Beginner Wanting a Synth with a Sequencer

[GIRain]

Hello. I have joined this forum today in the hope that someone can give me advice about which synth to buy.

In my youth I was in a great band back in 1983. I was the guitarist. We had a keyboard player who used a Roland JX3P as far as I can remember.

Nowadays I write and record music by myself. I am not technical at all but my partner can operate my little portastudio well enough to record my efforts. I haven’t used keyboards so far in my songwriting.

I would really like to recreate one of the songs we used to play and as I cannot play the keyboard fluently in real time I wondered if I could use a step sequencer to achieve this.

I have a little home keyboard but cannot play well enough in real time to play the song.

Do they still make synths with simple step sequencers in? Or do I need to buy a vintage synth?

I’m sorry to say I have zero knowledge about synths. I know what I want to do though, which is to enter my simple tunes note by note, then play them back and record them on my portasudio.

I do not need a wide range of fancy sounds and I don’t mind how many keys it has or what size they are. I don’t want to use anything that links to a computer or uses software as I like old fashioned solid instruments.

I don’t want to spend a fortune. I basically have no idea where to start in looking for a synth and like the idea of a vintage one. Thanks.

[recordbot]

deepmind has a sequencer, otherwise any old rompler workstation you can snag anywhere for a few hundred, vintage analog with or without sequencer tends to cost more, also do you want mono or poly, all important questions, depends on what type of roles you expect your synth to fill out in the music you are making.

[Jabberwalky]

The new Roland Boutique line all have sequencers, if you don't mind the tiny size. You could even get the Jx3p version for a similar sound that you had back then.

[Hubaswift]

I personally find the boutiques to be a bit small, and there's always the option of a vintage JX-3P. They're still a great synth and are relatively cheap. The sequencer can record up to 128 steps, you can do it one part at a time (record a bassline, then add melodies over top of it) and play over the sequence with the remaining voices. I assume the Boutique can do all this too, I just like the form factor of the original 3P. Here's a short single sequence I made with my JX-3P: https://soundcloud.com/user-266524053/j ... cer-melody

[Z]

For the money, you really can't beat the Roland JD-Xi. Under $500 gets you a keyboard with 2 polyphonic digital synths, a monophonic analog synth and a digital drum machine. Each part (synth/drum) can be sequenced up to 64 steps (4 bars of 16 steps) in real time or step time.

[GIRain]

Thank you so much for all those great suggestions. I shall investigate the models you have recommended and will hopefully soon be adding synth parts to my music.

[ninja6485]

For the money, you really can't beat the Roland JD-Xi. Under $500 gets you a keyboard with 2 polyphonic digital synths, a monophonic analog synth and a digital drum machine. Each part (synth/drum) can be sequenced up to 64 steps (4 bars of 16 steps) in real time or step time.

As much as I love my JP08, this sounds like the perfect instrument for job!