Best synth under £100

[HarryP]

Hey, got a really tight budget at Xmas cos I'm gonna get an MC 303 but I want another synth
Any suggestions for a synth under £100??

[nuketifromorbit]

Best is highly subjective, but fm racks and modules like the tx7 and tx81z go for very little, as well as late 80s early 90s romplers like the emu protues. Also rack samplers sell for next to nothing these days. I just picked up an emu proteus for 60usd, a korg trinity rack for 100usd, and an akai s20 for 90usd. The deals are out there and pretty easy to find using ebay, craigslist, and various electronic music forums. You could probably pick up a used korg volca for just under 100 pounds if your looking for something that isn't digital.

[Walter Ego]

Hey, got a really tight budget at Xmas cos I'm gonna get an MC 303 but I want another synth
Any suggestions for a synth under £100??

Used Casio CZ-101 (or CZ-1000, but I prefer the 101 because the membrane buttons tend to die on the 1000). They're the same synth, the 1000 has full size keys.

Or...

Find a used Yamaha PSR-36/41. Home keyboard, but great sounds; editable 4-op FM presets, with MIDI. Some people like the PSS-480/680/780 home keyboards as well; they're all FM synths with some programming capability.

Or...

Korg Volca Keys (you can get a new one for $150 USD, used much cheaper. They're brand new on the market.

And...

the more you look for stuff, the more you get lucky.

[nuketifromorbit]

Hey, got a really tight budget at Xmas cos I'm gonna get an MC 303 but I want another synth
Any suggestions for a synth under £100??

Used Casio CZ-101 (or CZ-1000, but I prefer the 101 because the membrane buttons tend to die on the 1000). They're the same synth, the 1000 has full size keys.

Or...

Find a used Yamaha PSR-36/41. Home keyboard, but great sounds; editable 4-op FM presets, with MIDI. Some people like the PSS-480/680/780 home keyboards as well; they're all FM synths with some programming capability.

Or...

Korg Volca Keys (you can get a new one for $150 USD, used much cheaper. They're brand new on the market.

And...

the more you look for stuff, the more you get lucky.

I think the yamaha pss and psr series are actually 2-op, you can still get some pretty cool stuff out of them though.

[mrfaux]

an old beat up ESQ1

[Yekuku]

The novation xio synth is one of my favorite budget synths, the build quality is c**p, it is monotimbral but I really love its sound.
Plus you get an audio interface, a cool touchpad and a joystick controller.

[EmptySet]

There's a lot of good Ensoniq machines that go for cheap these days.

[Walter Ego]

Hey, got a really tight budget at Xmas cos I'm gonna get an MC 303 but I want another synth
Any suggestions for a synth under £100??

Used Casio CZ-101 (or CZ-1000, but I prefer the 101 because the membrane buttons tend to die on the 1000). They're the same synth, the 1000 has full size keys.

Or...

Find a used Yamaha PSR-36/41. Home keyboard, but great sounds; editable 4-op FM presets, with MIDI. Some people like the PSS-480/680/780 home keyboards as well; they're all FM synths with some programming capability.

Or...

Korg Volca Keys (you can get a new one for $150 USD, used much cheaper. They're brand new on the market.

And...

the more you look for stuff, the more you get lucky.

I think the yamaha pss and psr series are actually 2-op, you can still get some pretty cool stuff out of them though.

I had a PSS-570. It lacks MIDI and is 2-op. I have a 680 and PSR-36, however. Both of those are 4-op with MIDI. The 680 even has a few patch memory slots. The give-away on these is that there's a "detune" function where 2 of the ops can be detuned against the other 2 ops. I'm pretty sure this is the case. I could always be wrong. The 4-op ones sound richer than their 2-op brothers.

[Walter Ego]

There's a lot of good Ensoniq machines that go for cheap these days.

+1 on that. I nabbed one for $100 that had two very valuable carts with it, and one for $20 that had european voltage and included 6 carts. I consider myself lucky. I sold both of them later, but I regret it.

[HideawayStudio]

As a sound designer I can highly recommend the Novation K-Station... it is quite a remarkable little VA for peanuts and often overlooked... I bought mine for £100.

I have a lot of synths here - both vintage and new but for some curious reason this is one of my favorite virtual analogs.

I actually prefer it over the Supernova in that it somehow seems more concise, more accessible and uncluttered from a programming point of view. I quickly tired of programming new sounds in the Supernova but found the K-Station a joy to use in similar manner to the Minimoog's and Juno-60's sheer accessibility.

With three oscillators per voice it's a surprisingly powerful little beast too.

There isn't a vintage analog with this much polyphonic power available for anything like this sort of money - the least expensive (but nothing like as powerful) I can think of is the alpha Juno series eg. MKS-50 which you just might get for £100 if you are very lucky.

[HarryP]

Hideawaystudio
I already have the k station

[Weirdofromouterspace]

Hi,

sorry for posting a bit late. I saw this thread only today.

Anyway, you should be able to get a working Yamaha DX21 for less than £100. You may have to replace the battery, but that can be done within a few minutes (there is a video on Youtube that helped me when I did this a while ago).

It is still a nice synth .

[commodorejohn]

I second the recommendation for a TX7. Doesn't have the excellent keybed or the potential for upgrades of the DX7, but for the going rate you just can't beat it. The Proteus is another good choice, if you dig late-'80s ROMpler sounds, but its synthesis capabilities are limited (though not nonexistent!)

[max badwan]

Hey, got a really tight budget at Xmas cos I'm gonna get an MC 303 but I want another synth
Any suggestions for a synth under £100??

Unless someone is giving you the MC 303, spend the extra £100 to get an MC 505 - it's a much more capable machine in every regard - and the synth engine is basically a JV 1080, with a ROM set derived from the Techno and Hip Hop boards, with a bit of World, Vintage Synth, Session and SuperSound Set thrown in.

[ellaguru]

There's a lot of good Ensoniq machines that go for cheap these days.

+1 on that. I nabbed one for $100 that had two very valuable carts with it, and one for $20 that had european voltage and included 6 carts. I consider myself lucky. I sold both of them later, but I regret it.

please name some model guys!!
thanks
ps
for example an esq1 goes for like 250-300euro here in france...so not very cheap at all...at least, not on the 100usd ultra cheap synth...