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Last update
18th of July 1999
Arp Axxe
A very nice sounding synth from the 70's. It is a little brother of the Odyssey and has only one oscillator, so it's not very useful for fat basses. But I like the warm "moogish" sound. I think there really is a Moog ladder filter as my Axxe is one of the older revisions where a copy of the Moog filter was used.Korg Wavestation A/D
The Wavestation differs from the other Korg sample playback stuff, fortunately. The Wavestation was designed by the same guy who was developing the Sequential Prophet VS. Therefore the vector synthesis is found, as is the wavesequencing from the PPG Wave. This allows to create continuously evolving very complex sounds. I really love this synth. It's a workhorse in my studio. I use it for almost anything, until it runs out of the polyphony (which is 32). Especially the pads, effects and non-imitating synthesizer textures are wonderful.Moog Minimoog
What can I say? It isn't the rarest, the most expensive, or overall the most versatile analog synth, but Minimoog is probably the most famous synth ever produced. It still provides one of the fattest and punchiest synth basses no digital synth is able to produce. Definitely the Minimoog is the jewel of my collection and the only synth I can't live without.Oberheim Matrix 6
Matrix 6 is a scaled down version of the Matrix 12. The raw sound of the Matrix 6 is not as rich and fat as in the older Oberheims. But it has very versatile modulation routings, so there is more potential in this synth that I have time to spend with it. Also the MIDI implementation is nice. I like the possibility for example to control the cutoff frequency and the amount of resonance via MIDI. I use the Matrix 6 for leads, effects and various analog sounds.Oberheim OB-X
OB-X is one of the richest sounding polyphonics synths. It's great for rich pads and brasses (for example the famous synth sound in Van Halen's Jump). My OB-X is the eight voice version, but unfortunately it's broken. Currently it sleeps in my closet waiting somebody to heal it.Roland D110
This was my second synth. I don't use it much anymore, because it's rather noisy (thanks to 12-bit DACs) and my other synths does everything better. I find D110 useful only in creating somewhat dirty analog sounds, like techno basses and bleebs, where is shines having four oscillators and four resonant filters and a ring modulator.Roland JV-2080
The JV-2080 is my latest purchase (summer 1999). First, I bought a JV-1080 but I traded it for a 2080 after one week. For my needs the JV-2080 is much better as it has three insert effect and very useful patch search function. I have never liked sample based synths, but I decided to buy a JV as I needed traditional instrument sounds but I didn't want to buy a sampler yet (still waiting the prices of E-mu e64s to drop). A great general purpose synth, a compromise, but a good one. Now I have to chase some expansion boards...Roland JX-10
JX-10 is a fantastic synth! It's two JX-8Ps in a one package, so the patches can use 4 OSCs while still having 6 voice polyphony. I have programmed my JX-10 most of my synths as I have the external programmer for it. Especially the pads, leads and brasses are spectacular. The sync and cross-modulation expand the possibilities. Also the basses are super fat and even quite "moogish".Roland MKS-20
This is a piano module with non-sample based sounds. The acoustic pianos are quite nice as are the Rhodes sounds. I bought this because I had to pay only 150USD for it and I use lots of acoustic and electric piano sounds in my songs. Many famous artists still use it, maybe because it doesn't sound sampled.Roland R8
R8 is a classic drum machine with highly usable sounds. With PCM-cards you can get TR808 and TR909 sounds, or ethnic sounds, jazz brushes and so on. But there is only one MIDI-setup in the memory and you can use only one PCM-card at a time. This was one of the reasons why I bought another R8. The rack module version R8m would have been a better deal, but they are quite hard to find.Sequential Circuits Prophet 600
The Prophet 600 is one of the few polyphonic MIDI synths with VCOs. It has the basic analog constructions with some extras, like modulating the filter cutoff or the oscillator frequency with the second oscillator. You can also get sawtooth, triangle and pulse waveforms from the same oscillator at the same time. The envelopes could be a little faster, but this plagues most polyphonic synths of this age. The sound is quite thin and bright for an analog synth. It can create some VERY odd and haunting effects and very nice string sounds. An outstanding noisemaker!Simmons SDS9
Yes, Simmons sounds in a MIDIed box! The kick really moves air and toms are classic analog Simmons sounds. The snare is a sample, but you can change the pitch, decay and resonance filter settings so it is quite analogish however. Go and buy one! They are cheap now, but...Yamaha CS-5
This is the modest of the Yamaha CS-series synths. It has only one oscillator. The filter is multi-mode type, but the sound is thin and not very characteristic. Fortunately, there is an external audio in jacket. But I wish I would have a Yamaha CS-80.Yamaha DX-7 II
It was my first synth. I am not a great fan of nasal FM sounds, but the DX-7 is perfect for electric pianos and crystal clear bells. Also the DX-7 is a fantastic synth for basses, and even some acoustic simulations are surprisingly good. And what's the best, the sounds don't sound sampled but a real instrument. The keyboard of the DX-7 II is very good, so I use it as a master keyboard.Yamaha RM50
Definitely one of the best drum synthesizers. It is really a full synth with
envelopes, multi-mode filters with resonance, LFOs and so on. You can for
example take the body of one sample with the lowpass filter and layer
it with the harmonics of another sample with the aid of the highpass filter
to create a new sound.
The raw samples are punchy and clean, and more samples can be loaded from
a sampler if you buy the 512kbyte non-volatile memory expansion.
Yamaha TX81Z
Cheap, simple but powerful rack synth. The sounds are pure FM sounds, but as there are 8 different waveforms in each operator to choose from, the sounds don't always sound like FM-sounds. I hope there would be more than a ridiculous number of 32 user patches and 8 voices. I use it mainly for basses along with the DX-7 and Minimoog.
What to buy next?
The latest few years I haven't cared much about the new synth stuff. Samples, samples, samples....boring! The JV1080 and the Korg Trinity sound great at the store, but they are simply sample playback machines and sooner or later you will get bored with them. Fortunately the physical modelling based machines are getting better. They are still too limited, but they can be regarded as synthesizers.During the 90's I concentrated to buy more analog stuff. As they are hard to find and the prices are high, I tried to concentrate to buy classics like the Prophet 5, Arp 2600, etc. However, I think they are now too expensive and there is a risk that the prices may even drop or at least stop to raise.
