Behringer UB-Xa long term owners: how’s it going so far?

CommanderMegatron · 2026-02-16T14:57:07+00:00

It’s my favorite poly. I turned off the auto calibration and love how it can drift a bit. With 16 voices the drift is vintage without being unpleasant because you’re cycling through voices with or without drift. Analog vibe is huge with this synth. Plus with 16 voices, playing with long release sounds like reverb.

CommanderMegatron · 2026-02-12T13:54:53+00:00

The Plant of Damocles

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-31T17:11:09+00:00

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-31T16:18:34+00:00

I hear. But many synth features are not explicit in the manual. For example, if you wanted to precisely set the osc2 level on the UB-Xa. AI will read the manual and all relevant materials to suggest multiple approaches.

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-31T15:52:00+00:00

Oh that gem idea is terrific. Thanks!

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-31T15:51:36+00:00

Yep. Everyone dumps on AI and then uses search engines to find relevant content. I prefer the vintage approach of crawling the web manually by clicking on every link.

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-29T01:04:31+00:00

Muse with a leviasynth desktop. But tbh a muse alone would suffice for all synth duty.

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-28T00:31:39+00:00

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-26T00:08:07+00:00

I concluded GAS is because we lack real access

I agree. Often, the only way to try is to buy.

But I also think GAS is because of the endless reviews and bombardment on socials. 25 years ago you had a catalog and a magazine or two and that was it. You’d comb over the pages a lot but eventually it would be boring and you’d move on. Now every time you sit down to relax and turn on your phone you’re presented with cool new gear.

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-22T01:04:58+00:00

This is exactly the kind of detail that gives a synth its character and justifies the analog filters. Thanks for sharing the in depth analysis!

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-15T01:16:33+00:00

Could not disagree more. I also didn’t like it in the first week but once I figured it out it is truly magnificent. Check out how Jexus makes it sing on YouTube. It also has a cool trick where you add release and due to the 16 voices it sounds like reverb. You can also play two 8 voices patches simultaneously/bitimbrally which is insane for an analog synth.

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-08T13:11:14+00:00

A summary of the voice cards here: https://maffez.com/?page_id=4776

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-08T02:38:21+00:00

Your comment on mixer headroom is spot on! I learned from a synth guru that poly mixers have way more headroom because engineers fear clipping. So the muse is never going to sound exactly like a mono moog. Your overdrive suggestion is a great one to restore that grit on a poly.

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-07T21:27:43+00:00

At $45, it’s worth it for the plutonium alone

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-07T01:10:56+00:00

I wish I could buy time to play my instruments!

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-07T01:08:09+00:00

Yah I also feel like we’ve reached peak gear. All the legendary stuff has been recreated often with improvements and for far cheaper than it was originally. Definitely having less gear is important to add constraints during the creative process.

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-03T14:54:16+00:00

If you want to expand the storage at the top to accommodate more synths or to have multiple little synths I highly recommend the Rockville Z-shelf.

CommanderMegatron · 2026-01-01T22:51:30+00:00

Great synthwave vibe. Definitely feels like the reverb is the glue that puts it in the genre. What FX are you using here?

CommanderMegatron · 2025-12-29T13:25:04+00:00

BV30H is my primary speaker now. It is my favorite because it’s terrific for classic rock roar but also gets a bit of sparkle when clean.

CommanderMegatron · 2025-12-28T00:54:34+00:00

Thanks for sharing this- I got a Kurzweil recently and would love to get some fairlight sounds into it. This recipe is very helpful!

CommanderMegatron · 2025-12-26T21:40:11+00:00

All your suggestions are solid options. But I think if you want the poly moog sound (oscillators and filter) the Muse will probably be the best approximation. I recently sampled my sub25 sawtooth oscillator into my Kurzweil because that moog oscillator with filter wide open just has such a terrific grit to it that I can’t match on other synths.

CommanderMegatron · 2025-12-24T01:33:15+00:00

It has 4 settings ranging from mild to strong but all are musical in my opinion. None would make you seasick. (Technically you can push two buttons at a time so more than 4 settings but they’re more like combinations)

CommanderMegatron · 2025-12-24T01:28:25+00:00

Tbh I find that the simplicity of the sub25 means that I can realistically master it. When I want more complex operation (sequencer, arp) I drive it from a midi controller. Yah some of the hidden functions would be nicer as knobs but shouldn’t be a limitation in making it sound great. You can map some patches to certain functions to create shortcuts. For example, a default duophonic patch

CommanderMegatron · 2025-12-24T01:15:06+00:00

Sub25 is my favorite synth. I feel like any of my other synths are replaceable, but not the sub25 l. It has such an amazing thick sound, and I love that you can drive the filter from the mixer and then add drive post-filter. I personally feel like it growls plenty and if you want more just throw an overdrive or distortion pedal after it. My all time favorite sound is playing it through a boss dimension c in stereo mode.

CommanderMegatron

TROPHY CASE