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To be honest, I don't know what exactly I am looking for when it comes to features.
I just want a cheap used or new entry-level synth for background noises in a few "shoegaze" songs, not trying to play "leads" nor dance music with it. I might be using it to waste time on my bedroom as well.

So far I've narrowed it down to:

MicroKorg
Mini/MicroBrute
Micron

Is there any other budget-friendly options out there that I'm missing?
Which one do you think will serve me better?

Thanks.

A few pedals can go a long way with that. I like a nice reverb like the supernatural, the shimmer stuff can get really spacious. Flange is good for movement. It's a bit more but I love the Moog SubPhatty for not much more than those guys especially used.

IOS? Love me some animoog and dr-om

shruthi
volcas (especially keys)

KORG DS-8. Old 4-OP FM synth with a user friendly, substractive-synthesis-like, operation method. Can be programmed by a kid (look for "julian" and "ds-8" at YouTube - that's the video of my now 7-year-old son) and is full of noisy tunes if you don't use the factory presets only. It has a versatile digital delay with modulation inside (chorus and flanger is possible) and when you add a reverb effect it is great for ambient stuff. It can be found for cheap at eBay from time to time.

Of the ones you listed, I'd choose the microKORG. A Mini/Ultranova would, also, be in the same class as those. But, I'd still take the Korg.

For pads, you want something polyphonic. Do you have a keyboard with a MIDI output? If so, check out the Waldorf Streichfett and Blofeld. Heck, check them out anyway.

The Streichfett is okay for background stuff, but not really ambient sounding. It's mainly an emulation of the late '70s to mid '80s synthetic string sounds.

i'd say something laden with knobs... the minibrute would probably my choice. i have a microbrute, and if the minibrute sounds similar, it's a great piece. add to that pedals (in particular, delay, reverb) and find a tube amp that compliments its character.

other ones i'd suggest: korg ms20mini, anything from the clavia nord series (in particular the modular), kurzweil k2000-series (although this is seriously off the deep end of programmability; steep learning curve).

brute don't messa round

I love my Shruthi. And Dwarfcraft RotYrBrain through pedalboard.

Thanks for all your suggestions guys, I'll check them tonight.

Keep em coming.

of those you listed the microkorg would probably be most suitable as far as getting ambient and being versatile on it's own.
I love my blofeld for those kind of sounds but it's maybe a little more expensive and definitely more annoying to program.
If you can get a nice old casiotone for cheap and run it through some deep verb and stuff you'll probably get even better sounds than a lot of entry level synths too for some applications.
Personally for 'drone' I would just use a soft synth or max/msp. It would be a lot cheaper and cleaner sounding and infinitely versatile.

If you want drones, you'll likely want a polyphonic synth. The Mini/Microbrute are really nice little synths but they're monophonic.

oscillateur wrote:If you want drones, you'll likely want a polyphonic synth. The Mini/Microbrute are really nice little synths but they're monophonic.

Yeah... that's what I just figured out.

As for the Soft synth... I'd prefer to have a more "portable" setup, I do use Pd for some crazy stuff at home and I was thinking in getting a RPI and a controller for that purpose, but I really want to get a hardware synth since I've never played one and they are dirt cheap these days.

Def the microKORG. Yes it has a lot of cheesy dance presets, but you can do some cool droney shit with it too. And it's really easy to take any preset and tweak it into something totally different.