Best synth you can buy for $500?

balma · Post by **balma** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:55 pm

with sequencer or no sequencer?

how much work are you gonna charge to it? need good poly, or mono is enough?

Please narrow your requirements. Under $500 is too vague if you really want a good advice...

the more you describe us what do you need, the better the recommendations

goober · Post by **goober** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 12:04 am

Sequencer not necessary, want good poly, would like analog but it's not expected, or necessary, knobs+sliders would be nice as well. Prefer a lo-fi type of sound, dirty, and with character. Nothing that sounds too clean. Most importantly I'm looking for good value, thanks.

Right now, I'm looking around for ESQ-1s as they seem to be pretty nice.

ninja6485 · Post by **ninja6485** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 12:42 am

do i dare suggest the jx-8p again? yes. it's just good value for money! no knobs or sliders though. reviewing the an1x, the yamaha is hard to beat. what about alpha juno 1 or 2's or a jx-3p? cheap and dirty is their thing. you can get dx7s for pretty cheap too.

goober · Post by **goober** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:45 am

ninja6485 wrote:do i dare suggest the jx-8p again? yes. it's just good value for money! no knobs or sliders though. reviewing the an1x, the yamaha is hard to beat. what about alpha juno 1 or 2's or a jx-3p? cheap and dirty is their thing. you can get dx7s for pretty cheap too.

I had a Juno 2 with a PG-300 for a while, but got tired of it. Didn't really click with it.

Angstwulf · Post by **Angstwulf** » Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:14 pm

goober wrote:Sequencer not necessary, want good poly, would like analog but it's not expected, or necessary, knobs+sliders would be nice as well. Prefer a lo-fi type of sound, dirty, and with character. Nothing that sounds too clean. Most importantly I'm looking for good value, thanks.

Right now, I'm looking around for ESQ-1s as they seem to be pretty nice.

Akai AX-60. Not "lo-fi" in the digital sense but certainly dirty and with character. All analog six voice poly with sliders instead of knobs. It is a single osc synth but you can stack all six voices into a thick monosynth voice. Doesn't have the same desireability factor as the Juno's so you can still get them for $300 or less if you're lucky.

computron · Post by **computron** » Fri Jun 25, 2010 4:49 am

Stab Frenzy wrote:Blofeld and Virus A desktop also worth a look.

I totaly agree with the Virus A or B

Post by **Stab Frenzy** » Fri Jun 25, 2010 5:43 am

This is a bit of a leftfield suggestion but the E-Mu XL-7 would be worth consideration. No keyboard but they can be had for really cheap ($300), have heaps of waveforms, drums, great sounding filters and a sequencer. Can be dirty sounding if you want it to be, has a fair few knobs for tweaking sounds (and knob data can be recorded to the sequencer). The only thing with the Command Stations is that they're very deep machines with a great deal of parameters that can be edited and the two-line display isn't the best for that. But it's not any harder to edit than a Micron.

Best synth you can buy for $500?

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