Quatschmacher

Monophonic synths often have much more in the way of timbral and modulation possibilities, partly due to the fact that you can stack up a bunch of oscillators on one note and it will sound great; if you stack up too many fat voices in poly it gets a bit overwhelming. Monophonic is great for lead and bass sounds. Polyphonic is more for textural or chordal stuff. Polysynths don’t always do bass as well as monosynths.

I just played a CS in a shop for an hour. It is 8 voice poly or mono which is cool. It’s a shame about how you feel about the Nord as it really sounds right up your street. From reading around, even the electro 4 has the sample synth module. There’s a used one on gumtree for £800. Edit - the electro 3 was the first one in this line to include the sample synth. You could probably pick up a 61 key version of that pretty cheaply. A 61 key 4D went for £571.

All correct. I’ve been aware of them for several months now and have had a lengthy email exchange with James Chick with a view to my buying one.

One of the best interfaces I’ve seen which combines presets with WYSIWYG is the Moog Little and Slim Phatty which has LED rings around the knobs which show where the current value is. Each of the four knobs has a few buttons which select which parameter is adjusted and the ring displays the value accordingly. Nord Lead 3 has a similar arrangement but it is one-knob-per-function.

Yep. I’d recommend the Behringer model D, Roland SE-02 or Korg Monologue as good starting points. Plenty to keep you busy with there. (Bad internet connection meant I lost the lengthy reply I just wrote). The gist was, get something simple first. When you find there are modulations you want or sounds you can’t create then look for something more complex.

Just gonna leave this here:

I agree. Other things to look at in that bracket are the Moog Sub(sequent) 37 (£1200) which has two VCOs plus sub and a two slot mod matrix. It’s very hands-on with most stuff immediately to hand. There’s a bit of extra stuff in the menu but it’s easy to navigate. The Arturia Matrixbrute is amazing and presently can be had for £1400 until July 1st, whereupon it will go up by a few hundred. The has 3 oscillators. Two of them have 3 basic wave types which have a shape mod and all types can be played at once, per oscillator! This is incredibly powerful. It’s mainly mono but there’s a paraphonic mode which allows 3 notes to be played at once. The routing possibilities on this are immense (as is the Pro 2) but everything is immediately visible and to hand via the 16x16-button matrix (which also doubles as the preset selector (direct access to 256 presets) and the sequencer. A used Prophet 12 can be had for £1400. Also check out the DSI Rev 2 and Korg Prologue which are poly synths. Check the Marc Doty videos on the Pro 2 and Matrixbrute. For dipping your toe in the synth waters, Korg Monologue, Minilogue and Behringer Model D or Roland SE-02 are all worth considering.

The Pro 2 is a monster digital/analogue hybrid synth.

The 3Leaf Octabvre MKII is the closest to OC-2 that I’ve played (disclaimer - I’ve never played an OC-2, only heard that in direct comparison with the Octabvre (which I own)).

If you have a fast computer there are some really excellent virtual instruments out there from the likes of Synthogy (excellent acoustic pianos which are better than any hardware pianos I’ve played) and Rhodes/Wurlitzer/Clavinet from the likes of Scarbee, Sonic Couture and Keyscape. Actually, if you have an iPad or iPhone I would strongly suggest you get the Moog Minimoog D app (£15). There’s also a Korg ARP Odyssey app for £29. These can be played with any MIDI controller and sound fantastic.

The Yamaha CP sounds great for what it is but if I remember rightly it doesn’t have an acoustic piano sound on it. It is also mini keys and only 3 octaves. There are a lot of two-handed voices which won’t be possible on this without hooking up to a bigger keyboard via midi, which on this is via a proprietary cable. Actually, if you’re interested in this range, the Yamaha Reface CS is quite a nice synth; digital and just one oscillator but really easy to use and capable of some nice sounds. The ARP Odyssey module is good. Quite a large format though and probably wouldn’t sit atop a slim keyboard very well. Worth having a look at the Nord electro, which does acoustic, electric and organs and I think the sample synths too now (need to check). They come in shorter keyboard lengths. The Roland SE-02 is a tiny Moog-like 3-oscillator rack that will easily sit on top of the Nord and has presets as well as panel control. The knobs are a bit fiddly as they are tiny but it sounds brilliant.

Actually, I’ve just re-read and you say you are looking for piano sounds too. Do you mean acoustic piano and Rhodes:Wurlitzer/Clavinet too? If so, something like the Nord Piano (currently on its 4th iteration) might suit; you get a range of electric and acoustic pianos and it has a “sample synth” which will play samples of many, many great synths. This is not the same as having a proper synth where you can tweak every parameter but there are some really good sounds in there.

Do you want a polysynth or monosynth? Do you have a budget? The Nord Lead 3 is better than the 4 in my opinion as the interface is way nicer (each knob has an LED ring around it so that when changing presets, one can see the actual parameter settings). The synth on Chameleon (bass and solo) was done on an arp odyssey. The Korg minikeys version actually has a nicer keybed than the full size Korg one. Behringer are set to make a clone too which has built-in effects and a sequencer. Behringer have done a rack version of the Minimoog model D for £299. Korg Monologue and Minilogue are great little synths. If you’re looking at Prologue money then also check out Dave Smith Instruments’ Prophet Rev 2. The Prophet 6 and 12 are also great as is the OB6. Monos worth looking at are the DSI Pro 2, Moog Sub 37 and Subsequent 37 and Arturia Matrixbrute. The last one is about to go up in price by a few hundred on July 1st. Also, Moog Sub Phatty, Little Phatty and Slim Phatty. Check out the YouTube channel Automatic Gainsay for really good and in-depth reviews and demos of the Minilogue, Odyssey, Pro 2, Matrixbrute. Drop me a line if you want some more help.

They took the minilogue and tweaked it. The filter is more aggressive and the sequencer much better implemented on the monologue.

Monologue is a fantastic synth for the money. I bought one for my young son and have spent time learning how to use it so I can show him how it works. The sequencer on this, despite only having 16 steps, is incredibly good and really easy to program. In addition to the notes, it has four tracks on the sequencer for modulation so one can create some pretty complex and evolving sequences which make sound like there are way more than 16 steps. This synth combines the best of two things: it has presets but it also has a “panel mode” so that the sound of the synth will directly represent the physical positions of the knobs and switches (as in a non-preset synth). Furthermore, the screen displays the knob values when you turn them and, if I remember rightly, there’s a way to get them to display the current value whilst not changing the value. This is really useful for learning how patches are created. I haven’t tried the bass station 2 so can’t comment on that. I did think this was better than the Microbrute though in terms of build and features. The only downsides for me are, firstly, that the envelope generators aren’t full ADSR but are AD. This is partially alleviated by 3-way switch which offers different envelope types. Secondly, noise replaces square wave on the second oscillator so that it's not possible to get two square waves nor is it possible to have two oscillators sounding alongside noise. (I personally find a two-octave keyboard a bit short and am not fond of mini keys, though of the various mini key types, these are the nicest ones (along with the Yamaha Reface).) Aside from that, it’s a wonderful synth and incredible value for the money. I paid £236 new and that can still be had if you shop around and get places to price match. You can’t really go wrong with one of these as a first synth. There are so many great sounds to be had from this. In fact, I’ve thought about getting one for myself, though I have another “better” synth already. The quotation marks are because the monologue actually does some stuff that mine can’t do, namely ring modulation. Bear in mind, this is a monosynth so only one note can be played at once.

Probably was, though if you’re not really missing it…