“There is no collaboration between us and no discussions of their plans for synths or anything else”: Tom Oberheim responds to Behringer's claim that he gave the brand consent to make the UB-Xa synth

Tom Oberheim
(Image credit: GForce Software)

Earlier this week, Behringer made a number of statements on Facebook concerning its UB-Xa synth, an instrument that takes inspiration from the Oberheim OB-X. 

I hope this doesn’t cause any confusion about the real Oberheim products like OB-X8 and TEO-5

Tom Oberheim

Under a post celebrating the news that the UB-Xa is now the "best-selling synthesizer" according to sales stats from German retailer Thomann, Behringer claimed in a now-deleted comment that it "discussed the UB-Xa with Tom Oberheim and got his consent" in developing the instrument.

This morning, Tom Oberheim, founder of Oberheim Electronics and designer of the OB-X, clearly keen to distinguish his firm's product from Behringer's offerings, shared a statement appearing to refute Behringer's claim. 

"You may have seen the recent stories online where Behringer is claiming that they have my ‘consent’ to make UB-XA, and that I ‘know their plans’", Oberheim wrote.

"There is, of course, no collaboration between us and no discussions of their plans for synths or anything else.

"They do have limited rights to use the name UB-XA," he continued, "but not the Oberheim name. So they have permission under certain conditions to release a product using the UB-XA name, but that’s all. 

"I hope this doesn’t cause any confusion about the real Oberheim products like OB-X8 and TEO-5 and the others we plan to release!"

Posted by TomOberheimdotcom on 
Matt Mullen
Tech Editor

I'm MusicRadar's Tech Editor, working across everything from product news and gear-focused features to artist interviews and tech tutorials. I love electronic music and I'm perpetually fascinated by the tools we use to make it. When I'm not behind my laptop keyboard, you'll probably find me behind a MIDI keyboard, carefully crafting the beginnings of another project that I'll ultimately abandon to the creative graveyard that is my overstuffed hard drive.

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