[Skot]

For anyone who is into synths. Since we don't really have sections yet, I thought I'd just start a thread to discuss anything about them. I'll see how this goes...

Anyways, I have a roland SH-201. It is not the most powerful of synths, this I know. I got it because I didn't know anything abut synthesis, and it has a very easy to follow path of knobs and buttons. Everything is labeled. Some of the lead sounds destroy. It can shred pretty hard, and I haven't broken it yet (after a year and a half or so). Good beginner synth.

I was going to get an MS2000b, but they're kind of old and not as user friendly. It has a vocoder, which is rad. I don't have much experience playing one, except at guitar center for a few minutes.

Access Virus Ti (polar synth) is the most awesome synth I have ever played. Its a bit out of my price range, but the sounds you can make with that thing and the amount of tweaking you can do is rediculous. Plus, its freaking sexy. Look at it.
http://www.access-music.de/events/11...t=virustipolar

Anyways, thats my limited experience with synths.
Anyone else into synth stuff?

[Skipp]

i never played that kind of stuff... i'm more into classic workstations, and digital pianos...

I have a long history with yamaha (starting waaaaaaaaaaaay back with the PSR185, then PSR340, PSR2000) <-- all of those are arrangers. Then I got into a band and bought KORG TR76 but i wasn't satisfied with it... it has great sounds, but i spend most of my time playing the piano which is not that good on the TR so I went back to Yamaha and bought the MOTIF ES.

Now I can die happy

[elwoodblues1969]

Hi Skot,

I am an avid workstation guy,but I am equally passionate about synths as well.
The Access Virus TI is definately one of the best virtual synths out there,next to the Nord Wave,but I cannot afford either,so I opted for the Nord Lead 2X..and it will be my flagship keyboard,right next to my Korg Triton Extreme.
It's a $1,000 -which is incredibly affordable for what this beast does!!

It has 990 preset programs,plenty on internal flash memory to save your edited sounds...and let me tell you...you can really tweak & mangle the s**t out of the programs with all the manual controls on this crazy synth.

The Nord Lead 2X is designed and manufactured in Sweden & has a metal body,a pumice modulation wheel,& a wooden pitch bend controller.

This is a very stout & sturdy board & best of all,it has 24 bit,96kHz sound quality...and if you happen to be unaware of what this means,well,let me put it to you this way...standard cd quality is 16 bit,44.1kHz-need I say more?

Check out www.clavia.se & I guarantee you will fall in love with this synth.

The moment I scrape up a thousand bucks-this keyboard is mine...oh yeah,IT WILL BE MINE!!!!!!!!

[elwoodblues1969]

Sysryn,

I never liked Yamahas myself,but I have to admit,the Motif ES is thier best board to date.

However though,if you really want to get impeccably authentic with regard to piano sounds,Kurzweil keyboards are the most unrivaled in sound quality and have been,for over 20 years-and they remain untouched to this day.
Of course,thier other acoustic sounds are stellar as well,along with one of the most powerful synth engines ever created.
They make very stout workstations as well.

Don't take my word for it though...check out www.kurzweilmusicsystems.com

Man...you want to talk about dying happy...there you go!

Elwood

[Skot]

Ive never really had a chance to mess around with a nord very much. I played that two tiered organ for a few minutes at guitar center, but thats about it. I should check the nord lead out next time im down there, Ive heard good things about them.

Sysyrn, thats one thing that I really hate about my korg, the piano sound freaking suck. But I just bought a yamaha CP-33 last weekend, and it destroys!!! I'm so happy to be able to play with weighted keys again. I was going to get a roland rd300sx, but I liked the low end and the feel of the keys better on the yamaha. I also almost bought an fp-7, but I didnt like it enough to justify the price. Im definitely a yamaha guy as for digital pianos.

Oh yeah, anyone have a V-synth? You can do all sorts of crazy stuff with that thing. I think some of the sounds are the same as the sh-201, but obviously it has a crap load more features. I was just wondering what eveyone thought about these guys.

Anyone have experience with analog synths? Its like an entirely separate category.

[Laura]

Originally Posted by Skot

Anyways, I have a roland SH-201.
Anyone else into synth stuff?

I'm a Synth Virgin. I just bought my first--a used Roland RS50 for $299. I'm psyched!!! I bought it because I want to do Ambient/trance/space music. I already play guitar & have a recording interface--but no band. So, if I can lay down synth trax in Cubase I can be creative & jam along with myself.

Or so I hope!!! There's a learning curve. I can play simple chords & tunes, not much else yet. So, this winter I'm going to learn Cubase, keyboards and keep playing guitar. Busy year ahead!!!!!

I have a question about the D-beam. If I put it into 'assignable' mode, it seems to turn the keyboard off. Is that because it's a MIDI function? Oh yeah, I also need to learn MIDI>

[Skot]

Im not sure about the RS50, but on mine the d-beam works fine, and it is not a midi function. Does it actually turn the board off, or is there just no sound? If there is just no sound coming out, then it is probably patching it through a filter that is turned all the way down or something like that. Just mess with the knobs, you'll probably figure it out that way.

[Skipp]

Originally Posted by elwoodblues1969

Sysryn,

I never liked Yamahas myself,but I have to admit,the Motif ES is thier best board to date.

However though,if you really want to get impeccably authentic with regard to piano sounds,Kurzweil keyboards are the most unrivaled in sound quality and have been,for over 20 years-and they remain untouched to this day.
Of course,thier other acoustic sounds are stellar as well,along with one of the most powerful synth engines ever created.
They make very stout workstations as well.

Don't take my word for it though...check out www.kurzweilmusicsystems.com

Man...you want to talk about dying happy...there you go!

Elwood

I've never had a chance to try some of the kurz keyboards but from what i've heard, they are one of the best out there but are very difficult to program and customize, and that's something i really don't want to do with the preset sound. I just want to sit down, press the PIANO button and play . I got that from my ES.

[Laura]

Originally Posted by Skot

Im not sure about the RS50, but on mine the d-beam works fine, and it is not a midi function. Does it actually turn the board off, or is there just no sound? If there is just no sound coming out, then it is probably patching it through a filter that is turned all the way down or something like that. Just mess with the knobs, you'll probably figure it out that way.

I tried out the D-beam, after I go into 'assignable' mode (which doesn't do very much) I tried turning off the D-beam and I still didn't get any sound.

[letsel]

Don't know anything about synths either, but I'm very interested in it.

I have a Yamaha S90 ES, which is pretty much a Yamaha Motif ES without sequencing and sampling functions(which I'm not interrested in) and an improved piano sound. <shameless pimp>http://www.sninety.com/s90vid/index_es.html</shameless pimp>.

But, I havn't even begun touching it's synth capabilities, just focusing on practicing at the moment, but at some stage I plan to delve in the dark abyss of synths, so I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.