Downsizing - versatile polysynth

[OriginalJambo]

Hiya folks, been absolutely ages since I've been on here. Hope everyone has been keeping safe and well during this difficult time.

So currently a lot of my gear is in storage since moving to a smaller property but we are planning on buying our first house in the near future. As a result I have been considering selling some of my gear to boost our deposit. I'll probably want to hang on to most of my analogue monosynths so thinking I can maybe replace a few polysynths with one versatible board that covers all bases.

I've not really been keeping up to date with new product releases but can see there's a number of offerings from Dave Smith, Moog and even Behringer! So far this is what I have and what I'm thinking:

Ensoniq ESQ-1 (probably keep since it was my first synth)
Roland JX-3P (sell)
Roland JX-10 (probably sell)
KORG Polysix (keep - love it too much)
Yamaha DX7 (probably sell)
Roland V-Synth 2.0 (keep - nothing quite like it)
Casio CZ3000 (busted - sell)
microKORG (busted - sell)
Blofeld module (can sell but probably better to keep)

I've had a quick look at prices and it seems that vintage gear still is holding its value so this should give me a few options. I'd really like something that has a decent polyphony and great analogue sounds but bonus points if it can do some digital stuff too (Prophet X comes to mind). Any advice would be much appreciated. Cheers!

[meatballfulton]

I'm a little confused, is there more gear you are selling besides these polys?

A Prophet X is like $3000 in the US and if you sold all the stuff you had earmarked in your list it would be a lot less than that...at least in the US. So you won't be freeing up any money by doing that!

[OriginalJambo]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I have some monosynths that I may be willing to part with to generate a bit of extra funds, but wanted to give an idea of what polysynths I'd still have access to. Also I have the programmers for both the JXs and it seems that they can go for around £1000 after looking at eBay to check the going rates. The Prophet X is probably a bit out of my range to be fair but I just gave that as an example of a synth that can do a bit of everything. I'm open to suggestions for anything.

I know there's lots of options really - Prophets, OB-6, Jupiters, Nords and more! Just thought folks could chime in with what they have and why they like it.

[meatballfulton]

Here in the US, the PGs cost more than the JXes do

[OriginalJambo]

That doesn't suprise me to be honest and I suspect it'll be similar here in the UK. However it's been difficult to determine a concrete value since I can't find many that have sold recently.

[madtheory]

Roland V-Synth 2.0 (keep - nothing quite like it)

Yes, nothing that has all of that in one box it's true... but Time Machine Pro in Kontakt can do the same timestretching thing, and arguably with more ease and flexibility, and it can be as smooth or as glitchy as you like... and you can layer that with any number of VA plugins, and process with any number of effects plugins. The only caveat- there's no way to assign formant to an external controller! Which is one of the coolest things on the V Synth IMHO. Unless they changed that in Kontakt 6, dunno yet.

[meatballfulton]

I've always been a workstation guy, the fewer hardware pieces the better. While you were away, I actually sold all my hardware, now just using Logic and a MIDI controller.

As an ex-Evolver owner, if I were to get a new poly it would likely be the Rev2 because of the similarities of the engine, plus it's bi-timbral. The only negative of the Rev2 for me is the lack of a multimode filter.

[clubbedtodeath]

As an ex-Evolver owner, if I were to get a new poly it would likely be the Rev2 because of the similarities of the engine, plus it's bi-timbral. The only negative of the Rev2 for me is the lack of a multimode filter.

There's many similarities between the Evolver and Rev2 in terms of the engine, but the Rev2 feels more refined and parameters are much easier to access. The modulation matrix is quite open ended: you can modulate almost any parameter with any other. So you could modulate the frequency of LFO 1, say, with any knob on the keyboard, or one of the sequencer tracks. Or you could do the same to the waveshape/pulse width on one or both of oscillators. the This lends itself well to making complex pads.

The lack of multimode filter is a minor annoyance, but you do have a DSP hi-pass. I find that enough to cut out low end when I need to.

While I've never managed to get it to do really snarling bass lines, it has a certain sound which is definitely improvement over the original Prophet 08, and miles above the Evolver, which I always had to work hard to find a sweet spot.

Cheers

[OriginalJambo]

Looks like we've just bought a house! Interesting the previous owner happens have a large collection of music gear so the property has been kitted out with lots of storage. However might still be a good time to cut back a bit.

I've watched a few videos in the meantime and I agree that the REV2 seems to be the best option. The OB-6 and Prophet-6 sound amazing but the REV2 is just so much more versatile and seems incredible value for money. Will probably look into that then. Cheers folks!