Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

I have to admit I'm rather spoilt when it comes to the classic heavyweights in the studio but in recent years in some ways I've been getting more reward from various cheap little synths nobody either seems to want or knows anything about...

Like the little Crumar Synthaphone which turned out to be a remarkably soulful and expressive little beasty:



and the Bohm Dynamic 4 x 9 and DSE12-24 - just such a unique combination of 4OP FM bolted to real Solina style triple analog BBD chorus for a completely different slant on FM!



and the little Peavey SpectrumSynth which is as cheap as chips and a suprisingly powerful pure-synth which is now supported by the superb StereoPing patch controller:



The little Evolution EVS-1 is a bizarre cheapo too which can create some interesting textures which I've found useful as the front end to more complex signal processing chains.

Yeh they do sound nice. It's one of those things where most people need to see the word Roland or whatever on the box before they consider it worthy. I learnt a long time ago by watching other people (who had little money to spend) how they could get really interesting sounds from what many consider to be cheap synths. It's fair say it's a twisty journey, what to buy or look for, versus what is actucally is limited or just a bit naff. But then to some musicians, if a synth has only has one good sound, then that's justification for it's existance. I personally need more than one good sound from a box.

Probably like many in here, to get the best from a synth requires spending time with it, getting to know what it does well and not good. And than add how we all tend to like different textures. There more to life than a Roland JP8/6/4/Juno.

I got a Kawai K4 (sourced from this very forum) - it's quite a delightful thing. It's Kawai acoustic piano is.. well bit of a laff, good for adding fx for a modified bigger texture. I tend to set it to moody, atmospheric, I have got a really big round bass synth from it. I like the drum kit, punchy. For those in the know, Hawkwind's Dave Brock uses one.