Suggest me a synth of indie/electro

[hessodreamy]

When I set up my band, some years ago, we had a keyboard player with a Korg MS-10. Lovely, quirky thing, it became very much part of the sound of the band, playing "electro-tinged indie". Probably maximo park is the closest fitting combination of sounds, a little bit stereolab, pulp.

Anyway, she left the band and took the korg with her. I got a Yamaha CS1X which has come in handy as a multi purpose organ/piano/synth thing. Except none of these it does very well...

So I'm thinking what else to get. Needs decent piano, organ and synth sounds, with filters (unless I run it through another filter - I hear the monotron is pretty good at that). Any suggestions?

Oh, and I don't want to spend more than.. ooh... £150-200

[MitchXI]

Have you considered keeping your cs1x for piano/organ sounds and buying a synthesizer for the synth sounds? You could set them up on a two tier stand and be in pseudo dual manual heaven.

You should probably go VA so you can access a nice variety of sounds without paying a fortune. I'm no VA expert, but an Alesis ion/micron or a blofeld or similar tend to have generous osc sections with interesting filter options.

[Stab Frenzy]

Oh, and I don't want to spend more than.. ooh... £150-200

Well you're not gonna get anything even close to an MS-10 then. You're pretty much limited to second-hand versions of the cheapest rung of VAs, you're not gonna get any hands on control and you're not gonna get good synth sounds as well as good piano sounds. If you get a Micron that should cover organs and synth sounds and is the best sounding thing in that price range, but it won't do piano. Like Mitch said you'll probably have to keep the CS1X for realistic instrument sounds.

[hessodreamy]

I'm finding the sounds on the cs1x not terribly realistic. For just piano I could maybe get a dedicated module.
I'm also finding the filters really digital - discrete increments rather than a smooth filter. Is this going to be the case with other digital equipment?
I do realise I'm pricing myself out of the market with with tightness.But I'll check out the Micron. Maybe the Microkorg.

[MitchXI]

Regarding the filters - are you getting discrete steps when you change the cutoff in the editing mode/section? Those steps will most likely go away if you use an envelope/lfo, or if you assign cutoff to the mod wheel.

I've never worked with the cs1x. However, from a DSP perspective, you want to use smooth changes only when you need to. So performance controls = smooth, editing parameters = stepped

[analoglsd]

While it's not really much of an actual synthesizer, the E-MU Vintage Pro would probably fit the bill for you. It has great piano, organ, synth, and mellotron sounds. There is a LP filter onboard and other basic tools for shaping the sounds. It's relatively cheap too. Keep the Yamaha to control it though.

[hessodreamy]

Regarding the filters - are you getting discrete steps when you change the cutoff in the editing mode/section? Those steps will most likely go away if you use an envelope/lfo, or if you assign cutoff to the mod wheel.

I get these discreet steps when using the cutoff knob. I tried assigning the mod wheel to the cutoff, but it's the same. The only way to get a smooth filter is to use envelope or lfo, like you said. But that doesn't allow for such human expression.

[Stab Frenzy]

Regarding the filters - are you getting discrete steps when you change the cutoff in the editing mode/section? Those steps will most likely go away if you use an envelope/lfo, or if you assign cutoff to the mod wheel.

I get these discreet steps when using the cutoff knob. I tried assigning the mod wheel to the cutoff, but it's the same. The only way to get a smooth filter is to use envelope or lfo, like you said. But that doesn't allow for such human expression.

Try assigning the envelope to the filter and then assigning the mod wheel to cutoff amount. That should be nice and smooth.