, although I believe you can play with this in firmware. The sound is very close to the original Cat, as far as I can remember, and the build quality is pretty good with some nice additional features to help it blend into a eurorack setup for instance letting you borrow its envelopes. My only quibble is that the bottom of the case on mine is slightly misaligned, so the synth rocks almost imperceptibly on a flat surface, but this is a common problem with many brands. Overall I'm very happy. This is a synth with a bit of a learning curve but if you persevere it's a little beauty.
I had an original back in the day as my first synth which I just loved. This is a brilliant re-issue and it is very versatile and sounds amazing. Small footprint too which helps in a studio full of gear. Brings back lots of happy memories!
Purchased this product and their was no UK plug if your going to ship stuff from Germany please supply us with the correct plug I no this isn’t tho most expensive thing but please supply us with what we need to use our new stuff