Synth Deflation?

[Walter Ego]

Here's something to speculate on as well...will a new proliferation of affordable analog synths help pull vintage gear prices lower? It probably will for vintage Korg MS synths, but is it a big enough deal (along with Arturia MB) to have a broad market effect? Whaddya think? Will the very low priced analog trend continue?

[CS_TBL]

I'd rather think the price of old synths isn't influenced by the availability of new synths, for the simple reason that the people who are in command of the price will dumb down anything new, calling it cold, c**p, digital, whatever. It's the people who influence the price of old gear. Because, if new gear would influence old gear, about all the old gear would shredded to bits by now, sold as scrap.

[vinyl_junkie]

I doubt it will for the MS's, when Harman/Soundcraft re-issued the Urei-1620 all it did is bring up the price of the originals.

It looks like Korg did a marvelous job recreating it but the original MS-20 is now a desirable and collectable synth and always will be imo. Gear collectors and vintage freaks will argue it's better and h**l it probability is, thru hole design compared to cheap SMD design and flimsy pots.
Personally I'm not fussed cos I can finally afford one and from what I've heard it sounds great

What I HOPE it will do (all these new analogues) is bring the price down of the suckier instruments, the ones that weren't worth much in the first place but have been made more desirable or expensive as people go mad to own anything analogue... Stuff like the JEN SX-1000, an ok nice synth but not a nice synth at £300 or more, Roland SH-1000 etc all nice synths that sell for way more than they are worth in the last couple of years.

[JayEm]

One can only hope. As mentioned already, it may not drop the price of certain pieces, but it seems anything analog these days has been going for stupid prices on ebay, kijiji and craigs list. h**l, even old digital c**p thats been surpassed by far greater plugins (free or not) has gone up 100-200 dollars the past 2 years. I used to see s**t like the old yamaha fm racks selling for less than the cost of shipping, and now they seem to be selling for 400 plus.

[Sir Nose]

Could go either way. There is a much larger supply of analog synths so those already into synths may buy new instead of vintage. There is a large group of youngsters getting into synths, partly influenced by the availability of new synths, who may choose to go vintage for their 2nd or 3rd. Increasing the demand.

The cost of service will keep increasing on vintage; so, the cost of ownership will keep going up.

[Jinsai]

Vintage gear prices are a combination of scarcity (an inevitably shrinking pool of gear in good working condition) and hype - yesterday's trite, lame keyboard is one hit or genre away from being tomorrow's amazing vintage piece.

Buy instruments to play them. If the price is worth it when you buy it, who cares what the price is afterwards? Either it meets your needs or it doesn't.

[megamanx]

I see see people saying the same things that they say about vintage guitars. The orginals are of higher quality, sound better, look better, etc...

[Stab Frenzy]

It's nothing to do with quality at all (has anyone actually experienced how cheaply built the 303 is?) it's to do with rarity and exclusivity/status. Case in point is the 303, there are exact clones on the market now (with improvements to the sequencer which make them better for making music on without effecting the sound) and it hasn't brought the price down at all. People who want a 303 for making music can get a x0xb0x or bass bot tt for cheap, people who want to brag about the gear they own pay $2000+ for a 303. Watch the same thing happen with the MS-20.

[Automatic Gainsay]

I am not so cynical.
Hype is ultimately the result of people who know what they're doing embracing the sound and functionality of a great musical instrument (well, excepting the TB-303). If the new MS-20 is the duplicate of the original it seems it's going to be, it should indeed drive the price of the original down to some degree. Ultimately, it SHOULD be the SOUND that defines the value of a synth. If the new one sounds like the old one, those who seek the sound can buy the new. That leaves ignorant morons and nostalgia freaks as the customers for the old... and the ignorant morons have no money.

[Walter Ego]

and the ignorant morons have no money.

Yes, but "eccentric" people often have money, and they're in this game, too.

And...a question that brought out the less cynical side of AG? I'll have to remember this...(and also add me to the list of googlers and tubers watching AG's tutorials on MS patching...)

[kvnvk]

agree with AG, a number of people who own or have experience with the original MS-20 and have had the opportunity to play the mini at NAMM have stated it nails the original's sound. a couple have said it sounds a bit brighter, which will probably be enough for a few to skip the cost savings of the mini and dump a bundle for an original MS-20. of course people with more money than sense are going to rationalize the cost however they see fit... through hole is better than surface mount, the old crappy keys are better than the new crappy keys, 1/4" jacks vs mini jacks, internal power supply over wall-wart, I'm getting only 86% of an MS-20, etc... if that's how they want to spend their money more power to 'em, at least the rest of us now have an option (a growing few actually) in the market.

[Cumulus]

It really could go either way but the availability of new analog gear is only one factor.

A bigger factor is the fact that analog is hot right now. It may not be hot forever. I have been an analog fan since they first came out in the 70’s but lots of other fanatics will come and go.

Analog synthesis could be passé again some day so just enjoy them for the sound and the flavor they bring your music.

[zoomtheline]

No disrespect to anyone on here but (and i'm going to state the obvious here) but... Twat's drive up the price of vintage to make money and to show off. Analogue is a buzzword and many people still don't understand why they are buying an analogue synth. I love the sound of my analogues and yes I have always dreamed of certain synths from a young age and If I had silly money I probably would buy a synth out of nostalgia but right at this moment it's all about what sound I want in my music.
I'm sure some people that like getting into the finer points of oscillator waveforms to compare have actually lost sight of why they even prefer one sound over another.

[vinyl_junkie]

^^^^ What that guy said

[madmarkmagee]

Yes and No.

I think that the introduction of the minibrute etc will bring the price of vintage stuff down. A while ago there just weren't any mainstream options for new analogue monosynths. Thus many went and bought vintage instead. Pushing prices up. Now you can buy them new people won't have to buy vintage and thus the price will go down.

I think saying that people that go and spend 2000 dollars on an MS 20 are hipster halfwits is unfair. They just want an MS-20. Now the reissue is here the price of the original will go down, though ofc there will be purists who will say the original sounds better.

That said, Ofc things like the PRO ONE's price will still remain high, but I think the price of things like SH 101's will come down a bit. OFC there are people who'll just buy a 303 cause its status, but then again there is nothing wrong with vintage instruments. There seems to be a bit of hate directed towards them and the people who buy them in this thread? :/ It is vintage synth explorer