Looking for a keybed solution..

[lycosa]

Hello all,

I've been scratching my head trying to decide between the Roland Gaia, Microkorg, M-Audio Venom, Moog Little Phatty, and MiniBrute.

I definitely want analog control and sound. If I decided to go the Minibrute route, can anyone recommend a midi keyboard to supplement that synth? The Minibrute just seems to have so few keys to do anything useful that I'd need a decent controller to do anything with it.

I play mostly metal, but I'm not looking for a ton of choir/piano sounds. I have vst's for those if I want them. I just want to go elbow deep in digging sounds out of a decent analog synth. Virtual analog isn't (really) important if the synth sounds good, but that Moog Little Phatty has some pretty huge real analog sounds that make me drool everytime I hear someone demo it. Just too many choices and I'm trying to make the right one... with a budget.

Since I didn't get any advice before, anyone have an opinion on which synth I should buy? I could certainly use the help. I'm trying to make a final decision by Monday.

 

[happyrat1]

Hello all,

I've been scratching my head trying to decide between the Roland Gaia, Microkorg, M-Audio Venom, Moog Little Phatty, and MiniBrute.

I definitely want analog control and sound. If I decided to go the Minibrute route, can anyone recommend a midi keyboard to supplement that synth? The Minibrute just seems to have so few keys to do anything useful that I'd need a decent controller to do anything with it.

I play mostly metal, but I'm not looking for a ton of choir/piano sounds. I have vst's for those if I want them. I just want to go elbow deep in digging sounds out of a decent analog synth. Virtual analog isn't (really) important if the synth sounds good, but that Moog Little Phatty has some pretty huge real analog sounds that make me drool everytime I hear someone demo it. Just too many choices and I'm trying to make the right one... with a budget.

Since I didn't get any advice before, anyone have an opinion on which synth I should buy? I could certainly use the help. I'm trying to make a final decision by Monday.

I had a Microkorg XL that I ended up selling off a couple of months ago to buy a Casio XW-P1. I don't regret my decision for a second. The XW has a hell of a lot more bang for the buck than the Microkorg, a seemingly endless selection of cool 80's Virtual Analog sounds and to replace the vocorder function of the Microkorg I ended up buying a TC Helicon Voicetone Synth Vocorder Pedal that also includes their own version of autotune.

Anyway, having played with the mini keyboard on the Microkorg XL for a year I'd definitely say avoid the tiny keybed stuff and spend the money for something with a real keyboard.

Try an XW-P1 out for speed in a music store while you're looking around. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

...EDIT...

Also, since you aren't interested in the regular PCM sounds you would probably be happier with the XW-G1 which doesn't include the drawbar organs or hex mode sounds and instead adds a sampler and greater knob twiddling control over the VA synth sounds.

 

[tassiespirit]

Korg's Legacy Collection would be a good way to go.