next synth i should get i have hard time decide what to buy

this..
Roland JD-08
or..
Behringer DeepMind 6
or
novation mininova

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 23, 2024

If you like the Jd-08 sound, i'd get the Roland. The MiniNova has mini keys that I would never play. So it would be mostly used as a sound module. But I would be paying for keys. The DeepMind 6 looks nice, unless you are familiar with Behringer's build quality. All those slider controls on the front panel look doomed to break. My real vote would be "None of the Above".

 

Which music style you need the synth for?

 

Roland if you cherish the supersaw sound or if you are a fan of the vintage JD800
Deepmind 6 if you want a very good all rounder
I'd personally choose the Mininova. Since it's been there for more than a decade. It means it has something great to offer.
Very good sounding with thousands of available presets, superb arpegiator, and vocal tune

If you have more money you should consider the Wavestate. Check LFOStore to see what this beast is capable of.

 

Last edited: Mar 23, 2024

pop music

 

I have the DM12 for more than 1 year and its built like a tank. The sound is awesome, its really easy to find the right spot. The engine is powerful, has high quality efx and the Keys are surprisingly good. I read one review that said the keys are bad and I completely disagree.
Who thinks the DM are a Juno106 copy cant be more wrong. It's not

In fact, the deepmind isn't a Behringer project.

FYI, I dont like Behringer, the brand threat youtubers, sue people for tweets, has a truly bad way to deal with critcism.
But the DM are realy, realy great.

Look, I am a Roland-Guy, love the brand, I have a lot of gear from them, and I dont think DM stays behind of synths in the same price range. It is the opposite.

Mininova has a great engine, but the interface is awful. Minikeys doesn't bother me, I am not a classical pianist and would not play an entire live set on 1 synth only.
If you like novation and how the Nova's family sounds (I like), the Ultranova has a much better interface and Fatar Keys, the only downside its the arpeggiator, that is better on mininova.

How I said, I am a Roland-guy, so I love how the Jd-08 sounds.

These 3 synths please me and I just haven't bought the ultranova yet because I have a Blofeld, but there is one in my area and I am very tempted to buy it

 

are you kidding, right?!

I am not a native english speaker, how you can see, so I never know

or are you talking about the microkorg mk2?

 

For real? I don't let the Royal family plays with synths.

If I see you come here again and ask these questions, you better think about a new husband.

 

i had ultranova.. its fantastic.. its really special also the color blue is stunning

 

Curious question;
Other than the obvious bragging rights and trophy room esthete-ish snobbery attributable to amassing a roomful of synth hardware in this day and age, can anyone really tell the difference between a hardware synth and a software device simply by blind listening to a track made with one or the other? Be honest. I do realize that for actual keyboardists the above doesn't really apply as I can relate - I would be lost without my Acoustic-kit and E-kits... But given the plethora of soft-synths out there these days I don't really see an obvious line drawn anymore between sound coming from a hardware vs a soft-synth...

 

Last edited: Mar 23, 2024

i had the microkorgXL and the mininova, the microkorg was fun for a while but ended up selling it because i found the sound to rather empty and plasticlike, had the mininova since it came out but also sold it a few years ago because i didnt use it anymore. you could also try the roland JD-XI, good options and versatile. the waldorf blofeld is also a nice one, not to expensive and nice sound.

 

No, I can't. Also, I don't consider myself a keyboardist, but I know enough about music theory to play keys.

To be clear, I need to mention a few things:

1. despite having about 10 hardware synths, I still love and use plugins on my productions.
2. What and how you do your thing is far more important than the tool.
3. Hardware let me save CPU.
4. Hardware does not requiere internet connection (that is realy, truly important to me).
5. Plugins are easier to use and don't demand stands, cables and space, what is good sometimes.
6. It's not just about if you can ou cannot tell the difference in the sound by ear, it's the experience, the inspiration and motivation. It's hard for me to compose on the DAW, even with my favorite midi controller, Arturia Keylab mk2.
7. when I'm feeling inspired and creative, that time lost turning on the computer, loging the system, open the Daw, Load a plugin... By the time all these happens, the idea has already gone away. I love to have around little keyboards, that works with bateries and has speakers inside. For example, my Yamaha PSS A50 is always on my side. My best and beautiful compositions borns on Hardware synths or KB.
When I bough the deepmind, I felt in love immediately and, in the first hour with it, I composed one of my best and beautiful songs.
8. I think that when you use hardware synths, it's easer to create your live set. You can just bring to the stage the instrument you composed and produce the song in the studio. If you lost your computer or SSD, change the DAW or OS, does not matter at all, the synth always be the same.
9. Hardware aren't better than software and does not sound better just because it's more expensive.

how many times did you see guys with squiers sounding absurdly better than others with $25k fender custom shops? I saw that a lot.

 

Depends on the synth, how critical one can hear, if you give a toss about any differences you hear, and the example in question, imo. In isolation a simple patch from say an vintage OB-Xa can be emulated pretty much indistinguishably to my ears, at least to the point I find the minute differences, if any, irrelevant. "Complex" patches on the other hand, there's important (to me) difference to my ears. I can say the same for the OB-X8 vs the Xa too.

My general rule, for myself, is: vintage analog synths sounds = go hardware. Digital synth = go software. I don't use modern style analog synths but I imagine there aren't much, if any, emulations of those so it would come down to a sound specific use case. If I made modern sounding music I'd likely go all software and maybe a hardware synth or two for their specific sound and keys.

In general, beyond just synths, the typical consumer/listener doesn't know the difference whatsoever in my experience. I've tested this myself, just out of curiosity, in several ways, dozens of times, on live audiences and in the studio. Without telling them I've played tracks that switch from a digital to analog mix, back and forth throughout a track and no one has ever noticed. They either like the song or they don't. There's nothing else to it beyond the occasional: "that sounds good" comment. (I laugh inside)

So the way I see it in the end is I choose to use certain (hardware) synths to amuse myself, and only myself. I just like old sounding stuff and so that's what I do. The entire affair is very self-indulgent.

YMMV of course.

 

I like to think I can. But only because a soft synth, say Serum, can do so much in my music genre of choice. It would take 4-5 living hands to pull off some of the things software can do. But I get that players want that tactile interface.

 

Don't worry: self indulgence is the main theme in this forum

 

Hardware and Software virtually do the same thing working on signals digitally. Simply stated, only the algorithms and the processing power differ. Some guys have strong feelings if they can possess the most expensive and glorious-looking ones they would upstage and make better music but the fact is music is all about notes. If someone doesn't have a clue how to work with notes, a city of synths wouldn't save the music. White and black keys matter, the rest is just decoration.

Now that you insist to have them, look how they fit with your room's and clothes' color.

 

^^^^
In every commercial studio I’ve been here in Cali,producers that make pop music for artists,usually use rom players,everything from Nexus and vps avenger to sylenth1 and hardware workstations from Yamaha,Korg and Roland,for beats Mpc and NI machine.
For a bugdet friendly synth also have a look at the Arturia mikrofreak and if budget allows it definitely have a look at SOMA Terra
Hope the above info helps you,cheers!

 

Why can't a discussion about hardware synths not require someone's feelings about what you should do with your money? (sure, you could be comparing pricing and features).

if you do not have the money for hardware, good news. you don't need it. if you have hardware, good news. you can still use every single piece of software you can with no hardware around. sometimes your hardware even can use special features of your plugins. Like Omnisphere.

The topic is "what synth should I buy?" not " what do you think about all hardware musical instruments? ". There is 0 useful information to be had about that topic. If it was the topic that thread would get closed.

 

Knobs, sliders, switches, arps, different keys and controls on the synths are intriguing. Most people love physical synths because they have seen people (called keyboardists) are playing with them and other people jumping up and down, over, across, onto with the music they make.

Loving leads people to thinking about owning and owning leads to using and using leads to strange music. Synths have changed the nature of music more than anything else. They are not simple commodities to suggest someone to have one. First this question should be answered that do I really need to have any synth to make strange things?