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[Tam o' Shantie]

juno 106?

[emergency72]

KORG M1

[Fraser Shredwards]

OK i'm thinking of getting a micron and then when i have a bit more money maybe getting a roland AX-7 as a midi controller.

i just realised how big 61 keys is, i actually just need about 4 octaves.

[Ray]

i have a micron also and find its a very useful, great sounding synth for the money... but agree about the frustrating interface.

[Stripey]

Originally Posted by Fraser Shredwards

OK i'm thinking of getting a micron and then when i have a bit more money maybe getting a roland AX-7 as a midi controller.

i just realised how big 61 keys is, i actually just need about 4 octaves.

If 4 octaves is all you need, have a look at the novation xiosynth which came out fairly recently, for £299 new and has some cool features like an XY pad and a built in usb audio interface with an XLR mic jack. http://www.dv247.com/invt/33913/. Have a look here for an interesting promo video XIOSYNTH.

[HairyScaryMark]

I haven't seen any keyboards with 64 keys. 61 keys is standard.

Maybe get a Korg Triton LE second hand on ebay?

Or a Yamaha motif rack or Roland fantom rack second hand on ebay. Then get a super cheap midi controller and upgrade it later when you have more money.

Also, ask yourself where you are likely to use this? live, band practices, studio, jamming etc.?

the best money/price ratio workstation available at the moment is the Alesis Fusion. It contains 3 synth types, samples, FM and VA (virtual analogue). All are meant to be strong. The sample section is apparently improved by new sample downloads and upgrading the RAM.

It is available in 61 keys (6HD) or 88 weighted keys (8HD). Alesis

The 6HD is around £800. Probably out of your price range.

They are hurgely cheaper in the US, as with most gear.

Also concider that winter NAMM is less than 10 days away and more synths will be released then.

The Yamaha Motif XS (replacement for ES) will drive the price of Motif ES down conciderably. That could be worth concidering.

[HairyScaryMark]

Also forgot to mention

The Korg X5 is of exceptional value also. I got my korg X5DR second hand for around £80. My uncle got his one with a keyboard for around the same. quite rightly titled a 'pro keyboard' on the korg website. Main critisms are the lack of good analogue synth lead sounds, lack of individual patch volumes in combi mode i.e a volume control for the entire preset rather than adjusting it individually. It maybe actually exists but I never found it.
The editing screen is also tiny, but so is the Motif ES screen. Brass also sounds naff, but i think just about all synth brass sounsd naff. If you are a beginner to keyboards, that is the way to go. I think. I admit not everything in the triton is a genuine upgrade.

Yamaha are about to release the Mini Mo (Minature Motif)

[RockAustin]

I use a Roland JP-8000 which I enjoy playing with. If I had £400 squid to spend I would look at a rack Nord Lead II + control keyboard. These are really good and coming down in price as new models come out. Always remember with synths, new is not always better. Depending what you want to do with it, it might be worth your while going back in time and picking up something that would have cost a bomb several years ago but has been edged out of the market by newer versions.

That Roland on the first page of the thread looked nice, how much you selling it for (if you still are)?

[HairyScaryMark]

disclaimer: my explanations probably are probably not technically correct

Nord Lead is mainly a virtual analogue synth (it does digital and FM emulation also). It can make wonderful sounds but it is also quite a specialised piece of kit. It probably would not cover all your synth needs by itself.

I suspect most keyboard players would also want a strong sampled based synth in addition to it.

As an explanation. There are various types of synthesis but the main ones are
Analogue mono synth - producing sounds through oscilators and filters and such i.e MiniMoog
FM synth - creates sounds through wave forms generated by electronics i.e Yamaha DX7
Sampled Synth - creates sound from recorded samples i.e just about any synth made in the last 20 years by 'the big 3'

Generally all workstation style synths have a sampled section. Some have a virtual analogue section and some have an FM section.

There is also 'digital emulation' style synths which are increasingly popular with software and such. They aim to emulate the sound of a synth without using samples

note that it is impossible to achieve realistic piano sounds without samples.
Also note that each type of synthesis often tries to emulate the other.

[Al Coholic]

Does anyone have experience with or an opinion on the Roland SH-201 ?
It looks like a good starters synth, i was thinking of buying.