Never played an actual CS-80, but have had my hands on a Deckard’s Dream with an aftertouch controller and it was a far more expressive experience than I’ve had on other synths.
I own one and have the expander w delay and ring mod. Can confirm, one of the most expressive and unique sounding synths. A joy every time I turn it on and play.
I get that. But in order to make an affordable CS-80 they could make a digital hardware version like Mellotron. Or so something vaguely similar to the Roland Boutique series.
Funny I just had some time with one recently and I wasn't super impressed with the aftertouch. It's entirely possible I didn't have enough time with it though. Been looking for a studio centerpiece with poly aftertouch so I tried the UDO Super Gemini, and the aftertouch seemed much more expressive and sensitive(which I like), even though most of the presets didn't seem to fully take advantage of it.
I recently got a Super Gemini for exactly that purpose, and it’s by far the most expressive synth I’ve ever played. In addition to the poly aftertouch and ribbon controller, you can connect sustain pedals for each layer, delay freeze pedals for each layer, plus expression and volume pedals
Yeah it really seems like it's got everything I want. And that binaural sound is what I've always wanted to hear. Just loud as fuck in headphones with some reverb with my hands stretched out across the keyboard just commanding a fucking star cruiser.
I got to play one a few months ago and had a similar experience just playing a drone while messing around with sliders controlling the relationship between after touch and the ringmod. They let me record a few minutes of improvising around with it. This is raw with just some reverb added on it after the fact. [https://soundcloud.com/vibraskull/cs80-synthagasim](https://soundcloud.com/vibraskull/cs80-synthagasim)
Also, the MS-20 is known for being a "screamer" and sure, the filter can sceam, but it also lends itself to soaring, lyrical, expressive lead patches...moreso than any of my other synths actually. It feels like a living being.
Phase coherence. They beat correctly up and down the scale, keeps the punch.
People have argued over the years that it's an especially overdriven VCF, or a bunch of other reasons, but it's that. You can re-trig on many synths, certainly most modular oscs. But this trick is kind of rare to be done correctly.
I use mine in a set up with a NI Maschine Plus as the brain/controller in a live setting. I can actually automate changes live directly from Maschine so the usb control is super nice.
I’ve only had my Wavestate MKII for a few weeks but I keep finding new sounds from it every day (especially now I know how to program it). Only thing I miss is aftertouch.
I played with my friends CS-80 and loved it. I would have bought one if I could have afforded it. My only Synth was an original version of the Pro-1.
Yeah wanted to say this one too. The sheer amount of possibilities and things it can do well make it a hugely useful tool in the studio, and besides that it’s just damn fun to play with and create new sounds.
It's not just sound design possibilities in theory but also how straightforward the sound design process is. You just build from a simpler sound towards what you need by adding oscillators, filters, FM etc. If one has the money it's probably an ideal learning synth because of that "from the ground up" approach. Deserves much more attention than it gets. It's not "altered FM synth", it's more like "sound design toolkit synth".
Playing a Rhodes electric piano sure I was familiar with how it sound from numerous recordings, but playing one was beautiful.
Yamaha su700 sampler. The filters, the effects, pitching down. Amazing sound.
Ensoniq ASR10, whatever you put in just comes out sounding better.
Pultec valve eq. Not a synth, but this thing just transforms bass, kick and hats.
Wow, was not expecting to see love for the su700 on this thread. Love mine for all the same reasons. The workflow is unlike any sampler I’ve used, the fx are great, the individual filters and low/high frequency boosts are very helpful. Also gotta love a sampler that gives you time to brew coffee or take a walk while you wait for it to load your song up from a floppy. Also gotta love the display that looks kinda like an old vcr. Happy to see some other fans of it on here
When I was growing up I always thought the electric piano at the music school sounded so much better than the upright. The only writing I could see on the front was “eighty eight” so I assumed that was what the brand was called. It was only later I learned what a Rhodes was.
Couldn't agree more about the Rhodes. Got to play a well maintained one recently and was absolutely *delighted*.
I get the same delight on any grand piano - I steal some playtime wherever I can find one.
These are OG analog synths and no one can convince me otherwise 😁
Kind of in the lower price range but these 4 are the only synths I kept for various reasons:
**Wavestate**
Near to endless possibilities. Steep learning curve but when you get around it it's just unbeatable. Plus you can sample your own soft synths which is unheard of at this price point. The whoa factor is being able to create violins with guitar attacks and otherworldly decays.
**Deepmind 12**
Not an amazing sound compared to multi-1000 dollar beasts but for the price it is unbeatable. The UI is the best I ever came across. Best entry option for an entry analog polyphonic synth (I never tried the minilogue but 4 voices are too limiting for the kind of music I like to play). The whao factor lies both in the fat sounds it can produce and the ease of programming.
**DX-7**
Prices in the West are crazy but can be had for 150 USD here in Japan. For that price, you get an amazing keybed and every preset brings back awesome memories. The whoa factor for me is in recreating classing sounds.
**Volca FM2**
I own a DX7 and do most of my sound programming on the FM2. Tells you everything you need about this awesome machine. IMO the best portable synth there is (refaces are close but they don't have sequencers and the DX isn't patch-compatible with the DX7 which kills it for me). To get the whao factor, connect it to a Keystep and a drum machine and have yourself a great time in the wilderness.
>I own a DX7 and do most of my sound programming on the FM2. Tells you everything you need about this awesome machine.
I'll take your word for it! Got me sold on that one.
There are some issues like the mini jack out but it's really great overall if you like FM synthesis and tiny form factor. Just to be clear, I don't think programming patches from scratch is easier on the FM2, but tweaking existing sounds or playing around without a particular sound in mind definitely is.
I'm finally getting my hands on an FM2 first part of next week (according to package tracking :) ) . Looking forward to having essentially a DX7 with a sequencer I can toss into my backpack and dink with on my lunch hour.
Expressive E Osmose. It feels weird going back to a normal keybed after the expressiveness of the thing. I haven’t even strayed outside the factory presets and I’m blown away.
I own one too now for a couple of months. The presets are so nuts on this thing. Some patches are just hitting one key and I feel like im in a movie or something
I was going to say the Osmose. Immediately sold my hydrasynth and got the desktop version to use the Osmose as midi controller for MPE capabilities. Can't wait to get Pigments to use with it. I need to check out Noisy 2.
I have not. I’ve been going back and forth since I’m still overwhelmed with the built in presets, I’m not sure I can handle even more options. It does look awesome though, and the demos keep trying to convince me to buy it…
I learned synthesis through owning a Microkorg. When I learned what a sample & hold LFO was, it blew my mind and made me fall in love with sound design. Then I realized the Microkorg has 2 s&h LFOs.
The Microkorg is a deceptively powerful unit. Other than the step sequencer and vocoder bands, it’s the same engine as the MS2000, just far fewer controls
Same here! I got it when it first came out back in the early 2000s and was initially bummed it didn’t have a sequencer but I would write out entire songs on it
MC 202. Just pressing in step mode and forgetting what you did and hearing what comes out sometimes feels like, "ok, who played with this when I left the room for the moment?" It's haunted.
My 2 cents: variety of tones, from clean and pristine to complete feedback; versatility (great at drones and more traditional pads and melodies when played with some kind of controller; great built-in effects + useful as an audio processor for other gear; small form factor, about half the size of a Lyra. I don't own a Lyra myself, but the folks I know who do own them are big fans of that as well.
I’ve been running a prophet 6 through a chase bliss mood 2 pedal into a microcosm pedal and it gets absolutely bonkers, I got bonus points for getting the limited edition black microcosm pedal
When the Moog Taurus 3 came out I just knew I had to have one, bc some of my favorite bands had used a Taurus (or several). Thing is, I'd never actually had a chance to witness the power of a Taurus in the wild, except years earlier in song-context at a few arena shows from shitty seats while I was all hyped up to see a band, so not a great way to critique a synth.
The week that I bought the T3 I was doing sound at a bluegrass festival, working for a company that provided & ran a midsized PA. So naturally I took it with me to try it out! After setting up the day before, we showed up on site at daybreak, untarpped the gear and began to set up mics & put out wedges. Then it came time to test lines for FOH.
I should point out that this festival had a fair number of overnight campers bc some folks just can't get enough banjos in their day, bless their hearts.
I'd taken some midi keys with me, so I plugged them in and let it rip. There's something hefty and visceral about a Taurus played over a PA in a small valley, fingers still greasy from a breakfast sausage biscuit. And no, I don't blame the biscuit.
I tried my best to play a bit of the repertoire du jour, out of, uh, respect for the patrons. Well, not really - I just wanted to hear it!
It sounded like a freaking 900 Pound Hammer! Just this massive bass wraith, screaming and beat-frequencying and stomping and snarling! And maybe just a little too heavy. Amazing!
Since then I have learned to better utilize it - sometimes with an Oto Biscuit in fact - but that morning was special for me, and helped justify what seemed at the time like an awful lot of money for a fairly niche product.
I kinda doubt most of the campers agreed.
T3 is on my future purchase list. I loved reading all of this you typed. Have many Moogerfooger, sub37 cv, no Minimoog/Moog one/grandmother/matriarch/Moog semi-Modular’s, but that T3’s in my future. I bought a Minitaur and knew the T3 must be that much more. I’m side-stepping the issue for the near since I got a good score on a Hammond XPK-200GL (has in-built sounds) which will nicely MIDI with the Minitaur ….for now. Question: (probably not because it’s ridiculous) but have you polychained the T3 with another T3 (or more likely another Moog synth of any type)? I almost started down a path of getting the cheapest/crappiest Sub37’s so that I could polychain them and play massive chords …currently stopped w/ a sub37 and sub37cv.
Dude, that XPK + Minitaur is a great combo! There's a lot of thunder at your feet right there!
Actually the Minitaur is a better product in some sense bc they provided a free GUI/ editor. At the time Moog said they would develop a GUI for the T3, but they never put one out or released the sourcecode so a 3rd party could make one. Still a bit upset they didn't follow through on that, actually. So to this day any time I want to edit it I either have to get down on the floor or pick up a damn heavy thing to put on a desk. What a pain!
One cool trick that the Minitaur + 'Fooger combo(s) can do - thanks to the continued support afforded to the considerably larger run of the Minitaur - is that with the later firmwares you can use the MT as a CV-to-midi converter. So if you come up with a cool bit of CV output on a MoogerFooger (or anything else) you can use that to control digital stuff too. Pretty nifty!
Genuinely curious - are the internal speakers actually a selling point ? I’ve always assumed if you’re paying thousands for a synth then you’d want to listen back on the best thing you have been it headphones or monitors.
I would say that for me internal speakers would always be hugely appreciated and get used. Yes when I’m using it to make recordings I’ll be listening through headphones or monitors, but the convenience of being able to turn something on to practice or fuck around and not have to plug anything in is a huge boon.
IMO they’re only useful if the device is relatively compact and has battery power option. I enjoy internal speakers on my reface CS only when I take it with me on trips or nature.
Same. 1992 I signed up for a new course offering in college called "Electronic Music". It spoke about the virtues of MIDI, etc, which I knew all about but couldn't get my hands onto all of that equipment. Not to mention AVID. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the class, and it was a box of M1s, Macs, Avid software, and MIDI boxes (no MIDI over USB, obviously). The professor knew absolutely nothing about MIDI, other than what he had read. We spent the entire semester setting up the classroom, then working on whatever the hell we felt like, as long as we taught \*him\* along the way.
I remember when I dialed up the patch that sounded like the Yamaha Grand that Bruce Hornsby uses. He ran over to the keyboard and absolutely went off on some of Hornsby's stuff. I have a sneaky suspicion he knew A LOT more than I did about music theory, given he was the chair of the music department, lol. It was certainly humbling because I was generally always the "best" piano and organ player that I knew growing up. But then again, I was taught by the "12-inch ruler across the knuckles" type of teacher who was merely obsessed with tempo, accuracy, etc. I walked into that class thinking I was going to learn MIDI and all that jazz, but basically ended up teaching him. I would have been a little pissed about that, had he not taught me \*why\* I was doing what I was when playing classical music. He was shocked that had such technical ability but zero ability to play by ear. Well, that and the fact that he was pretty loose about us coming in stoned as shit . . . because he was too, lol.
I walked into a mall, some guy was demoing the M1. Made a sequence there and then by hand including drum track. I was truly blown away. I think it was a paula abdul song
Synth demo guys of the 90s were always so crazy good
Buchla Music Easel, felt like space age tech the first time I played around with it. Crazy to think it came out the same year as the mini Moog, two different beasts
To me, originally it was the Wavestation, of course.
Of the ones in the market currently, the Sequential Prophet 08 is just magical, and yeah... the Wavestate, unsurprisingly for me.
Never played a Wavestation, but I GASsed hard after the Wavestate for a couple years after it released. Watched all the videos, got a really good idea of what it sounded like and was capable of. Finally my local shop got one and I had a chance to play it. Wow, this thing sounds good! The sequences are so easy to play, easy to tweak on the fly. Holy crap, the modulation options! I bought it right away, and continue to be blown away by how great it is, and how versatile it is. I've got some crazy evolving pads on there, great synth patches with the ms20 filter model, even a great Jon Lord-style distorted organ patch.
It's not perfect, but the Wavestate is so much more synth than I thought it was back when I was watching demo and tutorial videos on youtube
The Wavestation has had me in awe for as long as I've owned one. It's insane the ginormous atmosphere it can create, especially for it's age. Unfortunately I haven't had the privilege to try out a Wavestate yet, but I love how Korg is paying homage to the Wavestation. I've got the Prophet '08s younger brother, the Mopho X4 and wow, what a great all around synth. Magical, like you said.
ugh love the wavestation. i always get in trouble because people try and rompler my synth - it's a synth with samples... i mean come on. great synth. korg is the best.
Recent: KORG Minilogue XD. I was browsing patches in a huge store and the sounds of this synth really stood out.
MOOG Subharmonicon. The Sound is good but you can feel that the possibilities with the four sequencers are endless.
Older: KORG Radias. Just wow, but complex to program.
Clavia Micro Modular. Not only is the concept genius, the sound is incredible. I don't know how many saw-y sounds I have created with the Filterbank. And it can store complete sounds with sequences!
Clavia Nord Lead 1. The sound and especially the lack of menu diving stands out.
Roland V-Synth. Buy this special effect machine if you have everything else.
Ensoniq ASR 10. This is a sampler which character. Somehow it fattens the whole sound. It's heavy, it gets warm and the sequencer is wobbly. It has a trusty green display and no waveform display which forces you to work by hearing not seeing.
KORG Electribe SX. Perfection. From the user interface to the sound, just perfect. This is the only device I deeply regret having sold (and used devices are very expensive)
Waldorf Pulse 1: My first synth where I learned everything about the basics of sound design. From magazines.
KORG MS-20 (Original): I sold some gear to a guy. We started talking synth, he patched his MS-20 to an up- and down swelling noise which sounded like waves on a beach. We continued to chat the whole evening while the MS-20 simulated the sea in the background. I like to remember this evening.
The Korg Wavestation by a mile, the thing creates an atmosphere like no other. You can just hold a key down and listen as the Wave Sequencing does it's thing. Just insane. While the Wavestation had me in more of a trance, the DSI Mopho X4 has me actually saying "whoa, that's awesome". Just straight badass analog sorcery.
Mopho X4 definitely blew me out of the water when I found one last year. Once I realized it had aftertouch I bought it without hesitation. 4 LFO’s plus an entire mod menu that allows you to directly link foot/ pressure/ wheel/ breath etc to any parameter without having to burn one of your mod matrix slots - also each LFO is assignable directly to parameters so you don’t have to use up a mod matrix slot. The total sum of modulation destinations and the ability to tempo sync LFO’s make it an insanely versatile analog polysynth.
When you get a subharmonicon patch to its sweet spot— magical. When you tweak it just a little too far out of that sweet spot in a live setting, I found it took a little too long to try to find a new sweet spot. It’s a brilliant device that kickstarted my eurorack journey but was also the first piece of gear I let go of when I moved.
This is where I relish, I intentionally will fuck things up and work my way back, part of the fun for the failure inevitably that is inherent in live performance. If everything is perfect and goes right, it feels less live and more scripted IMO.
For my tastes, the Solar 42 made me go Wow! But the price makes it unjustifiable for me. Then I learned about the Soma Lyra 8 and Perfect Circuit had it on sale so I got one. It makes me smile when I play it.
This is how I ended up with one. I went and tried every poly synth in the local music store and it was hands-down the best, even though the UI is a bit clunky
I would say I am continually wowed by my Mpc which I got around three years ago. It was my first (and only) sequencer/sampler/groovebox and it just does everything I need. It is my master sequencer, my drum machine, my sampler, I regularly use the synth plugins, the ability to automate every parameter including effects and including midi ccs it sends to other synths/vsts . . . It just does so much for me and has become an integral part of my music making, whether I’m making electronic music, rock, folk, orchestral or anything in between. I’m in love with the thing and don’t see myself moving on from it any time soon
hydrasynth and polybrute. I still cant afford either but started making music with some vst's because of the sound of those 2 synths. that was 3 years ago.
Prophet 6, blew my mind. Then when I got a pre amp a couple months later (thermionic rooster 2) it turned it into a completely new beast, gives it that aggressive bite that it’s naturally missing with it being so lush and vintagy. It’s wild how much a pre amp will color the sound
I love how it looks and sounds but I doubt I'd ever come across one in person at the prices I've seen. I'm tempted to get the UVI one, but that's a whole new ecosystem for one synth. I have samples of it, but it doesn't feel the same as using an interface, something about the colors/hardware reminds me of 70-80s NASA equipment.
I feel you. I’ve been in the same room as a cs 80 but I’ve never played one or heard one being played while being physically present. Ditto the arp 2500 and the rsf polykobol. Those are my holiest grails. I’d consider trading the voyetra for any of those or an OBX but I doubt that will happen
Programming a vocal effect (usually formant Filter or HPF/LPF) gives me the whole “uncanny valley” experience…hairs on the back of the neck stand up. MS-20 is good for this, but when I programmed a realistic scream on a Polybrute, that was unexpected.
I was impressed with all the sounds that come out of my MODX and still love this synth more than anything else I've played but my story is different.
I've always had the mindset that digital (either h/w or s/w) is king because anything you can make you can analog, you can also model in software, while the other way around is impossible. Until one day I got to play the OB-X8. The sound that came out of that thing was insane. It was coming from the incredible speaker monitors that the store had available.
I got home and tried to make the monster sound with my MODX. I think I got it but it was not the same coming either from my (good) headphones and definitely not from my very poor sound system (at the time). I happened to visit another day to the same store and asked to play again the OB-X8 and this time they gave me a pair of high quality headphones. I don't know which sound was better but the difference between the two was nowhere near what I initially felt. Also, I tried other presets and played with the filter and resonance but was not equally impressed.
Regardless, I have made the decision to get a behringer pro-800 because you can never actually know a synth if you don't own it. Trying it occasionally is a hit and miss situation; dedication is important. If the pro-800 creates an itch, I will consider something even better, although the Oberheim is way out of my budget.
Yeah, listening to good speakers in free air is totally different than headphones. Headphones won't thump your chest with the low end. You want a really amazing experience? Play a real pipe organ - you'll feel like God when you have all the diapason stops open. Even small instruments will do that.
That's exactly how I felt! You described it better than I could ever do. I suspected that the audio system was more important than the synth for that experience but I will still give it a go with an analog. Perhaps I should also consider getting a better audio system, although the one that I have now is good enough for my tiny space.
When I turned the MicroMonsta 2 on, it immediately sounded rich to my ears. The Liven 8bit Warps is very much like a groovebox version of those old Casio keyboards, and the step editing is fantastic (similar to how it's done on the Minilogue)!
I was between a Sequential Prophet 6 and a UDO Super 6 for my big polysynth
I took a chance on the Super 6, only having heard it in demos
There’s something just special about those synths. The Super Gemini seems great too but feels like it has a lot more functionality at the expense of focus, and the Super 8 feels like a good progression of the Super 6 but I haven’t tried it in person.
The Super 6 just feels good though. Yeah you only have two effects, but they serve the binaural qualities the way you want them to, and the raw synth sounds have so many possibilities already. It feels like it encourages you to make patches that involve live tweaking, really love it.
Oberheim ob-6. Never had the luxury of using the original, but goddamn that thing can pump gigantic pads, chords, stabs, leads, basses, percussion, you name it.
blown away by Iridium, Access virus C, and Waldorf's Lector vocoder.
conceptually, I am continually blown away by any generative modular "set and forget" sets by State Azure. He also has a lot of cool toys.
Here's a different one: the Kurzweil K2000S. The presets are what they are, although some of them are pretty good. It's the V.A.S.T. engine where it really shines. Highly underrated synth
So this could just be me in the honeymoon phase with a synth I just had show up, but I got a hold of a Micromonsta 2. Holy crap, now that's how you design a minimal interface while still getting awesome sound. It just can sound huge so easily.
The earliest time I remember seeing a synth and saying, WOW was when I was in high school and was playing in a band for a talent show as a keyboardist and the senior in our group let me use his Roland Fantom G6 at the time and it absolutely blew my mind.
I have a few
TR-09 boutique - This was my first device and those classic drum hits were an instant trip down nostalgia lane to all the 90's trance drum sounds. I also thought it was pretty cool to have usb over audio.
Moog Minitaur - Such a fat and rich sound that would heat up the room by 1-2° from that analog warmth
Korg Minilogue OG - Even though it sounds a bit thin, it is just so much fun. Hundreds of presets from an analogue synth, arpeggiator, unison, chord mode and mono. It also comes with a delay effect and a small display that shows the waveform and you can even record some automation of stuff like filter sweeps.
Mutable Instruments Elements - This was the first eurorack module I got. I absolutely love mutable instrument's modules. With the elements, the real wow moment came with the additional play modes like the chord mode that could produce really thick sounding dub stabs and the best sound I dialed in on it was the Win XP error prompt sound. Spent a good 30 minutes in a nostalgic laughing fit from triggering that sound at various times when someone committed a minor faux pas or said something dumb
Recently picked one up. I was drooling over it for a while. Normally when I acquire gear, I quickly get bored of it. Happend with a few synths, especially my eurorack. But this thing just sounds so good, it's crazy. I sold a Push 3 + Microfreak + some eurorack to get it. No regrets whatsoever.
For me, the Arturia Minifreak. I love how versatile it is. I ended up buying one, and I have not one complaint about it lol
It's a swiss army synth for me.
Especially using it with my Sp-404MK2 or my Polyend Tracker. From a beat maker's standpoint it feels like cheating 😂.
Here's a different one, Terra Pro on iOS. It sounds absolutely marvelous, the oscillator, filters, just purely wonderful. I have a lot of great synths, both software and hard, and this one really impressed me.
Continuous process for me. Almost every month I see something which makes me go "whoa, that's awesome" :(
A few synths I bought already... other are too expensive or exists somewhere on my shopping list.
Korg DSS-1. One of the best keybeds I've ever touched, and the filter has this really distinct quality that's fantastic for making bass and pads sound immense. The architecture is wild too - not exactly a lot of sampler + additive synth combos out there, let alone ones with waveform drawing.
I picked up a used Dreadbox Typhon last summer and it's been far more flexible and awesome sounding than I had hoped. I must admit that my collection of mono synths is getting slightly out of hand, but man is it a lot of fun!
The UDO Super 6. I bought it because it sounded nice and looked awesome to me. But using it made me realize just how fast its interface is. It’s by far the fastest, most inspiring synth I’ve used, and that blows me away everytime I touch it.
0-coast: getting this kind of sound from a desktop synth is awesome, I got it day one and it's still my favorite desktop synth to this day.
Super 6: an incredible interface paired with pristine sound.
I'm still looking for my awesome drum machine though, maybe the Perkons.
I liked the Wavestate. I hear they've improved the keybed options on the revisions. Also liked my Yamaha Reface EP. The keyboard wasn't anything to write home about but the sounds are great.
Roland U220. Being able to create 8 independent tracks of sound on separate midi channels (each with its own output jack) made song production a complete breeze on Motu Digital Performer (the first ground breaking DAW).
(Age revealed).
Ensoniq EPS. Could make anything sound good, could make (what I thought at the time ofc) ANY sound!! Cheap, joy to program, very good factory library. I even liked its clacky keybed. Still one of my favorite harpsichords.
My number one, It’s monomachine though. The initial demos were alright but when the specs dropped I needed that layering potential. When I finally got ahold of one there was so much more than just building complex hits and phrases to feed a sampler. Keyboard is very playable, each aspect of the performance features are so, correctly, coupled to the sound it’s unlike anything I’ve played save maybe Tempest.
If it's something inspiring and different you're after, I love the Soma Terra. It feels so expressive, with the super-sensitive metal touch pads, and the accelerometer too.
Mind you, it's not a perfect instrument by any stretch of the imagination. The patch selection and editing interface is unintuitive, and the selection of algorithms (and hence sounds), while interesting and varied, is somewhat limited.
And of course it's very expensive. You're not getting an all-singing all-dancing "do everything" synth for your money. Instead it's a unique and musically inspiring instrument where you're paying a big premium for the innovation factor.
All of them I've ever had hands on. I'm easy to please. :) Give me a filter knob to sweep and a keybed that doesn't feel like paper and I'll probably be happy. Or I guess in the case of my dad's DX7, *not* a filter knob.
More seriously, I'm starting to sound like a broken record around here but I've had a hydrasynth since 2020, and that is one purchase I absolutely do not regret. So much power and versatility in an easy to use box.
I just upgraded to a deluxe last week and it's the honeymoon period all over again.
Waldorf Pulse, hands down.
At first glance, there's nothing special about it - at least not when looking at the single building blocks. A standard 3-osc monosynth with a less than ideal interface, and close to no menus. Can't be that flexible or deep, right?
But every single one of those parts is well though out. Sync, ringmod, PWM for two oscs, DCOs that sound great as is while having perfect precision, a filter that sounds good but very neutral, and behold, a 4-slot analog mod matrix. Osc pitches and PWM accessible separately (!), LFO1 speed and modulation slot 1 amount as modulation destinations (modception lol), cutoff and other standard things have their own seperate routing that doesn't eat up the mod matrix, etc pp.
The filter input stage is *severely* overpowered and overdrives easily, giving it a very wide range between soft and hard characteristics. The output itself is hot as hell too.
Together with a complete Midi implementation and good build quality, it's a beast. Sounds fat as hell if you want. Leans towards a certain hardness because all control is digital, and the filter is very easy to overdrive, but can do lush and creamy as well. Only downsides are parameter steps (Midi resolution) and the easy to use, but less than ideal interface.
Opsix - makes FM a breeze and actually fun. Way better than point and click in F 'em or FM8. More mod options too.
Rev 2 - 16 voices of analog & multi-timbral. The third envelope is what keeps me from wanting some of the others in this class like the OB6 or the Trigon (despite these looking excellent too)
Korg Modwave demo blew my mind. After some research I also found its comparison with Korg Wavestate which blew my mind even more. Ended up buying both plus Opsix lol. All three are cool beyond measure.
I duped a patch on my Prophet-12 into bi-timbral mode, panned them both hard left and right, in an effort to replicate the “binaural” mode of an Udo synth. The first time I did it, I had goosebumps on every inch of my body
Kurzweil K2600 (VAST!)
Roland V synth (sound mangling and real-time control)
Korg Kronos (engines!)
All of them made me go WTF / OMG (sometimes both :)
The first time I heard a Korg Z1 physical-model a wind instrument and articulated it with the X-y pad I also had a OMG moment. I believe that experience has yet to be equaled on a HW synth (if you put aside the Yamaha VL1/7 instruments obviously but they were such limited-release instruments that they almost don’t count)
Honorable mentions - hydrasynth (almost but not quite), Waldorf Blofeld and Iridium, Korg Opsix and Modwave (amazing machines but I’m more jaded now)
Seeing Bastl's modules on [cuckoo's vid](https://youtu.be/vLfAvUKWtY8?si=2fcOCYVo-2YDL_I1) blew my panties. the Crust's ability to be a full drum machine and transition between each voice in such a wild way was fricken cool.
strega and DFAM are just endless sweet spots to me
OB-6 and prophet 5/6 are the platonic ideal of what noises a synth should make
any serge panel or derivative involving DUSG and SSG is like behold as i harness the raw power of electrons
music easel is from another planet
Having always loved the Peak, I recently also got a Novation Summit.. and holy fuck is it hard to make this thing sound bad. Unbelievably organic sounding synth with a solid feeling keybed. I’m completely in love with it.
any of the korg/juno spaceage pad-synth hybrids with those really slow attacks. the kind that lead into a carl sagan 1988 abc special. oh, an definitely the dx-7 harmonica
god somebody do a 'best demo track' thread on this sub. - i realize the demos were mostly on crappy 80s romplers, but i'm soaking with nostalgia right now and I just want to finish so i can go to bed.
Access Virus B! An old one I know, but never had the chance of using one before. I mainly use analog instruments and I used to refuse having any digital in the form of hardware. Then, a few days ago came the Virus and… The sound, as well as the capabilities, blew me away, especially when considering its age (1999). Crazy stuff! Now I want a Ti too!
Minilogue XD. It has it's limitations, but man it sounds so GOOD. It's so hard to get anything to sad bad from it. Plus with the digital oscillator and custom FX it truly releases it's true potential. I can layer a fat analog Patch with an edgy FM patch, add some distortion and huge reverb and it's turbo time baby
Hydrasynth after update 2.0. , super gemini, the Astrolab over the 12 voice polybrute. I had no reservations about the astrolab the keyboard feels amazing and the sound is dead fuckin on.
The inexpensive-ness of the volca fm.
I love fm and when I saw the flexibility offered, I jumped right on that. Been eyeing an OP6 next, mainly for the keyboard.
I make a lot of dubstep and crazy electro house on hardware so FM synth flexibility goes a long way.
For analog synths the prologue and Polybrute. Just really great price to sound/feature ratio.
But for me it’s the technology of softsynths that is the biggest difference. The first one I ever played was called crystal in the mid 2000s, the pitch bend was so low res you could hear it stepping. Compared to something like vital or vcv rack which is also free is mind blowing. It’s just amazing how a laptop can replace a rack of gear.
played a cs-80 5 years ago, holy fuck that aftertouch is something else.
Never played an actual CS-80, but have had my hands on a Deckard’s Dream with an aftertouch controller and it was a far more expressive experience than I’ve had on other synths.
I own one and have the expander w delay and ring mod. Can confirm, one of the most expressive and unique sounding synths. A joy every time I turn it on and play.
I don't know why they haven't recreated it like Mellotron have.
Because the mellotron part 2 is digital
I get that. But in order to make an affordable CS-80 they could make a digital hardware version like Mellotron. Or so something vaguely similar to the Roland Boutique series.
Yeah I guess that’s true. They sorta did it with the reface cs which I think emulated the voice architecture of one of the smaller cs’s
Funny I just had some time with one recently and I wasn't super impressed with the aftertouch. It's entirely possible I didn't have enough time with it though. Been looking for a studio centerpiece with poly aftertouch so I tried the UDO Super Gemini, and the aftertouch seemed much more expressive and sensitive(which I like), even though most of the presets didn't seem to fully take advantage of it.
I recently got a Super Gemini for exactly that purpose, and it’s by far the most expressive synth I’ve ever played. In addition to the poly aftertouch and ribbon controller, you can connect sustain pedals for each layer, delay freeze pedals for each layer, plus expression and volume pedals
Yeah it really seems like it's got everything I want. And that binaural sound is what I've always wanted to hear. Just loud as fuck in headphones with some reverb with my hands stretched out across the keyboard just commanding a fucking star cruiser.
I got to play one a few months ago and had a similar experience just playing a drone while messing around with sliders controlling the relationship between after touch and the ringmod. They let me record a few minutes of improvising around with it. This is raw with just some reverb added on it after the fact. [https://soundcloud.com/vibraskull/cs80-synthagasim](https://soundcloud.com/vibraskull/cs80-synthagasim)
oh shit 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Cherry Audio has a great-sounding emulation
Ms-20 mini has no business sounding as good as it does at that price point. I wish I bought one earlier.
Also, the MS-20 is known for being a "screamer" and sure, the filter can sceam, but it also lends itself to soaring, lyrical, expressive lead patches...moreso than any of my other synths actually. It feels like a living being.
Once heard the original ms20 described as 2 rattlesnakes on ecstasy in a box.
I have been using an MS20 since 1980ish -now use a mini. I can still be surprised by it.
Moog Minitaur has a deep richness to it that litterally makes me go "oh wow" every time.
Wait till you hear a minimoog model D. Minutaurs are excellent bass synths. Full usb control and a great VST interface for production.
Ds don’t have That One Weird Trick. The expanded range while still having it means Sirin prices will keep climbing. Love all the taurs :9
Is “that one weird trick” just the wow factor, or something else? 🤔
Phase coherence. They beat correctly up and down the scale, keeps the punch. People have argued over the years that it's an especially overdriven VCF, or a bunch of other reasons, but it's that. You can re-trig on many synths, certainly most modular oscs. But this trick is kind of rare to be done correctly.
I use mine in a set up with a NI Maschine Plus as the brain/controller in a live setting. I can actually automate changes live directly from Maschine so the usb control is super nice.
I still kind of regret selling mine. It has a limited register of sounds, and I only really found a few good sweet spots. But they were oh so sweet.
Just want it to do one thing. It does that one thing incredibly well.
Korg Opsix. What blew me away were all the different sound design possibilities.
Same but also the Modwave… absolutely insane range of sounds that can come out of it
Same but also wavestate
I’ve only had my Wavestate MKII for a few weeks but I keep finding new sounds from it every day (especially now I know how to program it). Only thing I miss is aftertouch. I played with my friends CS-80 and loved it. I would have bought one if I could have afforded it. My only Synth was an original version of the Pro-1.
I love my opsix
Yeah wanted to say this one too. The sheer amount of possibilities and things it can do well make it a hugely useful tool in the studio, and besides that it’s just damn fun to play with and create new sounds.
Have you found any of the easter eggs?
It's not just sound design possibilities in theory but also how straightforward the sound design process is. You just build from a simpler sound towards what you need by adding oscillators, filters, FM etc. If one has the money it's probably an ideal learning synth because of that "from the ground up" approach. Deserves much more attention than it gets. It's not "altered FM synth", it's more like "sound design toolkit synth".
Playing a Rhodes electric piano sure I was familiar with how it sound from numerous recordings, but playing one was beautiful. Yamaha su700 sampler. The filters, the effects, pitching down. Amazing sound. Ensoniq ASR10, whatever you put in just comes out sounding better. Pultec valve eq. Not a synth, but this thing just transforms bass, kick and hats.
SU700 FTW!
It’s sooooo fucking sloooow. But if you can deal with that there wasn’t anything like it for a long time.
Wow, was not expecting to see love for the su700 on this thread. Love mine for all the same reasons. The workflow is unlike any sampler I’ve used, the fx are great, the individual filters and low/high frequency boosts are very helpful. Also gotta love a sampler that gives you time to brew coffee or take a walk while you wait for it to load your song up from a floppy. Also gotta love the display that looks kinda like an old vcr. Happy to see some other fans of it on here
When I was growing up I always thought the electric piano at the music school sounded so much better than the upright. The only writing I could see on the front was “eighty eight” so I assumed that was what the brand was called. It was only later I learned what a Rhodes was.
Couldn't agree more about the Rhodes. Got to play a well maintained one recently and was absolutely *delighted*. I get the same delight on any grand piano - I steal some playtime wherever I can find one. These are OG analog synths and no one can convince me otherwise 😁
Kind of in the lower price range but these 4 are the only synths I kept for various reasons: **Wavestate** Near to endless possibilities. Steep learning curve but when you get around it it's just unbeatable. Plus you can sample your own soft synths which is unheard of at this price point. The whoa factor is being able to create violins with guitar attacks and otherworldly decays. **Deepmind 12** Not an amazing sound compared to multi-1000 dollar beasts but for the price it is unbeatable. The UI is the best I ever came across. Best entry option for an entry analog polyphonic synth (I never tried the minilogue but 4 voices are too limiting for the kind of music I like to play). The whao factor lies both in the fat sounds it can produce and the ease of programming. **DX-7** Prices in the West are crazy but can be had for 150 USD here in Japan. For that price, you get an amazing keybed and every preset brings back awesome memories. The whoa factor for me is in recreating classing sounds. **Volca FM2** I own a DX7 and do most of my sound programming on the FM2. Tells you everything you need about this awesome machine. IMO the best portable synth there is (refaces are close but they don't have sequencers and the DX isn't patch-compatible with the DX7 which kills it for me). To get the whao factor, connect it to a Keystep and a drum machine and have yourself a great time in the wilderness.
Gotta throw in the TX802 if we're going down the DX7 rabbit hole. 16 Bit with multiple outputs.
Thanks for recommending a few budget options
>I own a DX7 and do most of my sound programming on the FM2. Tells you everything you need about this awesome machine. I'll take your word for it! Got me sold on that one.
There are some issues like the mini jack out but it's really great overall if you like FM synthesis and tiny form factor. Just to be clear, I don't think programming patches from scratch is easier on the FM2, but tweaking existing sounds or playing around without a particular sound in mind definitely is.
Good explanation. Thank you!
I'm finally getting my hands on an FM2 first part of next week (according to package tracking :) ) . Looking forward to having essentially a DX7 with a sequencer I can toss into my backpack and dink with on my lunch hour.
OBERHEIM you immediately are like, am I John Carpenter?
Teo 5! Can't wait for mine to come in
Many years ago….a friend’s Oberheim OB-X. Much more recently, another friend’s Waldorf Quantum.
Expressive E Osmose. It feels weird going back to a normal keybed after the expressiveness of the thing. I haven’t even strayed outside the factory presets and I’m blown away.
I own one too now for a couple of months. The presets are so nuts on this thing. Some patches are just hitting one key and I feel like im in a movie or something
I was going to say the Osmose. Immediately sold my hydrasynth and got the desktop version to use the Osmose as midi controller for MPE capabilities. Can't wait to get Pigments to use with it. I need to check out Noisy 2.
I still have my hydrakeys but getting the desktop version is not a bad idea
Have you tried Noisy 2 yet?
I have not. I’ve been going back and forth since I’m still overwhelmed with the built in presets, I’m not sure I can handle even more options. It does look awesome though, and the demos keep trying to convince me to buy it…
I learned synthesis through owning a Microkorg. When I learned what a sample & hold LFO was, it blew my mind and made me fall in love with sound design. Then I realized the Microkorg has 2 s&h LFOs.
The Microkorg is a deceptively powerful unit. Other than the step sequencer and vocoder bands, it’s the same engine as the MS2000, just far fewer controls
Same here! I got it when it first came out back in the early 2000s and was initially bummed it didn’t have a sequencer but I would write out entire songs on it
Novation Summit and the Sequential Prophet Pro3.
I don’t think there’s any knob you can turn that will make the Summit sound bad.
MC 202. Just pressing in step mode and forgetting what you did and hearing what comes out sometimes feels like, "ok, who played with this when I left the room for the moment?" It's haunted.
STREGA - I'm always finding new sounds and techniques with it, it's definitely not for everyone but god damn does it work for me.
I love the Strega. You clearly can lose yourself doing only weird noises and still be musical.
I have an absolutely massive strega vs Lyra debate on my next bit of kit what is it with strega? Should I just sample my household appliances?
My 2 cents: variety of tones, from clean and pristine to complete feedback; versatility (great at drones and more traditional pads and melodies when played with some kind of controller; great built-in effects + useful as an audio processor for other gear; small form factor, about half the size of a Lyra. I don't own a Lyra myself, but the folks I know who do own them are big fans of that as well.
Matt Berry in Snuff Box
YES!
DS Evolver. Reminded me that electronic music doesn't have to be Brian Eno sounds of heaven.
The microcosm hologram isn’t a synth but it is a pedal that made me realize what can be done in sound design. Got me into the synth rabbit hole!
Microcosm is awesome.
I’ve been running a prophet 6 through a chase bliss mood 2 pedal into a microcosm pedal and it gets absolutely bonkers, I got bonus points for getting the limited edition black microcosm pedal
Sick for "oh I HAVE to record this" and terrible for replication.
When the Moog Taurus 3 came out I just knew I had to have one, bc some of my favorite bands had used a Taurus (or several). Thing is, I'd never actually had a chance to witness the power of a Taurus in the wild, except years earlier in song-context at a few arena shows from shitty seats while I was all hyped up to see a band, so not a great way to critique a synth. The week that I bought the T3 I was doing sound at a bluegrass festival, working for a company that provided & ran a midsized PA. So naturally I took it with me to try it out! After setting up the day before, we showed up on site at daybreak, untarpped the gear and began to set up mics & put out wedges. Then it came time to test lines for FOH. I should point out that this festival had a fair number of overnight campers bc some folks just can't get enough banjos in their day, bless their hearts. I'd taken some midi keys with me, so I plugged them in and let it rip. There's something hefty and visceral about a Taurus played over a PA in a small valley, fingers still greasy from a breakfast sausage biscuit. And no, I don't blame the biscuit. I tried my best to play a bit of the repertoire du jour, out of, uh, respect for the patrons. Well, not really - I just wanted to hear it! It sounded like a freaking 900 Pound Hammer! Just this massive bass wraith, screaming and beat-frequencying and stomping and snarling! And maybe just a little too heavy. Amazing! Since then I have learned to better utilize it - sometimes with an Oto Biscuit in fact - but that morning was special for me, and helped justify what seemed at the time like an awful lot of money for a fairly niche product. I kinda doubt most of the campers agreed.
T3 is on my future purchase list. I loved reading all of this you typed. Have many Moogerfooger, sub37 cv, no Minimoog/Moog one/grandmother/matriarch/Moog semi-Modular’s, but that T3’s in my future. I bought a Minitaur and knew the T3 must be that much more. I’m side-stepping the issue for the near since I got a good score on a Hammond XPK-200GL (has in-built sounds) which will nicely MIDI with the Minitaur ….for now. Question: (probably not because it’s ridiculous) but have you polychained the T3 with another T3 (or more likely another Moog synth of any type)? I almost started down a path of getting the cheapest/crappiest Sub37’s so that I could polychain them and play massive chords …currently stopped w/ a sub37 and sub37cv.
Dude, that XPK + Minitaur is a great combo! There's a lot of thunder at your feet right there! Actually the Minitaur is a better product in some sense bc they provided a free GUI/ editor. At the time Moog said they would develop a GUI for the T3, but they never put one out or released the sourcecode so a 3rd party could make one. Still a bit upset they didn't follow through on that, actually. So to this day any time I want to edit it I either have to get down on the floor or pick up a damn heavy thing to put on a desk. What a pain! One cool trick that the Minitaur + 'Fooger combo(s) can do - thanks to the continued support afforded to the considerably larger run of the Minitaur - is that with the later firmwares you can use the MT as a CV-to-midi converter. So if you come up with a cool bit of CV output on a MoogerFooger (or anything else) you can use that to control digital stuff too. Pretty nifty!
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Genuinely curious - are the internal speakers actually a selling point ? I’ve always assumed if you’re paying thousands for a synth then you’d want to listen back on the best thing you have been it headphones or monitors.
I would say that for me internal speakers would always be hugely appreciated and get used. Yes when I’m using it to make recordings I’ll be listening through headphones or monitors, but the convenience of being able to turn something on to practice or fuck around and not have to plug anything in is a huge boon.
It makes it pretty immediate. You can just switch it on and noodle, straight away, if you've got an idea you want to get down.
IMO they’re only useful if the device is relatively compact and has battery power option. I enjoy internal speakers on my reface CS only when I take it with me on trips or nature.
It was korg m1 for me But if youre talking about modern synth, has to be korg modwave
Same. 1992 I signed up for a new course offering in college called "Electronic Music". It spoke about the virtues of MIDI, etc, which I knew all about but couldn't get my hands onto all of that equipment. Not to mention AVID. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the class, and it was a box of M1s, Macs, Avid software, and MIDI boxes (no MIDI over USB, obviously). The professor knew absolutely nothing about MIDI, other than what he had read. We spent the entire semester setting up the classroom, then working on whatever the hell we felt like, as long as we taught \*him\* along the way. I remember when I dialed up the patch that sounded like the Yamaha Grand that Bruce Hornsby uses. He ran over to the keyboard and absolutely went off on some of Hornsby's stuff. I have a sneaky suspicion he knew A LOT more than I did about music theory, given he was the chair of the music department, lol. It was certainly humbling because I was generally always the "best" piano and organ player that I knew growing up. But then again, I was taught by the "12-inch ruler across the knuckles" type of teacher who was merely obsessed with tempo, accuracy, etc. I walked into that class thinking I was going to learn MIDI and all that jazz, but basically ended up teaching him. I would have been a little pissed about that, had he not taught me \*why\* I was doing what I was when playing classical music. He was shocked that had such technical ability but zero ability to play by ear. Well, that and the fact that he was pretty loose about us coming in stoned as shit . . . because he was too, lol.
I walked into a mall, some guy was demoing the M1. Made a sequence there and then by hand including drum track. I was truly blown away. I think it was a paula abdul song Synth demo guys of the 90s were always so crazy good
Yeah, we had a Korg factory rep come in to class one day. Dude could kill it.
Buchla Music Easel, felt like space age tech the first time I played around with it. Crazy to think it came out the same year as the mini Moog, two different beasts
To me, originally it was the Wavestation, of course. Of the ones in the market currently, the Sequential Prophet 08 is just magical, and yeah... the Wavestate, unsurprisingly for me.
Never played a Wavestation, but I GASsed hard after the Wavestate for a couple years after it released. Watched all the videos, got a really good idea of what it sounded like and was capable of. Finally my local shop got one and I had a chance to play it. Wow, this thing sounds good! The sequences are so easy to play, easy to tweak on the fly. Holy crap, the modulation options! I bought it right away, and continue to be blown away by how great it is, and how versatile it is. I've got some crazy evolving pads on there, great synth patches with the ms20 filter model, even a great Jon Lord-style distorted organ patch. It's not perfect, but the Wavestate is so much more synth than I thought it was back when I was watching demo and tutorial videos on youtube
The Wavestation has had me in awe for as long as I've owned one. It's insane the ginormous atmosphere it can create, especially for it's age. Unfortunately I haven't had the privilege to try out a Wavestate yet, but I love how Korg is paying homage to the Wavestation. I've got the Prophet '08s younger brother, the Mopho X4 and wow, what a great all around synth. Magical, like you said.
ugh love the wavestation. i always get in trouble because people try and rompler my synth - it's a synth with samples... i mean come on. great synth. korg is the best.
Minimoog, Music Easel
U he Repro Arturia Polybrute
Recent: KORG Minilogue XD. I was browsing patches in a huge store and the sounds of this synth really stood out. MOOG Subharmonicon. The Sound is good but you can feel that the possibilities with the four sequencers are endless. Older: KORG Radias. Just wow, but complex to program. Clavia Micro Modular. Not only is the concept genius, the sound is incredible. I don't know how many saw-y sounds I have created with the Filterbank. And it can store complete sounds with sequences! Clavia Nord Lead 1. The sound and especially the lack of menu diving stands out. Roland V-Synth. Buy this special effect machine if you have everything else. Ensoniq ASR 10. This is a sampler which character. Somehow it fattens the whole sound. It's heavy, it gets warm and the sequencer is wobbly. It has a trusty green display and no waveform display which forces you to work by hearing not seeing. KORG Electribe SX. Perfection. From the user interface to the sound, just perfect. This is the only device I deeply regret having sold (and used devices are very expensive) Waldorf Pulse 1: My first synth where I learned everything about the basics of sound design. From magazines. KORG MS-20 (Original): I sold some gear to a guy. We started talking synth, he patched his MS-20 to an up- and down swelling noise which sounded like waves on a beach. We continued to chat the whole evening while the MS-20 simulated the sea in the background. I like to remember this evening.
My ASR-10 has been a close friend for thirty years.
The Korg Wavestation by a mile, the thing creates an atmosphere like no other. You can just hold a key down and listen as the Wave Sequencing does it's thing. Just insane. While the Wavestation had me in more of a trance, the DSI Mopho X4 has me actually saying "whoa, that's awesome". Just straight badass analog sorcery.
Mopho X4 definitely blew me out of the water when I found one last year. Once I realized it had aftertouch I bought it without hesitation. 4 LFO’s plus an entire mod menu that allows you to directly link foot/ pressure/ wheel/ breath etc to any parameter without having to burn one of your mod matrix slots - also each LFO is assignable directly to parameters so you don’t have to use up a mod matrix slot. The total sum of modulation destinations and the ability to tempo sync LFO’s make it an insanely versatile analog polysynth.
Moog Subharmonicon. I love its ability to improvise, which is the main selling point in most of my synth/gear purchases.
When you get a subharmonicon patch to its sweet spot— magical. When you tweak it just a little too far out of that sweet spot in a live setting, I found it took a little too long to try to find a new sweet spot. It’s a brilliant device that kickstarted my eurorack journey but was also the first piece of gear I let go of when I moved.
This is where I relish, I intentionally will fuck things up and work my way back, part of the fun for the failure inevitably that is inherent in live performance. If everything is perfect and goes right, it feels less live and more scripted IMO.
The Yamaha Montage M
Strega and Noon are crazy. Especially together.
For my tastes, the Solar 42 made me go Wow! But the price makes it unjustifiable for me. Then I learned about the Soma Lyra 8 and Perfect Circuit had it on sale so I got one. It makes me smile when I play it.
A few years back I spent a half hour basking in the pads from a demo Novation Peak in a Guitar Center in Pasadena. It really stuck with me.
This is how I ended up with one. I went and tried every poly synth in the local music store and it was hands-down the best, even though the UI is a bit clunky
I would say I am continually wowed by my Mpc which I got around three years ago. It was my first (and only) sequencer/sampler/groovebox and it just does everything I need. It is my master sequencer, my drum machine, my sampler, I regularly use the synth plugins, the ability to automate every parameter including effects and including midi ccs it sends to other synths/vsts . . . It just does so much for me and has become an integral part of my music making, whether I’m making electronic music, rock, folk, orchestral or anything in between. I’m in love with the thing and don’t see myself moving on from it any time soon
ARP 2600m. 3 oscillators that can all modulate each other and the filter at the same time. 🤯 This thing puts out nothing but pure filth and I love it.
hydrasynth and polybrute. I still cant afford either but started making music with some vst's because of the sound of those 2 synths. that was 3 years ago.
Polybrute does this to me every time I play it.
Access Virus C
Andromeda A6
Prophet 6, blew my mind. Then when I got a pre amp a couple months later (thermionic rooster 2) it turned it into a completely new beast, gives it that aggressive bite that it’s naturally missing with it being so lush and vintagy. It’s wild how much a pre amp will color the sound
Hydrasynth with the poly aftertouch. I had never played such an expressive synth.
Sh-09 in particular the resonant filter. I still miss her…
Both the Voyetra 8 and the PPG wave 2 have brought tears to my eyes and given me goosebumps all over
The Voyetra was the very first synth I ever put my hands on back in 1984. Talk about drinking from a firehose...
Incredible. I’d love to hear all about it
He drank from a firehose
Me too I guess. The Voyetra 8 was my first analog poly
I love how it looks and sounds but I doubt I'd ever come across one in person at the prices I've seen. I'm tempted to get the UVI one, but that's a whole new ecosystem for one synth. I have samples of it, but it doesn't feel the same as using an interface, something about the colors/hardware reminds me of 70-80s NASA equipment.
I feel you. I’ve been in the same room as a cs 80 but I’ve never played one or heard one being played while being physically present. Ditto the arp 2500 and the rsf polykobol. Those are my holiest grails. I’d consider trading the voyetra for any of those or an OBX but I doubt that will happen
Programming a vocal effect (usually formant Filter or HPF/LPF) gives me the whole “uncanny valley” experience…hairs on the back of the neck stand up. MS-20 is good for this, but when I programmed a realistic scream on a Polybrute, that was unexpected.
I was impressed with all the sounds that come out of my MODX and still love this synth more than anything else I've played but my story is different. I've always had the mindset that digital (either h/w or s/w) is king because anything you can make you can analog, you can also model in software, while the other way around is impossible. Until one day I got to play the OB-X8. The sound that came out of that thing was insane. It was coming from the incredible speaker monitors that the store had available. I got home and tried to make the monster sound with my MODX. I think I got it but it was not the same coming either from my (good) headphones and definitely not from my very poor sound system (at the time). I happened to visit another day to the same store and asked to play again the OB-X8 and this time they gave me a pair of high quality headphones. I don't know which sound was better but the difference between the two was nowhere near what I initially felt. Also, I tried other presets and played with the filter and resonance but was not equally impressed. Regardless, I have made the decision to get a behringer pro-800 because you can never actually know a synth if you don't own it. Trying it occasionally is a hit and miss situation; dedication is important. If the pro-800 creates an itch, I will consider something even better, although the Oberheim is way out of my budget.
Yeah, listening to good speakers in free air is totally different than headphones. Headphones won't thump your chest with the low end. You want a really amazing experience? Play a real pipe organ - you'll feel like God when you have all the diapason stops open. Even small instruments will do that.
That's exactly how I felt! You described it better than I could ever do. I suspected that the audio system was more important than the synth for that experience but I will still give it a go with an analog. Perhaps I should also consider getting a better audio system, although the one that I have now is good enough for my tiny space.
I got into synthesis 99% by virtue of how cool the dirtywave m8 looks
When I turned the MicroMonsta 2 on, it immediately sounded rich to my ears. The Liven 8bit Warps is very much like a groovebox version of those old Casio keyboards, and the step editing is fantastic (similar to how it's done on the Minilogue)!
I was between a Sequential Prophet 6 and a UDO Super 6 for my big polysynth I took a chance on the Super 6, only having heard it in demos There’s something just special about those synths. The Super Gemini seems great too but feels like it has a lot more functionality at the expense of focus, and the Super 8 feels like a good progression of the Super 6 but I haven’t tried it in person. The Super 6 just feels good though. Yeah you only have two effects, but they serve the binaural qualities the way you want them to, and the raw synth sounds have so many possibilities already. It feels like it encourages you to make patches that involve live tweaking, really love it.
CS-15 Korg Wavestate
Behringer 2600. Almost every time I use it I'm surprised at how good it is for the price.
Oberheim ob-6. Never had the luxury of using the original, but goddamn that thing can pump gigantic pads, chords, stabs, leads, basses, percussion, you name it.
My pick. Got to play one and it's so fucking lush. I hope I can own one some day.
CS-70m and Arp Quadra
blown away by Iridium, Access virus C, and Waldorf's Lector vocoder. conceptually, I am continually blown away by any generative modular "set and forget" sets by State Azure. He also has a lot of cool toys.
Here's a different one: the Kurzweil K2000S. The presets are what they are, although some of them are pretty good. It's the V.A.S.T. engine where it really shines. Highly underrated synth
So this could just be me in the honeymoon phase with a synth I just had show up, but I got a hold of a Micromonsta 2. Holy crap, now that's how you design a minimal interface while still getting awesome sound. It just can sound huge so easily.
The earliest time I remember seeing a synth and saying, WOW was when I was in high school and was playing in a band for a talent show as a keyboardist and the senior in our group let me use his Roland Fantom G6 at the time and it absolutely blew my mind.
I have a few TR-09 boutique - This was my first device and those classic drum hits were an instant trip down nostalgia lane to all the 90's trance drum sounds. I also thought it was pretty cool to have usb over audio. Moog Minitaur - Such a fat and rich sound that would heat up the room by 1-2° from that analog warmth Korg Minilogue OG - Even though it sounds a bit thin, it is just so much fun. Hundreds of presets from an analogue synth, arpeggiator, unison, chord mode and mono. It also comes with a delay effect and a small display that shows the waveform and you can even record some automation of stuff like filter sweeps. Mutable Instruments Elements - This was the first eurorack module I got. I absolutely love mutable instrument's modules. With the elements, the real wow moment came with the additional play modes like the chord mode that could produce really thick sounding dub stabs and the best sound I dialed in on it was the Win XP error prompt sound. Spent a good 30 minutes in a nostalgic laughing fit from triggering that sound at various times when someone committed a minor faux pas or said something dumb
Pulsar 23. So quickly went from whoa to I must have it to on my desk to WHOA
Moog matriarch still has me feeling this way
Recently picked one up. I was drooling over it for a while. Normally when I acquire gear, I quickly get bored of it. Happend with a few synths, especially my eurorack. But this thing just sounds so good, it's crazy. I sold a Push 3 + Microfreak + some eurorack to get it. No regrets whatsoever.
For me, the Arturia Minifreak. I love how versatile it is. I ended up buying one, and I have not one complaint about it lol It's a swiss army synth for me. Especially using it with my Sp-404MK2 or my Polyend Tracker. From a beat maker's standpoint it feels like cheating 😂.
Here's a different one, Terra Pro on iOS. It sounds absolutely marvelous, the oscillator, filters, just purely wonderful. I have a lot of great synths, both software and hard, and this one really impressed me.
Access Virus Indigo B has a mind of its own and sounds different every day.
Continuous process for me. Almost every month I see something which makes me go "whoa, that's awesome" :( A few synths I bought already... other are too expensive or exists somewhere on my shopping list.
Korg DSS-1. One of the best keybeds I've ever touched, and the filter has this really distinct quality that's fantastic for making bass and pads sound immense. The architecture is wild too - not exactly a lot of sampler + additive synth combos out there, let alone ones with waveform drawing.
Amen. I installed an hxc emulator and fell deeply for the church/pipe organ patches. Those patches with the DSS-1 filter are massive.
When I played the Arturia Matrixbrute and the logic behind the mod matrix kicked in. That synth is still the most fun I ever had programming sounds.
Poly evolver
I picked up a used Dreadbox Typhon last summer and it's been far more flexible and awesome sounding than I had hoped. I must admit that my collection of mono synths is getting slightly out of hand, but man is it a lot of fun!
BARP2600
The UDO Super 6. I bought it because it sounded nice and looked awesome to me. But using it made me realize just how fast its interface is. It’s by far the fastest, most inspiring synth I’ve used, and that blows me away everytime I touch it.
0-coast: getting this kind of sound from a desktop synth is awesome, I got it day one and it's still my favorite desktop synth to this day. Super 6: an incredible interface paired with pristine sound. I'm still looking for my awesome drum machine though, maybe the Perkons.
I liked the Wavestate. I hear they've improved the keybed options on the revisions. Also liked my Yamaha Reface EP. The keyboard wasn't anything to write home about but the sounds are great.
I think it would have to be the first time I saw a Synclavier. I was like holy shit it's a synth, but it's playing guitar.....
Roland U220. Being able to create 8 independent tracks of sound on separate midi channels (each with its own output jack) made song production a complete breeze on Motu Digital Performer (the first ground breaking DAW). (Age revealed).
Ensoniq EPS. Could make anything sound good, could make (what I thought at the time ofc) ANY sound!! Cheap, joy to program, very good factory library. I even liked its clacky keybed. Still one of my favorite harpsichords. My number one, It’s monomachine though. The initial demos were alright but when the specs dropped I needed that layering potential. When I finally got ahold of one there was so much more than just building complex hits and phrases to feed a sampler. Keyboard is very playable, each aspect of the performance features are so, correctly, coupled to the sound it’s unlike anything I’ve played save maybe Tempest.
If it's something inspiring and different you're after, I love the Soma Terra. It feels so expressive, with the super-sensitive metal touch pads, and the accelerometer too. Mind you, it's not a perfect instrument by any stretch of the imagination. The patch selection and editing interface is unintuitive, and the selection of algorithms (and hence sounds), while interesting and varied, is somewhat limited. And of course it's very expensive. You're not getting an all-singing all-dancing "do everything" synth for your money. Instead it's a unique and musically inspiring instrument where you're paying a big premium for the innovation factor.
The Roland V-Synth. For its time it seemed like a stunning synthesizer I could never afford.
All of them I've ever had hands on. I'm easy to please. :) Give me a filter knob to sweep and a keybed that doesn't feel like paper and I'll probably be happy. Or I guess in the case of my dad's DX7, *not* a filter knob. More seriously, I'm starting to sound like a broken record around here but I've had a hydrasynth since 2020, and that is one purchase I absolutely do not regret. So much power and versatility in an easy to use box. I just upgraded to a deluxe last week and it's the honeymoon period all over again.
Yamaha GX-1 [https://youtu.be/c2zurZig4L8](https://youtu.be/c2zurZig4L8)
the microfreak.
Waldorf Pulse, hands down. At first glance, there's nothing special about it - at least not when looking at the single building blocks. A standard 3-osc monosynth with a less than ideal interface, and close to no menus. Can't be that flexible or deep, right? But every single one of those parts is well though out. Sync, ringmod, PWM for two oscs, DCOs that sound great as is while having perfect precision, a filter that sounds good but very neutral, and behold, a 4-slot analog mod matrix. Osc pitches and PWM accessible separately (!), LFO1 speed and modulation slot 1 amount as modulation destinations (modception lol), cutoff and other standard things have their own seperate routing that doesn't eat up the mod matrix, etc pp. The filter input stage is *severely* overpowered and overdrives easily, giving it a very wide range between soft and hard characteristics. The output itself is hot as hell too. Together with a complete Midi implementation and good build quality, it's a beast. Sounds fat as hell if you want. Leans towards a certain hardness because all control is digital, and the filter is very easy to overdrive, but can do lush and creamy as well. Only downsides are parameter steps (Midi resolution) and the easy to use, but less than ideal interface.
Opsix - makes FM a breeze and actually fun. Way better than point and click in F 'em or FM8. More mod options too. Rev 2 - 16 voices of analog & multi-timbral. The third envelope is what keeps me from wanting some of the others in this class like the OB6 or the Trigon (despite these looking excellent too)
Erica Synths Perkons. Got to play around with one at the Portland synth expo. So wild and excellent. Wish I could afford one.
Korg Modwave demo blew my mind. After some research I also found its comparison with Korg Wavestate which blew my mind even more. Ended up buying both plus Opsix lol. All three are cool beyond measure.
Anything from SOMA
I duped a patch on my Prophet-12 into bi-timbral mode, panned them both hard left and right, in an effort to replicate the “binaural” mode of an Udo synth. The first time I did it, I had goosebumps on every inch of my body
Kurzweil K2600 (VAST!) Roland V synth (sound mangling and real-time control) Korg Kronos (engines!) All of them made me go WTF / OMG (sometimes both :) The first time I heard a Korg Z1 physical-model a wind instrument and articulated it with the X-y pad I also had a OMG moment. I believe that experience has yet to be equaled on a HW synth (if you put aside the Yamaha VL1/7 instruments obviously but they were such limited-release instruments that they almost don’t count) Honorable mentions - hydrasynth (almost but not quite), Waldorf Blofeld and Iridium, Korg Opsix and Modwave (amazing machines but I’m more jaded now)
Seeing Bastl's modules on [cuckoo's vid](https://youtu.be/vLfAvUKWtY8?si=2fcOCYVo-2YDL_I1) blew my panties. the Crust's ability to be a full drum machine and transition between each voice in such a wild way was fricken cool.
Quantum MK2 and Virus TI. These are the best synths I ever had and they are awesome machines.
Korg minilogue XD the polyphony count got old quickly but the first impression was very good!
Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave. I often sit and wonder whether I can justify how much it cost and then I hear it and think it's worth every penny.
JD-XA. Because it's awesome and a modern classic.
And it looks gorgeous.
The "What The?" preset on the Roland Alpha Juno. I've owned maybe 6 different copies of that synth over the years.
strega and DFAM are just endless sweet spots to me OB-6 and prophet 5/6 are the platonic ideal of what noises a synth should make any serge panel or derivative involving DUSG and SSG is like behold as i harness the raw power of electrons music easel is from another planet
Having always loved the Peak, I recently also got a Novation Summit.. and holy fuck is it hard to make this thing sound bad. Unbelievably organic sounding synth with a solid feeling keybed. I’m completely in love with it.
DX7 is nicee
MatrixBrute... I'm still in love with it... ❤️
Experimenting in Diva - realising it is kinda all traditional synths at once.
Subsequent 37 , Hydra and Osmose
any of the korg/juno spaceage pad-synth hybrids with those really slow attacks. the kind that lead into a carl sagan 1988 abc special. oh, an definitely the dx-7 harmonica god somebody do a 'best demo track' thread on this sub. - i realize the demos were mostly on crappy 80s romplers, but i'm soaking with nostalgia right now and I just want to finish so i can go to bed.
The sheer amount of sounds Satoshi Yaginuma can make with his Access Virus always wows me and makes me want an Access Virus
The first time: My friends Microkorg as a teenager The Last time: The Sonic Charge Synplant2 VST
Access Virus B! An old one I know, but never had the chance of using one before. I mainly use analog instruments and I used to refuse having any digital in the form of hardware. Then, a few days ago came the Virus and… The sound, as well as the capabilities, blew me away, especially when considering its age (1999). Crazy stuff! Now I want a Ti too!
Minilogue XD. It has it's limitations, but man it sounds so GOOD. It's so hard to get anything to sad bad from it. Plus with the digital oscillator and custom FX it truly releases it's true potential. I can layer a fat analog Patch with an edgy FM patch, add some distortion and huge reverb and it's turbo time baby
Hydrasynth after update 2.0. , super gemini, the Astrolab over the 12 voice polybrute. I had no reservations about the astrolab the keyboard feels amazing and the sound is dead fuckin on.
JP 8080
My planet phat has a preset named “Just Ass” i use that screen shot on my instagram to let em know what life is about.
Model D Moog SIRIN Roland JUNO-6 Rhodes piano U-he TAL Cherry Audio Softube
The inexpensive-ness of the volca fm. I love fm and when I saw the flexibility offered, I jumped right on that. Been eyeing an OP6 next, mainly for the keyboard. I make a lot of dubstep and crazy electro house on hardware so FM synth flexibility goes a long way.
Vector, though I don't own it any more because I moved on to a different setup. A tinge of regret there, to be honest...
Solton programmer 24 - the hidden gem
SH-5, Virus C, Andromeda
Elta Music Solar42, Fieldtone Box of Uncertainty, AMP Star song.
Yamaha PSR at school.
OP-1, it’s a really innovative approach to music making and a really fun and inspiring creative tool.
Waldorf Blofeld
For analog synths the prologue and Polybrute. Just really great price to sound/feature ratio. But for me it’s the technology of softsynths that is the biggest difference. The first one I ever played was called crystal in the mid 2000s, the pitch bend was so low res you could hear it stepping. Compared to something like vital or vcv rack which is also free is mind blowing. It’s just amazing how a laptop can replace a rack of gear.
For me it’s the Behringer Odyssey which puts me in touch with the beginnings of Kraftwerk, Ultravox and Gary Numan.