Sonic LAB: Behringer Kobol Expander Review

US Budget French synth clone 18/01/24

We're looking at the Behringer Kobol Expander, a remake/re-imagining/clone of the French RSF Kobol Expander from 1979.

It was an interesting though quite rare instrument, based on the Kobol (the version with the keyboard) and designed to offer an alternative to the ubiquitous Minimoog. The Oscillators (with crossfading waveforms) have character and the 24dB resonant filter - not the Moog design but still with the low end reduction when resonance is added made it also has its own thing.

The additional patch points of the original made it more of a synthesists instrument with quite a lot of patch points, making it highly modulate-able.

The Behringer version is built to a budget - with plastic knob shafts and a basic built-in MIDI interface, but its still got a character and has something about it that makes if an enjoyable synth to play with.

It can be used in desktop mode with the case it comes with, or indeed Eurorack mounted as it the case with many of their other cloned range.

Cheap, yes, but also not without character, charm and a lot of fun with some thunderous low end - the two oscillators sound great. I really enjoyed this one and found that while simple, the patching options make it more flexible than you'd think. It also sounds pretty nice.

Available now priced at around £175/$199

https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=0718-ABY

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