Behringer says that its PPG Wave clone is nearly ready, but we’ve heard that one before

It would be unfair to say that Behringer only develops synths based on other people's old analogue hardware: it replicates digital instruments, too.

A case in point is the forthcoming Wave, a synth that bears a strong resemblance to Wolfgang Palm’s series of PPG instruments from the 1980s.

The fact that these had digital wavetable engines might make you think that that the emulation process would be easier than for a purely analogue instrument - the original Waves did have an analogue filter and VCA envelope - but Behringer says that this isn’t the case.

“Replicating the unique architecture of the original unit made the firmware development extremely complex,” writes the company in a recent Facebook post. “We’re confident we’ve nailed this synth and aim to ship it in a few months. Thank you for your patience. This is one legendary synth.”

We’ve been here before, of course; back in 2022, Behringer said that it was beta testing the "third and final prototype" of the Wave, prior to releasing it to market.

Two years on and we’re again being told that a revised version is being sent out to beta testers, so who knows when customers will be able to get their hands on it (or, indeed, how much it will end up costing).