What do I need to start with synths

[oscillateur]

It's very specific but for droney organ sounds the Yamaha Reface YC rules. I mean, really rules. It's much more limited than something like a Minilogue but for what it focuses on, it's excellent (and easy to use, no menus).

[rfurtkamp]

The overlooked contender is the Roland System 1.

No menu diving.

PC editor/control *if* you want it, but not required. Zero latency patch switching (so you get all the benefits of modern tech *and* controls).

Used/demos are well south of $400, and you've got options as far as expanding it as well (and can load the demos of the expansions in and play with them as well).

Will do anything from drone to fake organ to crazy.

[Invisible Man]

The Roland Roland is the Roland. It's very Roland, and Roland's well even the other Roland. I Roland Roland it and Roland you Roland, Roland.

[JTurbide]

So...

-Mother 32: Awesome but quite expensive for me...
-Minilogue: Also a bit expensive and not as cool but would be à grenat fit
Mini/microbrute: more in my budget and pretty cool but monophonic..

Thanks for the help everyone and keep you suggestions/tips/information coming

[popvulture]

I think the Minilogue is just as cool as the Mother, just another flavor. If I were to recommend a synth for getting started, that'd be it—it's got the poly you're interested in, plus mono and other modes. The knobs are nicely laid out, and will pretty much give you most (if not all) of what you need to get a good grasp on how synthesis works. Plus it's got that weird, trashy delay, which I like a lot

I think it really depends on how you're approaching it. Do you want to play melodic stuff, or are you more interested in making more experimental noise/soundscape type stuff? The Minilogue can do both of those, but I'd say having a physical keyboard makes it particularly well-geared towards making melodic work.

[JTurbide]

I think it really depends on how you're approaching it. Do you want to play melodic stuff, or are you more interested in making more experimental noise/soundscape type stuff? The Minilogue can do both of those, but I'd say having a physical keyboard makes it particularly well-geared towards making melodic work.

Mostly organ sounding drones like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTx9zYFmfcA , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvkNAXxID5Q

but I'd also like to experiment with noise/soundscape type of stuff.. I'm not going the electro/whatever way.

physical keyboard is indeed a +... but I think the mother look so rad omg! I'll have to start selling some drugs an body parts

[D.o.S.]

Based on those clips I might spend a little time checking out the Reface Oscibuddy suggested at the top of this thread.

[lordgalvar]

Yamaha reface would be good.

Old late 1980s and 1990s table top synths could be a good place to look. They are usually poly and can be had for cheap.

Kawaii K1, emu ensoniq racks, old Yamaha racks (fb-01 for a preset only think you can use pedals on can go for $40), etc. (A lot of these old pcm or FM racks have organ patches..Some better than others, but you can cover up the flaws with pedals to a point).

I like the Korg poly800 a lot too (even if Pepe hates it)...But sometimes a deal can be had on those. They are fun, easy, and can be modded.

One over looked synth that I like that can be had for cheap is the red sound dark Star. It's a lot of fun and pretty easy and meant to integrate into DJ setups (version 1 has RCA jacks). The joystick is a blast. They got for as little as 200 too.

If you really don't mind menus, Dave Smith evolver and tetra can be powerful but prices are creeping up. Ensoniq esq-1 can be had for 300 is you get lucky.

I don't think furtkamp's suggestion is bad at all either.

A keystep would also be good.

But it depends...If you want to go modular in the future, mother or 0-coast (I think 0-coast is more fun).

[tremolo3]

1980s Casiotone (+pedals),

This is what I'd recommend now that I know what you are looking for.

I got a Roland Alpha Juno to do ambient Eno stuff but then I realized I was using the stock (boring) presets and used my pedals to make it sound like that, mostly reverb and modulation, and that was enough for me, no need to mess with ADSR, wave shapes and other LFO parameters.

But now I'm interested in more interesting sounds I can't do with my Juno (okay, I can do some but the UI is a truly PITA) and that's why I'm getting the Monologue, mainly because of the sequencer but also the friendly the user interface is despite having some menus.

[Bartimaeus]

I recommend the MicroBrute, it's a perfect little synth to start with! Pair it with a looper to make up for a lack of polyphony? Its filter is a little more aggressive than the Moog's, which I like.

As others have said, running it into a guitar amp sounds great so long as you don't hit it with too much bass. A small JBL PA speaker would be good too.

[01010111]

The Roland Roland is the Roland. It's very Roland, and Roland's well even the other Roland. I Roland Roland it and Roland you Roland, Roland.

But like, the System-1 is an Excellent choice if you're just starting out. It's easy to see what's going on, and I bet it's an easy synth to grow into if you're not too knowledgeable about synths. There's an SH-09 plugin for it too, and that sunth taught me more about




Though, if you're trying to cop those Holy Fuck keyboard organish/synthish tones then definitely do this:

1980s Casiotone (+pedals)

Go to Goodwill, pick up somethin' cheap, and run it through your pedals. It's a great starting point for figuring out what kinds of sounds you'd like without dropping a few hundo on something nice. My first band did this for a long time before I decided to buy a "real" synth.

[actual]

Go cop a 150$ combo organ like a Philicorda GM 754, Ace Tone 5 or YC-20 if you want organ sounds.

[resincum]

I think a volca fm would be perfect to start. you can do so much with that thing and it sounds really great. not too expensive either. another alternative on the cheaper side of things would be the roland modules like the jp-08, etc. you can cop some BOC sounds real quick.. then when you're ready to get freaky try something like the 0-coast or m32 and stuff. my first synth was a microbrute and it fucking ruled! learned a lot with it

[Mark of the Beast]

It's pretty easy to get organ-type sounds out of the Volca Keys as well as the drones you posted. They go for about a little over $100 used and are probably easy to flip if you don't like it.
1. It's paraphonic- you can play three notes at once. Plus can do mono and bass
2. It's got a sequencer, motion recording(keeps your knob twisting in the loop) and a ringmod so you can get weird with it if you want
3. Pretty cheap and easy so it makes a great intro synth and once you figure it out you can decide what more you want. But I think you can get deep in your use of it.
4. Has a keyboard (sort of), but you can hook up a cheap Midi keyboard for nice keys

I have one and love it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3OkH4KkuM0[/youtube]

Check out Automatic Gainsay's cool videos for this. The above vid is part of a series.I love his videos. (He's also got one on the Microbrute)
If you are not into the keys-check out the Roland Boutiques (Juno, Jupitor, JX-03) for poly. They are in the same vein of the Roland System 1 (but with a permenant plug in)

[worra]

1) I love this thread and I'm subbing
2) You all are awesome
3) I'm also pretty beginner level at synths. I started with a Minibrute and I've found it to be a fantastic first choice. It's gnarly and nasty, and I love the filter. It's also got a decent set of controls for learning some basics of synthesis. I'm running it (and occasionally a few pedals) through a Roland PM-10 amp (meant for v-drums) that I got for free and it has been great so far. I'm a bit worried about using my old Fender tube amps. I recently also picked up a Volca keys, and that thing has also been a tiny ball of fun. The sequencer is really neat and it has a ton of different voicing options. Super impressive for a battery powered dinky thing the size of a VHS tape. I'd like to get into more polyphony soon, so the Minilogue is absolutely on my radar. A mother-32 would be cool too, once I'm ready to dive into semi-modular stuff.