05 Jun Synth Boom: How Clones and Boutique Makers Shake the Market

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Nearly 300 exhibitors, one hall in Berlin, and right in the middle: a synthesizer for 400 euros sitting next to one for 4,000. Both sound surprisingly similar. That’s exactly what’s happening in the synth world right now – the tone you once needed a small fortune to achieve often costs a fraction of that today. The interesting question is no longer whether you can afford it, but what you’re actually paying for.

What’s Happening in the Synth Halls Right Now

Early May brought Superbooth to Berlin – the world’s largest trade show for synthesizers and electronic instruments. Nearly 300 exhibitors, from major corporations to two-person workshops, and one thread ran through almost every booth: it no longer has to be expensive to be good. Where a handful of big brands once set the tone, clone manufacturers and boutique builders are now flooding the market, each with their own answer to what an instrument should do today.

The most prominent example comes from Behringer. The brand has released the JN-80, an eight-voice recreation of the legendary Roland Juno-60. The original sound of that eighties machine still shapes entire genres – from synthwave to house – and anyone hunting a genuine vintage unit on the used market pays four figures minimum. The clone brings that same character into the present, with modern connectivity and at a price that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.

Behringer isn’t alone in this. A leaked list of fourteen additional clone projects from the brand has been circulating in the scene, ranging from the E-mu SP-1200 to the Yamaha CS-80. And while the big players are busy recreating classics, the smaller ones are doing something different: Sonicware showed the MINIMAL, a battery-powered groovebox built for tight budgets and hypnotic minimal grooves. Others, like Oddment or Majella Audio, are heading in the opposite direction – building opinionated instruments that simply didn’t exist before.

When a clone is worth it – and when you’re paying for the name

This is where things get interesting, and where opinions tend to diverge. A clone takes the circuitry of a famous instrument and rebuilds it with modern manufacturing. At best, you get ninety percent of the original sound for a fifth of the price. At worst, you miss exactly that one percent of character that made the classic a classic in the first place. Both happen, and both are fine – as long as you know what you’re getting into.

My rule of thumb after a few years at a desk full of gear: a clone makes sense when you want the sound but not the collector’s item. If you need a Juno sound for your track, the clone is an honest shortcut. You pay for the name and the history when the device itself matters to you – the tactile original, the joy of collecting, the resale value. That’s not a worse motivation; it’s just a different one.

A clone makes the sound accessible, but it doesn’t make the decision for you – whether you actually need it at all.

The real winner of this development is neither the clone nor the original, but variety itself. When classic sounds become affordable for everyone, manufacturers have to come up with something new to stand out. That’s exactly why the boutique booths at trade shows are so compelling: granular sound machines, motorized faders, instruments you play rather than operate. The competition shifts from who builds the classic to who builds something that doesn’t exist yet.

What the clone wave means for your home studio

If you’re just getting started, the timing has rarely been better. You no longer have to choose between a software emulation and an unaffordable original. A good hardware clone gives you real knobs, real sound, and the feeling of working on an instrument rather than staring at a screen. For many people, that’s exactly the difference between making music as a chore and making it as a pleasure.

My advice: don’t let the sheer number of options overwhelm you. You don’t need fourteen clones – you need one sound that pulls you to the machine in the morning. Start with an instrument whose character genuinely excites you, get to know it properly, and only then expand. Chase everything and you’ll end up with a shelf full of gear and no finished track. Fall in love with one machine and you’ll often have both.

And if you’re wondering where to even begin understanding what these boxes actually do: the building blocks of a synthesizer are the same in clone and original alike. Once you’ve grasped those, it becomes largely irrelevant whether a famous name is printed on the enclosure.