Behringer RD-765: hybrid drum machine with sampling and an analogue filter
Behringer unveils the RD-765, a hybrid drum machine with 176 sounds, sampling, a 64-step sequencer and an analogue filter. Price not announced.
Behringer has published the product page for the RD-765 (part number 0704-AAP), a hybrid drum machine that combines 176 drum sounds, sampling of your own material, a 64-step sequencer and a dual-mode analogue filter. The machine was spotted by Synth Anatomy on October 27; the primary source is Behringer’s official product page, along with the user manual dated October 28.
Factory sounds, and your own
The RD-765 plays 16 voices (kick, snare, three toms, rimshot or cowbell, clap or tambourine, hi-hat, crash, ride and more), organised into soundbanks: nine factory banks and seven empty banks for your own kits. Behringer does not name the machines behind its 176 sounds; Synth Anatomy reads them as a nod to four 1980s Roland drum machines.
Sampling (recording an outside sound so the machine can play it back as one of its voices) goes through a dedicated jack input, with an automatic record threshold. Each sample can be tuned 24 semitones up or down. The manual states that samples are handled at 12 bits by default, like many sample-based machines of the late 1980s.
Three tools to shape every hit
- Wave Designer: an attack control that boosts the transient, the very start of the sound where a snare gets its punch;
- bitcrusher: lowers a sample’s resolution from 12 bits down to 1 bit, for increasingly gritty results;
- analogue filter in low-pass or high-pass mode, assignable per voice, with cutoff moves that can be recorded into the pattern.
A sequencer built to avoid static loops
Patterns can be played live or entered step by step, up to 64 steps. The manual lists 16 patterns per song, 8 songs in memory, and setlists that chain songs together. Several functions keep a groove moving:
| Function | What it does |
|---|---|
| Swing | 25 to 75, to push the off-beats |
| Per-voice probability | a note plays or not based on a percentage, so the pattern changes on each pass |
| Micro timing | nudges a note slightly ahead of or behind the grid (in step mode) |
| Flam and note repeat | a close double hit, or a repeated hit |
| Polymeter | different pattern lengths per voice, for cycles that drift against each other |
Connections: a proper workstation
According to the manual, the rear panel has a stereo main output and a headphone output on 6.35 mm jacks, the sampling input, individual outputs for the voices, three trigger outputs on 3.5 mm jacks, sync in and out, full MIDI DIN (in, out, thru) and a USB-B port for the computer and firmware updates. Individual outputs let you process the kick or snare separately on a mixer or audio interface. The trigger outputs can drive an analogue synth or a Eurorack module: the principle is covered in our guide CV and Gate explained.
Behringer’s official demo:
Who it is for, what it costs, what it competes with
Who it is for. Producers who want the tones of 1980s drum machines without hunting the used market, and who want to drop their own sounds in without a computer. Individual outputs and sync also suit a hybrid studio, or a live rig with a Eurorack case driven from the trigger outputs.
What it costs. Price not announced, and no release date either: Behringer’s page gives neither at the time of writing.
What it competes with.
- Roland TR-6S: six tracks, Roland’s models of its TR machines and playback of imported samples in a more compact box; but no input for direct sampling and fewer simultaneous voices. View at Thomann
- Elektron Model:Samples: six sample-playback tracks and Elektron’s sequencer with per-step parameter locks; no direct sampling and no analogue filter. View at Thomann
On paper, the RD-765 brings together what those two machines split up: characterful factory sounds, built-in sampling and an analogue filter. The sound and workflow still have to be judged on a production unit. For more recent drum machines, see our Drum Machines section, including the Erica Synths LXR-02 going open source.
