anyone have reccomendations?

I'm new(ish) to the synth world (I've had expirience with some virtual synths like Reason) and I want ot buy a peice of hardware for live performance.

Online everything looks about the same and there is no where convienient to try these things out in person, so... what do you guys think are good synths? Who makes the best and what is your favorite model? What has the ebst bang for the buck?

Thanks a bunch for your replies

Oh lordy do we need a FAQ on this oft repeated question.

More info on your wants and needs will help a great deal. Budget? What style of music? What kinds of sounds? Any playing experience? Shoe size?

They're all good - get one and try it out, then get another, and another, and so on.

"Who makes the best?" That depends on a couple things: best at what?, and who you ask.

"Favorite model?" I have a fondness for Alesis, Access, Waldorf, Clavia, Kurzweil, and a few from Yamaha. I'd also like to get something made by Dave Smith and by Moog.

"Best bang for the buck?" In my opinion, it's almost always Alesis. The Waldorf MicroQ is right up there too, as is the DSI Devo.

What was the question?

The best bang for the buck is the Alesis Fusion.

But it really depends on what you want to do with it and how much you want to spend.

I agree.

You could buy an FM synth.

Then buy a good quality VA synth.

Then buy a physical modelling synth.

Then buy a sample playback unit.

Then buy a sampler.

Then buy a sequencer.

Then buy a hard disc recorder.

Then you'd be getting close to what the Fusion can do, (and have a bigger pile of stuff, and have spent a lot more money.)

The Fusion is pretty good bang for the buck.

OK - so you have used Reason - so by now you hopefully have some kind of idea of what features and kinds of sounds are important to you.

Letting us in on that might help suggest whats a useful synth to you - otherwise suggest you do what everyone else does eventually - buy one of everything that looks interesting

that usually works, except you never really get one of EVERYTHING. It's fun trying, though.

Alright, more details:

Budget - low (I'm a student) I was hoping to get away from this spending less than $600

Genre - Trance and Pop, a solid piano sound is a plus

Favorite sounds - Thats tricky. I'm always a fan of a clean pad or lead. On the keyboard I have now (which can produce a total of 20 sounds) my favorite is labeled "E.Piano." I think it's a Rhodes sound.

Experience - I've been playing for about four years. Mostly classical, but I've gotten into jazz and pop recently. I would label myself "decent," I can play most things technically given time to practice and sight read at ~150 bpm.

That's pretty much my whole biography

I definitly don't plan on making this my last purchase

My shoes are 13s

I still think the Fusion is a fine choice: nice EPs, good piano, tons of vintage and more modern synth sounds, lots of programming possibilities, specs are class-leading; certainly can be found for $600 if you try (61 key model).

It's also a good board to start a rig with since anything you get after is not likely to sound like the Fusion.

Murphy's Law of Live Performance:

If you spend good money on a good workstation that has a heap of sounds on it, you will only use about 10 during any given performance.

Invest accordingly.

But, with hope, it will be 10 that you really like -- and maybe even tailored to your own liking.

I'm glad the way I like to hear sound is different from others.

Hmmm - want something good for trance and with a piano?

For 'pop' lets assume cheesy korg rompler type sound will do along with equally dull drum sounds - Urgh!!!

For trance, then a bit of unison detune will probaly help along with something VA and ideally a couple of half decent sounding filters, and some good impactful kicks.

Then add a paino, something a little restrained for classical and nice and bright for jazz/pop etc.

Well the short answer is there is no such thing for that kind of money. Closest you are going to get will be by choosing whats most important in your list for live playing and focussing on that and maybe looking at making you computer live-worthy for the rest.

For eg, using Reason for drum sequencing makes alot of sense. For $600 (new) probably the only synths that will come close on the VA synth side are Korg R3 and Roland SH201. Of course theres load of second hand options.

If paino is most important, then not having played one, then a entry level Roland rompler, cheap yamaha digital piano maybe? But none of them sound as good as the stock pianos in Reason.

For something that going to put you in the ball park on all fronts then as Diametro says - Alesis Fusion 6HD - nothing else comes close - its VA is a good sounding VA, but a bit primitive in some ways for good fat trance leads - ie no voice or osc detune - best to sample into the sampelr instead or use the FM osc for trance leads - or better - find some newer sounds. You can coax electro house bass noises out of it though

Thanks again guys. I'm looking forward to trying it all out