okay i know theres been a couple of threads about this already… however… im considering saving up some cash by selling off a bunch of my old vinyl record collection to put towards a synth/hardware investment of some kind. so i was wondering if anybody has used these which i’ve been looking at or has something else they would recommend?
some ive been looking at:
Future Retro XS - this appeals to me from the fact its analogue and therefore has sonic advantages to stuff i could do with vsts and seems pretty hands on with a lot of versatility within the paradigm of what it does, which is something i would like. Being able to tweak stuff “hands on” and come up with weird and interesting sounds would be a motivating factor to get something like this, and since i’d mainly be looking for something which can create nice smooth deep basses and blippy sounds perhaps this is a good choice? i also like the idea that its potentially expandable, but doesnt cost what a full on modular would cost in terms of cash or space, although its obviously not cheap either… i’d also like to be able to do tb-303-type stuff, which i think this would do, although im not too worried about it sounding identical to a real 303, but id like a analogue type sound of that ilk. and i presume renoise would be good for sending midi information to control this? but could i get TB-303-like slides and accents or would i need to be looking at something closers to the TB-303 control interface to do that?
Virus TI Snow - seems like a pretty hardcore synth for the money and pretty versatile, plus i imagine it intergrates more straightforwardly with a computer controlled setup than the XS which wont have presets etc. perhaps a virus is a good “one synth” to have, if you are only going to have one hardware synth? Or, would i be better off looking at something like a Virus B rack which i could get much cheaper? But does this really offer much advantage over VST given its stripped of all the controls the TI Polar has so its mostly software controlled anyway? I can’t afford a Polar any time soon…
Nord Lead 2x - again seems like it might be a good all-round synth which also does the analogue stuff i want?
Korg Legacy collection with the MS20 controller
So to summarise, what i would like from it is:
- hands on experimentation of analogue-type sounds
- fun to use and will have me playing around for hours upon end
- good range of useable sounds “out the box”, but also highly tweakable for making new sounds and modulating them with filters, LFOs etc.
- something i can go straight to with any track to get a nice bass sound
- being able to make nice analogue-type drums would be an advantage but not the primary function
- clean, deep, ace sounds
- possibility to input samples and alter/modulate/filter etc.
what im not too bothered about
- acoustic instrument modelling type stuff.
- cliched sounds of current dance music trends
- multi-instrument appregiation type functions
- high tech pads, high tech basslines i couldnt design myself from scratch
what kind of music/sounds i want to make
- jungle type bass and sounds circa metalheads platinum breakz vol.1 + 2
- glitchy, breakcorey, idm type nonsense
- electroacoustic
oh and i was also wondering if a hardware sampler would be worthwhile for getting those 97 type d&b sounds, or should i just look at kontakt for that?
okay thats quite a long post any pointers or anecdotes on what you use or rate appreciated! or perhaps i should just go back and look at VSTs like reaktor more??