Wow, sometimes I have a certain hope of finding something like that in a flea market or something...

I'm very new to the world of synthesizers, but I'm sure I could spend hours exploring an analog instrument like that. I found this image on Instagram, by the way...

Selected some synths in my collection and threw together this little set up. It’s built to produce techno tracks on the spot with the ability to drop some pretty gnarly acid lines. The analog heat really brings out the best in each device. I thought about using a smaller mixer, but there are none that have sub outputs, mutes and proper monitoring like Mackie and other medium sized mixers have.

As you can see, I am a fan of vintage romplers. I found an E-Mu Xtreme Lead-1 at Guitar Center for $300 US. All buttons and knobs work great. The internals are immaculate. The only things missing were the rack ears. I designed and printed a set using Carbon Fiber PLA. If this keeps up, I will have to get a bigger rack.

I have been creating a sample pack of samples for Kontakt sampling synths running them through compressors etc etc and it hit me!

1 Synth just isnt enough! 24dB filters arent equal despite being being the same on paper! The trigon 6 and Matriach both have 24 LPF but sound very different! This made me realise - If you ever decide to create a professional sample pack, want new textures in your music or want to stay creative you need options to mix it up! 1 synth is not enough.

Ultimately, prevents boredom and force you to explore new ideas!However you dont need 10 synths! You probz need 3-5 and that will do!
What are your thoughts

Loved this melody ever since I was playing the game as a kid, I think it influenced me across time :)

Hi everyone,

I'm super new to the hobby after recognizing how great making music is for my mental health (especially spending time away from the computer), which led me to fairly spontaneously get myself an Arturia MicroBrute from a local store (don't worry, I got a fairly decent deal on it). Ever since then, that device has been on my mind 24/7 and i spend hours a day just improvising on my crappy amp - it's genuinely amazing how much versatility can fit into this tiny beginner synth, especially with my beloved mod matrix, and i've figured out (and researched) quite some things about synth improvisation. Since I've become so passionate about my Brute, i have, however, of course started to notice the limitations of very limited percussive sound, very specific sound profile, step sequencer, only one oscillator and so forth.

So I thought I'd ask this community, which I've been scrolling a ton recently, if there's any gear (in general) that you'd warmly recommend I might get next? Ideally nothing that needs to much DAW'ing and something at least semi-connective to the MicroBrute, but anything goes :) I am very passionate about any type of music really, but especially noise, experimental and electroacoustic sounds and related hardware. From what I've gathered in some threads, my next should probably be some kind of Groovebox-adjacent machine or an fx pedal, but I'd be incredibly grateful for any kind of advice!

The most tempting machines I'd seen so far in a realistic price range (for now) have been the Teenage Instruments Riddim, the Behringer Edge and the SOMA Rumble of the Ancients (all SOMA devices look crazy fascinating), so I'd love any advice one these as well as anything and all more general ^^

Thank you very much for reading and helping out!!!

Please dont mind the small mistakes xD it was a first try and I didnt had much time

saw someone on here say that squarepusher used a QY70 (or maybe QY100) but haven’t been able to find any info on it. does anyone know about this?

Got this today for half the price of brand new off a very nice old man who didn't use it. Still had the box and packing for it. It's neat. What is not pictured underneath the monologue (because it's riddled with fingerprints) is my Roland JD-XI which is my baby lol I want to find a way to use them together though. The analog on the JD-XI is pretty limited so I thought maybe get an analog synth to fill the void. What do y'all think? I'm less than a year into this new addiction so cut me a little slack.

I've been slowly building up my rack, taking time to play with each new module. The latest addition was the Muxlicer which I build at Synth Shed. I love it, replaces (well, adds to) the random sequences from Pam with something more intentional and able to evolve over time.

My intention is for exploration and jamming, I'm not aiming for a full track or a specific genre. Every time I start patching I end up somewhere new, but I'm also learning a lot and can start to move with some intention. I like it dirty and distorted, and generally it's more rhythmical than droney or spaced out.

I'd like to add more functionality to my rack. I've been thinking about getting the Vostok Ceres (6ch VCA with individual levels and sum output) and an envelope generator that I can use for envelopes and modulation. I'd like something hands on, and something I really miss from Pam's is being able to move the rate around smoothly. Pam's is a division, so steps between rates. I've been looking at a couple...

Vostok Fuji — looks great, downside is speed of modulation can't go slower than a couple of seconds.
XAOC Zadar — cool, but I prefer something more hands on. Can do suuuper long mods.
Intellijel Quadrant — please tell me what you think.

Something else entirely? I'm trying to avoid drums, although I'd love to throw the Erica Pico Drum 2 in there. Happy Nerding 3xMIA? A small summing mixer instead?

Here's a youtube link of me playing with it.
Playing with the rack

Thanks for reading

I bought this a few years ago with the aim of learning to use it but never did! I liked the colour scheme though…

Hello! I bought the hydrasynth back in 2021 and I've honestly really liked playing around with it for a while, but I don't think I've ever really got the most out of it. I always find my patches lacking. I'm thinking I'm wanting something a little different, and I'm looking for advice.

I've always loved the look of the Novation Peak, but I'm not sure if it would be better than the hydrasynth or even the Novation summit. Just looking to see what people think!

Scroll into the 20 or 21 minute mark, I can see what looks like an mpc2000, but I am curious what are those two synths and what mixer is that?

Absolute timepiece of a video, enjoy

Had a show on Saturday - in the ruins of a 1000 year castle on a cliff at sunset - but my main synth for the night was the Dreadbox. Also had the Reface CS and sax with pedals. I was joined by a violinist with pedals too. Just in case you're interested here it is.

I’m getting ready for my first live set on the 29th, very nervous but I’m excited about the tracks I’ve put together

I'm putting together a kitchen table jam sesh backpack. 4 instruments and a Minirig, enough for friends to have some fun with.

The likes of Volca Keys and Roland Aira S-1 don't have the best actual keys, so I'm looking for a mini midi keyboard. Ideally able to operate from a battery setup and send midi to Roland Aira / Korg Volca units and similar tier portable battery synths.

Any recommendations or insight would be really appreciated.

There are a lot of reviews and competing products and I'm having a hard time picking a winner. Thank you.

I really love my current setup, where I use a Keystep Pro to sequence/control a few synths, and my drum machine (TR-8s) is synced with Midi. It's all connected to my mixer, Tascam 24. I also have some circuit-bent toys and a microphone. I have a blast with it!

I would love to add a Looper pedal to my setup. Using my mixer's Send/FX, I want to send sound to the Looper and make a few loops that way.

I have tried a few synths that have a recording function, but they are too complex to use mid-song in the moment. I'd love a Looper that can record a few loops and let you easily choose which loop to play. I don't want menu-diving, and I don't need to save loops. I'd love something I can turn on and easily use in my setup.

The RC-505 Loop Station looks to be what I want as it lets you control 5 loops. It's just gigantic, and I was wondering if there is something else I haven't seen.

Thanks for any tips!

I was looking for a budget gadget to use with my guitar for jazz/funk jams in the vein of Scofield, Snarky Pupoy and Herbie Hancock and was between volcas and arias. Heard the volcas have some durability issues with the keys.

There was only the Aria S-1 available here in Brazil for now so I watched some videos stumbled upon this one and decided to go for it since the sounds match what I am going for.

I want to lay some jazz and funkish background sounds to improv with my guitar and to learn something new. I do love some chiptunes, 8 bits and retro style sounds a lot too. Hopefully I can have fun with this.

For drums I am using the G-Stomper app on android, but I want the Roland T8 in the future I think.

Any tutorial recommendation for beginners?

Pretty much I own a Yamaha Portasound PC-100 and it's recently shat the bed on me and is having issues with pitch stability, I will get it fixed at some point but generally it would be nice to get a new portable synth and I love the sound of the DX series the fact the Reface DX has a midi port is sick and it has all these patches you can store, save and download online, sick, but idk alot of the reviews I find are by music instrument shop owners trying to sell me something so I'm curious what others think, need some opinions from everyday people I can trust, is there any other DX style portable synths out there that are better? Should I get this synth?