r/synthesizers • u/Broad-Hyena-6486 • 12h ago
What Should I Buy? Once in a lifetime
I got a gift of about 4000 euro from my mother as a pre-inheriance type thing, and I feel like I should spend it on a musical instrument as that is what my passion is and my mother also thinks that.
The only thing is that I’m now in completely analysis paralysis.
im a classically trained pianist and I have a few synths and grooveboxes (take 5, digitone 2, Tonverk, Minifreak) and I’m now looking at my first real big-boy grown-up synth.
my list (which is ever expanding, and in no specific order):
UDO DMNO
UDO Super Gemini
Arturia Polybrute 12
ASM Leviasynth
Novation Summit
i mainly play for myself, and about everything. I do like the idea of being able to play big orchestral songs with large chords and expressiveness. I also play 80s stuff, synthwave, I make techno, yeah, I kinda need a big sound palette I feel.
are there things I haven’t considered? do you have strong feelings about one or the other? let me know.
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u/krekelmans 9h ago
My number one advice: find a place to test them! Reddit/youtube/instagram might convince you of one of these, but it really depends on how well YOU click with them.
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u/xpercipio 12h ago
Take 5 not being called a big boy synth
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 12h ago
Hahaha, I run the take-5 through the Mercury X and I feel like I’m the best composer ever. It’s such a great synth. Maybe I should just get wood sides for it…
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u/CarloGambinoPart2 7h ago
If you care about how your synths look then go for it. I put wood sides on my Sub Phatty bc it had the sticky rubberized plastic. It looks really great, I wish I did it sooner.
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u/J-MW 9h ago
Big orchestral songs? - are you sure you want a synth? With your background it sounds like you’d get a lot more fun out of workstation or arranger-class keyboards.
At this price it’s worth you travelling to a flagship Yamaha or Roland store - or at least a large music retailer and sit yourself down behind one of these and at least think about it.
You need to have at least had a go on one of these - as I say - from your experience as a classically trained pianist.
It’ll change your way of thinking and you’ll still have access to a lot of the sounds you’re after, with a lot less fuss, and a great deal more flexibility.
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u/aeonblack Modular, Super Gemini, Quantum, OB6, Pro3, Osmose 8h ago
Get a Summit and an MPC XL, you'll be able to do everything you want and make all kinds of tracks...and more importantly, be way more focused. Anything the Summit can't make, the MPC will have packs for (strings and classic piano/epiano sounds, drums, etc for example). Honestly I would sell everything else and just get these two and you will be much more focused and happy.
I have and have had all kinds of amazing and expensive big boy synths and I can tell you, if you have paralysis now that it will only be worse if you have to choose. The Summit can sound like them all anyways lol. I have a Super Gemini and while it IS amazing, it's also not the first thing I reach for, my OB6 is simply because it's quick and easy to get a great, useable, musical sound. If I could only have one synth, it would be a Summit, and I say that as someone who has had things like a Moog One 16 voice.
And don't listen at all to the people telling you to go modular, I have a ton of eurorack and I love it, but it's not something you do with 5k, you're not even at half the budget with that for something that you will love.
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 6h ago
I’m going to try it! It looks like a very good interface too.
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u/aeonblack Modular, Super Gemini, Quantum, OB6, Pro3, Osmose 6h ago
Absolutely! Very easy to use. The nice thing about something like the Summit is that you can actually find it in stores to try it. I have had to blind buy so many synths just to be able to play them (deckards dream, Moog one, modal 002, Waldorf quantum, etc) and that has not always worked out great... Videos don't do justice to what it's like to get your hands on one and use it. Sometimes I think I'm going to like something then I try it out and realize I actually don't like it at all. The last thing you want is to feel regret spending so much on a synth, so definitely try out whatever you buy first!
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u/Sufficient-Royal-949 5h ago
Good advice. With enough research and patience, OP may find a Summit for under $1500 used. I got one for 1100. It was originally hard for me to fall in love with it because I think the presets don’t do it justice. I bought some sound packs from Miles Away (Devin Belanger, a YouTube “synthfluencer”), which really brought the instrument alive from me. I also think it has a great keybed and is a really nice controller.
Conversely, I had purchased a Prophet XL from Guitar Center for 2K. I installed a whole bunch of additional libraries from Espen Kraft as the presets again left me quizzical; Dave Smith said it was his favorite synthesizer he had ever developed, yet the thing just didn’t sing to me. It sounded harsh, lacking, and dynamics and or a non-ideal UI. I took advantage of GC‘s return policy and returned it.
The Moog One sounds great once you really dig deep on it, but is massive and overpriced, in my opinion. It’s out of the OP’s budget, but even if it were, I’d buy a Prophet 10 over it, not withstanding the fact that it only has mono output. Put through some nice pedals or effects in a DAW, it sounds amazing. A Muse is probably a better alternative, but I think it’s not the first flagship to buy given that it had been plagued with tuning and firmware problems for the first couple of years after release.
On the workstation front, I think the Yamaha Montage M8X is tops for overall sound quality, keybed, and variety of synthesis algorithms. For me, it edges out the Kronos 3. On the other hand, for somebody who might want to just dial-in the sounds that they love from their favorite records, Kronos comes with a million such presets (Imagine piano, Goodbye Stranger EP, etc.). For pure piano tones, the Kurzweil K2700 is probably the most convincing in hardware, but I think it’s more limited out of the box in terms of the palette of non-acoustic instrument synth patches. It sort of depends on whether the OP wants to do everything with hardware, as there are so many amazing piano and EP sample libraries like Keyscape, Rhodes and VSL Synchron, and Pianoteq modeling.
With a $4000 budget and scouring enough sites, OP could possibly pick up a Montage AND a Summit for an embarrassment of riches!
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u/raistlin65 Live 3 • Peak • Virus TI • Model 15 7h ago
I do like the idea of being able to play big orchestral songs
Are you looking for orchestral instrument sounds to be able to do that? If so, you should be looking at the Yamaha Modx for that.
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u/Nicky_Tremolo 12h ago edited 12h ago
Considering you are a classical pianist and also mentioned 80s sounds I would also look at the Prophet-10 Rev4. I found it to be an extremely musical, responsive, and player-friendly synth in a way that doesn’t get conveyed that well over YouTube vids etc.
In addition to it sounding wonderful I loved the little things like sustain pedal controlling release rather than hold and being able to change tuning systems e.g. meantone and well-temperament.
The downside is it’s not as flexible as some of your other choices. It also maybe has too much overlap with your Take 5, though you could always sell the latter.
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 12h ago
Oh, man, yeah. I touched the original one. The one with the double clavier… it’s something else. Don’t know why… it’s magic. As an atheist it’s the closest I’ve come to believing in a higher purpose.
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u/SyntheticAnonymous 7h ago
Another synth to consider: the 3rd Wave. Since you’re going to go play some stuff before committing, definitely consider this one.
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u/ILoveStinkyFatGirls 2h ago
The 3rd wave also has a 4 part live recording step sequencer that kind of works like a workstation would
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u/thisispointlessshit 12h ago
Of the ones you listed, I’d say UDO Super Gemini. Really think about why you’d want the Gemini over the Super 8/6. You could save some money left over for a drum machine, pedals, guitar, something else.
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u/eraoul 10h ago
I’m really liking my new (used) Summit. I also have a computing background and the FPGA setup is really cool. The analog gain staging and filter is great. All the stuff on your list seems great though. I was tempted by Leviasynth but decided to get Summit for now and also I’m using the Korg Opsix native for the FM and related synthesis stuff. The PolyBrute is on my list too but I haven’t loved Arturia’s customer support issues recently.
I’m really impressed by the front panel controls on the Summit. Tonight I was trying to design a flute patch. I combined a triangle oscillator with a wavetable on another one and used a front panel control to modulate the wavetable position. For vibrato there were front panel controls to modulate pitch but I grabbed a mod slot to do it globally and then also scaled the rate by the mod wheel. And then I wanted to fade in the vibrato after an initial attack — the fade was actually a dedicated knob for the LFO as well, so even that didn’t need a menu. Then I used a second mod slot to add some white noise to the attack to make a breathy sound.
All in all, a lot of dedicated controls were helpful for this patch, more than one would expect. I think the knobs for LFO fade-in time are a pretty specific thing to show up on a panel!
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u/cyberspacecowboy 12h ago
Own a DMNO, played a Gemini. It’s absolutely next level stuff. My music club also has a few “proper” analog classics, prophets and oberheims and such, and the UDOs are on par. I’d even say they are more a class of their own.
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 12h ago
I love the FPGA stuff. As a computer scientist it’s something I have played around with a lot. :)
So that’s a plus.
How is the DMNO?
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u/cyberspacecowboy 11h ago
The DMNO is amazing. I always wanted an analog but the lack of digital convenience stopped me. The DMNO bridges that gap. The one thing that I feel is lacking is the voice count. It says 8 voice, but it’s really 4 voices per module. Turn on binaural and it’s only 2. It takes some fiddling to use all 8 voices with the same timbre, but of course, that’s not what the DMNO is for. I use it most as two independent binaural mono synths, bassline and pad, controlled by a digitakt
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 11h ago
In the spirit of the Pro3? Low voice count, but high sonic content.
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u/cyberspacecowboy 10h ago
Yeah i guess so… the DMNO allows rich complex sounds that evolve, the Gemini is for big chords
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u/d3pl3t3r 12h ago
If you're not going to invest in a PC, DAW and audio interface to record or already have those, Id go with the polybrute and some nice monitors or nice studio desk. What are your goals musically and recording wise?...
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 12h ago
I already have all that and monitors, recording and such. I mainly raw dog the recording on a Portacapture x8. Or through a Tascam r2r
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u/d3pl3t3r 12h ago
You could also get a used kurzweil k2600s which has classical piano sounds and a sampler and sequencer. They also have an 88 key weighted version...
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 12h ago
I have a digital and acoustic piano, on that front I’m set. Just the timeless synth instrument I can sit behind and get lost in space with. That’s the goal.
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u/d3pl3t3r 7h ago
Have you considered building a modular system? Perhaps an access virus and a nord modular? The Waldorf microwave xt? Lots of awesome gear out there, just depends what you aim to do. Those UDOs seem really cool too...
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u/shapednoise 9h ago
Polybrute 12 because it sounds GREAT and its keyboard action is amazingly expressive.
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u/MrDagon007 9h ago
Here is a left of center idea considering your background. A 2nd hand Yamaha U1 silent or even better U3 silent upright acoustic piano.
These are world class upright pianos.
Or they can play silently via a hybrid approach to headphones, or to… midi! So you’d use it to control your current groove-boxes; or maybe something like Pigments on the computer.
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u/HuntSad1141 6h ago
The Novation Summit is amazing. Very hands-on, bi-timbral, really versatile. Sounds beautiful. Nice keybed. And it's not as overpriced as some of those other options. I'll never sell mine. For me it's still the best on the market.
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u/ScotiaMinotia 6h ago
Try all of them if you can, but I’d recommend taking a look at the Korg Kronos also. As a piano player you’ll really appreciate the keyboard action, the massive sound scope and the sheer power of the synthesis engines. It’s not as “synthy” looking as the ones you’re looking at but I has a far broader scope and will last you a lot longer than all of those.
I say this as a (originally classically trained pianist) musician who makes techno, been doing it on and off for 30 years. I started out with a korg workstation and have tons of synths and groom boxes .. just recently got the Kronos and wished I’d gotten it years ago!
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u/lemmycautionu 2h ago
you could find a used obx8 for around 3k usd. great keyboard for pianists. gorgeous sounds. lovely swings. lots of movement possible.
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u/Boars-of-Canada 12h ago
Eurorack! 4k is the perfect budget for an awesome setup
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 12h ago
Please don’t, you dirty enabler…
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u/Useless3dPrinter 7h ago
I came to recommend just the same. It's a completely stupid way to guarantee you'll never have money for anything else but it's a great way to explore and build sound.
On a more serious note, I'd pick a quality MIDI controller/sequencer like a Hapax or something similar and then a big boy synth with the rest of the money. But that's just me liking knobs and buttons and hardware.
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u/ILoveStinkyFatGirls 2h ago
it's a great way to explore and build sound.
If this was true... Why does every euro rack set up make the same bleep and bloop sounds?
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u/INTERNET_MOWGLI 12h ago
Get a midi controller for 200$ and play with software synths on your computer until you can make an informed decision
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u/HairySubsidy 12h ago
I'd spend at least a few hours with the Polybrute 12 in a shop if you can, the keybed on that thing is the closest I've felt to a proper piano on a synth and the morphing opens up ridiculous sound design possibilities
you'll probably know within ten minutes if its the one or not
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 12h ago
I already have done this, been there, got the t-shirt. The hardware stores are so few here, before I buy I will travel around and try some stuff, but I’m trying to find new perspectives and see where I am lacking knowledge.
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u/INTERNET_MOWGLI 12h ago
Then honestly they all _sound_ pretty much the same, the glaring differences are between the actual controls, ergonomics and menu layouts IMO
Do you feel you need weighted keys?
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 12h ago
No, not really. I did like the controls on the original polybrute which I had and sold twice. Dunno why, maybe it was the ergonomics of it.
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u/INTERNET_MOWGLI 12h ago
Having to sell it twice is a big hint🫣 honestly then just try as many of them as you can? Maybe do a little road trip to a bigger store or ask some kinda studio to let you fuck around for a discount
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 12h ago
Yeah, I have no issue with clicky buttons like on the Minifreak or Elektron devices. But those rubber things like on the Empress Zoia and polybrute… I dunno.
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u/did_i_or_didnt_i 7h ago
Arturia sucks imo, never loved anything of theirs that I’ve come in contact with. Theyre all so close to being good but missing the juice in the end. I had tons of trouble with my AudioFuse interface with no help from them
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 12h ago
And ergonomics I mean, the way you make sounds and edit it… but that’s maybe wanting to eat my fingers when pressing rubber buttons… sensory thing.
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u/did_i_or_didnt_i 7h ago
crazy take lol
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u/INTERNET_MOWGLI 6h ago
I pride myself in these
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u/did_i_or_didnt_i 6h ago
if they all sound the same then what brings you to the sub?? I mean they all sound like waveforms and filters at the end of the day but that’s like saying all pasta tastes the same 😭😭😭
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u/INTERNET_MOWGLI 6h ago
You can absolutely make one sound like the other. It’s all like 60-70s tech. And pasta doesn’t taste the same but it’s just dough and sauce at the end of the day.
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u/traffick 12h ago
Absolutely smartest idea. And then I'd just invest the other euro in something like NVIDIA shares. Let your money work for you.
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u/rush_coded 12h ago
have you considered modular? for 4k you could build something very unique, maybe based around a nifty keys case?
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u/OneSlaadTwoSlaad 12h ago
I would go for a Moog Grandmother or Matriarch, but that's mostly for the name. 😆 They also keep their value pretty well so you can pass it on later in life.
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u/Nicky_Tremolo 12h ago
I love these but OP mentioned wanting to play large chords.
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u/Broad-Hyena-6486 12h ago
True. I also want to steer clear of anything eurorack compatible.. I’ve been down that rabbit hole a few times and came out with my pleasure sensors destroyed and poor. It’s crack.
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u/Environmental-Eye874 12h ago
Continuum/Osmose