Undiscovered synth gems

[tehlord]

As somebody on a relatively tight budget and a hankering for hardware I've discovered that buying stuff that nobody else has heard of (relatively speaking) is a good move. So far I've bought these in the last month or two :-

Korg MS2000B - Great VA synth with a cracking vocoder (including the essential gooseneck) for £350. Mint as well. Boxed, manual - everything.

Novation KS Rack - Another nice simple VA that i'd never even heard of. Very similar to the V-station VST but with real knobs. £180.

EMU Orbit 9090V2 - This i'll pick up in a couple of weeks and is probably slightly more known than the other two? Just under a £100 and has some wicked filters on it.


My question really, is what else is out there that I could expand my arsenal with?

I'm on the lookout for a JV10/2080 with the vintage card but it has to be mint too.

It's like a disiease I tell you.

[terminal3]

Whoever here told me to seek out and buy a Novation Nova was a wise person indeed.

VERY analogue-sounding, even though it's not analogue. Got it for a great price (can't remember exactly but well under £300), and I don't nearly abuse it enough, it's so deep. Even the FX are great. So I vote for that.

[tehlord]

Originally Posted by terminal3

Whoever here told me to seek out and buy a Novation Nova was a wise person indeed.

VERY analogue-sounding, even though it's not analogue. Got it for a great price (can't remember exactly but well under £300), and I don't nearly abuse it enough, it's so deep. Even the FX are great. So I vote for that.

Great looking synths those. I think the KS is fairly similar?

I'm also on the lookout for an old alpha Juno 2 that was the first synth I ever bought

[JAYDMF]

Ahh yeah the KS rack is awesome, i was debating one for ages but at the time they were going for around £300 on fleabay and i need keys so i opted for the xstation (really wish i had the ks tho). Novas and supernovas are awesome. Wavestation SRs are great if your not too worried about not having the vector joystick and the big screen and they go for about £150.

Other greats are the MAM383 and its clone (both are tb303 clones). Very occasionally you find an SH32 flying around on the bay (i love them but never have money when i see them to snap it up).

Waldorf microQ lites ive seen go for not much and it is the full micro Q but locked down so if you wanna spend some cash later on you can unlock the full 26 voices and 16 part multi timbral side of things.

[EdRyan]

My Yamaha TX7 was a steal. Purchased for £30. But never used it since lol..

[tehlord]

Hmmm, I bought a DX7 in 1989 for £900. £30 is still too expensive I think

[tehlord]

Yamaha SY85 on Ebay now, mint, all original disks and manuals and it's 7 miles from me. Starting bid of £100.

[mutilatedlip]

Originally Posted by tehlord

Yamaha SY85 on Ebay now, mint, all original disks and manuals and it's 7 miles from me. Starting bid of £100.

I used to have an SY85 - cost me a fortune in about '92. Out of all my synths, I have least fondest memories of this. Very dull!

[tehlord]

Originally Posted by mutilatedlip

I used to have an SY85 - cost me a fortune in about '92. Out of all my synths, I have least fondest memories of this. Very dull!

I had one too in about 92-93 and loved it

[sureno]

Originally Posted by tehlord

I had one too in about 92-93 and loved it

i think around that time i had one too, oh no hold on i was still playing with he man figures

[tehlord]

Originally Posted by sureno

i think around that time i had one too, oh no hold on i was still playing with he man figures

I truly believe that you still have them to hand

[waxxy]

one of the best sounding synths ive ever bought is the roland xp30 its got the same sounds as the jv1080 plus more and it comes with 3 expansion cards built in (session,orchestra,techno) best thing about it is alot of the sounds dont sound dated and the bass sounds are still some of the phatest ive ever heard .

the other plug in cards go for around 30-40 pounds on ebay and i recommend you get the hip hop,dance,house cards as these contain excellent sounds and samples ..in fact the dance card was recalled at the time because of legal reasons over the sounds contained..it had samples done by mouse t and they were liscenced to another company who wernt happy i think it was loopmasters.

i got my xp30 a couple of years ago and at the time of buying i was gonna get the jv1080 until i was told it was cheaper the buy the keyboard version because of the extra cards installed which at the time were around 140 each !! i paid about 800 pounds for it at the time but ive seen them go on ebay now for about 200--350 depending if the cards are still installed.if your buying a jv1080 dont get this instead it also has semi weighted keys too.

another good cheapo item to buy are the tg33 and the fb01 the fb01 has some of the clasic dx7 sounds on it and the tg33 has the vector joystick on it so you can morf from one sound to another
it has some excellent crisp bass,synth perc sounds on it and also has multiple out puts on the back it also has multiple fx banks in it so each output can have its own fx or you can send it out cold and add your own fx to the sounds later,ive still got both of these and use them every now and then and the fb01 is really good for thickning up and lifeless bass sound ..

both of the above synths useally go for under 40 pounds on ebay.

synhs id avoid are the casio ones they sound very dated now also some of the synths had a timeout switch in them so if your creating a song and your using it then you go away and make a cup of tea or get something to eat the bloody thing will switch it self off and if youve edited any of the sounds theyll be lost by the time you switch it back on..very stupid idea ..
in the late 80s early 90s i had a few because they were cheap at the time i had the cz1000,cz3000,fz1,cz1,cz101 and the only one i thought was ok was the cz1000 and that wasnt mind blowing ..and the fz1 id avoid like the plague i had a akai s1000 at the time and the fz1 was just too unstable to use on stage or for very long times in the studio i only had it a few weeks before i returned it and got a juno 106..if your after a sampler get the akais there rock solid the only thing that goes on them is the lcd screens but as long as your working in a well lit studio the lcd problem wont affect you.go for the akai s3000xl thats there best one they ever did or go for the s6000 with the removable remote lcd screen but that still goes for over 300 pounds on ebay and the s3000xl useally goes for 50 pounds which im gutted about because mine cost me 1500 pounds when they first came out !!

[mutilatedlip]

I've still got an old Control Synthesis Deep Bass Nine sat in the rack.

It's great - not so much as a TB303 clone like it was designed. More of a general bass machine.

I rarely use it now, though - it's a good bit of kit. I've read a lot online about the potential to fiddle with the pots and change the filter range which - is quite low. However, I never really did the squelchy thing with it. It's all about the solid bass line.

It must sit and hate the Phatty and Mopho that are next to it.

[mutilatedlip]

Originally Posted by waxxy

.go for the akai s3000xl thats there best one they ever did or go for the s6000 with the removable remote lcd screen but that still goes for over 300 pounds on ebay and the s3000xl useally goes for 50 pounds which im gutted about because mine cost me 1500 pounds when they first came out !!

I've got an Akai Z4 and would never get rid of it - great bit of kit. Has anyone else got another Z4 or Z8 they want to get rid of? I'd look to swap.

[JAYDMF]

Just snapped up a TG-33 for £75 so cant complain. not a go to synth, but it does do some extremely cool pad sounds if you play about long enough and its got the old vector joystick for a bit of sweepage