Looking for a versatile hardware synth

I’m looking for a versatile hardware synth I can make percussion and whatever else with. Thought I’d hear with you guys before I make a decision. Preferably something cheap!

Nord micro, G1 or G2 modular. The G1/ G2 is pretty expensive but I think you should be able to get a micro pretty cheap. If your looking for a hardware knob-fest the micro probably wont be very appealing but it can do everything you want and soooooo much more.

all cheapest yamaha and casio toysynths and battery powered toys from happymeals, good sturdy sounds, not those analog jibberish glipblops for a baziillion $$$

With Keyboard or rack?

One of the best lower price synths is in my view the Waldorf Blofeld (Rack version under 400 eur)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfosO1Y0nds

However to get percussions out of it, it requires (same for every synth) some synth programming skills.

You could also have a look at older used synths, e.g. the Access Virus C (Rack) is a nearly perfect synth in my eyes and covers nearly everything.

volca sample / electribe sampler

Modular synth IMO. As versatile as they come.

I dunno if you’d want to go “vintage” (coming to hate that word), but the Roland D-50 can be bought quite cheap and is extremely versatile when you get into programming it. It’s a very solid machine, built for gigging, and replacement parts are easy to get and very inexpensive. It does however tend to have a somewhat corny 80s “sheen” to its sound, but that can be taken care of with FX and by avoiding the onboard samples in favour of the oscillators. Though the samples can be very useful when producing drum sounds. I have a few dozen kick and snare sounds I’ve made with it that have been very useful.

Soundforge, or wavosaur, you can make killer drum sounds from scratch in a real sample editor :wink:
If you want to go hardware, I would advise a field recorder, Zoom H2 or something :wink:

Mini and microbrutes are awesome for cheap!!

Roland JD-Xi

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A couple of 555 chips and a few resistors and capacitors should do the trick: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Build-A-Simple-555-Synth/

Is it any good? Nah, sounds pretty crap. Lots of fun though, and it makes some cool sfx.

Yamaha TX81Z, if you have the patience.

As you’re probably starting to see from the answers thus far, many synths are “versatile”. The real question is: what defines the outer bound of the kinds of versatility that are most important to you?

“Make percussion” is a start, but still kind of vague, and “whatever else” is a vast territory.

Some questions to consider…

Analog, digital, both?

Synthesis only, or synthesis + sampling?

Does it need a sequencer?

Is the emphasis on sound design or performance?

Primary use in studio, or in live situations?

How cheap is “cheap” to you?

Do you like machines that are deeper but consume more time to get good results, or shallower and easy to get going with?

Fundamentally, the question to ask yourself is “Who am I musically and how do I imagine a hardware synth helping me to express that?”

The closer you can get to answering that, the more the field of choices will narrow to those few machines that are actually right for you, here and now.

As you’re probably starting to see from the answers thus far, many synths are “versatile”. The real question is: what defines the outer bound of the kinds of versatility that are most important to you?

“Make percussion” is a start, but still kind of vague, and “whatever else” is a vast territory.

Some questions to consider…

Analog, digital, both?

Synthesis only, or synthesis + sampling?

Does it need a sequencer?

Is the emphasis on sound design or performance?

Primary use in studio, or in live situations?

How cheap is “cheap” to you?

Do you like machines that are deeper but consume more time to get good results, or shallower and easy to get going with?

Fundamentally, the question to ask yourself is “Who am I musically and how do I imagine a hardware synth helping me to express that?”

The closer you can get to answering that, the more the field of choices will narrow to those few machines that are actually right for you, here and now.

Or, more succinctly, what does “synthesizer” mean to you?

Novation nova (desktop Version), around 250€, very nice Charakter sound. Microkorg xl with radias synthesis, very powerful sound, virtual analog. 250€. Both can be user to generate synthetic drums.

Microkorg xl with radias synthesis, very powerful sound, virtual analog. 250€. Both can be user to generate synthetic drums.

onboard programming level imposible, editing with pc editor same feels like editing simple vst instrument. i had one, sold that poor bastard after 8 months of trying to find some love, no ragrets, guy who bought it said it is greatest sounding synth in entire universe, now they are married

onboard programming level imposible, editing with pc editor same feels like editing simple vst instrument. i had one, sold that poor bastard after 8 months of trying to find some love, no ragrets, guy who bought it said it is greatest saunding synth in entire universe, now they are married

Still a better love story that twilight

I think your most important considerations are budget, type of sound and whether or not you’re prepared to menu-dive. With sound I mean bread-and-butter percs vs manglified. Giving my opinion it will be based on what I like - cheap, mangled sounds with no menu diving.

PC does bread and butter fine for me so with hardware I’d go for a characteristic sound every time. For £300 you can get a second hand Korg MS-20 mini off ebay. A recent relaunch of a classic analog synth that was £1500 on ebay just 2 years ago! I’ve heard aphex twin has got a lot of drum sounds from it by running loops through it, using the pitch follower at strange settings and recording/chopping the output. It’s a feature that takes incoming audio and tries to copy the pitch of it using the oscillators. Is unstable and unpredictable as hell which when couped with filtering/distortion etc you get some wicked sounds. It’ll most likely be in good condition, relatively new, it can be played over USB. Then obviously you can use it as an every day synth, making sick sounds with those filthy hipass / lo pass filters. The riff in Daft Punk - Da Funk is an example of this synths signature sound.

Yeah so you can see I am a fan of the MS-20 synth. If budget isn’t so tight I’d get one anyway, and/or a Vermona DRM1 mkIII - No menu diving, analog, versatile nice sound. Vid below, I’d skip it in 2 min chunks and look out for 8:55 and 22:00 mins which I reckon are pretty bad-ass.

The volca beats look not bad, but I have an MFB 522 drum machine that’s tiny like that and it’s just kinda annoying to use. Part of hardware is enjoying the tactility of it and having a Vermona Perfourmer synth I can tell you this company builds tanks.

Here’s a snare drum tutorial for the MS-20 mini:

Filth!

If you want to go hardware, I would advise a field recorder, Zoom H2 or something :wink:

The H2 is pretty noisy. The Sony PCM-M10 is awesome, and probably the best field recorder in that price segment. For a bit more, the Zoom H5 or H6 are great also. (I kind of regret that I bought the H6, because the Sony is just so nice and small, but I had the notion I needed to upgrade – probably wasted the money, but oh well, it’s still fun and more flexible!)

Their only downside is that they are not exactly synths. :wink:

Roland JD-Xi

Dammit I had this huge thing typed up and I accidentally hit some keyboard shortcut that I didn’t even know existed and closed my browser. I don’t even know what I pressed, and now I feel like an old man.

ANYWAYS. After saving up a while until I could afford it comfortably, I finally got a JD-XI, and it’s pretty amazing. I highly recommend. If you’re considering, here’s the cons:

  1. No way to mute direct output (as far as I can tell). If you’re using it as an audio interface, you can’t monitor through DAW effects. Or rather, you can, and you’ll hear it, but you’ll also here the dry signal sitting on top of it being sent directly to your speakers.

  2. A lot of the functionality is tied up in the menu. This does enable it to be more compact, so it’s not a total bad thing, but it is kind of a pain to program certain things. If it had a little bit bigger display, or if you could edit via software on your computer, it would help alot. Who knows, maybe an editor is coming eventually.

  3. Some people really despise microkeys. I really don’t mind them. They took a little getting used to and feel cramped at first, but it didn’t take long to adjust, and now giant block chords are really easy. But if you hate microkeys, it’s a con.

Other than that it’s pretty freaking amazing. Tons of drum sounds, really good presets for all kinds of sounds, awesome pads. This thing is a blast to play. Oh did I mention you can plug a guitar in and use it to play a monosynth?