hey guys,

Hope all you are well with everything!

I am pondering or well tossing up the idea of investing in a hardware synth - as at present I am running all VST's and would like to have something i can touch besides my midi controller. If anyone thinks just stick with my VST's I would appreciate your thoughts as well as to why. At the moment im running Sylenth and Gladitor along with all onboard Logic stuff.

I have a reasonable understanding over parameter control as well though I am no expert - but would like to think i have an ear for sound.

I have been looking a Roland JP's and there seems to be better reviews for the 8080 than the 8000 the latter lacking in thickness but being good for pads and the like. I hav considered a Korg MS2000R or something along the lines of that and, one of the Virus range. I have even considered getting an SH1 as I had one before never used it. I really love the late 70's early 80's analogue sound and would love to incorporate that into my style of music - Hard Dance / Trance etc.

Any pointers appreciated or if i didnt explain myself please just ask me to be more specific!

Cheers in advance ...

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quote:

Originally posted by Energy_3 ...I am no expert...

That has nothing to do with the choice between hardware and software. It's just a difference in workflow.

My best advice is to go with one of the more popular models (i.e., a good track record) and something that has a knobby interface (menu-diving on a h/w synth sucks the fun out of it). Kinda hard to go wrong with an older Virus, Nord Lead, Waldorf Q, or the others that you mentioned. Secondhand prices are fairly stable on all of them, so you should be able to sell it for about the same price you paid for it, if you end up not liking it, want to try a different model, etc.

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Sonar Platinum | Ableton Live 9 | Logic Pro X | Access Virus TI2 Keyboard | Kurzweil PC3X | Nord Lead 4R | NI Maschine

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik That has nothing to do with the choice between hardware and software. It's just a difference in workflow. My best advice is to go with one of the more popular models (i.e., a good track record) and something that has a knobby interface (menu-diving on a h/w synth sucks the fun out of it). Kinda hard to go wrong with an older Virus, Nord Lead, Waldorf Q, or the others that you mentioned. Secondhand prices are fairly stable on all of them, so you should be able to sell it for about the same price you paid for it, if you end up not liking it, want to try a different model, etc.

I concur with this.

I'll add that hardware synths do sound different. I won't get into the debate about whether they sound better or not, but in my own experience and opinion they do. Of course there are a myriad disadvantages too.

Good choices would be :-

Roland JPxxxx
Nord Lead 2
Korg MS2000
Novation KS rack
Virus B/C

All of those are obviously VA synths and broadly comparable with something like Sylenth or ES2.

Analogue stuff tends to be more expensive, and in this budget range will most likely be monophonic.

I think if you're going to take the plunge and buy hardware you might as well buy something with a proper UI, so the little Mopho/Tetra desktop units are a no go imo. Something like the Mopho keyboard, Minibrute (very tasty), Slim Phatty or even Dark Energy would all promote tweaking. If you could extend the budget a bit you might be able to pick up a used Prophet 08 to give you some extra Polyphony. Oh, and maybe try and track down a Mono Evolver, those are awesome.

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I even took it one step further, this is my new sequencer

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ciZpDnnnF2Q

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Analogue Mastering
Esoteric sound for the discerning ear

You got it bad

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Yeah, the urge to get out of the box has never been this big.
It's an irrational craving (as most things you can do with the Cirklon can be done in Cubase and then some) but it's about workflow, getting creative due to limitation

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Analogue Mastering
Esoteric sound for the discerning ear

It does look good, but too much money for me. Pretty much £1500 with VAT and delivery. If it were half that money I'd grab one for sure.

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Yeah, but then again I'm becoming an old fart fundamentalist with a hobby

Start to like to noodle around and really start to dislike the stuff that people are doing ITB nowadays. Totally irrational, I know, but I'm near millitant now, on how I want to produce my music going forward

- outboard only, no VSTi's
- midi sequenced only
- 1 run mixdown
- no audio or samples
- leverage onboard sequencers where available (i.e. Tempest, or TT303)

This will provide very minimalistic outcome, of which a lot pattern/sequence based.
No fx (unless generated as a patch via one of my synths), no uplifters, explosions, verby crash cymbals, complextro chops etc etc, none of that fashionable crap

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Analogue Mastering
Esoteric sound for the discerning ear

No FX?!

Heretic, burn him!

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Nice thread hijack

quote:

Originally posted by tehlord No FX?! Heretic, burn him!

Ok, ok the odd Valhalla plugs may be used

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Analogue Mastering
Esoteric sound for the discerning ear

quote:

Originally posted by Raphie Ok, ok the odd Valhalla plugs may be used

God no.

I was thinking more like a Fireworx or Eclipse

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