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Another long-term project coming up bla bla long story lots of reasons little money.

Thing is looking a synth but not familiar with the market. I know there's a bazillion cheap monophonic oscillator synths and such but I'm looking for something with a little bit more complexity. Keys and polyphony would be nice for a start but it's not something I can see spending an awful lot of money on.

So yeah cheap, polyphony, keys (whether that is a midi-keyboard into something or a keys-and-synth-in-one synth) or just some basic things to avoid/look out for in synth world.

Any and all help is appreciated

Resale price for analog synths are insane...... I don't want to say "you get what you pay for" because that's not accurate with what people are charging but "if you buy cheap you get cheap" might be a little more apt........ or at least "if a guy on CL has a cheap moog that sounds too good to be true don't meet him in a dark alley because he's going to club you over the head and sell your organs on the black market rather than sell you a synth".......

Those microkorgs are fun.

Even inexpensive Casio's and the like can sound rad through the right effects. What kinda sounds do you want to make? Budget?

Budget is a good question.

It all depends on what you want out of a synth. I'd suggest doing a little research on what synths do, figure out what features you want, and go from there. Those oscillators in a box, while fun, aren't really usable with other people for most kinds of music, unless you're using it as a sound source for a sampling synth.

As far as the difference between analog and digital synths, there are two big differences: price, and flexibility. While there is a difference in sound quality, there is a bigger difference in sound quality between manufacturers than between digital and analog in my opinion. With digital synths there are a lot of flexible ones on the market today, but analog always seems to one up the digital stuff as far as flexibility goes.

Uh ok. Budget let me think. I could see myself spending a few hundred on one. So let's say 400-500 new?

I know a bit about how synthesizers work just not much about brands or models.

Despite liking versatility I suppose I can always run the thing through my pedalboard meaning I won't need a huge amount of LFO's, filters etc.

You're gonna pay a small fortune for vintage synths (I know!). IMO the cheapest way to get those type of sounds is to pick up one of the first generation digital analogue emulation - The original Nord Lead has gotta be 15 years old now and can be picked up pretty cheap. I bought one a couple of years ago just so I could leave my Odyssey and Juno at home - i'd rather gig with the Nord as I don't really care if it gets beat up.

ive come across 80's rolands that were quite awesome for under $200-300 on craigslist. i travel a few hundred miles to get them but its worth it at the price. i cant say i like the microkorg too much. i havent tried the xl or whatever the newer one is called but im sure its not much different. same with with the other "mircrosynths" by the larger name companies. some how they that lack that certain something. ive gone through several synths and found that i like analog much better than digital. but finding good analog for under $500 is damn near impossible. circuit bent keyboards are awesome imo. you can find them pretty cheap on ebay. or you can bend your own.

theres a guy who works under the name atomolabs that builds AWESOME sequencers. that 8-bit squarewave sorta sound. super tweakable. based out of peru. his stuff is under $500. I've yet to get one from him but plan to very soon. he just built this keyboard thing...its SICK. http://atomolabs.blogspot.com/ only thing about it that i dont like it its single poly. NO CHORDS. but i still highly recommend him!

midi_in wrote:ive come across 80's rolands that were quite awesome for under $200-300 on craigslist. i travel a few hundred miles to get them but its worth it at the price. i cant say i like the microkorg too much. i havent tried the xl or whatever the newer one is called but im sure its not much different. same with with the other "mircrosynths" by the larger name companies. some how they that lack that certain something. ive gone through several synths and found that i like analog much better than digital. but finding good analog for under $500 is damn near impossible. circuit bent keyboards are awesome imo. you can find them pretty cheap on ebay. or you can bend your own.

theres a guy who works under the name atomolabs that builds AWESOME sequencers. that 8-bit squarewave sorta sound. super tweakable. based out of peru. his stuff is under $500. I've yet to get one from him but plan to very soon. he just built this keyboard thing...its SICK. http://atomolabs.blogspot.com/ only thing about it that i dont like it its single poly. NO CHORDS. but i still highly recommend him!

Sir! Sir! You're tripping balls!

I have nothing but good things to say about the microkorg, especially when you smash it through some effects

Heavy_Soul wrote:I have nothing but good things to say about the microkorg, especially when you smash it through some effects

you dont find the tiny keys annoying? or that you cant save settings? or that the vocoder is balls? or that its not very tweakable when it comes to waveshape forming? or that it only has a 4 note polyphony? i guess it's "good" if you havent played a real synth. or if you dont have much money. the Alesis Micron is even worse.

i also recommend a Realistic MG-1. the go for about the same as a mircokorg.

Actually my only problems with the microkorg are the waveshaping and the relatively limited octaves. For the price it sounds good and has pretty good polyphony. There aren't really any analog synths that can compete in price and features.

wfs1234 wrote:There aren't really any analog synths that can compete in price and features.

*cough* Realistic MG-1

Roland SH-101 I could get for under that pricerange, but the other bandmembers liked the MS-20 better at that point..