Looking for a new synth

[Blue Menthol]

Hey everyone,

I am in the market for a new synth (under $1000) and was looking for some recommendations. I really like my electribe emx1, but because of a recent switch to ableton I don't use the electribe for pattern creation anymore and have just been using it as a synth. I like the electribes layout for editing sounds and was wondering if anyone knows of a synth that has a similar layout (I would just keep using the electribe, but the knobs are acting flaky.) I particularly like the modulation section of the emx1. I have looked at the manuals for the korg r3 and microkorg, but the modulation sections don't seem to have the same parameters. Does anyone know of a synth with a similar layout or if the r3 / microkorg can mimic the same modulation section parameters as the emx1?

thanks in advance,

Joel

[Blue Menthol]

Well I've done a little more research and as far as I can tell by looking at the manuals, the R3 cannot mimic the modulation because the lfo speed and depth knobs are on different pages, so you would not be able to modify the values simultaneously. The microkorg may be able to do it because it has a section labeled mod fx that can modulate the lfo speed and depth, but the bpm sync, destination, and type are all on different pages. The roland SH-201 looks like it has the most similar setup to the electribe all the modulation settings are right on the board, so I may end up going with that one. Has anyone used the SH-201? Is it a good synth (build, knob strength, etc?)

[SkinnyWhiteBoy]

Korg Radias Might be a little more than 1000$, unless you buy second hand.

[Blue Menthol]

Korg Radias Might be a little more than 1000$, unless you buy second hand.

Yeah I really like the radius, but would prefer to go cheaper if possible. I went to check out the roland sh-201 today and was not impressed by the build quality. The knobs didn't seem that sturdy. The microkorg xl looks like it has the option to assign your own parameters, which may be an option, but the knobs on that also seemed a little unstable. I guess with synths you get what you pay for, so I may just have to save up for the radius (which from the reviews I've read seems like it might be worth it.)

[James]

I guess it relies on what you want to create.

At some point when i can afford it i really want to get an Access virus C or at best a TI. Love the noises those things make , and also get a desktop version of said synths. Both new are over $1000 but in the k you can pick them up the virus c for about that second hand.

[Dr Feelgood]

I have the old Microkorg and it compliments the EMX and the ESX very well, the MIDI implementation is quite extensive and Im able to get some pretty expressive results with this combo, all fairly fast and easy. Nevertheless the newer Microkorg XL from what Ive read offers up more options and sound creation possibilities. I don't know much about the Radias or R-3, but I reccomend looking into all three (and other models out there) that you find suitable to your tastes.

[StellarJay[aka Ruso]]

You know I'm all about the Ableton so I run VSTS and had some great and stable results from Omnispere..... omnisphere is an ambient and lead/evolving sample/synth hybrid mega synth with a crazy sound source based design. It's got an amazing library of sound sources, they are beautiful.


Also Massive is a bassline junkie for mee... The nastiest synth that I love to twiddle

Massive along with the rest of NI instruments are rather unstable and buggy....


Radias can produce some impressive results but hands down Virus has the best sounds..,. unfortunately everyone has one so the simple fact that the sound type is pretty unique, makes me not want to use it because it's something everyone is used to.

The number one thing I actually hear for producing really clean music is actually not using and picking one good synth and learning it well... and using it all the time but rather combining a lot of different sound sources that are totally different. For example, NI Massive likes to hang out and produce a very particular type of sound... that resonates in a particular way with other sounds in the tune... now if you stack 5 of them they're gonna all hit the same freqs and become muddy... but if you had say a lofi shitty nintendo bleep mixed in it would be more effective than an entire synth line stacked on top of another one.

That was probably not the best way at all to say what I was trying to say

[StellarJay[aka Ruso]]

Let me tell you this:

How much spare time do you have. I think you could benefit a lot more from a couple of ableton sessions with me over Skype. My rate is $40 bucks for an hour learning session (when I do in studio lessons) and that includes another hour of hands on studio play but since I'd be basically teaching my deepest secrets that a lot of people want and don't know exist. I'd be down to spend an hour with you for free and really teach you how to manipulate ableton into being more like a physical groove box for you so you really feel like you're using another electribe. I could set up a couple webcams and a mic so you could hear me well and skype would let you share your screen with me at the same time.

I'm switching my entire setup to work like this. Basically mine is an even more in depth version, I am writing custom programs which will auto map to active devices and such but all that can be done without programming with the right controlelrs.


Anyway basically if you wanted to you could set it up so that when you turn on ableton and the default project loads (aka you just click the ableton icon) and you could have a working "groove box" to create music on.

What I"m saying is, the built in instruments inside ableton are far more powerful then any physical synth. You might not look at it this way, but ableton in itself is basically a synth with unlimited routing possibilities. If you learn how to use the "framework" spontaneously and rapidly it will be faster and will sound better (and open up full automation and even motion sequencing if you get really creative) then working with a hardware synth, because you can have as many as you want

This shyte took me many years to learn and if you are really lit up about trying some really cool shyte then I'd be willing to teach but you gotta be serious about this one and really put your effort into it.

-Ruso

[dbomob]

Get this shyte. Grab the R3 and get a shyte ton of VST's of torrents.

[StellarJay[aka Ruso]]

Get this shyte. Grab the R3 and get a shyte ton of VST's of torrents.

I'm not gonna discourage talking about software piracy on this forum, but I will discourage talking about it so openly and directly