Imho: when present, effects belong to a synth. Disabling effects would mean you judge a synth as this: synth = [oscillator/filter structure] + [effects], while I think effects are as much a part of the whole concept of a sound as for instance a filter. In a way, a filter is just a delay effect with ...

If you want to create decent mixes, and if you have a lot of low energy (basses, deep synth noises etc.), then I'll always recommend full range speakers.. say, starting from 30Hz or something. As Mackie always advertised: how can you judge something you can't hear? But uhm.. yea.. the lower you go, ...

What I want to do is music such as Vangelis but also the contemporary things like he did in "Beaubourg". I had a Juno-Di but I'm going to sell it because i've grown out of it. But i do still have a midi controller to do an extra sound... but i need a thing that's capable of good things on its own. ...

I mix with headphones regularly. Now, I've a Sennheiser of the comfy class, so I could wear 'm all day without even realizing I'm wearing them. The advantage of headphone mixing is that you won't have added acoustics of your room, and the difference between left and right is ever more clear using he...

One of the (Novation) (Super)nova family. Certainly their synth options are very classy. In the rack module, the arp is tucked away in menu diving (at least in mine), but at least it's there.

If you care to spend time on programming.. probably any. A synth is as good as the person who's using/programming it. Although having a synth with plenty o' features does help!

Click the link in my sig for a suggestion.. ^_^

Merely piping in here briefly, got other things to do at the moment. But the imperfection of a digital signal is only relevant when this imperfection can be observed in a neutral/scientific context, rather than emotional love/hate between analogue and digital systems. Since the quality and resolutio...

except isn't it more work to get a "90's synth" to sound like a "80's synth" even if a 90's synth can actually do it? It's not a lot more work if you know what you're doing. It's true that a large bag o' knobs 'n sliders works faster than menu diving, but that's only an advantage in operating the m...

Finally there are Romplers, like the Roland JV mentioned above, these use samples of real instruments (and a couple of synths) to try and cover alot of different sounds, i wouldn't recommend them for your purposes though because they sound really 90's, and not 80's. Question is: what defines the 90...

Hm, I'm tempted to suggest a JV1080. They're cheap, offer decent multi-timbrality and polyphony, offer bread 'n butter sounds as well as plain synth sounds. A 2080 perhaps for better (more visual) editing. I've seen a 1080 for as low as €160 - in good condition, leaving some options for a keyboard a...

First things first: Do you already have a MIDI keyboard? If yes: the synth could be a (rack/desktop) module. Do you know how to program sounds or are you a complete n00b? If n00b: menu diving probably won't be your friend. Do you already have other synths, or will this be your first one? If first on...

Funny, no Elka Synthex in that list, while the review @ VSE says: "and Jean Michel Jarre swears by it".

(..)and to be perfectly honest I usually associate the DX-7 sound with 80's cheese, but this has me thinking about its possibilities... The cheese factor is because of all these people using lame preset sounds over and over again, because it turned out no one could make cheese from the editing sect...