what would you recommend 3 synths that are absolutely essential to have in studio? only 3

 

1. Spectrasonics - Omnisphere 2 VST3
2. Korg - Wavestation VST3
3. reFX - Nexus 5 VST3

 

and hardware?

 

yamaha montage m8x hardware
yamaha montage m esp plugin
ciao

 

big workstation - fantom or montage, etc.
analog synth - moog
virtual analog - depends on styles of music

 

HARDWARE

1. ASM - Hydrasynth Keyboard Snythesizer
2. Korg - microKORG 2 MBK
3. Roland - GAIA 2

 

God, I feel old. Still rocking a Kurzweil K2500k, a Akai S5000 and a Roland Juno-G. Don't judge to hard.

 

One of the big workstations, a Nautilus, Montage, or Fantom. This one with a fully weighted KB so actual players will be happy.
A big analog poly, a Prophet, Jupiter, or OB-X.
A patchable mono, too many to choose from but something to the effect of a 2600 or MS20.

 

strange answers, I thought everyone knows its Juno 106, DX7, Model D

 

Moog Subsequent 37, UDO Super Gemini, Elektron Digitone II

 

analog4 overbriged and serum2 and ni massive mk1 and fm8 work great for me

 

Last edited: May 7, 2025

I use an Arturia Polybrute, Arturia Drumbrute Impact and a Moog DFAM/Subharmonicom combo on the hardware side and Synapse Legend HZ, Arturia Pigments and usually the u-he Repro on the soft side.

 

VST

1. Serum 2
2. Don't need it
3. Don't need it either

Hardware

1. It's 2025
2. ...
3. Cheers !

 

Right. You can find anything you want, so who actually only has 3.

 

That's easy as abc hehe. Grab these 3 holy grails and you 're set for life. I see nothing more essential than these. Perhaps an Oberheim OB-X/OB-XA could be in there too.
1. Moog Minimoog
2. Sequential Prophet 5
3. Roland Jupiter 8

PS: There are modern versions of both 1 & 2 that are almost indistinguishable soundwise from the ogs of the 70s. As for #3, I hear Uli's prepping a 16 note polyphony Jupiter 8 clone. It's been a long time in the making. If it's as close as the other clones Behringer made, it's gonna be a real commercial win with this one, because the og costs around 5-6K which is a real bummer.

 

Soft: Zebra2 - Sérum - Analog Lab
Hardw: Jp8000 - Minimoog - Norlead

 

ESSENTIAL no hardware synth is essential
NEED you don't need a hardware synth
This of course presumes you use a DAW.
However if you want hardware to operate independently and outside your computer, that's a different matter and you should be asking a more specific question.

 

I wish he was doing one that was without keyboard, like the Model D, Pro-800, Pro-1, etc... would save anyone interested a little bit of money. I'm guessing the JT-16 will still be a bit too pricey for us peons with families to look after, but definitely a lot more affordable than the real deal. Probably around the price of the UB-Xa, I'd guess ($1300USD). That's a good deal but a tough sell when you have a wife and this is just a hobby haha

 

It all depends on personal taste, needs, knowledge of synthesis. Having said that, 10 people will five you 10 different answers, depending on what music they like and make, how much they know about synthesis (maybe they like using presets only), and even how much money they invested in those synths - justified purchase bias. Therefore, looking at their answers you can guess some of these things, or at least get into the ballpark.

It also depends on the time of day. What I mean is - we tend to change our taste depending on which synths we are currently using. ok, let's say...

1) Virus TI
2) Waldorf Blofeld
3) Zebra HZ

Analogs are not flexible enough to be in the essential 3, I think, so I will just honourably mention Minimoog (The Legend), Jupiter-8 (Diva), OB-X (Gforce OB-X), Pro-One (Repro-1)... they are certainly much fun to use and encourage creativity, though! And can't have enough of them (GAS warning!).

Cheers!

 

Last edited: Apr 21, 2025

It’s a damn miracle I’ve been making synth music without the essentials all this time!