What's the best Virtual Analogue Synth for £500

I didn't say it was bad! tuss-in-a-box.

  On 11/9/2011 at 1:14 AM, ganus said:

Yeah, really though Promo, why do you want a VA synth? With that much cash you can buy an SH-101, or a get a Dark Energy and have a little cash left over. If you want poly, you could get both a Juno 106 and a JX-3P for that. Isn't having deep, warm sound, and an instrument with actual lasting value, more important than gimmicky controls?

in the UK you couldn't get both of those (106, JX-3P), you could get a 106 and have about 50 quid change left over.

i guess VA's are good because you can do more with them than most polysynths from 30 years ago, and they will all have decent MIDI.

it's not worth looking at vintage analogues unless you know where to get them fixed imho

If I wanted to spend £500 on a VA, I'd probably get a Virus Snow. It has a nice, compact form-factor and the VST integration sounds super handy. I have a Virus b that I really love, as well as a Nord Lead. The Virus is my clear favorite.

if it's got to be VA i'd highly recommend the Creamware stuff, although you don't see them up for sale that often. i think you can pick up a Pro12 ASB or a MiniMax ASB for around £500 second hand. I used to have the Pro12 but ended up swapping it for a FR Revolution (bit of a bad swap on my part, but ended up selling the Revolution for around £420 so didn't lose out too much).

MiniMax ASB:

Pro12 ASB: