Behringer Crave

I grabbed the Behringer Crave during a great promotion, and honestly, no regrets, no matter the price. At the time, I also had a Behringer 2600 (which I still own), and I was a bit lost in the complexity of modular synths. The Crave turned out to be a fantastic learning platform—simple and direct. After a few months of use, I even paired it with a Behringer Edge, and the experience was solid.

The main strengths of the Crave are its reliability and build quality—no complaints there. The interface is straightforward, and the patch bay is well thought out; it’s intuitive and doesn’t turn into a headache like some Korg interfaces. You plug in, listen, adjust—simple and effective.

On the downside, you might feel like you've explored it all fairly quickly, especially once you’ve mastered its basic functions. The manual is a bit sparse, but that’s typical of Behringer, and thankfully, there’s a ton of online documentation to make up for it.

I sold it eventually, but even though I don’t particularly miss it, I’d still recommend it to anyone looking for a beginner-friendly, solid, and affordable semi-modular synth.