Cheap(est) analogue synths - recommendations please?

hellohenry · Post by **hellohenry** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:52 am

Hi, I have a modest analogue recording setup in my attic, and I'm looking to purchase a fairly cheap analogue synth for some nice warm keyboard sounds , good warm bass sounds and a bit of weirdness. wouldn't mind one with a few beat sounds on it too.
used to have a casio mt-40 which was quite cool for the bass sounds and the big keys.

could you help me out with some suggestions? everything I like the look of is a bit too expensive!

I would say my budget is less than ~£70

thanks!
henry

Pilot352 · Post by **Pilot352** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:11 pm

Have you considered trying one of these...

It's pure analog and it's cheap!

hellohenry · Post by **hellohenry** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:20 pm

very funny!

are you saying my budget is too tight? what would you say is a more 'realistic' budget for what I asked?

cheers!

http://www.youtube.com/user/JMPSynth · Post by **JMP** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:39 pm

hellohenry wrote:are you saying my budget is too tight?

Afraid so. A cheap and rather c**p (IMO) mono like the Korg Micro Preset will cost you min. £150.

Maybe look at something like a Yamaha CS5, but that will still cost you about £150-£250.

clubbedtodeath · Post by **clubbedtodeath** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:58 pm

Absolutely.

£200 would be a better price. That might get you X-Station. I see there's one going in Sound on Sound reader's ads for 185 quid:

http://www.soundonsound.com/readersads/ ... derDatAZ=2

stephen · Post by **stephen** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 1:14 pm

£300 would be a good budget. There's a lot of stuff around the £200 to £300 range.

Have a look at the Yamaha AN1x, although it's not analogue it can do analogue-type sounds very well.

Assuming you're from the UK, a quick look at ebay right now brought up JX3P, AX60, Juno 60 etc etc - all around that price range.

hellohenry · Post by **hellohenry** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 1:17 pm

I'm looking for something a bit more old-skool though, not at all interested in Midi. just want it to plug in and have a warm sound really. preferably with some bass sound too similar to those from the casios with bass buttons on the side!

stephen · Post by **stephen** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 1:30 pm

Ah right. There's a couple of Juno 6/60s on ebay UK right now. They might do the trick. Depends how old skool you want to get. I think I saw a Jen on there too. If you want monophonic, there's always sh101's appearing.

There's an ARP2600 up for grabs, but that might be out of your budget by a fair whack!!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/JMPSynth · Post by **JMP** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 1:46 pm

I've just looked at the Casio mt-40 you used to have.... if you liked this, maybe look at the Casio CZ range. Not analogue but they're pretty cheap, the CZ1/1000/3000/5000 all have big keys and will give a lot more than your mt-40 did. Sound can be thin and buzzy sounding but you can double up and the bigger ones have built in chorus (but low quality). No knobs but pretty easy to program. Just a suggestion considering your budget and past experience.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Casio-CZ-1000-CZ1 ... .m14.l1318

th0mas · Post by **th0mas** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:47 pm

consider an 80s hybrid synth.. korg poly 61, roland alpha juno, etc.

OriginalJambo · Post by **OriginalJambo** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:57 pm

hellohenry wrote:are you saying my budget is too tight?

Yes. You'll need at least £150 to feasibility grab any analogue monosynth - even the limited preset models like the SH-2000 and Micro Preset are hardly cheap anymore.

I recommend either saving up for something decent or settling for a hybrid or decent VA. The CZ range, Alpha Juno range, K/A/X-Station range, JX-3/8P, Poly61 and ESQ-1/SQ-80 are all worth a good look.

MrFrodo · Post by **MrFrodo** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 6:58 pm

I'm one to always mention the JX-8p and PG-800 as a first analog synth. maybe not the greatest sound possibilities, touch sensitivity, MIDI controller or editing functions. But, it's great for educational purposes, and you can plug it into the computer.

sacredcow · Post by **sacredcow** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:01 pm

Get a casio ht-700

yek · Post by **yek** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:41 pm

Yoozer wrote:
yek wrote:what's with peoples obsession with analog these days?
What do you mean, "these days"? Have you been living under a rock for the past (nearly 2) decade(s)?

you could just buy a sampler and degrade the samples to get old sounds that way
"Degrading" is an interesting effect but does not analog-ize the sound. The older lower-end E-mu samplers have pretty good (lowpass) filters (which could be called "warm" in a way) and with basic waveforms and a constant routing of a slow random LFO to pitch you -might- get somewhere, but it's a pain in the a*s to do. A Poly61 is cheaper and will do the job better, but synth-wise it's not that spectacular. Maybe an Alpha Juno 1 if the seller was in a good mood and it looked shitty. Forget knobs though.

A tube amp of sorts, however, will help with warming up, but you'd have to find it and test it to see if it was successful.

i would never pay ridiculous ammounts of money for an analog synth
That's exactly the same thing the topicstarter wants. Luckily for him, there's a solution:

http://www.thomann.de/nl/mfb_synth_2_expander.htm
http://www.thomann.de/nl/mfb_kraftzwerg.htm

These, unlike the old versions, appear to have actual VCOs.

i fi found one cheap that's another story,
my idea is it's just a phase. it's like cd versus vinyl debate
Yeah dude, in 4 years those suckers are going to regret paying $2000 for a Minimoog. Totally.

Oh wait.

No.

i guess i don't get the popularity of it, it's a certain sound, a sound that everyone wants more of nowadays, it hasn't always been like that.

plus they are expensive because they are vintage and old

people who bought these synths when they came out , that's another story but there are alot of people that want old synths because they are fashionable.

LJP · Post by **LJP** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:02 am

Get a Korg Poly-800. Got mine for only $100.

Cheap(est) analogue synths - recommendations please?

Cheap(est) analogue synths - recommendations please?

ha ha

Re: ha ha

thanks

Re: ha ha