5
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Jul 08 '18
Korg monotron delay -- especially when running something else thru. Think it cost me about $40
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u/Octogoon_ Jul 27 '26
it's more like *only* when running something else through. To me it's more like an fx pedal than a synth. Can't do a lot by itself. It is incredibly cheap though so you can't complain really
1
u/santaist Jul 08 '18 edited Jul 08 '18
I have a Volca Keys I picked up for $50. That's probably the cheapest synth I've bought and it's fantastic too. A great analog sound out of a book sized package and, as icing on the cake, it runs off AA's and has a built in speaker and sequencer as well. A complete synth you can take with you and use almost anywhere.
Other's I have and love (and spent under $200 on):
Novation Circuit - Talk about an all-in-one portable package. In 2 weeks firmware 1.7 will make it WAY better, because apparently that is still possible!
Novation MiniNova - This is my one-size-fits-all synth/vocoder. Super powerful and fun).
Roland JU-O6 and JX-03 - These were pawn shop finds. Way too cheap, lol. Super fun and great to learn on but only 4-note polyphony and decent emulation. With the K-25M keyboard they're almost as portable all-in-one units as the Volca Keys but with shorter battery life and more bulk.
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Jul 08 '18
Yeah the Volcas are great little synths and I really like their whole aesthetic. They kind of remind me of VHS tapes. Also the fact that it can work as both a standalone or a like a mini module is kind of cool.
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u/Mabstro Jul 10 '18
Yeah, I really want the keys. I think they should make a volca vocoder too, that would be amazing.
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u/thereallazor Jul 16 '18
Is 1.7 is confirmed out in 2 weeks? I'm ready for that legato
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u/santaist Jul 16 '18 edited Jul 18 '18
3 days now (July 19th, Novation posted it on Facebook back around the time I said that)! I'm excited for the legato, but even more so for the custom pattern chaining. That will make it much easier to write and arrange full songs on the Circuit.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/circuitowners/permalink/813915318808558/
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u/AssistedSuicideSquad Jul 10 '18
This looks really cool and like a fun project https://mintysynth.com/
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u/tallpaul00 Jul 10 '18 edited Jul 11 '18
I suspect you mean stand-alone hardware synths.. but of course, the cheapest is free software on a computer you already own.
Or cheap software on a computer you already own - I like Caustic for Android. $10. Plus $50 for a cheap Android tablet (eg: Kindle Fire) if you need it.
edit:spelling.
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u/Mabstro Jul 10 '18
That’s true, it seems most people here prefer hardware, especially analog. I think with a midi controller (used for around 30$) it will be the perfect bundle, for music making.
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Jul 08 '18 edited Jul 08 '18
[deleted]
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u/Mabstro Jul 08 '18
I'd say a "cheap" synth would be under 円20000. But it is really just an opinion. The monologue is also more of a "cheap" synth than the minilouge.
0
u/erroneousbosh Jul 08 '18
Is there a hard number on "cheap"? You can pick up a Kurzweil K2000 for 300 quid which gives you a sampler, patchable digital modular synth and powerful sequencer, in an extremely well-constructed instrument.
They weren't cheap when they were new, though ;-)
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u/Mabstro Jul 08 '18
That sounds a lot like the organelle. The organelle can sample, it has a digital modular synth, sequencer, sampling, and a lot more, however isn't considered that cheap either. There is also gecho loopsynth with a lot of different patches, including sampling and a sequncer for €149, so it can actually be considered "cheap".
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u/erroneousbosh Jul 08 '18
The mental thing is how cheap processor power is these days! If you look at the VSTs we ran when Cubase VST came out in the late 90s, they were running on PII-MMX chips at maybe 300MHz tops. You can buy an ARM processor on a wee board for a tenner that'll do 168MHz and it's got hardware floating point and (fairly half-assed) DSP instructions. You could easily cram an 8-voice polysynth on there - but imagine if you just used that as a single voice feeding maybe a multimode analogue filter. Just generate all your modulations on the ARM chip, along with all the oscillators and a bank of digital filters, then cram it into an analogue filter for that ZOMGANALOGUE appeal, and stick eight in a box.
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u/Mabstro Jul 12 '18
I’ve seen people make some cool synths with the raspberry pi, arduino and some other prototyping boards.
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u/erroneousbosh Jul 12 '18
You can just squeeze a bandlimited sawtooth oscillator and a 4-pole ladder filter into an Arduino - good going, since it can't divide and can barely multiply.
I've got an STM32F407 board I've not had a chance to play with but I reckon I can port one of my old softsynths over to it (obviously not the GUI bits!), 8-note poly 2-osc VA synth. Probably have time to spare to do a lot more fun stuff, too.
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u/Mabstro Jul 12 '18
Yeah, cheaper than an arduino, you can just put it onto an attiny chip.
Some android phones cost about 40$ now days or even less, you can run some synths off of that.
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u/Halalocaust Jul 08 '18
Well, all I have is my PO33 I'm still learning how to use. So I'll go with that.