First Hardware synth for a trance producer?

[PascalVB]

I'd say go for the Virus.
Which model depends on your needs.
I have a Virus B and a Virus TI Snow.

The B sounds more agressive than the Snow and has more knobs. The Snow does have more features, more filter types and the hypersaw.

BTW: you can edit the Snow with the knobs of the Virus B through MIDI.

[KulshanStudios]

In case anyone stumbles across this, these are what I'd recommend

If you're on a budget:

Blofeld
JP8080
MicroKorg XL
Mininova

If you have some cash to burn

Virus TI2
Prophet Rev2
Nord Lead 3
Supernova II

All are capable of all the bread and butter trance sounds, plus some new, novel, and interesting sounds not so commonly-used

You can hear a bunch of em in action here

https://youtube.com/channel/UCMMg5fmuXMRDBp3JZBiWZ6Q

[zerocrossing]

Virus and a Supernova. Done.

[cryophonik]

In case anyone stumbles across this, these are what I'd recommend

If you're on a budget:

Blofeld
JP8080
MicroKorg XL
Mininova

If you have some cash to burn

Virus TI2
Prophet Rev2
Nord Lead 3
Supernova II

All are capable of all the bread and butter trance sounds, plus some new, novel, and interesting sounds not so commonly-used

You can hear a bunch of em in action here

https://youtube.com/channel/UCMMg5fmuXMRDBp3JZBiWZ6Q

Gotta love it when someone joins KVR just to revive an 8-yo thread to promote his YouTube account and preset banks.

[vurt]

for trance. the blue one.

[chk071]

Virus and JP-8000 would be my dream combo.

One can dream.

[AnX]

2nd hand microkorg

[egbert101]

The OP posted this in 2013. No idea why people are still answering him or why this thread is not dead.

[excuse me please]

The OP posted this in 2013. No idea why people are still answering him or why this thread is not dead.

Because you apparently did not read the thread after 2013. It's kind of obvious what happened.

[kritikon]

Jut like to point out that I looked at NZ prices, and here for the price of a TI2, if you looked at some cheaper synths - all analogues and mainly the new Behringer emus, you could get for the same price (and a little bit of change:

Behringer MonoPoly (4 voice)
Deepmind 6 (for just 300 more, a 12 which doubles the voices)
VC340 vocoder/string machine
MS1 - Roland SH101 clone
TD3 - Roland 303 clone (not very close, but y'know for $200 it's a steal and fun)
Odyssey
and either : Korg MS20 mini OR Minilogue (4 voice)
Maybe ditch the deepmind and get a 2600 - yes an ARP 2600 emu from Behringer at less than 1/3 of a TI2!

That lot for the same as a TI2.

Yep, they won't make some Virus sounds, but think how many more sounds you're going to get with that lot - it's a whole f***in' studio. And it doesn't have to be all Behringer - consider Arturia Brutes of some form or another. You could throw in a Korg Wavestate instead of a Deepmind - the sounds on that will blow your ears off - nothing like a Virus, but then a Virus is nothing like a Wavestate.

That's 7 synths or even more. Is a Virus seven times better than that lot? I doubt it...

Devil's advocate - yeah that's one hell of a steep learning curve.

[kritikon]

Just double checked. Yes, even in lil' old NZ currently as long as I can wait until July for delivery - I can get one of these for $959. Must admit I can hardly believe it myself. It's not a misprint. Sold at RubberMonkey.





or even

More like

So...how many knobs does a TI2 have?

[clipnotic]

Jut like to point out that I looked at NZ prices, and here for the price of a TI2, if you looked at some cheaper synths - all analogues and mainly the new Behringer emus, you could get for the same price (and a little bit of change:

Behringer MonoPoly (4 voice)
Deepmind 6 (for just 300 more, a 12 which doubles the voices)
VC340 vocoder/string machine
MS1 - Roland SH101 clone
TD3 - Roland 303 clone (not very close, but y'know for $200 it's a steal and fun)
Odyssey
and either : Korg MS20 mini OR Minilogue (4 voice)
Maybe ditch the deepmind and get a 2600 - yes an ARP 2600 emu from Behringer at less than 1/3 of a TI2!

That lot for the same as a TI2.

Yep, they won't make some Virus sounds, but think how many more sounds you're going to get with that lot - it's a whole f***in' studio. And it doesn't have to be all Behringer - consider Arturia Brutes of some form or another. You could throw in a Korg Wavestate instead of a Deepmind - the sounds on that will blow your ears off - nothing like a Virus, but then a Virus is nothing like a Wavestate.

That's 7 synths or even more. Is a Virus seven times better than that lot? I doubt it...

Devil's advocate - yeah that's one hell of a steep learning curve.

Sorry, but that "crap toys chaos" is absolutely no "whole f***in studio" and also nothing for a beginner. Of course many beginners starting with a bunch of such clone boxes, but they also mostly sell it very fast. For modern and also older Trance music you need synth sounds with detune and enough voices and for the beats layered kicks, hihats, rides and so on.

The "best" hardware synths in 2021 for Trance still are the Virus TI2, Novation Supernova II and the Roland JP8000 and for the beats I would use a sampler groovebox and Trance specific samples, because especially only with the current "standard drum machines" you won't get "the Trance sounds".

For Trance you could also use the Korg Kronos workstation, because there are many good Trance libraries and Youtube videos available and you also have a sequencer and user sample banks included, But like other workstations this is also expensive and overpriced, but here you have at least an "all in one basic studio", different synths, many voices and so on. Other workstations you should ignore!

But in 2021 you should simply work with a DAW and some plugins, because with that you can produce everything fast, easy and really good!

[kritikon]

"For modern and also older Trance music you need synth sounds with detune and enough voices"

I really suggest you go take a look at some of those synths. Many of them have as much detune as you want and loads of voices. Sorry but I can make any silly supersaw type sound as fat on a MonoPoly as on any so-called supersaw synth - in fact usually have to dial them down when using all voices and have them all detuned. And if all trance consists of is noisy supersaws - no wonder it's dying and cliched. There really is more out there than supersaws.

"and for the beats layered kicks, hihats, rides and so on"

Sorry, that's for those that can't be bothered to learn their trade. You do NOT need to layer kicks. Anyone that does that is taking an admittedly easy way out, and could achieve exactly the same thing by mixing properly, using dynamics properly and selecting their sounds properly. Same goes for hats - why on earth should anyone need to layer hats?

If "throwing everything at each sound" is OK, why is "throwing every synth in a studio at it" not OK, when it costs the same? Personally, I guarantee you I can make more noise with 7 of those synths I mentioned than using one that you mentioned. Point is - I know better than to use all 7 synths just to make one huge unuseable and irritating sound that overtakes everything in a mix...

Also - I never even hinted at not using a DAW - that would be plain silly. Using a DAW does not stop one having and effectively using as much h/w as you want. I thought it was a given everyone uses a DAW nowadays, whether using VSTis or h/w? Yeah - far steeper learning curve, as I mentioned in my post.

And newbs would buy a studio full of nice analogues and then sell them because they find a couple VSTis? Having a laugh, mate.

[Halonmusic]

Oldskool or modern trance? for oldskool, you really don't need any synth with a super/hyper/gorillasaw. Any polysynth would do actually.

[kritikon]

Oldskool or modern trance? for oldskool, you really don't need any synth with a super/hyper/gorillasaw. Any polysynth would do actually.

Quite right. Age of Love is probably one of the quintessential and IMO still unbettered classics of trance. Not a single hoover or supersaw in sight. In fact it's quite sparse - part of why it's so effective. It will always be a better track than most of these ridiculous supersaw-filled trance tracks - and so many in recent years became even more silly with the addition of thick layers of white noise over the already noisy saws. I'm sadly waiting for the next generation of trance, which will be a solid wall of white noise from 20Hz-20kHz over the top of sixteen kick drums.