prophetik music Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 preferably for under 250 dollars. LOL! i'm looking for a synth that offers: -actual, physical portamento/mod wheels -knobs for every damn function in the thing (i want to be able to physically have different knobs for adsr and the like) -savable presets -wide variety of waveforms (including white noise) i'm NOT looking for a synth that offers: -more than 49 keys, i want it to be compact -multi-function knobs -a piano, i want it to be a synth and nothing else not required, but it'd be nice if it had: -midi functionality -usb connectivity/recording any ideas? i've looked around, but i have no idea what i'm really looking at because the only synth i've ever played was Deustch's personal minimoog (go figure!). so, if you've got hands on experience, i'd appreciate your input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OverCoat Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 microkorg? I think you'd probably love it but it's $400 instead of $250 Actually nevermind I'm seeing it on eBay for about your pricerange. Good hunting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fray Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Dunno if you're really going to get one knob per function for $250... Usually when they're designing a budget synth the knob count is the first thing to go. You might also look at the Alesis micron. Very compact, but the interface is even more minimal than the MicroKORG. If you want more knobs, save up for something like an Novation X-Station (or the older K-Station), Korg MS2000B, or Roland SH-201. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 7, 2007 Author Share Posted December 7, 2007 i'll look into those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nase Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Novation X-Station I own that one, and it's more of an all in one solution including an audio interface, mic preamp, midi controller and yes, a synth. If you just want the synth engine of it, get the Xiosynth. You might actually get that one for the specified price. I'm not that great a fan of the synth engine. Some things it does well, like pads, but I find it's a little lacking in the phatness department. Controlling it is fun though thanks to aftertouch and the xy pad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 7, 2007 Author Share Posted December 7, 2007 does it lack power, or does it just not do the whole 'phatcheez' sound very well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nase Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Well, it seems rather taylored to suit Trance producers, with the unison function and the arpeggiator and all, but the Supersaw stuff still doesn't sound as huge as Vanguard, for example. Everything sounds a little subdued. Maybe that's great for fitting sounds into the mix; I honestly can't tell cause I haven't bothered much putting together whole songs with it yet I bought the X-Station to have a nice all around solution. But the synth might as well just be your thing! I suggest heavily testing all your candidates in a customer friendly store. Back when I bought the X-Station, I didn't really know what I wanted either. It felt awkward noodling up and down on the different desktop size synths in the store without really knowing how to judge them. I ended up buying the X-Station based on the feature set. I didn't regret it, but I should've based my decision on more playing and tweaking experience, really. Maybe test a few more softsynths and find out what features and sound characteristics you really care about before you decide about a hardware synth (If you're not sure about your taste yet). Btw, I'm currently browsing Ebay for a nice cheap analogue synth from the 80s, like a Juno 106. While these are lacking in features like waveforms, you definitely get a sweet sound to start with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fray Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 If you just want the synth engine of it, get the Xiosynth. I think the Xiosynth has a builtin audio interface too (or so the advert on Novation's site said). I've currently got a Siel DK-600 in the shop (I bought it broken on Ebay). I agree that an old analog might not be a bad choice for him in the sense that they have knobs for everything. But they're generally not at all compact, and can be a huge pain in the ass to maintain, especially if you're trying to get one on the cheap. Analog keyboards in good condition, even lesser models, tend to go for quite a lot on Ebay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 7, 2007 Author Share Posted December 7, 2007 anyone have a feel on the alesis micron, novation xiosynth, or siel or-400? or, for that matter, the following: old school, dave smith mono evolver, or this nord lead 2x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 You're not going to get the NL2X for less than $500. It sells new for $1k. Likewise, the Evolver is at least $1k. Not sure what that korg is... they never made a synth called the "MS20iC" - maybe this is supposed to be the Korg Legacy Analog Edition controller? I would avoid it w/o more description. Alesis Micron is definitely a nice unit that can do more than just virtual analog. Yoozer has one and has spoken very highly of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 7, 2007 Author Share Posted December 7, 2007 i figured i would at least watch them in case they happened to stay low for the course of the auction. i've been trying to find reviews that say both bad and good things about the micron - everything is so positive about it that i tend to doubt what's going on. i'll pm yoozer and see what he has to say about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xelebes Posted December 15, 2007 Share Posted December 15, 2007 anyone have a feel on the alesis micron, novation xiosynth, or siel or-400? or, for that matter, the following: old school, dave smith mono evolver, or this nord lead 2x I have the Alesis Ion, the Micron is a fine bass synthesiser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 15, 2007 Author Share Posted December 15, 2007 i've been digging around on the vintagesynth.com forums, and i'm finding some nice stuff. i need to sell my rhodes to get the cash, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fray Posted December 15, 2007 Share Posted December 15, 2007 sell my rhodes Now why would you go and do a thing like that? ... I mean who doesn't like having a 150-pound keyboard taking up half their apartment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 15, 2007 Author Share Posted December 15, 2007 it's a mark 1 suitcase 73. so it's like 200 lbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hy Bound Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 I personally love my Novation X-Station. I just wish i could use it more; my ASIO driver is beyond fucked up and nothing i do seems to be making it work. But anyway, I found that from a synth-tweaking side its quite a fun synth to play with and has plenty of features that sound great. The only down-side i see is that in order to save your own patch, you have to overwrite existing patches... Which is kinda dumb, but they give you so many patches that it has been easy for me to find a few that i could do without that i have overwritten. Not to mention, the X-Station can double as a two-input recording device with its own great-sounding FX. I got mine for about 400, but you could probably find one for about 250 pretty easily considering it isn't real new. Happy hunting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 17, 2007 Author Share Posted December 17, 2007 i've got a buyer possibly for my rhodes (that'd give me like 600 bucks) so i'll soon have funds to use towards this, i think. maybe. and a couple other non-substantial words meaning i might have money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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