£500 for first synth?

[Seadog101]

OK, my son is going to be lucky enough to get a synth for Christmas.

He is getting ready fro his Grade 5 piano exam, and we have a Yamaha CP50 at home (which is amazing, and we are probably using about 5% of its capabilities!)

He loves writing his own stuff, and is a dab hand at putting rather neat tunes together on Garage Band with his iPad. https://soundcloud.com/the-infinity-drift

We have about £500 to blow on a synth. Something which is a bit more portable than the CP50. The options I'm considering are:

Waldorf Blofeld
Roland Gaia SH-01
Yamaha MX61

All are available for about £500, the Waldorf a little more, but looks worth the extra outlay. Ideally, I'd prefer something which puts quality (sound and build) above a million whizz-bang features.

Yoru thoughts?

 

[happyrat1]

The Blofeld is probably your best bet for the bucks.

I own the desktop module version and it has some amazingly eerie sounds.

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

I've not played any of these, so won't offer an opinion on which is best for your son, but I WILL say he's a lucky boy. Nice one, dad!

 

[Seadog101]

Yes, he is a very lucky lad indeed! But this a massive pressie for someone who has worked damn hard, and is getting on really well with his music (and school in general).

The Waldorf is top of my list right now, the Roland looks like a good option for learning what you can do with a synth, the Yamaha is there as it seem like a lot of synth for the money.

At the end of the day I expect a long day in a keyboard shop with him, asking lots of questions and getting hands on time.