Analog or Digital Polyphonic Synth Suggestions

[sunny pedaal]

juno 60 sounded a bit warmer , could be simply note on off not much more , with dbc breakout.
106 sends and receives all slidermovements and more.
biggest setback: it only has 6voices (osc+ sub) , normally i always want 8 fingers to play out of ten, not six.
with nice chorus( on/off) real nice stringsynth, bit like solinastring

[Brian G]

[I went to Chuck's a week ago, and played with the Voyager and Prophet 08.... after that, I started this thread to get some input, feedback, etc. The Prophet sounded better than the Voyager in the store.... not sure if the setup was exact, but that's what I heard. The Prophet 08 was vibrating the floor![/quote]

Must have been the set-up. The Voyager should have shook the floor just as much .

[rajprods]

Not yet, all the Nords I have tried have sounded nice though. For example the Nord Stage does what it does very well, but a little pricey. Nord makes good products. For me the Nord synths have sounded good, have an analog sound to them but with digital over tones. Nothing wrong with that .

Do you have a store near by that has the Prophet and the Nord line ? Go spend some time playing, listening, adjusting and see which works best for you. For me from what I read what the Prophet 08 was going to do sounded like it was one I wanted to add to my set up ( which is both vintage analog, vintage digital, and modern analog and digital) Hearing some on line demos gave me a good idea of what it was capable of. When my store brought one in for me to try I spent a bit of time with it, after the first few minutes I knew it would work for me and fit in well. Don't let a few negative reviews or opinions sway your choice with any of the synths, take it into consideration.

As for the Prophet:
The knobs may not be as solid as some other synths but I would not call them cheap. There is not feeling they are going to fall off when you turn them

You can see in the display where the knobs are set, while looking at a front panel and seeing where every thing is set is nice but, I don’t find this to be a problem. It is cool the LP ( Nord to) will show with LED’s where the stored setting is but I have had no problem adjusting parameters on the fly while playing. If I hear the attack is a tad to fast on the filter I reach and turn the filter knob it then moves the param up a bit, I can see in the LCD display by how much. It may take a short while to get used to it but for me I (and others I am sure) don’t have a problem with it.

Cheap sounding digital analog ? What were they listening to it on ? The Prophet 08 is a very warm sounding analog synth, if it has any “digital” over tones to it they are very slight. It may be cleaner sounding then some of the older polys from the 80’s but digital no .

You would really have to bang it hard to have parameters change, and if you hit it that hard for a long time I think you stand a better chance of snapping a key then anything. I’ve done plenty of fast and funky riffs on it without it changing at all….Yes if you bump the knobs a bit too hard it will change and they can be “quirky” when you adjust them. BUT as you learn and get use to it this is not a major draw back. I think the very early ones were more sensitive to parameters changing but with the OS that ships now they have addressed that. At least that is what I’ve read .

You may have that one backwards you have to use both outputs on the Prophet 08 it send the even voices to one output and the odd to the other, it does not have a mono output as some think. If you are only using the “L” output yes it will sound like it’s cutting out. The is a spread knob to adjust how much of the odd and even voices are sent to each output and with it set to the minimum amount you may be able to get away with only one, but you will probably here some cut off. Also what mode was it in ? If it is in layer or Split it is only four voice polyphonic. Four for each side of the split or layer.

Have a question about the Prophet 08. I've seen some manufacturer pics which looks like it shows numeric values around the knobs on the panel. I don't recall that the one I saw in the store shows the numeric values. Does your board show the values?

[Matt Friedman]

Not to go backwards a bit, but has anyone heard the Juno 106 synth? If so, what kind of sounds can it make? It is worth looking at for about $400? I looked it up on Vintagesynth.com, and it's 6 voices with midi.

Look here: http://www.synthmania.com/juno-106.htm

J106s are lovely synths, and you can get one in very good condition for $400-$500. Bear in mind that they sometimes have voice chip issues. Not a huge problem because you can get voice chips and, if you have any soldering experience, it's not a hugely complex repair.

The J106 is very much the sound of the 80s but, like any synth, you can make it sound anyway you want with the right programming. Lots of sliders and a really well laid-out front panel.

[LeRoi]

Musicians Friend and Sweetwater have easy return policies in the event the product is not right.

Sweetwater's "No hassle return policy" is a sham. Do not be fooled.

On the subject of the Juno 60, I have one and love it. However, money is tight and mine is gettin sold soooon!

[EricK]

THey sound really nice on the phone. GOd forbid you buy something from them and they call you all the time send you emails like they are your best friends. Ill never do business with them if I can do t with Novamusik, especially with their deals.

But they are darn right helpful but i haven't had ANY negative experiences from them and Ive only ordered 3 foogers from them so they shipped out great products.


Then they want to send you all kinds of candy in the box like there aren't enough diabedics in the world.

But, they do get you the packages really quicklike.

Eric

[LeRoi]

But they are darn right helpful but i haven't had ANY negative experiences from them and Ive only ordered 3 foogers from them so they shipped out great products.

I've had ok experiences with them too, until the last year. They will not rip me off again. I was sent 3 busted Ion's. The last one I am stuck with. They also severely ripped me off on restocking fees, which is a story I will spare this forum. I will say that they were selling one of the restocked items on their site for $200 MORE than I bought it for. I also caught them in the lie they told me to charge me the restocking fee...via their own ad.

[rajprods]

But they are darn right helpful but i haven't had ANY negative experiences from them and Ive only ordered 3 foogers from them so they shipped out great products.

I've had ok experiences with them too, until the last year. They will not rip me off again. I was sent 3 busted Ion's. The last one I am stuck with. They also severely ripped me off on restocking fees, which is a story I will spare this forum. I will say that they were selling one of the restocked items on their site for $200 MORE than I bought it for. I also caught them in the lie they told me to charge me the restocking fee...via their own ad.

I never had any problems with them, but haven't had to return anything yet!

[January Jaunt]

I own a Polysix, and it is wonderful!! Very John Carpenter like. I would say go for that, it´s called the poor mans Prophet 5. I think I head somewhere that the Juno 106 isn´t completly analog, but the Polysix is. Theres the battery issue, but that can be removed with a new one. I think it sounds amazing, everybody owns a Juno, and it´s ok, but the Polysix is way better in my ears. I would say that the Juno is 80´s like, and the Polysix leans more towards the 70´s.

[rajprods]

I own a Polysix, and it is wonderful!! Very John Carpenter like. I would say go for that, it´s called the poor mans Prophet 5. I think I head somewhere that the Juno 106 isn´t completly analog, but the Polysix is. Theres the battery issue, but that can be removed with a new one. I think it sounds amazing, everybody owns a Juno, and it´s ok, but the Polysix is way better in my ears. I would say that the Juno is 80´s like, and the Polysix leans more towards the 70´s.

Has anyone has any experience with the Oberheim Matrix-1000? According to the manual, if you have two units, they can be grouped together which expands the voices to 12.

[MAB2112]

Has anyone has any experience with the Oberheim Matrix-1000? According to the manual, if you have two units, they can be grouped together which expands the voices to 12.

I have 2 Matrix 1000's and I use them chained together to get 12 voices. Works pretty well. You just MIDI the boxes together and set the number of units chained in the Matrix 1000. The only issue I have run into is that sometimes when the units are turned on I have to toggle the number of units chained between 0 and 2 to get the two boxes in sync. Other than that, I have had no problems.

[rajprods]

Has anyone has any experience with the Oberheim Matrix-1000? According to the manual, if you have two units, they can be grouped together which expands the voices to 12.

I have 2 Matrix 1000's and I use them chained together to get 12 voices. Works pretty well. You just MIDI the boxes together and set the number of units chained in the Matrix 1000. The only issue I have run into is that sometimes when the units are turned on I have to toggle the number of units chained between 0 and 2 to get the two boxes in sync. Other than that, I have had no problems.

Thanks, that's great to hear? How do they sound? I have a Matrix-6 years ago. Just looking for an alternate and less expensive option for Oberheim sounds.

[MAB2112]

Thanks, that's great to hear? How do they sound? I have a Matrix-6 years ago. Just looking for an alternate and less expensive option for Oberheim sounds.

Honestly, I do not use them much now. I am trying to get them re-integrated into my system. I have spent the last few months bonding with my M3 and Voyager. The Matrix 1000 definitely allows you to get that classic Oberheim sound. Maybe not as warm as the VCO based products(Matrix-12, OBX-a,etc.), but defintely adds warmth when layering with other synths. I run it through a Ensoniq DP/4 and have had good results with pads and sync sounds. These days though, I prefer my synths to have knobs and sliders...

If you had a Matrix 6 before, then you are familiar with the sound. The Matrix 1000 is essentially a 1U rack version of the Matrix 6 that is not programmable (except through 3rd party software).

[rajprods]

Thanks, that's great to hear? How do they sound? I have a Matrix-6 years ago. Just looking for an alternate and less expensive option for Oberheim sounds.

Honestly, I do not use them much now. I am trying to get them re-integrated into my system. I have spent the last few months bonding with my M3 and Voyager. The Matrix 1000 definitely allows you to get that classic Oberheim sound. Maybe not as warm as the VCO based products(Matrix-12, OBX-a,etc.), but defintely adds warmth when layering with other synths. I run it through a Ensoniq DP/4 and have had good results with pads and sync sounds. These days though, I prefer my synths to have knobs and sliders...

If you had a Matrix 6 before, then you are familiar with the sound. The Matrix 1000 is essentially a 1U rack version of the Matrix 6 that is not programmable (except through 3rd party software).

Thanks for the info!

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

I'm looking for something with a warm analog sound with at least 8 to 16 voices that costs around $2,000 to $2,500 or less. Any suggestions? Nord, Access, Dave Smith, etc.? If so, which brand and model? Mainly looking for synth, pads, and string sounds in one unit if possible.

Your options would be:

Real Analog

DSI Prophet 08 (new)
Andromeda A6 (new)
Roland JX10 (vintage)

Virtual Analog

Access Virus
Clavia Nord
Roland JP8000

Your budget is limited for true analog - the best solution would be either the P'08, Andromeda or Virus TI.

You probably already know what your options are!

DS