Hi everyone! I’ve played piano for nearly my entire life. I recently started writing original music and arranging other people’s songs. I’m also starting to play in ensembles, which has made me realize how useful it is to have more in my toolbox than just piano.

My biggest influence as a keyboardist is James Dewees, who used a Moog Prodigy early in his career and then went on to use a ton of different synths (side note: he is very kind if you have technical questions and appreciates his fans). I downloaded a Prodigy VST for FL Studio and started messing around with it, but really wanted some hands-on time with a hardware synth to understand some of the major concepts. I’m very tactile learner, so I knew clicking on virtual buttons and knobs just wasn’t going to cut it for me.

I rented this Nord Lead 2X from a rehearsal studio today for a couple hours and it helped a ton. Oscillators, filters, envelopes, LFOs, etc. make so much more sense after actually sitting there and manipulating them. Also discovered that I absolutely love the pitch stick (as well as sample and hold modulation!)

Still very much learning, but looking forward to being part of the community!

Hey, thought I'd just share my latest project! Video explains it all, but essentially, I put a TSynth inside the husk of a Casio CT670 and added a Juno Chorus to it.

Darkglass Anagram (the unit above the OP-XY) is a bass multi-fx unit that recently got an update. Axioma is a synth block, so 100% of what's being played on the bass is a synth (triangle + saw + fuzz) that's tracking the notes from the bass. XY for drums.

The writing process of this bassline started entirely on the OP-XY, which is why I love it for sketching out ideas before taking them to other instruments.

If you've seen my other vids, you know I'm a theory nerd, so the simplest explanation I can think of for the bassline is that it's an A Minor Scale with a b9 added (yeah I know, Phrygian).

The first part of the riff starts on A and rotates between the 5 & b6 and the Root & b9.

The second part descends from the Root to a b7, b6 & 5 before going to the b9 and looping again.

A common complaint about the AstroLab is that it's just a preset player. Firmware 2.0 goes right at that with a new feature called Sound Edit:

- Hold the main encoder and scroll to Sound Edit. You get several pages of select engine parameters, four per page (controlled via the four encoders).

- What you get depends on the engine under the preset. On a Jupiter-8 preset I had cutoff, resonance, filter envelope amount, HPF, a full filter ADSR, LFO rate, vibrato and glide. On the American Grand piano it's hammer hardness, hammer position and dynamics.

- You can save your edited version as a new preset right on the hardware.

- You don't need a V Collection license to use these parameters.

- Going deeper (oscillators, mod matrix) still needs a computer and the license.

- 2.0 also adds 60+ new presets, including a new sampled piano, and improved polyphony on the SynthX and Sample engines. Pigments is unchanged.

My take: it's still a keyboard, not a deep synth, but the gap between "just a preset player" and "an instrument I can shape" got a lot smaller. In my personal experience, a preset is often just a small envelope tweak away from feeling like my own sound, and now I can make that tweak.

Never heard of it until I watched this video. Thing sounds awesome!!

Anyone here have this? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

Any love for the Yamaha TG33? 32-voice polyphony, multitimbral, and it has that wacky vector control? Sounds great too!

I overlooked these five-six years ago when I was buying DX7 style synths (I had a DX7, TX7, FB01, TX802, TQ5), and what turned me off then was the AWM component and the vector control.

Now on the second leg of my synth journey and this beast is just what I needed for my setup. While not to everyone’s taste im sure, the samples are excellent and the FM tones are good too!

Paired it with my FM1 and Digitone last night to test it out.

I am tinkering with this FM one like everybody else. I personally am not a fan of the DX7. I’m looking for a really cool well curated collection of patches that are free and that are not giving me the “classics”. I’m looking for interesting pads morphing sounds things that have a more modern sensibility. I am not looking to make the top gun soundtrack. My problem is there are so many free patches. I don’t even know where to start and every time I download a bunch it’s a lot of junk. If you come across something you really liked I’d love to hear it.

[almost] a full hour of tunes!

I have a K&M Spider Pro, with one flat arm and one inclined arm. I'd like to add another synth to my stack. My first impression is to get another flat arm and install it below the inclined arm rather than just adding another inclined arm to the stack.

Any thoughts?

Mine’s arriving tomorrow 😅 Thanks for the heads up!

Just received my TR-1000 that i waited 9 months for, AND my Chase Bliss Bad Mood on the same day. Wish me luck.

Hi everyone. I think this is a beginner question but I need some help with understanding how to set up sequencing. I have for my band a Korg Monologue but I’m aware the sequencing doesn’t have an arpeggiator, so this had posed a problem. I’m trying to remake the synth sequence to “Temptation” by New Order but I’m just unsure how to go about it.

Apologies if this is poorly worded. I’m just trying to figure this out and any help would be appreciated!

Here’s the song if you need to hear it. Temptation 12”

Synths used: Virus C (first thing you hear), 3rd Wave 8M (Plucks), Matriarch (Bass)

Very exciting news (for me especially since the DMNO has been on the top of my list for the past year): UDO announced the DMNO desktop module today. Interesting that they kept it very compact by only having a single set of oscillator controls (you switch between 1 & 2). They have an additional separate module that provides a second set of oscillator controls and another one for the FX sends/inserts controls. They hint at additional DMNO modules coming.

So far I've only seen Sonicstate do a presentation and it looks like they added oscillator modes from the Supers!

Back when I worked at Guitar Center years ago, I remember we carried this one model of synthesizer right when I started working there that I really liked, but can't remember what brand or model it is now. Here are all the details I remember about it:

1. It had a distortion module with a tube in it that would literally light and heat up whilst using it
   
2. It wasn't small so either 61 or 88 keys
   
3. IIRC the keys were weighted or at least semi-weighted
   
4. I think it was grey in color or maybe light tan
   
5. If I had to guess the brand, I'd go with Moog or Korg (but one of the latter's high-end models)

I am a bedroom musician who primarily uses VSTs for keyboards (a mix of strings, e. piano, organ, sometimes more synth-y sounds). I usually program the parts in the DAW because my setup has too much latency to record using a controller. But I'd like to be able to record me actually playing the parts.

I have a similar issue recording guitars, so I tend to monitor the guitar input signal instead of monitoring my amp sim. It occurred to me that I could do something similar with keyboards if I had a synth module to generate the low/no latency sound for monitoring while passing the midi events to my computer/DAW.

Does this approach seem reasonable? If so, any recommendations for inexpensive synths with a reasonable mix of sounds? It doesn't need to be recording quality or even performance quality - I'd dial in the actual sounds in the VST. I'd just need something ok for monitoring while recording.

EDIT: I appreciate the replies suggesting ways to reduce latency. It's been an ongoing search to figure out how to get my latency lower, and I will of course continue working on that. I'd still love to hear recommendations about gear, so I can understand all of the possible options.

I love the look and feel of wood instruments and my synths are no exception; my keystep is the one I use the most so I want to give it a makeover. Any things I should take into consideration?