Synthesizers: your most loved?, your least loved?

[Hanon_CTS]

Hello all,
Of all the synthesizers that you've ever owned.
Which ones did you love most ?
love least ?
Or would like to have owned but never got the chance ?

Almost a tie for first place with the Prophet 5, but I really loved the Roland Jupiter 8 the best
For me, it had the most intuitive control panel of it's time and the greatest range of sonic possibilities of any synth.


I really hated the Polymoog Synthesizer model 203a.
Mostly it was a reliability issue because it was always breaking down and wasn't very sonically diverse, just an organ with a rather limited, single Moog filter.


I would have really liked to own an Elka Synthex,
or a Yamaha CS-80 "the CS-60 and 70M was the closest I ever got"..

Or possibly even a Yamaha GX-1.

How about your synth experiences?

Cheers, Hanon

[BiscoMix]

Most loved: Minimoog Voyager. If I had to keep just one synth that would be my choice. Endless possibilities, the best sounding of all.

Least loved: Roland JX- and Juno-Series. Overpriced and overhyped. The sound is thin and uninspiring.

On my wishlisht: Elka Synthex, Prophet T8, Prophet VS, Oberheim OB-8, Crumar Spirit

My rig:

[Hanon_CTS]

Hello BiscoMix,
Welcome to the forums!
Wow! what an impressive array.
I see lots of familiar gear in there.

What do you think of the Prophet 08? I almost bought one.

Cheers, Hanon

[BiscoMix]

It may be less cutting-edge than the Mono/Poly-Evolver, but the Prophet '08 still is a really, really decent synth! It is capable of creating incredibly smooth strings and pads (that's what I use it for most of the time, I can upload some string/pad samples if desired). Best (affordable) analog polyphonic today. And puts all virtual analogs back in their place. If I had the money, however, I would have opted for the Omega-8 from Studio Electronics.

I fortunately paid some extra cash for the "pot edition" I can highly recommend it. Overall build quality is superb. The name "Prophet" rightfully figures on it.

[doctorno]

Oh, I bought and sold so many synthesizers ...

My most loved ones were: the synth section in my Nord Stage EX (oh, yes, I am serious), the Nord Modular G2, the Nord Lead 2, the Waldorf Pulse, the Roland Juno 106 and the Korg Poly 61.

I cannot say, that I had synthesizers, that I hated, but my biggest disappointments were the Alesis Micron and the Roland GAIA.

Some synths were somewhere in between. I like the Waldorf Q+ and the Blofeld for all their options and possibilities for example, but Waldorf synths always sound "cold and digital" compared to Nords. I like the Novation K-Station and all the other Novation synths - they are great value for money, nothing more, nothing less. I like the Moog Little Phatty, but all this space and weight for just one voice? And I also like the Mopho and the Prophet ´08 by DSI, but the Nords can sound so close to these that in the end a "real analogue specialist" was not what I decided to keep.

I also like things like the Doepfer modular system, but I will not spend my money on one of these ...

Right now I only have this stripped down synth section in my Nord Stage Ex and some software synths. And although I sometimes miss synths I formerly owned (like the Roland Juno or Nord Lead 2) for the fun of real-time-tweaking, I must say that I can do everything I want with the Nord Stage and a few plug-ins (Tassman 4, Korg Polysix, Korg Wavestation and ImpOscar f.e.).

[DJKeys]

My Favorites:

Prophet-5
OB-8
DX-7
Nord Wave (really, no kidding!)
Korg WaveStation A/D- (still have it)

[Ecaroh]

In this thread I am a kind of a heretic: I only use VAs. In fact I had a real analog once: DSI Tetra, which I did not like that much: too few knobs, too few voices, sound was not my kind of "warm".

At the moment I have Arturia Origin desktop, which is kind of a love and hate relationship. I like the general modular and template concept very much, It's very complex thing but same time very simple to use. It has 32 voices and 4 part multitimbrality (hard to believe, but this is quite rare thing to find with hardware VAs). It has a nice warm analog sound (TAE engine) and (at the moment) well made Minimoog and JP8 templates with nice graphical GUIs. The main concept is the modular system: you can put together different modules (Oscillators, filters etc.) from Minimoog, ARP, Prophet, JP8 etc. to have very unique sounds.

Now the downsides: it's has a great potentiality to be almost anything, but this potential still waits for its realization. Arturia has promised to give us templates like CS-80,ARP2600 or Prophet V, but this promise was given on 2008 (or close). There are many frustrated owners waiting for updates. Arturia is painfully slow to develop this and I fear that time will pass and Origin will loose its battle to some newer "Kronos" with touchscreen and 100 voices and 20 analog emulations. Other thing is, that Origin should develop to also more modern direction: users (myself included) have asked Arturia to make some modern modules like supersaw.

This critic been said, Origin is quite nice companion to my Nord setup. It gives me nice analog type pads under NP or NS2 E-pianos and same time I can play very moogish leads (which sound quality, I must admit, I haven't managed to get from NS2 synth...).

[ThisPoison]

With the exception of an old Korg M900SP I sold when I was 18 and a SH101 I stupidly P.X.'d against a Yamaha CX5M when it came out, I've kept every synth I've ever had. Guess that means I don't really hate any of them.

That said, the fact that my mint Polymoog has never worked for more than a week is annoying. I don't use the old digitals too much, so I guess I don't like the D50, SQ1, DX7 and CZ3000 as much as I used to. The JD800 is a useable exception in digital, which I still enjoy.

I love the Andromeda, Voyager, Prophet 08, Oscar and Oddyssey. I don't use the A100 as much as I thought, but love the Technosaurus Mini Monsters and they interface well with both the A100 and a nice 5 Osc Elektor Formant I picked up recently. I love the Juno 6, but the JX8P or the Alpha Junos less so. The Matrix 6Rs came to life when I got the access programmer and remain favourites.

I love the OBMX - I find it hard to see the bad points it's notorious for - I work around them or use a different synth. I'd love more voices in it, but then it's £££££££ again.

Given my age, I got to play some of the big polys in the music stores in my late teens and early twenties, I have bad memories of the JP6 and haven't wanted one since. I loved the Rhodes Chroma and missed a great one which I regret. I found the Memorymoog overwhelming, but would like to try again some day. I just didn't get the Yamaha CS(x)M range or the Korg Sigma/Lamda/Delta range at the time (and couldn't afford them anyway). The Juno 6 and Polysix were great, and I eventually got both. The OBs were a dream to play, the JP8 never seemed to be in store (although I saw one in 89 for £450 in poor shape and let it pass). Oddly it was mostly through headphones in the stores.

When the big Polys were affordable in the post DX7 crash, I didn't have the cash to buy them, so would still love a Prophet 5, OB8/X, JP8, Synthex and a CS80 - but all seem unlikely with current prices. I have a nice Trident II which I like, but it never felt in the same league as the other big Polys (but can produce some great sounds all the same).

The Nord Lead 2 remains interesting, and even the supernova has it's modelling moments.The ESQ1 is also interesting, but I bought an SQ1 by accident first (doh!). eBay should limit the impact of drunk surfing and BINs!

I did manage to get a lot of old Monosynths before the prices got silly, so I still find surprises in the old monos too - CS5, Micropreset, Explorer 1, Jen SX, SH101, SH09 etc can be refreshingly creative, often due to their limitations. The Spirit still appeals, as does the Syrinx and ARP2600 - more empty dreams at current prices.

I have to say though, I play live with one keyboard these days - Nord Stage Classic and it's perfect for what I need. What has surprised me is Nanostudio on the iPad, which I now use for most writing - Logic has become a "finishing tool" rather than a writing tool which surprises me greatly.

When I think of the rigs I used to play live with, I thank Nord for the Stage, and although the synth section is hardly complex, I can get a "live" version of most of what I need from the synth - so thumbs up.

Funny though, writing this I am back in McCormacks Music or Thompsons Music in the early 1980s playing with the synths, and it feels as exciting now as it did then.

[Hanon_CTS]

Hello ThisPoison,
You have some very interesting synth experiences.
The prices for vintage analogs are just disgusting
I don't think that the prices will ever adjust.

I remember vividly when the DX-7 came out and most keyboardists bought in their analogs to use as trade fodder.
In those days you could buy a Minimoog D for $500 USD. ARP Odyssey for $400, and ARP 2600 for about $750.
The DX-7 was king and everyone had to have one, although most couldn't program it "and still can't"

I'm interested in hearing what you didn't like about the Jupiter 6.

I completely agree about the JD-800. I remember when it first hit stores. It was like a breath of fresh air in the vacuum of control-less instruments.

Cheers, Hanon

[Hanon_CTS]

In this thread I am a kind of a heretic: I only use VAs.

Hi Jackson,
I don't think so.
I was careful not to specify just analogs. I predict that there will come a day when virtual analogs become so good as to be indistinguishable from the vintage analogs. I've owned a lot of great VA synths too.
I really liked the Novation Supernova II and the Access Virus KB they were really great when it came to controls, panel layout, and sound creation.
For now my main VA is the Korg Radias Rack "I have the EXB-Radias board in my M3-88 also" but it lacks a lot of realtime editing capability.

Cheers, Hanon