Best synth you can buy for $500?

[goober]

Curious to what you guys think is the best synth for $500 or below? I see JP8000, Alesis Ion, Korg MS2000, all in the $400ish price range. I'd like lots of knobs as well, but isn't absolutely necessary and don't mind vintage at all. I already have an Alesis Micron, so maybe getting the Ion would be redundant but, I've always wanted it, and I feel like it'd be a lot more fun to play.. possibly could sell my Micron and increase my budget..you can include rack synths as well, but.. rather have a full synth. Thanks.

Forgot to mention, I could also get a Korg Z1 for around $400 so.. but $500 is the most I can afford, so any less would be nice. Thanks, again.

[stephen]

Gotta give Yamaha AN1x a mention (again!)

[Stab Frenzy]

Blofeld and Virus A desktop also worth a look.

[space6oy]

TONS of options. ought to add more of a description of what you're looking for / hoping to do w/ it.

[goober]

Looking to produce sounds like The Polish Ambassador, Four Tet, and Supermoth Black Rainbow. Lo-fi ish type of stuff I guess.

[space6oy]

it's black moth super rainbow. they use a handful of synths, can find info on that no prob. first time i saw them they were just using a microkorg for the vocoder, now they're using an MPC-500 & a warp factory. i'll have to look up those other two.

another bmsr use is a CS-5, can get one of those for under $500. was my first analog, will hang onto it forever.





also if you want to sound like them you'll have to wear whatever the f**k she has on her head in that pic.

[cartesia]

Hair?

[space6oy]

Hair?

if that's her hair & not some hat of animal fur... yikes.
never saw her looking like that at the shows i've been to...

[gordwiebe]

I'd jump on the $400 Z1 - it's incredibly deep and versatile and won't overlap so much with your micron.
I really regret selling mine.

[Pro5]

Gotta give Yamaha AN1x a mention (again!)

yup - one of the top ten most underated synths of our time, it'll do a lot of things for the price if you can only have 1 synth and want synthetic electronic sounds.

[gordwiebe]

+1 on the AN1x too... that's one I'll never sell.

[crystalmsc]

+1 on the AN1x too... that's one I'll never sell.

+ another 1, I like the AN1x and AN200 sound so much.

[shaft9000]

there's a zillion ways to get cool electronic sounds for under $500 bucks.

you could be MUCH better off buying an fx processor instead of a synth!
but how am I supposed to know this
it's your music - use your imagination.....get what will be complimentary rather than redundant

[RD9]

So much praise for the AN1x on the boards lately. I'm dying to try one out now.

[goober]

there's a zillion ways to get cool electronic sounds for under $500 bucks.

you could be MUCH better off buying an fx processor instead of a synth!
but how am I supposed to know this
it's your music - use your imagination.....get what will be complimentary rather than redundant

Could you name some good fx processors for synths? I'm pretty clueless in that area thanks. Also the Korg Z-1 was the first to go out of all the ones I listed, just saying hehe..