Best hands-on poly

[DrGonzo]

Hey guys - I'm currently changing the workflow here and I'm on the lookout for a good poly that scores top marks on the ease-of-use scale.

Right now I'm using a DeepMind 12 and while I really like the sound of it - I'm not too fond of the UI. Slow and too many menus. I used to own a NordLead 4 but that one didn't sit well with me at all. There were something about the sound that felt grey and dull. I have a Virus and while I'm not selling that, that's not what I'm after. I loved the sound of the Elektron Analog Four - not a fan of the usability point of it.

I've been thinking about an OB6 or possibly the MFB Synth Pro.

Any synth I should check out? Great sound, great usability. Has to be a poly. I have way too many monos as it is

/C

[DrGonzo]

No one uses hardware polys here on KvR?

[Reefius]

Maybe something like the ASM Hydrasynth or Novation Peak?

[DrGonzo]

Peak? Hm. Never felt any love for Novation sound engines to be honest. I just prefer a different kind of sound. Have you used it? Do you like it?

Hydrasynth looks cool and quick to use. But it seems it's nearly impossible to buy

/C

[MFXxx]

Well I'm brewing ocer the JD-XA atm to replace an analog Keys. But want to demo at some point. Watching this thread with interest.

[Obsolete317542]

[DELETED]

[rob_lee]

Hey guys - I'm currently changing the workflow here and I'm on the lookout for a good poly that scores top marks on the ease-of-use scale.

Right now I'm using a DeepMind 12 and while I really like the sound of it - I'm not too fond of the UI. Slow and too many menus. I used to own a NordLead 4 but that one didn't sit well with me at all. There were something about the sound that felt grey and dull. I have a Virus and while I'm not selling that, that's not what I'm after. I loved the sound of the Elektron Analog Four - not a fan of the usability point of it.

I've been thinking about an OB6 or possibly the MFB Synth Pro.

Any synth I should check out? Great sound, great usability. Has to be a poly. I have way too many monos as it is

/C

I was gonna say the ASM Hydra Synth but someone already mentioned it here. I ordered mine coming tomorrow after hearing what it could do on YouTube. The FX on this thing are amazing, high end stuff unlike I heard before on a hardware synth I though it had been plugged in to a Strymon lol



I am getting the desktop version for £799 the KB is £1399 but I'll get that for Christmas

Rob

[foosnark]

For me polysynths are very secondary, but I do like my little Reface CS -- it's simple and charming

Otherwise, I'd have said Hydrasynth too!

[kvotchin]

OB6, you should at least try.

[himalaya]

My personal take on this is that a serious synth fan should have at least one proper full blown VCO-based poly synth. You can have many digital poly synths, S&S workstations, but having access to one high-end VCO analogue poly synth is a joy that shouldn't be missed. Which one? That's more difficult to answer.

So, if your funds permit, the the OB6 is a must. It's an absolute joy and it's what great analogue poly synths are about. You know you will get 'the sound', and the quality. It's also a joy to use. Easy and effortless. In fact, leave it alone and it will churn out classic analogue sounds all by itself.

MFB Synth Pro is very attractive at the price though. It has the sound, but does it have the built quality? Worth a browse of gearslutz pages to see what the owners are saying.

Maybe second hand Studio Electronics poly-synths? They had a series of some very expensive but lush+huge sounding modules. Definitely worth investigating.

Otherwise, try the second hand market for stuff like the Roland MKS-70, which won't be as expensive as MKS-80 (or its keyboard version Jupiter 8 ). Needs the PG-800 programmer though.

Lastly, skipping the approach with strictly VCO-VCF based synths, you could investigate stuff like the Korg Prologue 8/16.

[chk071]

I got loads of OB-6 video recommendations on Youtube recently. So, yeah, lovely sound, and seems to be a good choice. Pretty pricey though, but then, it's a analog poly synth.

[DrGonzo]

So, if your funds permit, the the OB6 is a must. It's an absolute joy and it's what great analogue poly synths are about. You know you will get 'the sound', and the quality. It's also a joy to use. Easy and effortless. In fact, leave it alone and it will churn out classic analogue sounds all by itself.

MFB Synth Pro is very attractive at the price though. It has the sound, but does it have the built quality? Worth a browse of gearslutz pages to see what the owners are saying.

I think my heart is set on the OB6 - but I got enchanted by the Synth Pros 3 oscillators and decent price. Problem is that I kind of know where that might lead. You want a big bad boy and you cheap out and it always ends up with buying the thing you wanted in the beginning. I did that with the Deepmind 12 - and while I really really like the sound of it, the slow UI and endless menus just takes out all the fun out of working with hardware. If I want menus I get that on the computer.

Lastly, skipping the approach with strictly VCO-VCF based synths, you could investigate stuff like the Korg Prologue 8/16.

Good suggestion! Thank you. I totally forgot about those. I remember people going mental about its problems with tuning, but that seems to be sorted now. Korg is a cool company indeed.

/C

[himalaya]

The continuously variable filter in OB6 is the key to so many sounds. More synths should have a design like this. Single LPFs are just boring in comparison. Similarly, when I played the Arturia Matrix Brute, I spent an hour just going through all the dual-filter permutations and routings of the 3 oscillators, and without even touching any modulation - just setting up static filter cutoffs - the amount of sounds was staggering.

Now that we know how to detune two oscillators, we need more filters, please!

[vitocorleone123]

Sequential P6 or OB6 (what I have specifically because I wanted simple amazing inspiration not a million functions and LFOs like all my software synths).

That said, I originally set out to get the XD, which is a fine synth and, if you have the space, is easily expanded to 8 voices for a lot less than the P6 or OB6.

But I “tragically” listened to the OB6 in person, and was never the same again.

[lfm]

I did that with the Deepmind 12 - and while I really really like the sound of it, the slow UI and endless menus just takes out all the fun out of working with hardware. If I want menus I get that on the computer.

How true.
Seems they were obsessed by faders everywhere.
If choice were knobs insteads they could have made much more on panel directly available. You could get 2-3 knobs in the same space as one fader.

So I got the Prologue-8 and later Wavestate as well for more sequenced stuff.

Prologue is well equipped on things on panel - but what is through menus is real clever approach that quickly is in your backbone. The 8 buttons get you directly into a category menu - then pressing again swap page in that menu.

There is more menu stuff in Wavestate, but necessarily so - since options what you can do is vast in comparison to anything else synth. But real clever in how you have like 5 levels of presets you can reuse.

I looked into DeepMind and selfgenerating patches to create ever changing pad type of sounds through the cross mod matrix. But this is much easier and way more options what can be bubbling with Wavestate.

So for much less money than a P6 or OB6 - you can get all the nicety of analog in Prologue-8 and a Wavestate as well. Or a Prologue-16 even if you want/need the bigger keybed. 16-voice version also have some more knobs/buttons on panels for making two-part timbres, but no biggy for me using the 8-voice.

Lots of little gems in Prologue also for simple things like navigating the 500 memory patch slots. The 8 buttons allow for different sort orders of patches - on number, on name, on category, on like-marked, on recently used and 3 more I don't remember.

To like a patch, you just hold like button 2s - or unlike as easily. So you easily browse patches from sort order that is active. If you want to rearrange that permanently - librarian in computer is your friend.

Prologue is lacking in the amount of filters, it's just 12 db/oct style LP filter. Nice selfoscillating too for interesting effects.

To make up for filter variety that it has a 3rd oscillator, called multi engine - which has 16 types of phase modulated digital oscillator and 16 user oscillators. This opens up for a broad range of timbres too.

So double that with 2 parts layers or split - also open for interesting timbres. You have to go to REV2 for that in Sequential world. Nice preview in playing two layers you just browse the second layer and you can see which one - primary or secondary in any preset what works better in this patch you are creating.

1 LFO in Prologue is a bit limited - but again user oscillators I have among the free ones - added a second LFO into that to have some options what it does. 8 different target what it modulate. Some user oscillators have envelopes etc.

The also 16 slots for 3rd party effects out there if built in are not enough.

What is better - more filters or more oscillator waveforms - matter of choice, really.

Another wild suggestion.....