One of those what should I buy questions

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Sorry to do this. However I’m in a too many trees situation.

Looking for a synth for pads/soundscapes.

Can be VA, digital, or analogue. (I’m no analogue purist)

Needs an Arp, preferably that outputs midi.

£400 is max.

I have the A4, M32, Ableton 9 suite with P2. I have a Blofeld module that’s starting to crap out, so more of a replacement for that.

As much as I see the value of them, I’m not asking about vsts.

Thinking:

Shruthi (built)

Dsi evolver (maybe a Tetra?)

Access a, b, c, (not sure I’ll find a snow in budget)

Nord rack 2 (if the modular works with Windows 10 then that could be a goer)

Not really a roland fan, but maybe one of the boutiques are capable?

Would much prefer a desktop module over a keys synth.

Again I’m sorry. I hate these posts, but needs must and all that.

Thanks in advance you beautiful people.

(Mods: apologies if this isn’t a valid post. I searched and didn’t get any results, however I’m on my phone and it can be a bit of a pita with this forum.)

Dsi tetra and octatrack
#2

Audiothingies’ Micromonsta maybe ?

3 Likes
#3

One of the older Nova’s. I forget if they have arp but they’re great.

You can find a virus b in budget. I loved my snow when I had it.

#4

See, without posting this, I wouldn’t have considered the Monsta!

Does it output midi via the Arp?

Whats a good resource, apart from your wonderful self, to read up about it?

Cheers.

#5

I’ve found a virus B locally for 350 actually. Are you an owner?

Nova sound isn’t really my cup of tea to be honest mate. I know I’m being a snob, but I can’t seperate the plastic casing from the sound!

Thanks mate.

#6

The old novas? I can’t even look at the new ones even though I should know better. Ditto microkorg.

My favorite virus interface was the snow and favorite sound was the indigo, which I think is the b. In the end I wanted both and have neither.

2 Likes
#7

Electribe? Has its quirks, but sounds great.

1 Like
#8

I’ve never really gotten into the Electribes. I know they are really well thought of by a lot of people, but Ive always been left with a meh feeling.

Probably being a snob again to be fair!

Any particular one I should look at?

#9

For all its faults, the microkorg has features lacking on some of the more expensive synths-Arp that not only outputs midi, but has a Latch (I love you a4 but c’mon) and decent onboard fx. The sound is not too bad either, it’s just such a pita to program!

Good to know about the indigo/B.

I’ve lusted after the snow for years, but it looks like it’ll always be a dream!

#10

If anyone is interested, currently the Micro Monsta and Virus B are top of the list…

#11

The blue electribe - emx. Maybe the newer ones too but they’re such a disappointment compared to the older ones. Sound wise, they’re probably warmer. If you were usi g it as a voice module, the newer one might make sense.

Played my Juno alpha next to a vintage Sequential and it’s night and day for warmth. I mention this because there’s warm and then there’s warm. So, the tribes for example, would not be even in the same league as a vintage poly - so just qualifying language/disclaimer.

#12

Haha yeah I would definitely not call the tribe warmth, the same as vintage warmth.

Didn’t one of the sampler ones have a tube mod?

I’m swaying toward the virus or MicroMonsta. The latter is blowing me away with its sounds, and the virus is appealing due to the knob per function aspect.

#13

Still some diving on the viri.
Micromosta looks super cool.
Built in effects seems like it might be useful though.
I have and love my evolver by the way. Sequencer is super useful and it’s one of those things you can press play on and not babysit. They’re not a beautiful sound to my ear, but that’s part of the charm and you can keep the cutoff down.
Tetra is less versatile and still the old dsi sound, which is not my favorite. But poly…

#14

Roland JD-Xi. Sounds great (particularly pads), excellent arpeggiator (which outputs over MIDI), 2 polyphonic step sequencers and 27 mono step sequencers (again which all output over MIDI).

1 Like
#15

You can often get Novation Ultranovas for ~400. Lovely VA. Great for pads, plenty of mod destination and performance macro knobs like the A4/K. Has an Arp and will output Arp MIDI.

1 Like
#16

Do you use yours much for processing external audio?

I really like the evolver and if there wasn’t any other suitable choices it would’ve been my purchase.

#17

Crikey, that’s a lot of bang for buck.

And those sounds are not offensive to my non roland loving ears!

I can Google this, however does it come in desktop/module format?

#18

I can’t get over my issues with the nova sound!
Got something to convince me otherwise?

They do pack a lot of features for the price, I just don’t dig the sound.

#19

Haha. That’s fine man. I’m not going to dig up demos to try and convince you. I feel like if what you are generally hearing in demos isn’t pleasing, nothing I find will convince you. I love the Ultranova because it sounds like the 90s to me. I just mentioned it because it seemed to check all the boxes for you.

1 Like
#20

The blue one, not the sampler, and make sure it’s the latest one, not the older gen with the tubes. As VA synths go, it sounds terrific.

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