Most affordable vintage synth

[psionic11]

Let's just say, until I can afford an Andy, I wanted to get a vintage synth off of ebay. What would your recommendations be? Here are the conditions:

1) under $200
2) at least 8 voice polyphony
3) self-oscillating filter
4) knobs to twiddle live
5) velocity and aftertouch sensitive
6) decent built-in FX (reverb, chorus) a plus

[CfNorENa]

If you find a working synthesizer that meets all six of your conditions , you'll deserve a medal .

I think the closest you'll get is an Akai AX-80 (but I don't know if this meets condition #3, and it only meets the first half of condition #5). If you can forego condition #4, then you might just be able to find a tattered Roland JX-10 for somewhere in your neighborhood (but not $200). But this is an idle exercise. I don't think you'll find everything you want for under $200. Would be more than happy to be proven wrong!

Good luck.

[Raiven]

Stick to reality and save up for a while longer.

[Solderman]

I noticed you didn't explicitly say analog, so maybe if you drop 3 & 4, and raise the price just a bit, the Ensoniq SQ-80.
It's really easy to edit, and I've found that self-oscillating filter and polyphonic aren't as compatible as you'd think, especially if you have a sine-wave waveform.

[Z]

Nothing like that exists. Not many "vintage" synths have velocity/aftertouch or effects. Some of the mid/late 80's had touch sensitivity and many have built-in chorus, but none with reverb.

The closest you might be able to get in that price rance would be:
Akai AX-60, AX-80
Roland JX-3P, JX-8P and (maybe) JX-10.

Now you should be able to find a used VA with most, if not all, of your requirements.

[Stab Frenzy]

Except for the velocity and aftertouch a Poly-800 mkII with the moog slayer mod ticks the boxes. You said 'knobs', so two knobs counts right?

[RobotHeroes]

8 Stylophones + kaossilator

[Z]

Ah! I forgot about Korg. Although they only have one data slider, you might could find a DW-8000 or 6000 for around $200.

[minty]

Blimey, that's a tricky one. Again, picking up that you didn't specify analogue, what about a Kawai K1? It's got a kind of joystick for realtime tweaking, the sounds are, well, okay. And it's often dirt cheap. I know it's velocity sensitive and has aftertouch, but I don't think it has built in effects. It's a very long time since I've used one!

[shaft9000]

maybe if you get in a time machine and go to 1992 you'll find what you're looking for.
But 'vintage'+Ebay these days almost never = under $200
look elsewhere: garage sales, craigslist etc

[Sir Nose]

I just noticed that you did not say analog. Vintage analog with all of your criteria does not exist.

How vintage?

How about an E-mu command station XL-7?
Usually over $200, but a PX-7 went on the bay last month for $180

[Electroluver]

Blimey, that's a tricky one. Again, picking up that you didn't specify analogue, what about a Kawai K1? It's got a kind of joystick for realtime tweaking, the sounds are, well, okay. And it's often dirt cheap. I know it's velocity sensitive and has aftertouch, but I don't think it has built in effects. It's a very long time since I've used one!

Trust me, don't buy a Kawai K1, it's a total POS. For $200, your best bet is an Alpha Juno 2 (velocity sensitive, MIDI, analog, polyphonic) You would need a PG-300 for the knob twiddling, but the alpha dial is quite useful.

[balma]

Stick to reality and save up for a while longer.

Or check every garage sale on US from coast to coast.

From time to time a dusty Minimoog arises from dust to be sold on $100 on a grandma's garage sale

[rhino]

good luck finding vintage goodness under $200.
skimming thru the first two pages of ebay brings up these for (at that time) less than $200:

Roland JX3p
Yam SY85
Alesis micron
Ensoniq ESQ-q
Yam CS1x
Casio CZ101

(no flame intended) If you find an OB-8, Synthex, PPG, etc for two bills, LET US KNOW !!!!

[psionic11]

The Korg DW8000 came to my mind as I posted. I used to have one, and the delay and chorus are fine, and the one slider can be set to a parameter, so that would work, esp since it did have velocity and aftertouch IIRC.