Behringer Wasp Deluxe

Paul Wiffen takes a trip down memory lane to look at Behringer’s remake of the Wasp from Electronic Dream Plant, his first employer in the synthesizer industry back in 1981. How does it compare to Chris Huggett’s original innovative design?

When I answered a Melody Maker ad looking for a German-speaking synthesizer demonstrator at the beginning of 1981, I little thought that it would be such an important stepping stone in my career. When I discovered who it was who had run the ad, I rushed round to my then bass player Martyn Phillips (now a world famous record producer of Londonbeat, Jesus Jones, Erasure, Roachford etc) to try to learn how to use one the night before the interview. It transpired however that the synth they wanted me to demo, at the Frankfurt Musikmesse exhibition, in a few weeks was the new £99 Gnat and they never asked me to switch a Wasp on, let alone demo its features.

I mainly mention this because Behringer’s version of the Wasp actually includes the best feature of the Gnat — the Enhance waveform setting to thicken up the sound of its single oscillator — on each of the two Wasps oscillators (something I also had Chris include on the OSCar we developed together after EDP went bust) This is essentially a fixed Pulse Width Modulation but more of this later as I’m getting ahead of myself.

My first reaction to the Behringer Wasp Deluxe is that the EDP product of that name was equipped with a real keyboard (which allowed me to sell two to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in my first month with EDP, as they had previously turned their nose up at its plastic capacitance keyboard). But then in this day and age MIDI makes such a control surface unnecessary and the original two 7-pin DIN connectors for the link system Chris Huggett conceived have been replaced by the same size MIDI 5-pin DIN In and Thru connectors. There is also a USB 'printer' socket on the top-left of the front panel to allow direct connection to a computer sequencer, although sadly the Behringer cannot draw power from it, so you have to use the horrible 'wallwart' power adaptor they supply. It would be more difficult to connect a keyboard directly as the printer connector type is the same as on most MIDI master keyboards and I’ve never seen a cable with that larger connector on both ends.

But the Behringer Wasp Deluxe does have wooden endcheeks, like EDP's Wasp Deluxe original, and I assume these can be removed for Eurorack mounting. However, despite the fact that the product description says Eurorack format, there are no metal pieces included to facilitate such mounting. It's not something I would want to do, because the angled desktop format of the case is perfect for sitting alongside your keyboard or computer and twiddling the knobs in real time, which is the real joy of the Wasp design.

Another thing missing from the original Wasp design is the built-in speaker (famously miked up by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics to capture the authentic plastic case rattle) but I doubt most modern users will lose any sleep over that omission. Instead there are a host of mini jack connectors which will allow integration into more complex systems, including external audio inputs and outputs to run the Wasp’s oscillators through other Eurorack modules or process other signals through the Wasp’s filters. There’s also stereo minijacks for the headphones (with its own volume control) and main output (with full size 1/4” jacks for Left and Right out also available on the back panel). The original Wasp was of course only mono (but I didn’t find any controls available on the Behringer to exploit the stereo output).

The MIDI channel is set by DIP switches on the back next to the main outputs. I guess they intend you to pick a MIDI channel in your rig and stick to it but if you do Eurorack-mount it, you could get very sick of having to take it in and out to change the assigned MIDI channel. Easier to pick a channel and stick with it in your rig. On the expander I use with my MacBook Pro, I used the original USB Out to connect the Behringer to, leaving the faster USB Out it also provides me free for connecting polyphonic units with multitimbral capability.

Familiar Synth Features & Additional Facilities

As the vast majority of the controls are identical to the original Wasp, it was very easy for me to fall back into my old familiarity with the architecture of the Wasp and I was soon whizzing around as if 44 years were nothing. I really enjoyed that addition of the Gnat’s Enhance position on each oscillator. This feature which made the Gnat so easy for me to sell (in addition to its £99 price point) gives a fixed Pulse Width Modulation at the best depth and speed to really fatten up the sound. I once had the entire road crew running to see what synth I was running line checks through underneath the rotating stage as Stevie Wonder’s new Meyer Sound PA was rattling the foundations of Wembley Arena from a low note on the Gnat’s Enhance setting. The exact same effect can be produced on each oscillator on the Behringer and when you detune each against the other (which is how I created some of the biggest sounding presets on the OSCar) you produce an even more huge sound which will cut through anything in the upper octave settings and provide the deepest fattest basses in the lower ones. But more of that later...

The majority of the other synth parameters are identical to the original Wasp design, including the fiddly little tune knob and the whole tone pitch bend knob (up or down). Frankly, these both irritated me no end on the original Wasp but I guess now with MIDI you can perform pitch bends from your favourite control wheel, joystick or X-Y pad. More useful in performance is the GLIDE amount knob, which allows you to slide the pitch between notes quickly or more slowly as you rotate it to the right.  Bringing this feature in and out selectively really introduces a lot more character into the performance, playing a quick phrase in one area of the keyboard and then gliding up or down to a new area, then removing it before playing another cluster of notes.

The two oscillators (labelled OSC 1 and OSC 2)  are identical to the Wasp’s each with 32, 16, 8, 4 and 2ft octave settings,  mix volume controls, sawtooth and square wave (plus the Gnat’s ENH setting for optimal Pulse Width Modulation on each). Only OSC 1 has a Width control to reduce the wave from 50% square up to a 10% pulse wave and as you move it you hear the same effect as the ENH pulse width modulation. OSC 2 has a fine tune Pitch control which allows you to detune it from a fattening effect through actual beating, all the way to -9 or +4 semitones.

Noise Signal can be added into the summed oscillators or this can be used to control the volume of an external signal fed into the EXT Auto minijack I mentioned earlier. Martyn Phillips used to offer this as one of his mods when I got him a job working in the EDP(O) service department in 1981and I had one of my Wasps fitted with a pre-amp in 1982 to feed my guitar through it. Here, the EXT Volume knob offers a similar function to boost or lower the external audio input signal

The CONTROL OSC section (more normally referred to as the LFO  or Low Frequency Oscillator) has the same FREQ and PITCH MOD controls and offers Sine, Sawtooth, Reverse Sawtooth, Square, NOISE and RND (random). This allows you to introduce vibrato, rising pitch, falling pitch repetitions, a dual interval oscillation (like a police or ambulance siren) or more unpredictable pitch variations (often referred to as sample and hold, where a pitch is selected at random but then held for a time determined by the FREQ control before another pitch is selected at random, held for the same length of time... and so on. The output of this LFO can also be used to modulate the filter’s cutoff positively or negatively with the -/+ Filter Control.

The Filter comes next with the standard Freq and ‘Q’ (resonance around the cutoff frequency) but with four configurations (the EDP Wasp had three). So in addition to LO pass (removing higher frequencies first), HI pass (removing lower frequencies first) and BAND pass (where the filter is configured to remove frequencies above and below the cutoff frequency), there is an additional setting labelled NOTCH which just removes frequencies around the cutoff frequency leaving the signal further away untouched, very handy for taking out an annoying frequency. Back in 1981, I wouldn’t have had much use for this notch filter but over the years I have found more and more use for such a configuration. So the Behringer’s filter is even more versatile than the EDP one.

The two envelopes are the same ADS (Attack Decay Sustain) type as the Wasp, all both VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier ie. volume) and VCF (Voltage Controlled Filter ie. brightness) to be modified during the Attack (when you first hit the note), Decay (how fast it falls once at maximum) and Sustain (the level at which the decay is interrupted until the note is released). Some have commented that the lack of a Release (once you let go of the note) control found on more expensive synths is an omission but the Wasp architecture uses the Decay setting to determine how long the sound takes to die away (or get duller or brighter depending on the filter type) and this is enough for 90% of musical applications. Chris and I did decide to add a separate release parameter to each envelope on the OSCar synthesizer later, but this instrument did cost three times as much as a Wasp.

Behringer Wasp Deluxe envelope controls.

We are still not finished with the envelopes as both envelopes have their own REPEAT position on the SUSTAIN LEVEL knob (which I always say is like having an extra LFO, with its own customisable shape using the ATTACK and DECAY parameters to refine the way the envelopes rise and fall). The VCF has an additional DELAY function, which determines whether the modulation starts straight away or is introduced more or less quickly.

Cleverly, the Behringer Wasp Deluxe adds a HOLD flick switch to the VCA which is ideal for long drone notes once the note has been struck, without needing a sustain pedal to keep it going indefinitely. The VCF envelope has a similar +/- FILTER CONTROL knob to the CONTROL OSC, so you can determine how much effect the filter envelope has on the starting cutoff frequency. This is exactly the same as on the original Wasp.

The last two knobs on the right (in the OUTPUT section) determine the overall VOLUME level (through both the front panel stereo minijack and the two 1/4” jacks on the back panel, and the PHONES output level from the minijack just above it). Having covered all the standard features inherited from the original Wasp and those introduced by Behringer, it is time to come on to the all-important question you have probably been asking since you started reading this piece.

How Does It Sound?

Behringer have done a remarkably good job of reproducing the original character and range of the Wasp and I found my old techniques for getting the standard range of sounds returning very quickly.

By retaining the basic layout of the Wasp, experienced users will feel right at home, whereas those new to the Wasp will benefit from the logical layout of the front panel which guides them through the signal path and the ways it can be modified. I learnt the basics of sound synthesis in the hour I spent with Martyn’s Wasp the night before my job interview in early 1981 and then when Reading University hired me to teach these same basics, I replaced the poorly maintained EMS Synthi AKSs and VCS3s with EDP Wasps and Gnats. I later went on to teach more deprived students in Inner London Adult Education Institutes and found that by starting them on the simpler signal path of the Gnat, it was a stepping stone to the Wasp’s more complete architecture. However, if you are of reasonable intelligence, you will find the Wasp layout as good as a teacher for familiarising yourself with the basics of synthesis.

I could detect no difference in the sound quality or flexibility of any of the standard Wasp controls and quickly did the rounds of the standard range of sounds for which the EDP version rightly became popular with the users back in the late '70s, including the late Dave Greenfield of The Stranglers, Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran (his first synth), David A. Stewart of Eurythmics, and later EDM groups like 808 State and S-Express.

Behringer’s iteration of the Wasp will give you so much more to play with and more complex tonal variations...

But if you are already familiar with those basics, then Behringer’s iteration of the Wasp will give you so much more to play with and more complex tonal variations as a result. By far and away the most impressive results come from the additional ENH position on both oscillators borrowed from the Gnat, as I mentioned at the very beginning of my review.

Of course, this was the very first thing I wanted to try when I got sound coming out of the Behringer and found very quickly that each individual oscillator’s ENH position faithfully reproduced the Gnat feature that I soon fell in love with when the MD who hired me for the Frankfurt show in early ’81, Adrian Wagner, handed me a Gnat prototype to take away from that first interview to prepare demos for the following week in Germany.

But then detuning the oscillators beefs this up aplenty and began to sound more like the OSCar synth Chris Huggett and I developed in 1983 when I insisted we should put this PWM feature on both of its oscillators for precisely this extra thick and harmonically rich and varying sound to be detuned to increase the effect.

Once I had done that, I began to play with the filter in all of its different configurations as the best way to test a filter is to feed it the harmonically richest signal you can before switching between the various options. The Lo pass filter gives that great big bottom end that rattled Wembley Arena back in 1987 but even more so and higher up the keyboard you can get a screaming lead sound that will cut through the densest polyphonic synth or sampled string chords (and wind up your lead guitar player no end!). Sweeping the filter closed with a long decay (or the Hold switch flipped on) really delights the ear as the filter picks out those different harmonics, especially if you wind the resonance up (using the Q knob) a little — or a lot!

Switching to Hi pass mode lets you start with just very high harmonics and as the filter frequency comes down the lower harmonics fill in until you are back to the huge sound across the whole spectrum. Or you can start with that massive sound then remove the low end gradually until you are just left with a very high fizzy sound, by using the filter envelope negatively.

In Band pass mode, sweeping through the filter gives you both the big bottom end or the high fizz but not both if you want to audibly vary the harmonic content without filling up the whole frequency spectrum, so nothing else can fight its way through. And Behringer’s NOTCH setting adds the ability to just remove the frequencies around the filter cutoff whilst keeping the rest of the big thick harmonic soup, another very useful alternative.

Playing with all these different filter configurations when you are not feeding it such a harmonically rich sound, by using the simpler waveforms or less detuning of course produces more subtle results but often that is exactly what you want, as going all out all the time will probably produce listening fatigue in your prospective audience. I tried using just a square wave with the different filter settings and got nice variations on the hollow 'clarinet' sound, moving more to the 'oboe' end of things when I moved the pulse width towards 10%. If it gets too subtle, you can always wind up the resonance (Q control to emphasise any vetoed movement more).

I found the HOLD flip switch terribly useful when moving two filter parameter knobs at once (as you don’t need to keep one finger on your master keyboard or foot on a sustain pedal) and once you are in the ballpark you can then flip it off to craft the attack, decay and sustain of the filter/amp envelopes to finish your sound for playing.

It definitely strays into OSCar territory and I really enjoyed being able to crank up the frequency content and then use the very authentic filter configurations to pick out and highlight (or suppress with the new NOTCH filter) very precise frequency bands.

Verdict

So to summarise, the Behringer Wasp Deluxe covers all the bases that an experienced Wasp user would look for and want to use but goes a lot further beyond the original spec for those, like me, who think that too much is never enough. It definitely strays into OSCar territory and I really enjoyed being able to crank up the frequency content and then use the very authentic filter configurations to pick out and highlight (or suppress with the new NOTCH filter) very precise frequency bands. It is a whole lot of fun and took me right back to my early days but with an extra dimension that wasn’t available back then. It certainly is the best of both the Wasp and its baby brother the Gnat and will give you endless hours of creative fun (I’m going back to it as soon as I have finished writing this review!).

So is there nothing missing from my wishlist on an ideal monosynth? Just one thing, memories! Having convinced EDP Wasp-designer Chris Huggett to add presets and user memories to the OSCar from this lineage, I will always want to be able to store any particularly impressive sound once I have refined it (or at several points along the way in case I start to stray from what I am looking for). But let’s leave some territory for the OSCar to cover, especially at this price point.  Who knows how much it would cost to add memories or presets to the Wasp Deluxe spec. The Behringer Wasp Deluxe costs less today than the Wasp ever did and at 1979-81 inflation-adjusted prices, the RRP of the original Wasp would be the equivalent of over £1,000 GBP today, making this Behringer synth an utter bargain!