Excellent rundown of vintage synths. While prices will fluctuate over the years, the details that you add to each synth makes this rundown more enduring. We can tell that this is a labour of love. Thank you.
Watched all one hour and 48 min and thought all of it was awesome. Great analysis of all these great value vintage synths - especially the ultraviolet era synths.
This needs to be its own website! That we can touch and feel and sniff. Searchable by parameter with special comparisons between bitter rivals. Let’s do it, Scum! Example Parameters: Oscillator type: DCO, VCO, FM, Wavetable… Polyphony: mono, poly-5, poly-6… Filter chip: SSM (?) Curtis Envelopes: assignable, fixed, filter, amp Etc…
Wonderful work, Alex! Thank you for investing so much time in this! I'm a little older than you and I have owned quite a few of these too. Thanks for the shout out to Kawai synths. The K1, K3, and K4 are truly under appreciated. I was surprised that you didn't highlight a couple of instruments. You touched upon the Proteus line and there were many variations in those rack mount units, but one that truly is unique and more of synth than a ROMpler is the Morpheus. It's Z-Plane filters really make it a standout and it's quite the pad monster. The other that really threw me for a loop was the lack of highlighting the Kurzweil K2000. I know that it is often grouped with samplers, but it's V.A.S.T. architecture make it so much more than a sampler. That combined with the fact that it comes with it's own waveforms built in that don't need to rely on sampling make it a real standout. The fact that you can also use your own samples as the starting waveforms for the insane synthesis engine just puts this instrument and its offspring (K2500, K2600, etc.) in a league of their own. Still, wonderful work! You can't put everything in there. The video would have been hundreds of hours long! As for your choices, I couldn't agree with you more about the D-50. I still have my D-550. Best digital filter Roland ever made. I'm also delighted with my pair of poly-chained Matrix-1000's! I updated both a few years ago with the 1.20 Tauntek firmware. I also agree about the Wavestation. I have a Wavestation EX and a Wavestation SR. I also have the iPad Wavestation app which is significantly easier to program. I was truly disappointed that you cannot use that or the Wavestation Legacy soft synth to create patches to upload to the hardware synths themselves. I think that was a huge oversight on Korg's part. And I still have my M1 that I bought new in 1989. I don't think of it as a true synth, but it covers the staples really well. If I need a selection of organs, a good Wurli, some decent electric pianos, and a really bright acoustic piano to cut through a mix, the M1 covers the bases pretty darn well. Not bad for a keyboard I've had for 35 years. Peace.
As a very satisfied former owner of K4, I am very happy to see someone sharing my opinion about that synth. I am mainly dissapointed by underrating treatment of some people not knowing how to use it, its power is just like you described it, in its warm, fat layer sounds, pads and tasteful noises that can compete with flagships of big three synth manufacturers Korg, Roland and Yamaha. Even SY 77 I proudly have still today can't achieve such audacity.
Wavestation - yes - alternatively, pick up a WS SR (around 250-300 USD) - all the classic Wavestation sounds in 1U - no LCD panel noise, and no keys to get sticky (and you can just use a MIDI patch editor/librarian). JD800.. for the panel.. what a cool looking synth - all that hands on control. The only issue with used digital synths from 80s/90s is they are probably less serviceable than older analog synths.
I also want to add another one plus for POLY-800 - it is very easy to modify (MOOG MOD). This allows you to place the analogue Cutoff and Reso controls on the front panel. This greatly simplifies control, and adds the ability to introduce a filter into self-oscillation to obtain deeper resonance. This is something that factory controls cannot achieve. And at the same time, you can turn the knobs smoothly and quickly using the analog method... instead of stepwise programming the resonance with buttons... this causes the whole vibe to be lost.
I really enjoyed your efforts to put this synth compilation together! Also, I really appreciate that you highlighted the alternative to some of the other synth icons. I like that you covered these lesser known brands, which I see here and there, and have wondered for some time, how they sound & what kind of value they are. I know you can't make everyone happy, but this is, a very full offering that is helpful regardless!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Certainly true you can't make everyone happy but I've gotten a lot of good feedback on this video. If you ever have an idea for what you'd like for me to cover in the future let me know 💡
Just got to the section on the TS-12. My Grandpa bought me this. I still own and play it! It replaced a Jupiter 8 I had bought used with my father and sold to go off to College for $300.00. Love Ensoniq. My very first Yamaha I bought today - an SY99 for under $700.00 with just one faulty key I plan to repair or replace immediately
great video ! The prophet 600 is one of my favorite. The pro 800 vcos (the v3340 from cool audio) have an awful higher frequency buzz thats nearly impossible to filter out without the synth sounding muddy. I have removed all my Behringer content as I stated in my follow up no one will want to fix them in the future and they will just come landfill waste. That and the Oberheim thing was just too beyond reprehensible to support. The only video kept up is how the fix the garbage dm12 noise issue. Back to the video the alpha junos are great, I had a juno 6 and a alpha 2 and preferred the alpha 2 to the 6. It's not that bad to program either, I mean its not great but a dx7 it isn't. Korg wave station is amazing, the string choir sounds it does are amazing. I think I would take the Ensoniq or akai s series over the korg personally but I know you said no rack units, but man the s series sound great and are cheap. I had a s950 and loved it decades back and the s900 are dropping. Soon I assume the 950s will drop in price. I would get a d50 over an alternative given what it can do or look for the boutique. Proteus is awesome ! Chroma is really great sounding but man that is a complex synth to keep running.
Luckily Syntaur has a kit for replacing the membrane panel of the Polaris which helps a lot! Also I have an Akai S 950 I'm going to try hooking up to my AX60. Always great to see you in the comments! Sorry again you had such a headache with the Behringer stuff!
Awesome video and great getting the word out on the SCUM synths! I used to go for the white whales of synths: Jupiter, Fizmo, or the like until I started watching your videos. I've since come to love the more dark horse synths like the DW-8000 and Polivoks. I think your videos have at least made me, if not the vintage synth community, find more satisfaction in finding these somewhat hidden gems.
You've been here since the beginning! I think you guys had as much influence on me as I've had on the community. But yes, my goal is to highlight the true, underrated gems that are still affordable from back then. Making this video made me want to sell everything that costs more than $2k because there's just so many great sonic palettes you can get for so reasonable!
Regarding the comparison of SH2 and Minimoog. PWM is a cheaper replacement for two detuned oscillators in one. Therefore, if you have two oscillators in your synthesizer (for example, on a minimoog), then you can get the same sound character as the PMW - to do this, you just need to detune the two oscillators. The waveform does not look the same, but the character of the sound is almost indistinguishable. DonSolaris even described on his website how you can emulate PWM on JD type romplers, where there is no PWM but there are two untuned saws. From this point of view, SH2 does not have many advantages) After all, the Moog has not two, but three oscillators)... The same applies when people compare the JX and Juno series.
I don't know that I fully agree, but that's why I love you EuroDJ, you always make me think! On these vintage machines, I don't think you can entirely substitute the sound of PWM for 2 oscs or vice versa, although Don Solaris would know better than I.
@@VultureCulture Yes, it won't sound like completely accurate PWM, because in order to emulate accurate PWM you need to very correctly configure the mutual modulation of the saw oscillators. Not all synthesizers have detailed LFO routing and phases. But overall it will sound very close, especially at fast speeds....that is, when the beat is not slow. Moreover, there will be a problem with the fact that this beat will be different on different notes. After all, in PWM the modulation amplitude is tied to the pitch. Not every synthesizer allows you to link detune to pitch. I liked your explanation of Polaris, it’s great that they came up with the idea of linking detune to pitch in certain positions. ps - I tried to do PWM emulation using a VST synthesizer with two saws .... so with the correct modulation settings it sounds almost indistinguishable. I can upload the video example, but I don’t know where, the links are blocked here.
My favorites (virtual): GForce Imposcar 3, GForce OB-E, Osirus/OSTirus (Virus/Virus TI), MemoryMoon ME80 (Best CS80, Windows Only). The Osirus uses a virtualization of the DSP56300 series DSP that is the basis of all Virus synths (also Waldorf and Nord). I have a couple MiniPCs that can host up to 24 Virus Cs. My personal master keyboard is a beautiful Virus KB that has the beloved Fatar TP/8S keybed. I use it to play all of the above. BTW: Even though the ME80 is Windows only you can use it in a Linux Windows virtualization environment. Also if you don't want to pony up for the ME80 the Imposcar can do a pretty damn impressive version of the CS80 Blade Runner pad. Actually I've seen a youtube video where they use an OB-E to completely recreate the Vangeliis Blade Runnner soundtrack. Great review Vulture, keep it up algorithms be damned. BTW: Were you ever a radio DJ?
Kawai K1 exists as a VST emulation. It uses original waves, not resampled. Sounds very authentic. One of those synthesizers where you can save on space in the studio, so as not to buy a keyboard or rack version. I think we should also mention K11, something between K1 and K4. The K11 also has resonant filters. I'm interested in your opinion compared to K4.
The Kawai K11/GMega is much better in terms of doing typical "ROMpler" work (piano, strings etc.) compared to K1 and K4. It has 6MB of sample ROM and was meant as a competitor to the General MIDI stuff that came up in the early 90's (Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas/JV-30 etc.). Still nice that it is a fully programmable synthesizer. Yamaha tried something similar with the TG300 module.
@@VultureCulture I love the JX-6P I got late last year for $500 because they did a terrible job shipping it and broke the input slider. Funny thing, I was going to get the PG-2K anyways. The PG-2K is totally killer. The random patch generation is such a fun way to get started when I don't really know what I want yet.
Oh my god, that patch from the Kawai K4 was drop dead beautiful. And the Revenant M1 sample, gorgeous. Huge effort man, and a lot of food for thought. Given the amount of experience you have with vintage synths, I think your advice carries a lot of weight. I do want to get a vintage synth, and I might pull the trigger this fall. The SQ-80 is definitely tempting, but so is the JD-800. I’ll be looking at the Chroma Polaris too. And that Kawai K4 sound, I gotta check that out again. I need to go back and watch some of your comparison stream videos. Btw, I saw a Benn Jordan stream recently where he played with a Korg Radias, and it sounded pretty good. There’s a lot of very cool older synths.
That was like a vintage synth history crash course! And 'Ultraviolet Crush' perfectly describes that strange LOTR scene where Frodo is having fever dreams in Rivendell.
Those relevant M1 sounds are pretty nice, and shows that M1 is not just a Rompler, but has lots of room for synthesis exploration. For example, I made several Ensoniq-esq or EFX sounds out of its Harpsichord tone.
Cool. Did not realize that the K1 had all these single cycle "wavelets" in it, like the DWGS waves in the Korg DW8000. Ok. it does not yet have a filter afterwards like the K4, but what a lot. For variations of filter effects it has a series of "filtered" saws, even "unfiltered" (waveshaped) sins (pun) in it. A total of over 200 waves compared to the 16 waves of a DW8000. 4 oscillators instead of 2 and the possibility to use either two of 4 for ring modulation. Delayed envelops, so you can cascade sounds and a joystick to whirl up the mix like in a D50 or Prophet VS. Seems to be like a missing link between all of them, with a couple of drum sounds on top. I do like these single cycle snippets, because they are not yet defined "samples" with a beginning and an end. They are just an extension of sin, saw, square and very malleable. Therefore, my favorite sounds in my M1 are the ones which use actually DWGS waves, of which there are around 12 in that M1, which makes the M1 some sort of a synth as well, not only a rompler. That Kawaii K1 has over 200, wow.
Very cool video. I enjoyed the review of all the synthesizers. What other synthesizers could you add? We probably like slightly different styles of music. But still.... For example, Akai AX73 - as an alternative soundcolor to Matrix1000 or Sequential Circuits - Multi-trak, Max, Six-trak, Split-Eight. To me the AX73 sounds more interesting than the AX80. For some reason was almost ignored the JX-8p (JX10) - also an excellent alternative to the Matrix1000. The pads and brasses are divine. Roland JV-80 - sounds bright and rich, much more interesting than the JV-1080 (XP50), which was mentioned here... and also, it seems to me, it is brighter and richer than the JV-90/1000. U-220 is also great sound. Kawai K5 has a great vintage lo-fi character as a complementary alternative to the DX7 sounds. Roland D-70 is a controversial synth, but it is interesting at least for its unique DLM synthesis, as well as good reso filters. Casio CZ-1000 - digital Oberheim at minimum prices))) A synthesizer with a very good character. Goes well in the mix. In some places it resembles DX synthesis, but is fundamentally different from it. Yamaha SY85 (TG500) is a rompler with the world's best resonant filters that sound as deep as analogue filters. Yamaha SY22 is a very cool vintage low-fi color, a good alternative and addition to the Kawai K1. (Not to be confused with the TG33/35, the keyboard SY22 seems to me to sound warmer). The Yamaha QS300 is a very underrated synthesizer with vintage waves. On RU-vid you can only find demos of the auto accompaniment function and the basic GM/XG bank. However, if you upload third-party banks there, of which there are many on the Internet, you will discover the whole Vangelis universe in the digital world)). Quasimidi TechnoX is a good rompler with vintage sounds, some crunchy lo-fi waves, a pretty good resonant filter, which is rare, and one of the amazing effects processors for delay flanger reverb. Everything together sounds very musical. Kurzweil K2500 - simply high-quality adult sound. The live sounds are bright, the ambient pads are gorgeous, the ambient reverb atmosphere is cool. Overall it's not that vintage, but it sounds amazing. Roland D-110 is one of the best polysynth synthesizers. Not to be confused with the more lo-fi D-50. D-110 is much brighter and richer for polysynth, but for pads and organs it is better to take D-50. Alesis S4 is a soft and pleasant character for polysynths and pads. Unique sound, one of my favorites. Yamaha TX81Z (DX11) is my favorite FM synthesizer. Nothing sounds so juicy and warm, not DX7, not DX7II, not TG77, not V50. However, it would be worth considering its older brother, DX21, as an alternative. It also sounds good, rougher, but + analog chorus. Well, just for fun - Yamaha PSR-36 + PSS-480... budget two-operator FM synthesizers with their own unique character. No DX/TX sounds as warm as these two toys.
Lots of cool info here. Thanks for providing it. But darn you for agitating everybody's gas. (shakes fist) Also ....in defence of Fizmo, the recent "Fauxmo" editor seems like it might be pretty cool. “Fauxmo is fantastic - logically laid out, well implemented, and generally wonderful. I can now access, from my Mac, all of the Fizmo parameters we decided to hide decades ago! LOL!” - Scott Peer, Ensonig Director/Fizmo lead dev. (I still want a Fizmo. a lot.)
The Korg Poly 800, I have 2, I buy doubles, if the price is right, didn’t pay more than $200 for each. If I’d bought everyone I’d seen, for the right price, I’d have five. It was the best way to get into analogue synths, but people are now asking between $300 and $400 Canadian now..
as a comparison,over the last 4 years the EX-800 in Australia is asking $900. Poly 800 Mk1 600, the poly-800 mK2 $800, Aussie dollar is not much different to the CAD $. I bought the Mk1 in 1994 it was 275 back then ($606 adjusted for today inflation.) I envy those in the northern hemisphere, spoilt for choice with vintage gear and your prices are a lot fairer than ours. 🙂
Awesome video brother!! Yeah the Polaris has a wonderful sound, that video where you demo it is really great as well. For the K1 or K4, (If you still have a K1 or K4) you should try the auto chorus feature in multi patches. It's a way to add warmth and depth to its tone. Great video truly a great service to those looking to buy.
Love the video man, except for the part where now I'm really considering dropping a paycheck or two on some vintage synths soon LOL! Keep making great stuff!
Thanks for watching! I really want to do a video on the JD-800 and the SH scores. There's tons of info out there on the sample packs Akira Yamaoka used on the soundtracks but not so much about the JD-800 which I believe was his primary synthesizer at the time.
Great stuff! You really can’t go wrong for both digital and analog with all the “super” Roland rack synths. Super Jupiter is way outside the price here (but still not bad), but the Super JX (JX-10 aka JX-8P x 2), Super JV, Super JD and an MKS 50 (Alpha Juno) and you’re pretty much set. Loads of ctrlr panels out there to control the JX and MKS-50 without the oem controllers and retroakitv controllers to get far more out of the rack synths over the keyboard versions. I do like my Roland SE-02 btw and also Moog Sub 37. Both pretty dirty sounding - in a good way. I wasn’t aware of the CS-15 or 15d! Nice! Interesting to see the Wavestation is still cheaper than Roland’s own boutique JD-800 😂 The best budget way into a DX7 is buy a DX7 😉 just kidding. Shoutout to the Kurzweil K2600 btw - $800 ish and BT still uses his.
Kawai and Ensoniq are two manufacturers that went out of business but didn't have the mystique of Moog and Oberheim but were cranking out consistently high quality synthesizers
I ended up getting a Roland JV-1010 (The Half Rack) and it sounds surprisingly good! I had the FA06 a while ago and the sounds on the 1010 sounds much better in my opinion.
Really looking forward to that one. My desert island synthesizer, would be the Korg DSS-1, which is both a synthesizer and a sampler. The DSS-1 is nfortunately going down in value, maybe cause of it's enormous weight, 25 kilos. It is a beast both in sound as well. 😊
I've been meaning to carve out some time to watch this, and very glad I did! What a great comprehensive summary of vintage synths (some of which I was totally unfamiliar with), and I was frankly quite surprised about some of the prices. Back in the day, I lusted after the SY77/99, K4 and Wavestation, so it's pretty tempting to scoop ones of these up now. :D BTW, I'm still enjoying your D50 'Neon Chronicles' sounds, and it's on my list to do an all D50 retro jam/video with them. Thanks for your effort with this video, and I'll use it as reference in the future for sure.
So glad you checked out this video! All three of those synths have even more affordable rack-mount versions as well! I love that era of digital synthesis! Can't wait to hear what you do with those sounds!
I clearly remember when Chroma Polaris was constantly appearing in a local classifides magazine. Nobody wanted it back then (late nineties) and its price in liras (inflation calculated) was the equivalent of 280 usd now 😂😂😂
It’s taken me a few days to finish watching this. Really enjoyed it. Talking about that Ultraviolet era of synths and especially the Ensoniq stuff. One of my favourite bands is a British band called Paradise Lost. They started as a Death/Doom metal band but as the record company pushed them to go more commercial they got fed up of magazine asking if they were the next Metallica. So they cut their hair and released a series of albums heavily influenced by Depeche Mode. Now this was the last nineties but they had Ensoniq synths all over them. One Second, Host and Symbol Of Life being the best of the four albums. They recently went back to that style and started a side project called Host and release and album called XII last year. Well worth a listen if you like those synth sounds.
I love my Yamaha CS01, keytar goodness... now, if only I could find the breath controller to finish it. I scored mine for an ok price a bit over a year ago on eBay. Alex Ball did a great video on it... it was his fault I bought one almost immediately after watching it. Also got a nice minty fresh JX3P with programmer and optional Roland flight case. Love the sounds I can get out of that thing.
You pay so much for your synths because you buy on line, and are prepared to pay shipping. I only buy locally, and pay at least half of what you pay. For instance, there was a Emu E-Synth for sale in my area, the guy was asking $600, I checked eBay to check the prices on there, low and behold, the exact same synth was for sale on eBay. $600 was way out of my league, I’d never pay that much for a keyboard. A month or so later, he hadn’t sold it, I decided to give the guy a call, we spoke, he said; he’d sold it twice on eBay, but every time shipping was applied, they’d drop out because it was extortionate. His wife had told him to just, “get rid of it”, I paid him, $360 for it, it’s a mammoth of a synth, a complete studio in one instrument, multiple outlets, a sequencer and sampler, it’s a beast, it scares me....
I have 2 Kawai K1’s, the rack version, $40’s, and the keyboard version, that came in a hard plastic Roland case, the same case my Roland D50 came in, for a $100’s..
With what you get in a Korg Mono/Poly im still shocked you can get them for around 2,000. Defining all those oscillators you can make it sound huge. I love the ring mod and x-mod can do some wild stuff.
Thanks for doing this! I picked up a Fender Chroma Polaris a short while ago and it is a beautiful instrument! I find it a bit limited but it sounds fantastic! I was interested to hear what you thought were the best buys right now, and I am now considering what else I can fit into my small studio! Thanks again!
Another beautiful video. I think your enthusiasm bring me back more so. Do you have any opinion on the Korg remakes like the Oddessy, MS-20 and 700FS? I don’t think the 700FS is selling much
I think the Korg remakes are very good and very thorough. Unlike Behringer, I think you can count on Korg to really product test their products and deliver the authentic sound. The new MS-20 has got to be one of the best value mono synths you can buy. What do you think?
I saw a Jupiter 8 being sold locally to me last year for 16k aud, i guess that was a bargain. I never thought about my desert island synth, to many synths do lots of things, yet none of them do everything. 🙂
16k weirdly is a steal lol. Yeah, there's truly no such thing as a desert island synth in that manner. So I went with "last synth I'd sell" as my proxy for the question I get asked all the time.
@@VultureCulture SQ-80 and SY99 are my main synths along with my ASR and Jupiter. The saddest thing about curry synth prices is I bought 3 out of 4 for less than $100, only the ASR has never really dropped below like $1k. I also passed on a CS-80 in 1998 for $500 because I wanted a Fizmo and the excuse to myself was that I had the Jupiter (for $99 from Mars Music in San Antonio Texas, hehehehehe.)
The Polysix, my first poly synth, certainly has a gorgeous basic sound. However, its mod capabilities (and memory slots) are too limited to make it my desert island synth.
I love my Moog Prodigy, don't get me wrong, but since it's newer and at a similar price point, I'd look into a Sub Phatty (Subsequent 25) as it has the Moog filter (plus the drive) and 16 memories, and it has THAT sync sound as well. Owning both a Prodigy and Sub P, I would say cheaper actually has more options and gets you the same sound. The Prodigy is probably easier to repair these days if something breaks so that is something to consider.
@@VultureCulture It is very much an anomaly regarding the new Moog base analog mono synths compared to the price of a Source or Prodigy. Short of Behringer clones, most of the vintage machines are way better bargains than modern alternatives, so long as they don't have glue or battery issues. Prices are really crazy these days, and it's nice to see some things coming down in price like a 106 for example. They sound wonderful, but their prices were starting to get a bit silly IMO.
I just turned 52, and after a whole life of fantasizing about vintage synths I’m over them. I’ve come to realize that most good synths can do almost anything with some precise programming. So now I won’t buy a synth without midi or patch-memories. Because I love sound design and I want to save my work. I actually prefer modern synths now, because recreations have gotten so good that I don’t feel that the tiny differences matter to me. And I’ve never cared about the value of my synths. They’re tools. But it’s fun to watch videos for nostalgia.😁👍
Yeah most modern synths have a superset of all possible analog capabilities. I find that the Virus TI, even though it was mostly used for trance, is so powerful it can do practically anything -- additive, FM, Granular etc. Enough to keep you busy till the end of your days. What it can't do, I have virtual Oberheims and Imposcars for.
Only about 9 of the 40+ synths I covered don't have both midi and patch memories, for what it's worth. But I agree, modern synths are fantastic and can sound as good or even better in many cases. Nevertheless I have a romance for these ancient machines.
Alright! Let's continue abusing the algorithm in writing that KORG DS8 might prbly. have been worth a mention: Controllable FM, decent FX processor & the keybed, that's unfortunately exploited for many Matrix-12s because it's exactly the same. That info comes from German "Synmag"(azine).
Greetings loving your list and talking, im 1/3 through. Couple things you got wrong and lot of stuff I like! K1 is amazing, I bought it few years ago for 6pack of beers, used it quite a lot and now it is by friend being used for his lo-fi music. CS-01, you are wrong - it doesnt share anything with bigger CS synths (actually shares filter and VCA with Electone organs) and doesnt even sound much like them, but I really like it, used it for touring / performing (form factor is winner!) and its really a synth that should be made again in its original form. Poly 800 is awesome, can be found even cheaper than you are mentioning, recommended for classic synthpop sound. DW-6000, my neighbour has one. Fantastic instrument, totally underrated and can be found really affordable. Also reliable. JX-3P had one with PG200 recently (havent kept it due room and having too much stuff, but really liked it, would like to find eventually MKS-30), definitely more variable and usable than Juno-6/60 and sounding much better then 106, lot of character! Also master oscilators for tones are actually two VCO's (that use computer controlled dividers - hence DCO). Prophet 600 is better than Prophet 5, change my mind! Awesome instrument. Good choice, also very reliable after servicing. CS-15D is gorgeous (I have two of them - one I left my gf to have and use and also I serviced/repaired couple of them), unbeatable sound and just made to perform and play, sounds actually even better than 15 (of course 15 have more options). SK-20 is fantastic, I was recently repairing and refurbishing one.. They are big and heavy, but affordable for what it is. Personally I own SK-30 for many years and just keep using it and keep playing, recording etc.. You are completely wrong about the organ (I think that wrong information comes from VSE) - there is no FM at all, its classic master VCO oscilator and divide down IC + filters as used in Yamaha electone organs. Will continue watching, awesome content. All the best!
@@VultureCulture No worries! Classic humans, we are so often wrong (including myself). ;-) You are doing really awesome, keep it on! Alpha Juno is absolutely amazing, amazing workhorse. Sounds actually closer to Juno 6 than 106 and is very variable. And yeah I dont need (and not really want) oscilating filter. I had JU-2, but kept the JU-1, smaller and easier to carry to gigs and in the end has the same features (velocity / aftertouch) when controlled using midi. AX-60, actually never had it in hands. Awesome feature! Polysix! Yeah I got one. Speaker blower. Unfortunatelly bit unstable VCO design (fully discrete) and differs between various machines / revisions, but as a studio instrument its all good. (still crave Trident ;-) ). SSM filter design is fantastic. Great and really important point about battery - its a P6 killer and needs to be replaced! MG-1 hah, got one as well, gnarly and wild machine and actually quite versatile. Im using it quite a lot and my gf adores it. ;-) (btw few other synths use same CMOS digital noise, for example Mono/Poly first rev. and other Moog's etc.. people complain only when they are snobs and know about it :) ) Prodigy - never used one, looks fun! SH-2, havent used it yet. But I was serviving SH-09 quite recently and wasnt honestly really impressed by it. I guess SH-2 is lot further with dual VCO. :) Matrix 1000 is bit different than 6 and interesting trivia - tadaaaaa - Matrix 6 is actually VCO synth. It uses three discrete VCOs that then use computer controlled dividers and feed all voices (bit similar as JX-3P), thats why M6 drifts, need warm up etc.. Matrix 1000 uses "digital" quartz crystal and so all voices are phase locked and rock solid. (I would say that difference between Matrix 1000 and 6 is similar as Juno 60 and 106, both are great, but one is greater). Using it all the time, im fine to program it using panel as well, just need experience, time and mood! Definitely biggest sounding polysynth I own and ever used. I was considering DW-8000 while ago (as poor men's PPG / Synclavier), but then... K3 happened! And Ensoniq pieces, seem really amazing, but room is limited. :) K3 is really insanely versatile, used it a lot in my scoring works and for all the cases where that interesting digital/analog sound is welcomed, friend called it the most analog sounding digital instrument. And honestly.. K3 has the hugest bass and bottoms from all synths I even used. Continue tommorow ;-)
Lets go again! SH-101 I find it way too overhyped and not interesting at all for what it costs, personal opinion. Polivoks is soundwise more like a MS-20 alternative and totally more interesting than SH-101, awesome :). I have the DX7 mk1 and thing that is often not mentioned is the quality of keyboard and action, personally really like it as "highend" playable midi controller outside of the classic FM sounds. Also DX7 can be found for even lot less than 500$ currently and as long it is in reasonable shape, its nobrainer. SY77 is my friend's favourite, its fantastic! I was considering SY99, but classic size/room problems.. :) JD-800 again my size/room problems.. :D I dived into XV-3080 rack module in the end and getting pretty much exactly the sound and timbers I was looking for. Wavestation is such a vibe as well, at some point I would like to get rack version. Best vintage sampler... DSS-1, absolutely! I want it at some point, when size/room problems wont be a problems. :) And the size was totally necessary (it so crazy packed with electronics, both digital and analog..), if PS-3300 was Korg's 70's over the top flagship, the DSS-1 is same for 80's. I actually used quite many times Alpha Juno for acid things. Try it. :) K4 is highly recommended. Great machine! D-50 is legendary for a reason and agree, im bored by M1 even I fully understand the impact and usefullness for general musicians back then. Mono/Poly is fantastic and can be found cheap (under 1000$), but similary as Polysix it really needs proper servicing or it ll start being unreliable and annoying to use (drifting oscilators etc). Check out Sebastian Galassi channel to see M/P used by master, will be inspired. :) Never had Chroma in my hands, but sounds exactly as it looks. Big bright and 80s. :) You definitely made me interested. Couple things for you to look into and deep dive.. Casio synthesizers, both digital and hybrid ones (digital sounds and analog filters), Kawai and old Teisco pieces (they are ridiculously cool), Akai synths (VX-600 exists!) and Italian synths! All the best and again.. Fantastic job!
Awesome Video! I've spent "hundreds" of dollars on vintage synth plugins, because money, but if I had the $$$ I'd totally get the real synths. I do think that a budget hardware synth exists somewhere in my future.
Big difference between a crash and a correction. CS-80's shouldve never been listed for 100k, as no one ever paid that nor will they ever. Yes, its a great time to buy vintage gear at less than peak frenzy prices. Also important to note that rare modular and low-number polys like the FVS are still hot, hard to get, and appreciating.
I agree - correction is a much more accurate word for 2024. Alas, I have a flair for the drama 💃 But my goal was to communicate that this is a great buyer's market for vintage synths.
The CS80 is probably the definitive argument for virtuals. The MemoryMoon ME80 is a near perfect re-creation without the 100kg weight and thousands of dollars in maintenance at this point. It's about $40.
right at the beginning of this video, you claim the vintage market crashed in 2024 and reference 2 juno-106 sales to support this, one from last year at $4299 and one from this year at $1499. people list things for whatever they want to on the site you pulled this data from. you seem to have ignored the other data on each list shown. may 2022-march 2023: 1700 2100 1999 1900 2199 3700 4299 march 2023-may 2024: 2600 1499 2395 2495 3500 2150 if you remove the 2 sales mentioned and calculate the average 106 sale price using the remaining data shown in those images, you'll see there was actually an increase of $362, not a decrease.
@@Gerald_Daniel just pointing out that the evidence presented contradicts the claim that the vintage market crashed. it suggests the opposite. cute reply tho. :D
I don't know why you would remove those 2 sales though lol. If you average the '23 mint junos you get $2,557 and $2,440 for '24, which is a decrease of only about $100, which to your point is not a lot. Nevertheless the greater point still stands. I don't think anyone, yourself included, thinks the vintage synth market is roaring this year, and I think had I averaged out the excellent, very good and good categories that would've born that out. I didn't want to bore the viewer with Charlie Kelly levels of charts and graphs that early in the video lol. I appreciate your comment
You forgot to mention that POLYSIX is, if not the best synth in existence for the massive EBM detuned bass sounds, PERIOD - not SH-101 not MS-20 but POLYSIX.... Purchasing vintage gear is a very risky investment but, I'm a VA guy so analogue means not much to me. Cheers 🥂
It's still crazy expensive but even the CS-80 has come down lately if you can get one for $65k. In the last couple of years I've seen them going for $120-$300k (yikes!)
I have V collection and it is great. Frankly I'd rather spend the same money on Omnisphere, not exactly capturing only vintage, although there are tons of vintage synth samples in there, but it's just so much more flexible.
I watched/listed to this video a couple weeks ago and was enamored that you mentioned the Kawai K1, and saved the video to finish watching later. Now I finished watching and I'm disappointed that you didn't mention the Kawai K3 which was my 2nd synth (Juno 106 was the first, traded it for the Kawai). Now that K3 is hanging on a tree on my property to mark the entrance to my homebuilt mountainbike trail system (Keyboard Trails). It's alsobeen used at target practice with bbguns and other projectile-spitting items. Fuck Kawai. Their sounds can be replicated with damn near any good synth engine. 🤣
I have collected too many synths and I don't play that well. More a guitar guy. Have a SQ-80,, DW-8000, JP-8000, Nord Lead 2, Virus T12. Strings: VP-330A, Lambda, RS-505 And then all the new: OB-X8,, Super 6 desktop, 3rd Wave desktop, Murmux, Prophet X, Trigon, OB-6, Iridiium keyboard, M, Matriarch, Subsequent 37, Summit, Syntrix II,, Take 5, Pro 3, Prologue 8, Hydrasynth 49, System 8 and a few more. A bit much and a bit overwhelming. Hard to think about what other sounds I could be missing out of so many I have and yet to hear.. Now back to politics ...
Same things happened around 1986/7 when nobody wanted 'old' synths because they often had no MIDI and people were fooled by the boring but new sounding clinical digital machines. I picked up some amazing deals then, TR-909, 808 for leas than £250 each, and TB-303 for around £150 in min condition back then in the UK. Same as many synths, Jupiter 8 was around £1,500 late 80's and rare synths such as OSC Oscar were around $350. Greed pushed prices up, but now they are going back to where they belong, but now these are much older, parts dying, repairs and servicing expensive, and reliability concerns. Glad I made records from late 80's to early 00's and got paid, no way would I want to start over to make zero money in the digital record sales piracy rampant social media garbage world.
I would advice against the Polivoks. The electronics inside of it are very fragile and unreliable. Analogia pl (look up a RU-vid video about them from Telekom Electronic Beats TV) was a specialized refurbished of Polivoks for many years, but they gave up refurbishing Polivoks because they are so fragile. Polivoks can be difficult to fix because it has old Soviet component not easily replaceable with modern counterparts. And the keybed is apparently the most terrible keybed humankind has ever created. If anyone absolutely need a reliable Polivoks, the Polivoks Pro is a better option -- albeit expensive one.
I disagree - my synth tech Severed Machines specializes in repairing them. I believe he would say that they are very repairable if you know what you're doing, but most techs don't bother with the Russian diagrams lol
I aslo think that these synths are build to last…a lot of old equipment is very cheap now. Ive stopped biying new synths and Im into cheap old vintage gear.
