And this would all be a great argument to have if it weren’t for Peter Kirn being more than a simple “synth reviewer”.
Not sure why that off handed comment, intended to minimize Behringer’s abusive behavior, has been accepted as fact.
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Yeah attacks on journalists and critics is about the most anti consumer practice there is. It seems a bit silly that they also campion themselves as pro consumer.
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Ideally you should have both. Cold hard facts, and some opinions of people that your own opinion generally lines up with. I kind of like Stimming’s reviews. His opinions don’t always even align with mine, but sometimes they point out something that I may not have otherwise thought of. Even if I don’t agree with all of them. Data is good, but data with context (even if that context is the opinion of an experienced user that maybe makes similar music or sounds to myself) is also valuable. At least to me.
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Yeah I see your point. I’ve said this before and it’s a bit of a naughty generalisation but when I’m flicking through YouTube and I see a review and the still pic is of the reviewer themselves I tend jog on by.
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A review is always the opinion of the reviewer. If it’s not, then it’s just a spec sheet or a press release. I used to write about music for a paper and every now and then somebody complained and demanded that the reviews should be objective. That’s laughable.
There is no such thing as an objective review. They’re always subjective and the trick (as stated earlier) is to find the journalist with whom you seem to have similar tastes and follow his/her writing or videos or whatever.
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I see what you’re doing here.
Let’s say that Peter Kirn’s reviews are basically just rants about how shit Behringer are (like many a thread/blog/video on the internet). Does that make what Behringer did to him ok? Does it make the use of anti-Semitic imagery justified?
Because, even in this very hypothetical scenario, it really wouldn’t excuse Behringer’s behaviour.
Try again.
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That makes me giggle, but I expect just about anyone that would put themselves onscreen in the first place to have at least a tiny bit of an ego. (as with most performers I suppose) Personally, I’m not much for being in front of people, so you’d probably see more of a Loopop sort of thing if I reviewed something. Just hands and a device. 
I don’t mind a bit of personality though either when I watch a video about gear. I like Bo for example or Katsunori Ujiie. Their enthusiasm is appreciated, even if it doesn’t end up being the deciding factor.
I suppose it does help if the person in the thumbnail is at least HOLDING or PLAYING the synth in question though.
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Ha! Music is art. There is no such thing as objective art period.
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I am not even remotely trying to defend Mr B’s behaviour.
My response was to Adam Jay’s comment which appeared to say that journalists should never be attacked.
I just think that, like in all professions, there are probably both good journalists and bad journalists.
Sorry, I just gotta come back to this…
Peter Kirn is a capital J - Journalist.
Any attempts to minimize Behringer’s objectively awful attack on him by painting him as some simple gear reviewer is incredibly problematic and indicative of the same kind of drive-by post-truth arguments that have ramped up in the last few years. And where has that left us?
Do mere “synth reviewers” write about this stuff on the regular?
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I must admit even my preconceptions fall down when it comes to Cuckoo for example. I don’t mind his vids as I find I learn a lot of detail from them.
It’s prob time for me to accept I’m basically just an old fart 
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Great insights on the subject at hand after you admit to not reading any of the journalist in question’s work.
This is adding so much to the conversation.
Or isn’t it just muddying it all up?
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Agreed. I love chip tunes and game music, so Cuckoo definitely checks a lot of boxes. Tips and Tricks for things I own, interesting subjective reviews, enthusiasm, personality, etc.
I see a lot of comments saying “he doesn’t use a synth the way I would”. I can’t think of anything better though. If someone is giving a tutorial, and makes a different type of sound or music than I do, I almost find it more valuable. Maybe I don’t want to make the same type of music as this person, but it may also help me expand my own palette of skills or maybe even taste in some cases. That’s more of a side-note. Just something I see from time to time.
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Yeah well said.
All people deserve not to be harrassed by the rich and powerful.
I feel you. Like Uli hired the designer of the MS-20 to make a new dream synth for the 21st century. What? Yeah.
That’s one of the reasons I still have some forgiveness in my heart and hope that Uli can rehabilitate his reputation. He should start by following through on his public pledge to donate 1000 synths to underprivileged youths.
Most of the reporting was along the lines of “Behringer make range of pedals that some people say are a total rip off of BOSS. My reporting verifies an uncanny similarity.” It’s all very straight forward. If you wanna catch the vibe of who Kirn is, check out his video with Hainbach and you see he is just a synth enthusiast.
Just to disambiguate, you mean anti- consumer protection yeah? I can’t imagine Behringer isn’t pro consumer, they just wouldn’t mind selling us utter crap if they could get away with it. This is not a speculation BTW, their quality used to be much worse (like decades ago when they made the absolute worst mackie mixer knock offs) and they already had to rehabilitate their reputation once.
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Can we all just agree Uli is a thin skinned, ego maniac and be done?
Yeah you can like his synths, but the guy is trash as he has demonstrated numerous times, more fool you if you believe his Robin Hood bullshit, you might want to work on your skills of perception though, cos you ain’t too bright partner.
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Lawsuit’s in the post, mate
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Unfortunately when the thin-skinned ego maniac is a rich and powerful person who’s goal in life is continually expand his business empire, we must continue to monitor his behavior lest we be subsumed by their irresponsibility. This is my lesson from the last 4 years.
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Now that I can agree with. Even more-so because they aren’t really “HIS” synths are they? He has a bunch of very talented people making them for him. These synths, even the clones would stand on their own, and look much better with a different logo on them. (except the Keystep ripoff of course which is pretty inexcusable)
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“kraken” incoming
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