3 synths

some local guy is selling SH-101 for 700eur, and Access Virus Classic for 600eur.

they're both in very good shape, from what I have seen.

a nearby music-shop has brand new Nord Lead 2x rack for 685eur.

I don't know which one of these is the best pick, since they all seem to be excellent

synths..600eur is a lot of money, but that's as far as I could go now.

do you have any suggestions? what would you prefer?

SH-101 seems a bit expensive plus no MIDI, so depending on what your setup is might not be ideal... out of the three for the money i'd probably go for the Virus.

700 for an SH-101? That's really stupid. I bet my left nut mine is just as mint, and i've paid half for it. The Virus might be a very good choice for you.

If you have some outboard fx get the nord hands down. If not go for the virus. That's too much for a 101.

Thanks everyone..The guy who is selling sh-101 claims that the price is realistic because it

hasn't been used much, and because of mod grip which costs around 100eur alone.

I still think it's a bit too much.

  On 10/24/2010 at 5:22 PM, Brandi_B said:

If you have some outboard fx get the nord hands down. If not go for the virus. That's too much for a 101.

  On 10/25/2010 at 9:33 PM, naos said:

The guy who is selling sh-101 claims that the price is realistic because it

hasn't been used much, and because of mod grip which costs around 100eur alone.

lol bullshit artist.

101's go for anywhere around and inbetween £275-400, depending on condition, etc.

unless it's a limited edition colour and in mint condition it's not really worth paying anymore than £450-500 max.

if you really want the 101 ask him if he'll sell it without the mod grip. you don't really need that.

i'd go for the Virus. it's the best synth for the money, imo.

All hail our Lord God Virus. (Get the Virus)

+1

you should ask yourself what you want from a synth. or do you just want any synth? the ones you listed are very different from eachother.

I think we have a winner!

  On 10/28/2010 at 8:27 PM, Retape said:

you should ask yourself what you want from a synth. or do you just want any synth? the ones you listed are very different from eachother.

I want a piece of hardware with quality synth sounds and an interface which

is not restricted to my daw.

nord or virus.

i prefer the nord sound, but youll get more bang for your buck with the virus (more parts)

  On 10/29/2010 at 12:17 AM, naos said:

I think we have a winner!

 

  On 10/28/2010 at 8:27 PM, Retape said:

you should ask yourself what you want from a synth. or do you just want any synth? the ones you listed are very different from eachother.

 

 

I want a piece of hardware with quality synth sounds and an interface which

is not restricted to my daw.

Monomachine

  On 10/29/2010 at 12:17 AM, naos said:

I want a piece of hardware with quality synth sounds and an interface which

is not restricted to my daw.

ask the guy to half the price of the 101 and then buy that. then learn how to make your own quality synth sounds.

the 101 is a simple single oscillator monosynth, but is a very good user-friendly learning tool for synthesis/ synthesizer beginners.

then buy the Virus off him later. :)

but of course with the 101 you'd need to buy a midi-cv converter aswell if you want to play it from your DAW.

otherwise you will be restriced to playing it by hand in the old fashioned way. and that's not very 'techno' now is it. lol :)

to go slightly off topic, I'm looking at getting either a Roland JX-8P, Waldorf Pulse, Roland JX-3P or a Korg DW-8000 at the moment... Realise the Pulse is the odd one out in terms of it being a rack mount monosynth, but I keep hearing very good things about them....

  On 10/29/2010 at 8:08 PM, BCM said:

to go slightly off topic, I'm looking at getting either a Roland JX-8P, Waldorf Pulse, Roland JX-3P or a Korg DW-8000 at the moment... Realise the Pulse is the odd one out in terms of it being a rack mount monosynth, but I keep hearing very good things about them....

I would highly suggest the DW-8000 over all of those. 8 voices, 16 (sampled) waveforms, analog filter, 512ms digital delay...nice hybrid. Editing is a bit, eh, but they are great sounding. I've never owned one but played with one a good number of times in various stores/friends houses.

I love my pulse to death and would never sell it, but you're going to get more out of the DW-8000. Buy the pulse as an afterthought. I love Waldorf synths so I'm biased anyway, but the pulse covers classic roland to fat distorted moog, and then has its own unique sound at high res.

Actually i would say just get both. Given current american prices, I'd say you should be able to get the korg for around £150 and the pulse for no more than £250 but hopefully more around £200.

  On 10/29/2010 at 8:34 PM, Brandi_B said:

  On 10/29/2010 at 8:08 PM, BCM said:

to go slightly off topic, I'm looking at getting either a Roland JX-8P, Waldorf Pulse, Roland JX-3P or a Korg DW-8000 at the moment... Realise the Pulse is the odd one out in terms of it being a rack mount monosynth, but I keep hearing very good things about them....

 

I would highly suggest the DW-8000 over all of those. 8 voices, 16 (sampled) waveforms, analog filter, 512ms digital delay...nice hybrid. Editing is a bit, eh, but they are great sounding. I've never owned one but played with one a good number of times in various stores/friends houses.

 

I love my pulse to death and would never sell it, but you're going to get more out of the DW-8000. Buy the pulse as an afterthought. I love Waldorf synths so I'm biased anyway, but the pulse covers classic roland to fat distorted moog, and then has its own unique sound at high res.

 

Actually i would say just get both. Given current american prices, I'd say you should be able to get the korg for around £150 and the pulse for no more than £250 but hopefully more around £200.

?

the Pulse is good but the Mopho has stolen the baton in this department

apples vs oranges

also my main dissuasion against the pulse is a lot of people do not like the sound of the resonance on the filter, and that it looses so much volume at hi res. Doesn't bother me, i love everything about it.

also the mopho is also awesome. Sounds completely different than the pulse tho. More options of course. Lack of interface is bad tho. Mopho kb is win, but also a lot more expensive then the items discussed above. :)

  On 10/29/2010 at 8:08 PM, BCM said:

to go slightly off topic, I'm looking at getting either a Roland JX-8P, Waldorf Pulse, Roland JX-3P or a Korg DW-8000 at the moment... Realise the Pulse is the odd one out in terms of it being a rack mount monosynth, but I keep hearing very good things about them....

These are all wicked synths, but what you need is totally relative to what you already have. I cant be arsed checking the studio pix thread, so what do you already have?

Random impressions of those 4...

A mate has a JX10 - twin engined version of the JX8P - fucking gorgeous. Dunno how much of the gorgeous comes from both engines in full flight, but fair to say we spend a lot of time on the "Soundtrack" preset holding down huge chords and pretending we're Angelo Badalamenti. Anecdotally, the JX8P is quite powerful but it's just about the most clinical sounding vintage analogue out there. JX10 is way lusher but they often sell for cheaper because you have to modify them before you can program them via midi (say wha?)

My best mate has a JX3P and another mate used to have the guitar synth with the same engine. Fucking lovely and massively underrated synth. It's become his go to synth for everything and he swears by it. So does Dam-Funk FYI. Less powerful than the 8 and 10 and very crude midi, but it has a lot more of a distinctive character. The oscillator sync ("metal") function lets you do all that crazy Japan Ghosts stuff...

Korg analogue filters are awesome and they sound very different to the roland/curtis and moog ones. IMO that's going to become more important as the Mopho and Tetra sell by the billions and EVERYONE starts rocking the curtis sound. Definitely worth having a Korg filter in your studio.

Dunno much about the Pulse other than all the demos out there say "blah" and brandi_b says "don't believe the demos"

Sup Brandi? You still in TX?

There are two non fancy pulse "demos" i did. Mostly with two memory boys in stereo.

I love the pulse like i said. But it's mono vs all those polys you listed. Granted you get a lot out of those 3 oscs. If you were going to buy any of those rolands why not just get a 60 or 106?

Like I said. Buy both. You've already got a 101 correct? I think, possibly some other roland stuff.

Also AW, sup, i'm in NC right now migrating to the next job site.

yeah I've got a few other roland bits and bobs, I would love a Juno 106, but they're selling for stupid money these days and also have a voice chip problem....JX8-P is more reliable I think, plus if you get the programmer for it, very easy to use...

if your after a 101 then I also think 106 is a better buy for this era of Roland and they go for almost the same price but you gain full MIDI CC memories ect

  On 10/30/2010 at 3:34 PM, BCM said:

yeah I've got a few other roland bits and bobs, I would love a Juno 106, but they're selling for stupid money these days and also have a voice chip problem....JX8-P is more reliable I think, plus if you get the programmer for it, very easy to use...

JX3Ps sell for cheaper than Junos and they are more powerful and just generally cooler synths. Go the 3P!

My next synth is gonna be a synth which has good resonance that doesn't eat away too much low-end, like Brandi was talking about. The Alpha-Juno 1 has this problem.

Maybe gonna get an MFB some time - or something else. Recommendations appreciated!

  On 10/30/2010 at 10:17 PM, Berk said:

My next synth is gonna be a synth which has good resonance that doesn't eat away too much low-end, like Brandi was talking about. The Alpha-Juno 1 has this problem.

Open your Alpha Juno's filter right up and play it through a Monotron. Done deal.