buying a synth for about €500, 520$, 270Ł

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-- buying a synth for about €500, 520$, 270Ł

Posted by teknasia on Jan-23-2005 09:45:

buying a synth for about €500, 520$, 270Ł

Hi all

I'm thiking of buying a synth..
I have like €500 (270Ł, 520$)

Is the juno-D (Roland) any good?
Of a second hand Virus B?
Who uses the juno-D?

I work with cubase SX and Reason 2.5
and my styl is trance, prog (duh )

I live in Belgium. Where can I buy new and second hand synths?
www.musicstore-koeln.de seems a good shop with fair prices.

thx all

Posted by staticblue on Jan-23-2005 10:00:

good question. Ive got 500 € aswell, let's buy a virus C and take half each.

Posted by teknasia on Jan-23-2005 10:06:

ok

I'll take the synth, u can take the box, the manual and the cables.

Posted by thecYrus on Jan-23-2005 10:32:

take a virus b it's imho the best synth in this price range. and the difference between a C and B is not worth the money..

i wouldn't go with the juno-d, it has nothing to do with the juno line, roland used this name only for marketing. perhaps you can grab a jp80x0 for the same money but it's not near the possibilities of a virus b.

Posted by Derivative on Jan-23-2005 15:44:

you wont find a virus b on ebay for Ł270. more like Ł400.

Posted by teknasia on Jan-25-2005 14:59:

what about a novation ks4?

Posted by ilalin on Jan-25-2005 17:50:

I have a KS rack. The synth is not bad but it's got its problems. Get a Nord or a Virus...

Posted by No Left Turn on Jan-26-2005 06:01:

i would take the virus if you can find one in that price range. lucky for me, i picked up a 2nd hand Virus B for $500US. we just picked up a Juno D for our studio and it's pretty badass. well worth the money but it's definitely no Virus.

definitely take the Virus B if you can find it that cheap... otherwise i'd recommend the Juno D or JP-8000/8080.

Posted by teknasia on Jan-26-2005 10:30:

or a novation nova?

Posted by nzo on Jan-26-2005 12:03:

Novation Supernova ? http://www.harmony-central.com/Synth/Data/Novation/

Posted by Derivative on Jan-26-2005 17:54:

ok. i think 'best' is being bandied about too much here. first off if you want a new synth you first have to think about what kinds of sounds you want to make. dont just buy a synth cuz loads of other did and said its good. you also have to like it, not just the sound of it but how you use it. how easy it is to program. how fun it is to program. how well its laid out.

its all well and good buying a DX7 if you like 80s synth pop but it'll be damn frustrating to make any patches on it. its all well and good buying a JP8000 cuz its 'the trance synth' and then realising a couple of months down the line you wanted realistic acoustic type sounds as in solar stone trance, not lots of detuned VA oscillators. in which case you should have looked into sample playback synths and/or workstations.

please tell us what kinds of sounds you want to create. please tell us if you prefer the feel and action of piano type keys as opposed to synth type keys. what about the types of sounds? bell like and harmonic tones (ala FM), warm fuzzy bassy but artificial (analogue or virual analogue), cold, crunchy digital sound (unsurprisingly, digital), wind type instrument sounds (physical modelling), real acoustic (sampled). theres so many things to think about.

if you dont like dark, very forward sounding, thick, warm, artificially bassy type sounds you wont like a virus. which ever way you spin it. although it can do a mind boggling variety of different sounds from lush pads, to plinks, to weird analogue type noises to distorted leads to whatever. for some reason (and this is possibly why its so popular, it always seem to have a characteristically bassy, underside to it and always it hovers on the slightly dark side or you can swing it that way easily enough with its FM capabilities and sub oscillators.

if you like that sound then go for it. i typically hear most of the virus sound coming out in hard house. especially the hard 303 acid lines, the distorted lab4'esque filter sweeped leads.

if you like something more understated, arguably more subtle characteristic sound you might like the supernova. the supernova isnt a very forward sounding synth. it makes much more understated, pad like or soft lead type sounds. yea a virus can do pads and soft sounds and so can a nord lead 2 but both of those seem to like turning things aggressive, fast. its just a weird thing that happens when you program it. again supernova is a VA so i wouldnt expect it to realistically compare to any real acoustic sound sources. but you can here it alot in certain types of deep house for those jazzy lulling kind electric piano type sounds. again if you like that, you'll love the supernova. it does those sounds very well (+ the effects on it are more extensive and controllable than the viruses). if you dont like that sound and intend to write gabba then you will have no use for the supernova. the keyboard version has an amazing keyboard although the virus keyboard is very nice too. the nord lead 2x keyboard is a bit shit and its alot more expensive than either supernova or virus b. the rack version is alot cheaper though.

if you intend to play any of these in the dark (gig with them) you got problems. not without light sources around you. especially with the supernova cuz its got blue writing on blue backing plate meaning you can see what the fuck you are programming even in dim light. UV light just makes everything turn purple.

you can find both for similar prices (around Ł400 to Ł500 typically) but think about what you want to do with it. dont buy one cuz its famous. ideally if you can try them out instore before you buy one then do it.

Posted by krivi on Jan-26-2005 18:33:

lot of useful informations

Posted by teknasia on Jan-26-2005 19:43:

thx a lot Derivative! many usefull information in that thread!

I've tried the v-station plug-in in Cubase and I must say, I really like the sounds of the v-station (digital version of the novation's k-station)

So I think I should chose for the novation ks4/5 ?

But someone said that it's got it's own problems?

Is it worth the money?

thx in advance

Vylix

Posted by ilalin on Jan-26-2005 21:51:

The problem with KS synths is the crackling noise that you hear coming from certain patches when playing.
Novation wanted to make a relatively affordable and a novel good sounding VA, but those two things do not go together...at least for now. Other than that, KS will give you a choice of many different waveforms and a so called 'liquid analog' sound, characteristic of Novation synthesizers. The patches sound on the 'glassy' side, but overall easy to fit in the mix.