Hi there,
Would like to start my question with a little disclaimer; so far my research has showed that many of the synthesizer people don't like to assign particular equipment to musical genres, however I'll kindly ask to bear with me. I also realise that a lot of synthesizers are capable of a very wide variety of sounds and it mostly depends on the users effort and programming, I enjoy starting with an INIT patch and don't mind menu-diving. The analog/digital oscillator discussion does not bother me at all as I mostly see it as nostalgia induced elitist "fanboyism," filters however seem to be another story.
I make and want to continue making mainly ambient music mixed with drum & bass elements, techno, acid house as well as deep house.
I have been using Ableton Live (with Push 2), Octatrack MK2, Digitakt, Analog Rytm MK2 for a number of years now as well as a very wide range of modular synthesizers (which I have now sold for my own reasons and would not be interested in unless I had a much bigger budget).
I have some money saved up and want to purchase some hardware synthesizers. So far I have looked at a lot of demos and reviews but I'm having trouble narrowing everything down, also there are no music stores within a 3 hour drive where I would be able to try out the gear for myself.
I'd be very thankful if your recommendations would take into account some key aspects that are important to me, these include:
- All options must be desktop synthesizers (no keyboard).
- The possibility to sequence all of the synthesizers using the Octatrack, Digitakt and Ableton Push.
- The synthesizers would preferably fit into an 19-inch rack.
- The effects section is not a must, I will be using effects on Ableton (Valhalla, Convolution Reverb etc.) and in the future will get some dedicated effects processors.
- Should have a good and sturdy build quality, would much prefer metal over plastic.
- Dedicated HW synthesizers for each of the sonic ranges (bass, pads, lead).
- Bass synthesizer should be able to produce deep warm creamy tones as well as 303-type sounds and distorted industrial techno inspired sounds.
- Pads synthesizer should be able to produce warm, nostalgic sounding pads as well as bright/metallic ones. Glide and a lot of modulation options are preferable.
- Lead synthesizer should sound warm and weighted.
- The overall combined price should not exceed 6000 Eur.
The demos I enjoyed the most so far were:
- OB-6 (I am 99% certain I will buy this synth, but am confused which role it should play in the sonic range, perhaps lead?)
- Virus TI2 (Really enjoyed the possibility of producing pads and acid-like basslines)
- Waldorf Blofeld / Korg Minilogue XD (seems like good and cheap options for pads)
- Moog Minitaur / Sirin / Sub Phatty (seems like good options for warm and rich bass, but unsure if I'll be able to create acid-like sounds with them)
Synths I know nothing about but heard they were quite good:
- Prophet 12
- Rev2
- Novation Peak
- DeepMind 12D
- Waldorf Iridium (seems like a good allrounder on paper, but a lot of people seem to dislike it)
Synths I do not want:
- Analog 4 MKII
- Digitone (had one, was not impressed)
I hope that this thread will prove useful to people with a similar needs.
Many thanks in advance!
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