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New Prophet 5/10 desktop units and possibly a new Oberheim OB-X...these are good times for synths new and old

I eventually put together my rack and finalized my synth setup for now:





Signalflow is
E-Mu Vintage Keys => TC G-Sharp => Digitech Jamman => Mixer
Moog Sub 37 (with Elka DP-18 Midi bass pedal) => Lexicon Mx200 => Cosmic AE-7000 => Mixer

The Cosmic AE-7000 is a combined analog delay and spring reverb unit from the 80's and sounds just utterly fantastic with the Moog.

Synth deals are still to be had. Like this 1979 Korg Lambda including original hardcase that I picked up a couple of days ago for $150 (!). Sounds lovely through a phaser and some reverb.

Wow, now that's a beauty!

I just spend two hours of my quarantine with the knobs of my Minibrute 2, a bottle of white spirit and some steel wool. The stupid soft touch coating had become a sticky nasty mess and it was just really, really gross. I think I got it all off and will be done with this shit forever but seriously: why did they need to put that nasty shit on those knobs? Shit is around long enough for everybody to know it doesn't age well.

Zork wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 02, 2021 3:14 pm

Wow, now that's a beauty!

I just spend two hours of my quarantine with the knobs of my Minibrute 2, a bottle of white spirit and some steel wool. The stupid soft touch coating had become a sticky nasty mess and it was just really, really gross. I think I got it all off and will be done with this shit forever but seriously: why did they need to put that nasty shit on those knobs? Shit is around long enough for everybody to know it doesn't age well.

This is really one of things I appreciate the most about many knobby synths from the 70s/early 80s: the interfaces and the tactile aspects of how knobs and sliders feel even after 40 years. Sure, many American synths are pretty crap, but the Japanese ones can be really wonderful. My JP4 is great in this sense, amazing build quality.

I've been synthless for a couple of years now since blowing up my MS10 and trading an MS20 mini for a Pianet N, but just bought a Moog Grandmother and really into it

Obviously the sounds are great, but what really makes it for me is the layout/workflow. Built in spring reverb at the turn of a dial is SO cool

Next up, totally going to buy a Behringer knockoff VCS3 when they emerge... hopefully this year?

I got an NTS-1 with a $50 voucher so I only spent $50 on it. It came a few days ago, and I have to say, what a fun little synth it is! Monophonic, so I figured it could be a cheap and cheerful bassline synth. And so it shall be.

I've felt pretty haggard today from a real bad pain flare up, so I've been sat in bed fiddling around with it. It sounds really good, and the effects are great, and somehow it's stupid easy to program despite having all of three knobs. I've now realized how cunning Korg are with their little volca ecosystem that this thing fits into, because it's good for setting up little grooves on, and it makes one want other little boxes to connect it to... oops. Can't be an accident. I need to RTFM because it shares the "logue" family user definable oscillator thing and you can download new ones and just load them on. So it's expandable in that sense, which is kind of nuts for a $100 little erector set thingy. Also it's got an audio in so you can use its effects on another instrument while playing on it. So, I mean, it's awesome, and I feel like a fish on a line because of these little features that one wants to play with but more toys are needed to take advantage of. This is gonna end up being the most expensive fifty bucks I've spent, I think.

Just loaded up the TAL Juno VST and have to say that I found it immediately inspiring to play on. Just having presets to start with it has made it a lot easier to deal with than starting from scratch on my MicroBrute (different animals of course, but still).

Now I'm looking at grabbing DEXED and a MiniMoog-style one too...

DEXED is pretty great. It's nice to have any kind of interface for FM synthesis that's an improvement on what Yamaha gave the world. OBXed is another really nice one... the "minimogue VA" vst is a pretty cromulent free minimoog with polyphony, it's old but good.

so i've now had my Prophet 6 for a good few months, and i have to say, the honeymoon phase is far from over. the most inspiring fun and beautiful sounding synth i've owned. it's so full sounding. and it's been inspiring me to write more melodic stuff

BlixaFan wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:24 pm

so i've now had my Prophet 6 for a good few months, and i have to say, the honeymoon phase is far from over. the most inspiring fun and beautiful sounding synth i've owned. it's so full sounding. and it's been inspiring me to write more melodic stuff

The fx look sick

I've had a UDO Super 6 on order since March or so. It took awhile (no complaints!), but it just arrived a week and a half ago (we were on vacation last week and I couldn't post any pictures).


This thing is SO sweet. The knobs, switches, faders, and buttons all feel SO solid. The sound is incredible, and coming from someone who is still learning how to play synth, I have to say that it is very intuitive (much more so than my Moog Matriarch, which I still love though). There was some serious thought and care put into the engineering and design of this synth. I am looking forward to learning it better.


In regard to the serious thought and care that UDO put into it, the manual comes right to mind. An actual binder!! Paper is thick and heavy. Everything about this synth just feels solid and really well made.


I rearranged my amps a few weeks back while going through some boxes in the basement. I bought a 2-tier keyboard stand and have them both on here after putting the stand together last night Only thing left is to make/find a little side table for my mixing board, so I can play both together. At the moment, I'm just using my bass amp, but it sounds good until I save up for a PA or some monitors in a few years.

NICE ONE, JASON!

Those UDOs sound incredible, there's just no getting around that. I'm so stoked for you. That and the ASM Hydrasynth are the most interesting recent synths out there, IMO. Man, the demos I've heard of those UDOs...

You're not kidding. The second I heard the binaural offset in a demo, I was like "want!". I've never heard demos of the Hydrasynth, I'll have to look that up!

mackerelmint wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:02 pm

NICE ONE, JASON!

Those UDOs sound incredible, there's just no getting around that. I'm so stoked for you. That and the ASM Hydrasynth are the most interesting recent synths out there, IMO. Man, the demos I've heard of those UDOs...

Seconded!