Behringer

Foundation and early development

Uli Behringer was born on 14 April 1961 in Baden, Switzerland. His father was a church organist and nuclear physicist; his mother a pianist and interpreter; his uncle a professor of composition at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich; and his aunt a classical singer and pianist. At the age of four, Uli Behringer started to learn piano. When Behringer was five years old, his father acquired the organ from a church being demolished. He then helped his father integrate the organ with over 1000 pipes into the family home. At the age of 16, he built his first synthesizer, the UB1.

Marketing, manufacturing, and acquisitions

While Behringer products were manufactured in Willich, Germany, many of the individual components were imported from mainland China. In 1990, to lower production costs, Behringer shifted production from West Germany to mainland China. Initially, subcontractors were engaged to produce the equipment. By 1997 Uli Behringer had relocated to Hong Kong to better supervise manufacturing quality.

CoolAudio acquisition

In May 2000, Behringer acquired the rights to the entire CoolAudio technology from Intersil Corporation, a US-based semi-conductor manufacturer specializing in integrated circuits for audio applications. The acquisition included an intellectual property portfolio and licensees such as Alpine and Rowe, among others.

Music Tribe City

In 2018, Music Tribe opened its own factory, Music Tribe City, in Zhongshan, Guangdong, China. The factory handles the production and distribution for Music Tribe's 12 brands, including Behringer products.

Behringer makes products for audio engineering, producing, audio playback, effect processors, and electronic instruments. Additionally, Behringer digital mixers are compatible with third-party remote mixing platforms, including cloud-based control systems.

Effect units

Outside of their sub-company TC Electronic, Behringer has released guitar pedals based on famous circuits. Their main pedals are designed to be similar in design to BOSS. In 2019, JHS Pedals made a YouTube video comparing the basic pedal range to their inspirations. The video reportedly caused Uli Behringer to lose sleep as he was confused on "why a pedal company would tell you to buy other people's stuff".

In more recent dates, Behringer has been taking a similar approach to the company Warm Audio with recreating vintage pedals to be as visually close to their original, such as with the Chorus Symphony (clone of a BOSS CE-1), the Centaur Overdrive (Klon Centaur), and the B-Tron III (Mu-Tron III).

Electronic instruments

Since 2016, Behringer has become a manufacturer of synthesizers and drum machines, which includes original models and recreations of analog hardware. Manufacturers (such as Curtis Electromusic, Roger Linn, and Tom Oberheim) have been vocal about being unhappy with their products being cloned without asking for permission. Behringer has said in response that creating clones of older hardware is legal where the patents have expired.

Controversies

FCC dispute

In February 2006, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined Behringer $1M. The FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability claiming that 50 products had not been tested for conducted and radiated emissions limits as required by US law, and noted that it continued to sell the products for a year after being notified. Behringer's position was that, since the units had passed stringent European CE standards, they would also comply with FCC verification requirements. According to Behringer, it had overlooked the differences in testing standards and procedures under FCC and European requirements. It has since implemented a complete UL certified safety and EMC testing laboratory under the UL Certified Witness Program, including in-house audits and global regulatory review systems.

Legal cases

In June 1997, the Mackie company (now LOUD Technologies) accused Behringer of trademark and trade dress infringement, and brought suit seeking $327M in damages. The claims were later rejected by the court. In their suit, Mackie said that Behringer had had a history of copying products by other manufacturers and selling them as their own. The Mackie suit detailed an instance, in which Behringer was sued by Aphex Systems for copying the Aural Exciter Type F. In that case Aphex Systems won DM690,000. The Mackie suit also mentioned similar cases filed by BBE, dbx and Drawmer. On 30 November 1999, the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington, dismissed Mackie claims that Behringer had infringed on Mackie copyrights with its MX 8000 mixer, noting that circuit schematics are not covered by copyright laws.

In 2005, Roland Corporation sued to enforce Roland's trade dress, trademark, and other intellectual property rights with regard to Behringer's recently released guitar pedals. The companies came to a confidential settlement in 2006 after Behringer changed their designs.

In 2009, Peavey Electronics Corporation filed two lawsuits against various companies under the Behringer/Music Group umbrella for patent infringement, federal and common law trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trademark dilution and unfair competition. In 2011 the Music Group filed a countersuit against Peavey for "false advertising, false patent marking and unfair competition."

In 2017, Music Group filed a defamation lawsuit against Dave Smith Instruments, a Dave Smith Instruments engineer, and 20 Gearslutz forum users. The case was dismissed as a SLAPP lawsuit.

Fictional synthesizer advertisement

In March 2020, Behringer published a mock video for a synthesizer, the "KIRN CorkSniffer", which appeared to mock the music technology journalist and synthesizer developer Peter Kirn. The video received criticism and accusations of using antisemitic imagery. Uli Behringer issued a response on Facebook, saying the video had been intended as "pure satire by our marketing department". The apology was deleted the following day.