list your favorite synths

I don't own much hardware ... only a Korg 05r/w, Roland JV1080 and Akai S2000. My fav is my Korg 05r/w cause its simple to use. The sounds aren't amazing but I like the Electric Pianos a lot.

VST wise that's tough. I've been playing with Basic 64 a lot which emulates the C64 so that's kinda my fav at the moment. Oh and Cheese Machine is an old favourite for oldskool analogue style lush strings.

I don't have much hardware, either. I've gone through a few synths (Poly800, SQ80, EA-1, ER-1, Matrix 6R, MicroQ) and samplers (S2000, S550, A5000) and beatboxes (606, 626, RY30, DDD-1) but now it's down to the Shruthi-1, Micro Modular, and TX81z for synths, MPC for sampling & sequencing, FX, and some random toys (SK1, gameboys, Buddha Machine, shortwave radio, etc.) for not taking it all too seriously.

I don't foresee adding much to it at this point other than an upgraded mixer and the 2 aforementioned synths on my lust list. Might even have to let that TX81Z go... if I keep it around it'll probably be for sentimental value since it was my first synth. And it does still manage to surprise me on occasion.

  On 12/16/2011 at 6:13 AM, sweepstakes said:

Shruthi-1

man i want one of these. They are reasonably cheap as well.

  On 12/16/2011 at 10:29 PM, sneaksta303 said:

  On 12/16/2011 at 6:13 AM, sweepstakes said:

Shruthi-1

man i want one of these. They are reasonably cheap as well.

Yeah, especially if you are smart about sourcing your own parts and burn the MCU yourself. It strikes a really good balance between having a lot of character and being very versatile. Balance is the overall theme, hough it does feel videogamey/8-bit...mostly in a good way. Everything about it feels very considered. Definitely the sexiest kit product I've seen.

Word of warning though: make sure you're confident in your soldering abilities. I didn't know what I was doing when I started working on it and it was very frustrating, especially when all the vet builders said it took like 2 hours. Which is true if you solder properly.

  On 12/16/2011 at 6:13 AM, sweepstakes said:

Hardware: Shruthi-1. Finally got it working, it took me months because I was soldering like a moron and let my frustration get the best of me. This thing sounds so good, it's like the hybrid digital/analog thing the SQ80 I used to have was shooting for, but simultaneously rawer, smoother, punchier, fatter, tighter. It's also my first monosynth... I really, really like this way of jamming/constructing melodies, much better than polysynths or tracking. It just feels so damn good. Music hasn't been this much fun in a long time.

nice kit! I used to own a DSI Evolver, this could be a nice replacement..

Software: Thor. Hardware: Doepfer A-100. Both of these are reasonably arbitrary, based on factors that don't necessarily pertain to any given other person. I could quite happily make many albums using either one of these on its own. It's nice to have only the clutter of one synth that you know inside and out. If you have something really versatile, it's pretty easy to stop thinking about what other synths you want to get to achieve certain sounds, and start thinking about the one or two components you want to get to achieve that kind of sound using mostly what you already have. And I could go on for (yet more) days about how awesome the A-188-1 is...

  On 5/7/2011 at 10:34 PM, chris moss acid said:

in my honest professional opinion.

 

the 101 is better then a 303.

Agreed. The TB-303 is great at acidlines with one particular distinct sound, whereas the SH-101 is pretty versatile, with everything at your fingertips. Out of all the synths I'd owned, it was the one I missed the most. I never really missed the 303.

  On 12/17/2011 at 12:04 AM, ZoeB said:

  On 5/7/2011 at 10:34 PM, chris moss acid said:

in my honest professional opinion.

 

the 101 is better then a 303.

 

Agreed. The TB-303 is great at acidlines with one particular distinct sound, whereas the SH-101 is pretty versatile, with everything at your fingertips. Out of all the synths I'd owned, it was the one I missed the most. I never really missed the 303.

most of the time i have my 303 plugged into my 101 via cv/gate and compose acid lines through the 101 sounds not the 303. guess im just lazy or somthing.

i think the 2 together is really nice though, wouldnt like to own a 101 w/o a 303 and i wuldnt like to own a 303 w/o a 101

sofot: synplant

hard: well theres no like spiffy name but it looks like this

Damn Sweepstakes, I just looked up the Shruthi-1, and it is definitely my next gear purchase. I'm definitely going per-assembled though, because I fucked up my last kit. Still cheap for how fucking great it sounds though.

  On 12/16/2011 at 11:02 PM, missingsense said:

  On 12/16/2011 at 6:13 AM, sweepstakes said:

Hardware: Shruthi-1. Finally got it working, it took me months because I was soldering like a moron and let my frustration get the best of me. This thing sounds so good, it's like the hybrid digital/analog thing the SQ80 I used to have was shooting for, but simultaneously rawer, smoother, punchier, fatter, tighter. It's also my first monosynth... I really, really like this way of jamming/constructing melodies, much better than polysynths or tracking. It just feels so damn good. Music hasn't been this much fun in a long time.

nice kit! I used to own a DSI Evolver, this could be a nice replacement..

That's funny because I really wanted one before I got the Shruthi but I wanted to get electronics experience and the Shruthi was cheaper so I got it instead. Then I fucked up the build the first time around and it took months to get it sorted, and during that whole time I was kicking myself for not saving a little longer and getting a used Evolver.

Now I'm pretty happy with my choice. Although the Evolver still seems like a blast, I would rather scratch that particular itch with a Monomachine.

  On 12/17/2011 at 12:32 AM, ganus said:

Damn Sweepstakes, I just looked up the Shruthi-1, and it is definitely my next gear purchase. I'm definitely going per-assembled though, because I fucked up my last kit. Still cheap for how fucking great it sounds though.

Hell yeah man. It sounds way better than a ~$200 kit has any right to sound. I would build one for ya if you were in my town, it was fun to build once I pulled my head outta my arse.

  On 12/17/2011 at 12:42 AM, sweepstakes said:

  On 12/16/2011 at 11:02 PM, missingsense said:

  On 12/16/2011 at 6:13 AM, sweepstakes said:

Hardware: Shruthi-1. Finally got it working, it took me months because I was soldering like a moron and let my frustration get the best of me. This thing sounds so good, it's like the hybrid digital/analog thing the SQ80 I used to have was shooting for, but simultaneously rawer, smoother, punchier, fatter, tighter. It's also my first monosynth... I really, really like this way of jamming/constructing melodies, much better than polysynths or tracking. It just feels so damn good. Music hasn't been this much fun in a long time.

nice kit! I used to own a DSI Evolver, this could be a nice replacement..

 

That's funny because I really wanted one before I got the Shruthi but I wanted to get electronics experience and the Shruthi was cheaper so I got it instead. Then I fucked up the build the first time around and it took months to get it sorted, and during that whole time I was kicking myself for not saving a little longer and getting a used Evolver.

 

Now I'm pretty happy with my choice. Although the Evolver still seems like a blast, I would rather scratch that particular itch with a Monomachine.

I liked the evolver because of it's 4 sequencers, you could basically drive the sequencers anywhere, including all the 4 osc's seperately. they are tuned via semitones and they can all run with different lengths. so really interesting. you can also hook em up to any other parameter.. really lots of fun. there's this strange limitation that you can only drive all the oscs together via midi, which is a shame, but it's a monosynth at heart anyway.... if I see it cheap somewhere I'll definetly get it again.

The Shruthi kit is more interesting to me now though, because it's cheaper and so many nice oscilator things going on + it has sweepable wavetables, which I crave.

kewl robert i wanted to get either a microwaveXT (again) or a DSI evolver. with a sherman filterbank on the side.

gotsta look up "the shuriti kit"

damn dude my ultimate wishlist synth is the microwaveXTk, if I can get that money together and find a decent one for sale it is mine.

  On 12/17/2011 at 1:01 AM, missingsense said:

I liked the evolver because of it's 4 sequencers, you could basically drive the sequencers anywhere, including all the 4 osc's seperately. they are tuned via semitones and they can all run with different lengths. so really interesting. you can also hook em up to any other parameter.. really lots of fun. there's this strange limitation that you can only drive all the oscs together via midi, which is a shame, but it's a monosynth at heart anyway.... if I see it cheap somewhere I'll definetly get it again.

Yeah, the way you can target like even the sequence playback speed, stuff like that, seems killer. It seems like a great synth to just sit in a corner with some headphones and rock out for hours. With the Shruthi I can do that but I can't really record my sequences or anything without another device and it doesn't have a headphone output. I didn't see a lot of cool Evolver videos on Youtube, but there was this guy making some really goofy kinda disco acid with two evolvers and an MPC and I loved it.

  On 12/17/2011 at 1:01 AM, missingsense said:

The Shruthi kit is more interesting to me now though, because it's cheaper and so many nice oscilator things going on + it has sweepable wavetables, which I crave.

Yeah, plus supposedly you can load in your own tables, although I haven't tried that. And it's open source. There's a couple features I want to add to the firmware and I've already scoped out where I'd need to add one of them. Also Olivier is VERY supportive of the synth, he really works his tail off to help & answer people on the forum.

nice! will have to see how I'm going to finance this hehe.

I uploaded some old evolver takes on soundcloud, was meaning to do so anyway.

http://soundcloud.com/zeitgeber24/sets/evolver-sessions/

lard:

The Alesis Micron

loft:

Synth1 VSTi

Oh yeah, I had a Micron for a bit too. I forgot about that thing, lol. I really wanted to like that synth. It sounded so good except the squidgy attack on the envelope. But that one-knob interface... It still makes me sad to think about it. You are obviously much more patient than I.

Software: Animoog

Hardware: PPG Wave

I do have to say, that Animoog is great.

Vibrasynth (buzz additive vst with a rather distinct sound)

Greenmilk (vst that doesn't sound special on its own but the microtuning & chord parameter allow for much tonal experimentation)

Fairlight CMI (every 80s sound!)

Wavestation (like a consumer grade early 90s version of the CMI)

PS3100 (I am told it is like a few dozen MS20s taped together)

Soft:

synth1

FM8

the Korg Legacy Polysix

Synplant

DCAM Synth Squad

Hard (I don't own any, but I've used/recorded a bunch over the years & loved these the most):

101

Nord Modular

Virus TI

right now software: Loomer Aspect mostly

hardware: Waldorf microQ

  On 12/17/2011 at 1:08 PM, Cryptowen said:

PS3100 (I am told it is like a few dozen MS20s taped together)

If we're going by synths we've only heard of, why not go the whole hog and dream of having a PS-3300? Or better yet, three and a junction box. Although I'm not greedy, I'd be content with just one! :D