Behringer Edge with the DB-01

video upload by Richard DeHove

"The Edge-DFAM class of machines is an odd category. Not a very good as a synth due to the constant (and necessary) manipulation of the oscillator frequencies. Not particularly good as a drum machine due to the 8-step limitations and the delicate juggling required to squeeze out multiple sounds. And not so great live since there are no presets and too many parameters to easily morph to a different sound. OTOH if you want a random percussion chaos layer then it's the perfect solution.

Of course they're great fun to twiddle and make unexpected discoveries. They also pair up pretty well with more conventional machines to produce a more complex result than you'd get with 'ordinary' synths.

Having owned both the DFAM and Edge I'm happy but hesitant to admit that in a 1:1 matchup I'd choose the Edge. This is entirely due to the MIDI clock options: The sequence must always start at the start - duh. Some people say the DFAM sounds better (whatever that means) but I'm not feeling anything radically different. My only complaint is that the LPF feels murky and doesn't interact with the resonance control in a pleasing way. The HPF is much superior imo and saves the filter section. Of course it may be that I've now been trained by prolonged Polivoks filter exposure to expect satisfying grit and tortured screaming.

Back on the topic of 'Would I use it live', the more I thought about that the more I thought I'd use the LXR-02 instead. Perhaps a video 'The LXR-02 does the DFAM' would be good?

It may also be of interest to note the use of the DB-01 gate output connected to the noise level in Demo 1. It generates some noise percussion when playing normally because of the gate length but this largely disappears when playing the arpeggiator's much shorter gate length.

As usual there are absolutely no external effects or DAW processing.

0:00 Unboxing
1:25 The setup
1:42 MIDI reset
2:27 Clock divider
3:13 Tuning
4:05 Demo 1: Cheese
4:39 Demo 2: Swinger
5:19 Demo 3: Rubber
6:22 Demo 4: Wired

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