The Synth Thread...

[eggwheat]

New oberheim 4 voice released:

[pepsicola]

The moogs are the best but for now it's the Korg DW-8000

[redchapterjubilee]

About eight years ago a friend loaned me a cracked copy of Reason 1.0 and it eventually started me on the path to programming electronic music as great unwashed luminaries. It's a weird amalgamation of prog, classic Berlin School (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Michael Hoenig, Ash Ra Tempel stuff), 80s electro and kinda new agey stuff. http://reverbnation.com/greatunwashedluminaries I also have a free compilation of sorts offered through our record label at http://sinkholetexas.bandcamp.com

I've owned many synths since then. Moog, Roland, Korg, Akai, MFB, Red Sound, Alesis, etc. These days I use:
- Vermona Lancet. It's taken over the lead/bass monosynth capacity from what I've traditionally used different Moogs for. It's a small module the size of a hardback novel, 100% WYSISYG and reliable (something my Moogs never were). It's a pure tone monster. and at $550 brand new from Novamusik you can get into something new that always works for less than most vintage monos. http://www.vermona.com/index.php/en_monolancet.html I control it with a Yamaha CBX-K1 3-octave mini-key MIDI controller.
- Roland Alpha Juno 1 & Juno 106. Single oscillator digitally-controlled six-voice analog synths. The sound of the '80s. the AJ-1 is alpha dial but the 106 is WYSIWYG. Neither one of these are bandwidth hogs like the classic polys like the Jupiters or Prophets or OB's. They are both kind of ghostly and ethereal. I really like the Roland sound.
- Dave Smith Instruments Tetra. Four voices of 2-oscillator digitally controlled analog goodness with a sequencer per voice shoved into really small box. I like the DSI sound. It's cleaner than the Vermona but more robust than the Rolands. Plus it has a small footprint, an onboard sequencer and the ability to be used standalone without a controller. Fairly inexpensive for what it is too. Not anything else really like it in its price frame. $700. Others have mentioned the Mopho. This is basically four Mopho voices in the a box just a tad bit bigger than the Mopho. http://davesmithinstruments.com/products/tetra/
- Korg Monotron and Monotribe. The Monotron has cured my desire for any of the DIY oscillator boxes to make noise. I wind up running stuff through its filter quite a bit. Guitar too sometimes. The Monotribe is a more knobby, expanded version of the Monotron with an added sequencer, envelope control (though rather limited) and a drum machine onboard. Both are very inexpensive for what they are. Love them both quite a bit. http://korg.com/monotribe and http://korg.com/monotron
- Sequential Circuits Prelude. It's a 100% polyphonic string synthesizer. Divide down, not much better than an organ. Kinda like the ARP String Ensemble. But nothing else makes that kind of noise but a stringer, and that's the one I have.
- Casio PT-10. It's got four presets, monophonic and a super cheesy drum machine built-in. It's the "da da da" synth. It's a toy, but the "fantasy" preset through big reverb is really pretty.

I also use a bunch of VST's (mostly Reason 2.5/Recycle 2.0, M-Tron, SQ8L, Stringer, Mr Ray 73), sequencers and emulators of stuff I don't have. Here's a picture from when I was rolling with the Little Phatty instead of the Lancet. Imagine the Alpha Juno where the LP is and the controller on the left instead and you have the basic idea.

[Johno]

Anyone used a Korg MS2000 before or have an opinion on them?

It has the exact same synthesis engine and sounds as the Microkorg, although it came out before..... so the Microkorg is more or less a re packaged MS2000 with smaller keys..... if thats any help!

[glimmertwin]

Anyone used a Korg MS2000 before or have an opinion on them?

It has the exact same synthesis engine and sounds as the Microkorg, although it came out before..... so the Microkorg is more or less a re packaged MS2000 with smaller keys..... if thats any help!

I know the original questions was asked 6 months ago but for what it's worth I think the MS2000 is worth the extra investment over the Microkorg. I found the micrkorg keys a pain and thought the multifunction knobs made tweaking cumbersome for creating new patches and exploring. That being said, they are cool little tools for touring bands who already knew the patches they want and a just need the basics covered in a portable package....but I would say your home studio should have the more full featured MS2000.

[Wizzy H4tz]

Just got an arturia and the software that comes with it. amazing looking controller not technically a synth but the software has some awesome reproductions of classic synths like the Jupiter 8 mini moog, prophet. I'd recommend this to anyone, keys feel amazing.

[poly800rock]

The moogs are the best but for now it's the Korg DW-8000

can you compare this to the poly 800 by any chance?

[pepsicola]

I find the Poly 800 with more synth sounds...this has like a few synths, few weird rings, organ sounds, bells and the such.

[Sir Simon Milligan]

I've used a Poly-800 and owned a DW-8000 & EX-8000 in the past. It's been so long since I've used the Poly, I probably couldn't provide a fair comparison. But, the DW is capable of some really cool sounds if you can get by it's clackety keyboard. I liked making pads, then cranking up the resonance to where it was self-oscillating. After that, add some of the onboard delay and you have some really cool spacey pad sounds. It can also do some thick basses and melody lines in unison mode. From what I remember the Poly was a lot more scaled down and it didn't incorporate sampled waveforms like the DW does. I also remember getting some non-cheesy synth choir and organ sounds with the DW, too. The one area where I thought the DW was lacking was synth string pads. It can do pads, but its synth strings were never that impressive.

[pepsicola]

I've used a Poly-800 and owned a DW-8000 & EX-8000 in the past. It's been so long since I've used the Poly, I probably couldn't provide a fair comparison. But, the DW is capable of some really cool sounds if you can get by it's clackety keyboard. I liked making pads, then cranking up the resonance to where it was self-oscillating. After that, add some of the onboard delay and you have some really cool spacey pad sounds. It can also do some thick basses and melody lines in unison mode. From what I remember the Poly was a lot more scaled down and it didn't incorporate sampled waveforms like the DW does. I also remember getting some non-cheesy synth choir and organ sounds with the DW, too. The one area where I thought the DW was lacking was synth string pads. It can do pads, but its synth strings were never that impressive.

What are the waves and numbers on the rite side for? Never figured it out

[Sir Simon Milligan]

What are the waves and numbers on the rite side for? Never figured it out

They show the waveforms that can be used to program sounds. For example, #1 might be an organ, #4 might be an electric piano, #8 might be a sawtooth, etc. I didn't spend much time trying to create realistic sounds when I had one, though. I liked making murky pad sounds soaked in delay.

[TheMilford]

I use the Prophet extensively in Season Finale...often in conjunction with the Studiologic bass pedal. The AX-60 will appear on the record for some of the more twiddleebleepy sounds and softer pads but I have yet to gig with it as it's not as well suited for the bass stuff. I'm saving up for a set of Taurus 3 pedals so I might eventually swap the P600 out for the AX60 as it has more features but a smaller single Osc-per-voice sound... the LFO options on the P600 are limited whereas the AX60 has tons of options. It's just not the beefy beast that is the Prophet.

I highly recommend the AX60 to somebody wanting to get into a true VCO poly for little layout. They can be had all day for under $400. TOTALLY worth it and totally coler than the overpriced Junos.

[glimmertwin]

AX60 or AX80? I'm definitely intrigued. Bout to sell my Nord Wave (which is criminally underused by me) and wanted to pick a few cheaper things including a noise maker synth. The Wave is cool, but I'm more a meat and potatoes guy than a kitchen sink guy. I never really got along with Junos except for the chorus feature and I picked up an old rack Roland Chorus from that time period that can do that sound for anything I plug into it... Had my eyes on a Korg Delta but this Akai seems interesting.

[TheMilford]

AX-60. The AX-80 is the 2-DCO-per-voice version. The 60 is a cheaper synth but with VCOs and sliders.

Both are great but AX-60s go for a bit less. Just don't expect the same "weight" as a 2-osc machine.

Some cool features of the AX-60 that I love:
Up ramp, Down ramp, Trianlge, Square AND RANDOM (my favorite) LFO waves
Pulse width works on all waveforms!
Freq. Mod on the filter
CRAZY resonant filter... like not polite Junoish at all... the range is unmatched on any other polysynth I've heard.
Multitimberal/Split mode... divide the keyboard for two patches.
Can be used with early Akai samplers serving as a second osc-per-voice.

[fibreman]

AX80 is blow-me-down beautiful. I've yet to find one for sale in the UK with no issues though. Still on the look out though. As much as I love my Alesis Ion - really bleeding versatile - I can't help but feel like it's cheaply built, and there's significant enough noise on the outputs to make it troublesome for multi-tracking purposes. Something a bit sturdier with a bit more character would go down well. If all else fails i'll go the DSI Poly Evolver route or something.

Not sure i'd class the Nord Wave in the 'kitchen sink' category. It's so easy to program the basics on there, the plain oscillators and FM oscillators sound great, and there's always the option of melting a mellotron or two