Music equipment and synths manufacturer Behringer has released a bizarre video that appears to personally attack Peter Kirn, a writer and editor at publication CDM.
The now-deleted video seems to take aim at both Kirn and general critics of the company, which regularly comes under fire for producing clones of other manufacturers’ existing products. The video, in an attempt to troll Kirn, depicts a fictional product called the KIRN Corksniffer – a synth made of vintage wine corks. It’s a reference to synth purists’ tendency to speak about the history and smell of the synths made by older companies. You can see an image of the fictional product above.
Not least proving Kirn’s past points about Behringer’s inability to take on board criticism, it’s also been pointed out that the video appears to include anti-semitic tropes, something that has naturally drawn widespread criticism.
Responding to critical comments on its social media pages before the video was pulled, Behringer wrote: "it’s clearly a Pinocchio drawing talking about wine tasting. Some people will concoct something out of nothing. We’re just having a bit of post carnival fun."
Uli Behringer, the company’s founder, has since released a statement, saying: "What was meant as pure satire by our marketing department, has clearly offended some people and looking at the video, I could understand why. However, in no way did the team ever intend to make any connection to semitism, as some people have alleged. We unreservedly apologise to Peter and anyone who felt offended."
Kirn commented on the matter via Twitter, quoting a tweet that depicts a Behringer synth owner destroying their machine, adding himself: "Okay, I appreciate the support, but before anyone else does this, you can send your synths to me – I can give you the address. I can try to rig an acid chorus full of them. Otherwise – thanks for everyone’s kind words today. Means a lot."
You can find out more via a Twitter thread raised by producer Tilliander today (March 2).
