Help choosing a desktop synth

[collman]

Someone I know is visiting the US, so I want to take advantage of the situation.
I already have a 49-Key controller (Behringer UMX490) so I would be able to manage with a desktop synth.
From what I've seen my options are:

* MS2000R
I really like the interface, a lot of knobs, and a flexible mod matrix from what I've read.
The arp and stuff is very nice too.
I'm not too crazy about the sound but it sounds good enough to be my first hardware synth. Polyphony is low but I think I'll manage.
It's also very cheap, I've seen some go at $300 and they can very easily be found for $400, so that's nice.

* Radias
I'm not too sure about this one. It has a shitload of polyphony, 4 part multitimbral, sequencer, it's basically very feature-complete. Soundwise it's decent, although I haven't really listened much of it.
There's one on the Classifieds here going for $525, which is quite a sum for me, but well.

* Access Virus A/B
Again, pretty feature complete, they sound pretty good and should be VERY flexibles.
This one depends if I can find one around $550, which is hard but not impossible.
An interesting plus of this one is that locally it's sold at $1300, so if I end up not liking it I can sell it for a profit and buy something else.

* EX-8000
This one is nothing like the ones above. I truly LOVE the way it sounds, and there's one selling for $250 so ridiculously cheap. The down side is the lack of hands on control.
A question about this, my controller has 8 knobs, would I be able to easily map them to parameters in the synth?

* Evolver
This one I just want to know what people think about. I really like the the sound of it and I think it's very versatile, I kind of dig the sequencer interface and stuff. The bad thing is it's monophonic and playing it "alone", meaning without the sequencer may not be optimal. I'm also not so sure about my first synth being monophonic, wouldn't it be too limiting?
Well, I've seen a few used ones go for around $400, I wouldn't like to spend much more on this one. On the other hand, the evolver is small and I might be able to eventually buy it on ebay and getting it shipped back home.


I've also had my eye on a Nord Lead 1, but they are quite rare and not that cheap either.

I don't plan playing live or recording any serious stuff for quite some time, so I mainly want something flexible and "fun" if that makes sense.
Budget wise I wouldn't want to go further than $550 and that's already a little too much, so I know my options are slim.
What do you guys think?

[smoothcriminal]

how important is multitimbrality to you? I.e. if you're sequencing songs from your PC, do you want a single desktop unit to provide bass/pads/leads/FX simultaneously? Or are you only looking for interesting sounds for a keyboard performance (in which case multitimbrality is still important vis a vis split/layered sounds)?

[TheKeytarist]

Two words. Access Virus

[collman]

how important is multitimbrality to you? I.e. if you're sequencing songs from your PC, do you want a single desktop unit to provide bass/pads/leads/FX simultaneously? Or are you only looking for interesting sounds for a keyboard performance (in which case multitimbrality is still important vis a vis split/layered sounds)?

Well, I don't know if I'd call it a necessity but it's pretty handy, especially in high polyphony synths of course. To be honest I don't think it makes that much different in synths like the MS2K. It's still a pretty nice feature though.

I'm not sure how I would compare it with split/layered sounds in importance to be honest.
If you have a suggestion in mind, please share it, I'm certainly not against monotimbral synths.

Two words. Access Virus

Yeah, I get the feeling that even the Virus A is streets ahead of the other synths in features. In the other hand though, I REALLY like the sound of the Dw8000.
I'm having a little trouble finding sounds of the Virus A in particular (which is the one I'm most likely to get), especially some that are not too trancy, but I'm gonna look some more now.

If I can't find a Virus in my price range, what would be your second choice and, if you don't mind, why?

Thanks both of you for your replies.

[smoothcriminal]

If you have a suggestion in mind, please share it, I'm certainly not against monotimbral synths.

basically I asked you what you are going to use the synth you're planning on buying for. without that information any suggestions are not going to be useful.

[collman]

I'm sorry, I must have misread your post, my english is a little flaky at best.

I'll try to give you a detailed answer.

if you're sequencing songs from your PC, do you want a single desktop unit to provide bass/pads/leads/FX simultaneously?

Not really, if it does it so be it, but if I can get a nice pad/lead/bass going and have a little fun with that, that's enough for me. I have no problem recording everything separately since as I said I'm not planning to play live.

So I would mostly say interesting sounds. I'm also not a great keyboard player (I've been taking piano lessons for some time so I'll be improving soon I hope) so I would even try to play a decent bass while doing a good lead with the other hand right now.

If it means anything, I really like doing sound design and having fun making it "evolve" over time.

If I missed anything, or there's something I'm not saying, please ask, I'm pretty new at this, and as i said, my English is not the best.

Thanks!

[Stab Frenzy]

Just get the one you like the sound of the most. All the on-paper advantages of a synth (polyphony, ease of use, resale value etc) don't mean a thing if you don't like the sounds you're getting out of it. Get something you're gonna wanna play with.

[smoothcriminal]

FYI you won't be able to program the EX800 with your MIDI controller's knobs.

[collman]

Just get the one you like the sound of the most. All the on-paper advantages of a synth (polyphony, ease of use, resale value etc) don't mean a thing if you don't like the sounds you're getting out of it. Get something you're gonna wanna play with.

I agree with you that features don't mean much, but I think ease of use is important, at least to me since this is my first Hardware synth and I'm not too familiar with them.
I know though, that good sounding, easy to use and cheap synths are hard to find. I guess I'm mostly not sure what i should make a compromise on.
The Ex8k for example I think sounds wonderful, but the interface is pretty shitty, especially if I can't use my controller knobs like smoothcriminal said below. So getting some nice sounds out of it may become a chore and not a fun experience at all. It does have nice polyphony and is pretty damn cheap, so maybe I should get that and compromise on the ease of use.

FYI you won't be able to program the EX800 with your MIDI controller's knobs.

I don't know if you made a mistake when you read or when you wrote, but I'm considering the EX-8000, the rack version of the Dw8000, not the Poly-800. Are we talking about the same synth? If so, that's very discouraging.

[smoothcriminal]

my mistake. i thought you said ex800, but you can't easily program the ex8000 with your controller either. if you can make your controller send SysEx from the knobs it's possible, i have no idea if your controller (or you) are capable, so you should probably google it and/or check the manual.

[collman]

my mistake. i thought you said ex800, but you can't easily program the ex8000 with your controller either. if you can make your controller send SysEx from the knobs it's possible, i have no idea if your controller (or you) are capable, so you should probably google it and/or check the manual.

From what I gather from the manual it only sends CC data, so, bummer.
Does this mean I won't be able to use the knobs with other synths either?
Thanks for your help man.

[gordwiebe]

like others have said - the virus sounds like a good choice for someone only having one small synth (for now!) - lots and lots of sound mangling potential, great interface (design + build), good polyphony for a VA, multitimbral and it has effects for each channel.
Check out the blofeld or micro-q as well - they can be had for pretty cheap these days.
Be sure you like the sounds though - neither the virus nor the blofeld are very "warm analog" or "traditional" sounding VA's. They can get there with some work and creativity though - sometimes it just takes a bit of time to exorcise the trance and industrial out of those boxes!

[collman]

I've looked pretty extensively into the Blofeld and I like it, but I wouldn't want it to be my only synth to be honest. I find the sound a little too digital/ethereal or something of that sort.

I have that problem with the early virii, everything demo I hear they're a fantastic trance or industrial machine. Which is fine, but NOT what i'm looking for. On paper they're perfect, a lot of knobs, very nice polyphony, effects, you name it. But I haven't found videos of people doing other stuff with them. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places though.

I've listened the Micro Q a little bit, and it seems to sound good, but the limited interface threw me off. it was some time ago so maybe I should give it another chance. Thanks for reminding me of this one!

[smoothcriminal]

I've had a microQ for a few months and I'm very happy with it as my only synth for now. The interface threw me at first, and I hate every preset sound on it, but I'm beginning to realize that not only is it very useable once you get your head around it, there's also no other reasonable way for Waldorf to implement all it's features without a gigantic case and patch cables everywhere. It would need to have something like 66 knobs on the front panel. That being said I think the bigger LCD on the Blofeld is probably an improvement, and they probably sound very similar (disregarding the extra features on the Blofeld). If you don't like the Blofeld sound, you probably won't like the Q's sound either.

Another thing for you to consider with the microQ or other rack gear is that using a rack unit as a *desktop* unit may be more annoying than you expect (excluding the MS2000r). I have my uQ stacked on top of a bunch of DVDs until I get a better stand for it.

[Ashe37]

What can you do on a MicroQ that you can't do on a Blofeld?