New to Hardware Synths

I've been using VST-Synths and software for the past few years, and I'm starting to get interested in hardware synths. Where do you think I should start? I'd be really interested in finding some hardware that isn’t hard to learn at first, and also has good sound quality. I'm also worried about the price. What kinds of prices am I going to be spending for a slandered "rack" synth? I would greatly appreciate any recommendations.

i only have one synth, but the sh101 is amazin, and not especially expensive

dont take my word for it though

  Mental Eclipse said:

I've been using VST-Synths and software for the past few years, and I'm starting to get interested in hardware synths. Where do you think I should start? I'd be really interested in finding some hardware that isn’t hard to learn at first, and also has good sound quality. I'm also worried about the price. What kinds of prices am I going to be spending for a slandered "rack" synth? I would greatly appreciate any recommendations.

it all depends...you can get something like a roland JV1010 rack synth/sound module for £100 odd second hand and they're pretty versatile - obviously you will need a MIDI controller and keyboard etc to use it though......Novation Bass Station Rack's are also a good rackmount synth and go for about £175...you can get a brand new Korg MS2000R for about £370....like i say - all depends on how much you have to spend and what you want to do with it.

If you want to go completely hardware, then you will obviously need some drum sounds and some synth sounds to make a whole track so you could get a Novation DrumStation Rack and a Bass Sation Rack which would give you a good range of sounds, probably looking at about £300 - £400 for both of these second hand....then you will have to get a mixer, maybe some outboard effects and obviously something to record into (you can use you computer for this though).

I reckon a basic rack mounted setup + mixer + effects will cost about £600.

Well, what are you looking to do with it?

Do you want a big, multitimbral beast (that is, it can play multiple parts at once.. keys, drums, etc all in one synth)? Do you just want some acid basslines? Do you just want some screaming leads? There's an awful lot of kit out there.... more direction I Think would be helpfull...

I'm still planning on using software for the most part (Especially for Sequencing). I'd only be using hardware as a way to customize and create more sounds (Bass lines, Synth Leads, ect...). I'm interested in having more control over my music and sounds, and from what I've heard hardware can provide a better way of control. If this isn't the case, maybe hardware isn't what I should invest in. It is something that I'd like to try and see how it works out for my music at least. I'm looking at the "MicroKORG" right now, and it’s gotten a lot of good reviews. It's about the most I can spend at the moment, but it may be worth getting depending on the quality of the sound.

I would go with the BassStation for your first hw synth.

It costs a 3rd of what a MicroKorg does, it's true analogue, so it will sound way different to anything you can do in software, it has lots of knobs for easy realtime tweaking, it specialises in bass and lead sounds, so it will be good as the 'featured' instrument in an otherwise software mix.

  analogue wings said:

I would go with the BassStation for your first hw synth.

 

It costs a 3rd of what a MicroKorg does, it's true analogue, so it will sound way different to anything you can do in software, it has lots of knobs for easy realtime tweaking, it specialises in bass and lead sounds, so it will be good as the 'featured' instrument in an otherwise software mix.

yes indeed. fuck that MicroKorg shit.

if you're mainly interested in control though, why not just get one of them USB MIDI keyboard controller thingies with lots of knobs and sliders on.

Like this:

Just hook that up to all your soft synths and tweak away!

I also saw this on ebay which I've never seen before and looks wicked. It's the Korg Legacy Collection soft synths (which I have), but packaged with a USB Korg MS-20 controller (that looks exactly like a real MS-20) so you can hook the software MS-20 up to this and tweak it all in real time etc and feel like you actually have a Korg MS-20 for real! It's at £200 at the minute....less than a day to go though!

Yamaha CS-5, moog rogue are really cheap analogue bass synths

  Mental Eclipse said:

I'm still planning on using software for the most part (Especially for Sequencing). I'd only be using hardware as a way to customize and create more sounds (Bass lines, Synth Leads, ect...). I'm interested in having more control over my music and sounds, and from what I've heard hardware can provide a better way of control. If this isn't the case, maybe hardware isn't what I should invest in. It is something that I'd like to try and see how it works out for my music at least. I'm looking at the "MicroKORG" right now, and it’s gotten a lot of good reviews. It's about the most I can spend at the moment, but it may be worth getting depending on the quality of the sound.

Korg is releasing a new microkorg, so you might want to hold off from buying a microkorg

http://www.korg.com/gear/prod_info.asp?a_p...p;category_id=1