The synthesizer world is a tempestuous, incestuous, hyperventilating hive of wannabe and actual rock star keyboarder/synthesis/tweaker/producer/dj/bedroomer barbarians.<p>We should expect no manners from an industry which has, for 40 years, been copying itself.<p>Innovation is really happening in the synth space, but what happens - and which is rarely accomodated for - is that these devices persist on into the future <i>because they are musical instruments</i>.<p>If you attack ones right to copy, you may as well leave the music industries.<p><i>Musicians Copy</i>.<p>Its a vital and necessary aspect of the culture and art itself, and the disallowing of it is a tragic attempt to thwart the art, itself.<p>Now, does this apply immediately to the commercial musical instrument manufacturing industry?<p>Like I said, its incestuous.<p>Devil Fish are perfectly right to keep their ideas to themselves until they are ready to commercial it themselves, and this seems to be a breach of that trust. Tut tut, never talk to a bigger fish unless you've got a hook!<p>However, Behringer are not to be feared! They bring new blood to the market by making the cheap stuff. Everyone knows, even if the kids buy the cheap stuff, good music gets made until it doesn't.<p>And then, they buy the better stuff.<p>The DF guys should just gear up the mod, and make themselves a better machine. Every single Behringer will be mod'able. My Neutron already has a firmware update that turns it into a poly-synth, FFS.<p>Now .. Every 6 months or so, on average, the 'perfect musical instrument consumer' spends a quarter of their regular monthly income, on gear. GAS is a real thing, manufacturers know all about its harvest, and exploitation.<p>(Disclaimer: sitting in a room full of synthesizers, oldest one was built in 1972, been making them myself personally for decades, love the subject to death, have a very strong opinion on the subject, see above.)