Members HANGMAN Posted October 6, 2006 Members Share Posted October 6, 2006 Help me choose! Budget- between 1500 and 2000 euro (but i could go a little over if neccessary) What I Want- needs a keyboard, top notch synth bass sounds (particularly moogish squelchy stuff) and lead sounds with a comtemporary feel. Something with good tweakability but with a certain amount of 'out of the box' playability (if you know what i mean). I'd like to get something that sounds unique and contemporary. What I dont Want- In spite of previously mentioning moog, i dont want something thats going to simply emulate vintage analogue synths, especially 80's synths, I can't stand pads, brassy stuff (I prefer 70's synths over 80's). Although I want the synth i get to be very tweakable, i'd rather something that isnt impossible or very time consuming to use. Some choices I am considering- Roland Vsynth, Virus TI, Elektron Monomachine. (any other suggestions are also welcome) Apologies for the longwinded description and i know a lot of this is subjective anyway but if anyone out there has any suggestions or advice I'm all ears. thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue halo Posted October 6, 2006 Members Share Posted October 6, 2006 Waldorf XTk. Can emulate Moog et al well, and oh, so much more! Lots of nasty grit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Khazul Posted October 6, 2006 Members Share Posted October 6, 2006 Of those you mention - Virus TI - sounds the most likely, however while its timbres are great for bass sounds, its not a naturally punchy synth - it can get the moogy timbres if you want to, and quite easily. Other downside, it soft sounding (or dark as some people like to say), so its hard work getting very bright ear splitting sounds out of it (but when you do, you can get nice fizzy high end, not as fizzy as a JP80xx/v-synth/sh-201 though), but instead it normally has a very warm feeling frequency response. Also really good mod matrix (6 slots, 1 src, 3 dest per slot) that gives access to just about every parameter on the synth and the sources can be just about anything. FX are limited but excellent in the context of this synth - they are traditional fx, very much in character with the rest of the synth so are a key part of its sound - no choosing fx either - they are all there in a chain, zero zero the ones you dont want. Other massive advantage of the TI is it comes with a huge collection of presets and preset for the B, C etc work on it as well - there are loads on the access web site and elsewhere on the net. Probably not enough life times to check through them all though. V-Synth - erm - probably way too digital sounding for you, VA is quite fizzy, bright, ballsey at times, but for brutal punchiness its great, so excellent if you want bass sounds with a real good kick to them + of course you can do lots of plan wierd {censored} with it through sample mangling - but you need alot of patience and trial and error to get really good results from the sample processing. No internal mod matrix per say, but it has extensive modulation options for performance controls whihc can be routed to just about anything, also each functional block in the synth has its own LFOs, Env gens etc, vel response curves etc so you dont need a mod matrix - mod options are huge. Personally I rather like the COSM fx as well - huge variety, generally warm and gutsey when you want, or clean if you dont (some reverbs, delay for eg). Great set/mod sequencers as well - arp+4 mod seq per patch. Mono - dont know it that well, dont have one - it seems very good for doing wierd glitchy stuff. Other modern synths that I have: Radias - bright, clean (as in relatively artifcact free), naturally quite airy, or read that as thin and cold, hard to fix this without a nice external EQ - complete opposite to the virus ti. Even using its lo/hi eq, or adding in the 4 band EQ effect doesnt seem to really help that much - but you wont care of you allready have a nice warm sounding machine asthen its a good compliment. Its very good at making nasty sounds, can very good traditional analog sound out of it wityh nice bright hight, but they will be cold and thin - you will need some external processing to liven it up a bit. 6 splot mod matrix, 1 src, 1 dst per slot, but rather limited in what you can control through it. Huge variety of fx, rompler style, 1 inserts and master type structure, but again, they can be a bit thin. A real plus point is the drive/waveshaper - basically a 4th fx option that can be inserted before or after the filters which is very nice. Also great arp/step mod seq as well. Oh yeh - excellent vocoder, though I havnt used the vocoder much beyond fx type things - but huge potenial for wierd sounds with this, including formant recording. Great drum sounds as well. Also worth mentioning - this is possible only of the quickest and easiest synths to prgram, once you get used to the Korg way of doing things. (Edit - downside of the Radias keyboard - horrible cheap nasty feeling keyboard with no aftertouch - *ugh*, so I just have the rack version and control it from a virus tik.) Fusion - I only mention this because is has a very basic (by modern digital standards) but truly excellent clean VA synth inside it with huge mod options, effectively a 32 slot mod matrix, 3 osc, 8 env, 8 lfos per patch, osc and envelope character is rather analogue like I think - best of the bunch perhaps. Downside - only one multi-mode filter, quite a variety of filters, doesnt exploit its digital nature at all really - so no unison at osc or voice level. Does excellent vintage analog type leads if thats your thing, good punchy bass as well - even managed to get it to sound *very* raw TB303 like - 18bd filter option helps here. Other downside - lack of knobbage. Effects are quite decent as well, but no tempo sync on deleys etc. Of course of you kick-arse bass, then its a proper FM synth and sampler as well. Leave others to tell you about Nords, Waldorfs etc, May even be worth looking at an Alesis Andromeda as well - actually that might be the perfect choice for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members eminor9 Posted October 6, 2006 Members Share Posted October 6, 2006 Originally posted by Khazul Mono - dont know it that well, dont have one - it seems very good for doing wierd glitchy stuff. This is possibly one of the quickest and easiest synths to prgram, once you get used to the Elektron way of doing things. No joke. I've been messing with synths & things for the last 4 years and my output has drastically improved with the acquisition of the Monomachine but mainly due to its sequencer and ease of use for dialing a new interesting sound. Though very versatile, it has to be said that soundwise the Monomachine has a character of its own and best would be to combine MnM with another synth of your choice since it offers you 6 midi tracks for extensive external sequencing. The Mono will keep you busy for a while though. Athough it seems to have the reputation to excell in glitchiness it executes the standard synth tasks pretty well too imho. My other synth is the NL2x, lots of usuable presets but very and most importantly easily tweakable with all parameters having their own dedicated knobs & buttons. Very straightforward synthetic sounding, can go from extreme bright leads to pounding lows with a few twists of knob. Considered by many to be one of the most analog sounding VA's out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Khazul Posted October 6, 2006 Members Share Posted October 6, 2006 Originally posted by eminor9 This is possibly one of the quickest and easiest synths to prgram, once you get used to the Elektron way of doing things. No joke. I have an MD, so if its anything like that to program, then yes - second that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 13ghostsofscoobydoo Posted October 6, 2006 Members Share Posted October 6, 2006 Monomachine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HANGMAN Posted October 6, 2006 Author Members Share Posted October 6, 2006 thanks for all the advice so far everyone, its all so confusing! If I was to go by the demos on the various websites I would say that I was most impressed with the Virus, but demos can be very deceptive. I've seen various people talk up the monomachine and it seems like a very interesting machine but i have concerns about it doing the basic sort of synth sounds as well as the others. As for the Vsynth, most people who own one seem to swear by it being both extremely powerful and unique. I'll look int the waldorf too, but i have already more or less elininated the korg radias having played it and not been wildly impressed + i dont like the look of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Khazul Posted October 6, 2006 Members Share Posted October 6, 2006 V-Synth is very powerful and unique - but you do need to invest alot of time into it to get alot out of it - I think way more so on balance than say something like the virus, or even a nord. V-Synth isnt a machine that you are going to survive on presets with, and you may find it too digital sounding from your descriptions above... Great fun machine though, I dont think I would choose it as my one synth - its an excellent second synth. Virus gets my vote for primary synth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HANGMAN Posted October 6, 2006 Author Members Share Posted October 6, 2006 I see what you mean, the virus sounds like the best choice for a number one synth, but I should have mentioned that I own a fantom x7 and that this synth is to go with the fantom which i use for the realistic sounds and sequencer (which is also why im particularly intersted in the vsynth) Obviously I dont just want presets but the vsynth does seem to be totally designed for making your own from scratch so I'll have to keep investgating. Also what do you think is a fair price for a second hand vsynth version 2??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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