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Im lookin for a synth with good organ and string sections, at least 40 some keys, reasonably portable/giggable. Onboard vibrato and the like would be cool too but not necessary, and less than $300 used, vintage is fine. Any ideas?

Define "good"

Do you know the Waldorf Streichfett? Maybe not what you're looking for. But, ummm, it is sweet.

I can't think of anything off the top of my head that wouldn't take a MIDI keyboard attachment for this. Especially under $300 used you're totally boned here.

You could get adequate to good string sounds for $300 or less, but likely not with an attached keyboard. The aforementioned Streichfett module will give you nice 1970s string sounds, but it won't give you Hammond/Farfisa sounds or a keyboard.

At a $300 price point, you'd likely have to find something like an 80s Casiotone or Yamaha. Those could be had for $150 or less, if you're willing to hunt them down. You'd get a standard squarewave type of electronic organ sound along with a mellow, electronic string patch (not as lush or full-sounding as a dedicated 70s string synth).

The Yamaha MX49 will give decent organ presets & cinematic strings along with 49 keys, but the keys are slightly narrow and at $499 new, you'll have to do a lot of searching to find a used one in the $300 range secondhand.

The Miditech Pianobox was brought up over the weekend. There are other modules like that in the $80-199 range, which will give you pretty standard piano/organ/string patches, but you'd still need to purchase a MIDI controller or sequencer to generate tones.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/miditech_pianobox_2.htm

Roland rs09 can sometimes be found around that price.

Shanetram wrote:Roland rs09 can sometimes be found around that price.

yep. i came in here to recommend this.

What about that little yamaha reface thing?

Yeah, the Yamaha Reface YC. Excellent for organs, and drony as fuck as a bonus. 5 organ emulation types, drawbars for harmonics, reverb, distortion, chorus/vibrato, leslie. I love mine, and it pairs super well with pedals. Really recommended.

It's totally "what you see is what you get", no menus, presets or anything, just knobs, sliders, etc. Which makes it a great performance instrument, too.

blakestree wrote:Do you know the Waldorf Streichfett? Maybe not what you're looking for. But, ummm, it is sweet.

Yeah that thing is fucking amazing.

oscillateur wrote:Yeah, the Yamaha Reface YC. Excellent for organs, and drony as fuck as a bonus. 5 organ emulation types, drawbars for harmonics, reverb, distortion, chorus/vibrato, leslie. I love mine, and it pairs super well with pedals. Really recommended.

It's totally "what you see is what you get", no menus, presets or anything, just knobs, sliders, etc. Which makes it a great performance instrument, too.

I feel like I created this, but damn now I really want one too

I have a Yamaha SK-20 that I'm happy with for both the string and organ sections. It might not be a connoisseur's choice, but it sounds great to me, especially through fx. The best part is that you can layer the sounds, so it gets nice and thick. They seem to have gone up in price a bit, but if you're patient I'm sure you could grab one for under 3 bills. I don't know what portable means to you. It's way smaller than a home organ or something, but it's still fairly heavy.

First thing that popped into my mind = Moog Opus 3. Kind of a weirdo little synth, decidedly non-Moogish, but fun/interesting.

Hadn't checked em out in a while though, and decided to see what they're going for these days... unfortunately, way too much.

Iommic Pope wrote:

blakestree wrote:Do you know the Waldorf Streichfett? Maybe not what you're looking for. But, ummm, it is sweet.

Yeah that thing is fucking amazing.

Maybe I'm spoiled by my KORG Trident, but I think that the Waldorf Streichfett doesn't sound a bit like a real nice vintage string synth. Rather like a semi-decent 80's poly synth. But maybe that's what some of you are craving for.

Pepe wrote:

Iommic Pope wrote:

blakestree wrote:Do you know the Waldorf Streichfett? Maybe not what you're looking for. But, ummm, it is sweet.

Yeah that thing is fucking amazing.

Maybe I'm spoiled by my KORG Trident, but I think that the Waldorf Streichfett doesn't sound a bit like a real nice vintage string synth. Rather like a semi-decent 80's poly synth. But maybe that's what some of you are craving for.

That's your contribution...really? A $4,000 rarity is your benchmark? Umm, yeah shucks, maybe I'm a bit spoiled because I have a $4,000 string synth that only studio owners and middle-aged people who scored during the decline of analog 20+ years ago will ever own. ---Yeah, that's a bit of a fucking understatement, Pepe.

That's like badmouthing someone's beloved Chinese digital delay, because you have a Binson Echorec that was used on the early Pink Floyd tours. The Trident is 13x his budget and it's insanely overpriced. Why even introduce it to the discussion? Hypothetically-speaking, if someone had four-grand burning up their PayPal account, one would be better off buying a Roland Paraphonic 505, a Prophet 08 PE, and a Solina II for the same amount of money.

Considering that most people are going to run their string synth(s) through phaser, chorus, delay, reverb, or all of the above, you would be hard-pressed to tell a Streichfett from a vintage unit on a recording. I've owned a Korg Lambda and an Elka Rhapsody, but now I use a Streichfett and an MX49 for 99% of my string needs. I'll take MIDI and a manufacturer warranty over the hype of vintage mojo nearly every time. (been down the vintage road many times) ---If I want to thicken a sound or add artificial age, then I'll insert a TC Mimiq and a tape delay into the chain. Yeah, a Streichfett may not wow you on YouTube, but add a couple pedals and it's quite efficient in-person.