Best beginner hardware synth?

Beakflakes

Looking to get to grips with proper synthesis, but not jump in at the deep end. Options I'm considering are the bass station 2, minibrute, microbrute, dark energy 2.... or maybe the ms20 mini, although that looks a bit complex for a total beginner.

If anyone has any experience with any of these or some other suggestions, blast away!:)

I do fairly dark techno, if that makes any difference.

Appreciate it.

Sham Squire

Microbrute. It's a great sounding, well laid out instrument and it's cheaper than all the others without scrimping on features. As a first synth it gets my vote.
BTW, have you tried synthesis using soft synths to begin with? Lots of free and cheap options that can get you into all the principles without spending any money. Then move onto the hardware if you feel you need to.

Beakflakes

Sham Squire wrote: »

Microbrute. It's a great sounding, well laid out instrument and it's cheaper than all the others without scrimping on features. As a first synth it gets my vote.
BTW, have you tried synthesis using soft synths to begin with? Lots of free and cheap options that can get you into all the principles without spending any money. Then move onto the hardware if you feel you need to.

Cheers for the advice. Yeah, I've been fooling about with Sylenth with mixed results. Just eager to dip my toes in and perhaps eventually build up to a cheap hardware live performance setup of some sort, perhaps;) Bass station is top of the list now, but I'll consider any second hand deal I see.

asteroids over berlin

ms 20 mini is a perfect synth for learning synthesis, patching will give you great knowledge of "how it works". no brainer, plus it sounds fantastic unlinke the mini or microbrute!!

Beakflakes

asteroids over berlin wrote: »

ms 20 mini is a perfect synth for learning synthesis, patching will give you great knowledge of "how it works". no brainer, plus it sounds fantastic unlinke the mini or microbrute!!

Appreciate the advice. I should have mentioned that I hope to eventually incorporating this synth into a live performance setup. Maybe the patching capability on ms20mini might be handy for making that more interesting?

jiltloop

I've owned the ms20 mini, the microbrute and the older bass stations.

I really didn't like the microbrute. Soundwise I got sick of it very quickly. I'd recommend either the ms20 or the bass station 2.

The ms20 is an amazing instrument. Sounds great, rewards experimentation, endless fun and you will learn a lot from this synth.

Bass station 2, I can't comment on specifically but I loved my original bass station keyboard and my rackmount super bass station. Great sounds from those and nice and simple/intuitive. The new one seems to be really well layed out for a beginner and I think you would have fun with this too.

asteroids over berlin

Beakflakes wrote: »

Appreciate the advice. I should have mentioned that I hope to eventually incorporating this synth into a live performance setup. Maybe the patching capability on ms20mini might be handy for making that more interesting?

yes, indeed it would, however, one must be careful when doing so live, as obviously intricate twists are needed, although you can say that about any synth. Surgeon incorporates a modular rig into his sets these days, check him out on youtube. can sound great and your not just a laptop warrior playing a set!

Beakflakes

asteroids over berlin wrote: »

yes, indeed it would, however, one must be careful when doing so live, as obviously intricate twists are needed, although you can say that about any synth. Surgeon incorporates a modular rig into his sets these days, check him out on youtube. can sound great and your not just a laptop warrior playing a set!

Yeah, modular's getting more and more popular. I doubt I'll ever have the time, money or the brainpower to head down that road. However I am hugely impressed by anyone who attempts to play live with such a set up such as Irish lad DeFeKT. Unreal.

I was thinking the Dark Energy II would also be a good option if I decide to play live also, nice and compact... and powerful I gather.

I'll basically go for whatever cheap deal I see 2nd hand. Can always sell it on then without much of a loss if it's not for me I suppose.

Beakflakes

jiltloop wrote: »

I've owned the ms20 mini, the microbrute and the older bass stations.

I really didn't like the microbrute. Soundwise I got sick of it very quickly. I'd recommend either the ms20 or the bass station 2.

The ms20 is an amazing instrument. Sounds great, rewards experimentation, endless fun and you will learn a lot from this synth.

Bass station 2, I can't comment on specifically but I loved my original bass station keyboard and my rackmount super bass station. Great sounds from those and nice and simple/intuitive. The new one seems to be really well layed out for a beginner and I think you would have fun with this too.

I've been loitering around a few music shops and I've tried them all out. To my ear they all sound great. I do like the fact that you can sort of save your patches on the bass station. Recalling configurations on the Ms20mini sounds, er, interesting. Photos i guess.

jiltloop

Beakflakes wrote: »

I've been loitering around a few music shops and I've tried them all out. To my ear they all sound great. I do like the fact that you can sort of save your patches on the bass station. Recalling configurations on the Ms20mini sounds, er, interesting. Photos i guess.

You might think that the lack of patch memory would be a big issue, but in fact I find it to be quite liberating and it really does aid the learning process.

If you are messing around and experimenting and suddenly the synth is making some crazy noises, there's no undo button or patch reset. This means that you have to figure out why the synth is making this sound and in figuring this out you learn far more than you would with a synth such as the bass station.

The downside would be in a live set up. You would need to know your ms20 extensively and of course if you wanted to use different patch settings in a set, you would need to do all the tweaking live.

All things considered I think I would still prefer the ms20.

Beakflakes

jiltloop wrote: »

You might think that the lack of patch memory would be a big issue, but in fact I find it to be quite liberating and it really does aid the learning process.

If you are messing around and experimenting and suddenly the synth is making some crazy noises, there's no undo button or patch reset. This means that you have to figure out why the synth is making this sound and in figuring this out you learn far more than you would with a synth such as the bass station.

The downside would be in a live set up. You would need to know your ms20 extensively and of course if you wanted to use different patch settings in a set, you would need to do all the tweaking live.

All things considered I think I would still prefer the ms20.

Sterling advice:) Thanks!

holystungun9

if you have an ipad you can get the korg ms20 app which will let you explore the use of the synth a bit. Of course I am not saying that the app is the equivalent of the actual hardware.
I have a bass station 2 and really like it. It has patches and you have space to create your own or save over the given patches. Nice big filter knob at the top right corner. Has everything you need to learn about synthesis too if you want.
Next on my own shopping list is the new roland voice transformer. I can't sing but do want to add vocals be they robotic or distorted or whatever to my tracks. You can get loads of sound out of it.

Beakflakes

Somehow the thought of twiddling ms20mini knobs on an iPad seems infinitely more difficult than doing so on the real thing;)... much cheaper though, probably.

Anyways, I've just kinda wrecked the whole analog synth plan for a while by buying a used Elektron Machinedrum UW.

Seems like you're going for a unique sound. Any links to your music?... more specifically music with your bass station included?

TheArtOfNoise

I've had lots of hardware synths in the last 20 years. I would recommend the Bass Station 2 mainly for its sound, patch capability and the fact that it has more knobs than the Microbrute or minibrute. I owned a Microbrute briefly last year when they came out after watching lots of YouTube demos and reviews. I actually wasn't that impressed with the sound or the build quality and eventually gave it away as a Xmas present.

Musikmaker shop in Dublin upstairs have some keyboard synths to try out. I messed around with the Korg MS20 mini and while it's deep and really requires a knowledge of synthesis structure I thought the build quality was terrible and the mini keys not the best. Obviously the original MS20 is legendary and sounds great on many early 80s records (and better built).

How about a cheap midi keyboard or an Arturia beatstep sequencer €100 and the likes of the MFB Nanozwerg €219 to learn synthesis. Cheaper options also include the Waldorf Rocket or the new Meeblip Anode for under €200 (Thomann or Koln Music Center sell all these).

Don't forget the Novation Mininova which I've just ordered. Ok hands on programming isn't great but you can use software with it and it seems versatile enough. But I think it's really all about the Bass Station 2 for learning and playing....

Beakflakes

TheArtOfNoise wrote: »

I've had lots of hardware synths in the last 20 years. I would recommend the Bass Station 2 mainly for its sound, patch capability and the fact that it has more knobs than the Microbrute or minibrute. I owned a Microbrute briefly last year when they came out after watching lots of YouTube demos and reviews. I actually wasn't that impressed with the sound or the build quality and eventually gave it away as a Xmas present.

Musikmaker shop in Dublin upstairs have some keyboard synths to try out. I messed around with the Korg MS20 mini and while it's deep and really requires a knowledge of synthesis structure I thought the build quality was terrible and the mini keys not the best. Obviously the original MS20 is legendary and sounds great on many early 80s records (and better built).

How about a cheap midi keyboard or an Arturia beatstep sequencer €100 and the likes of the MFB Nanozwerg €219 to learn synthesis. Cheaper options also include the Waldorf Rocket or the new Meeblip Anode for under €200 (Thomann or Koln Music Center sell all these).

Don't forget the Novation Mininova which I've just ordered. Ok hands on programming isn't great but you can use software with it and it seems versatile enough. But I think it's really all about the Bass Station 2 for learning and playing....

I have been in to music maker a few times. Quite taken with the Ms20mini. They also have micro and mini brute in there too and in waltons they have the bass station so I've tried a few.

I just hastily got an EleKtron Machinedrum UW out of the blue, so I guess whatever synth I get will be cheap as possible now as I sort of blew my budget on that.

The Nanozwerg looks class... for the money I'd consider it. I guess the Machinedrum negates the need for the arturia sequencer???

Cheers for the tips people!:)