How to Choose Your First Synth 

Tell me how you use them together please and do you play the keys??

And now with the release of the Minifreak you basically have a Microfreak with actual keys for those who don't like the capacitive keys of the original Microfreak. Even though you cannot play tempered keys as expressive like the capacitive keys on the Microfreak, which is the biggest reason why i got the Microfreak originally.

Honesty If some one is brand new to music production I'd advise they use Reason plus for $20 a month or buy a old version like Reason 4 for $50. It's got very realistic Synths on there and has realism and patch cabling. I love Reason.

You should totally get it as a first! As someone who got a MicroFreak as their first hardware synth, I can say it is well worth the money spent, and goes toe-to-toe with some of the synths a couple hundred dollars above the MicroFreaks price!

You should totally get it as a first! As someone who got a MicroFreak as their first hardware synth, I can say it is well worth the money spent, and goes toe-to-toe with some of the synths a couple hundred dollars above the MicroFreaks price!

small audio interface, cheap daw, cheap mic and microfreak to start out using the built in effects of the daw. maybe add a cheap multieffect pedal (stereo) and a behringer model D/ crave or some other cheap analog monosynth for some creamy analog goodness and you can cover a lot sonicly;). I´d say adding a cheap 49+ fullsize keyboard controller with some pads (one that comes with a version of daw) would not be a bad idea.

and the weird "keyboard" definitely not something I would call beginner friendly either.

Yeah the Behringer synths are really good, the Model D just sounds so good, excellent build too. Pro1 is also great, maybe not quite as classic, and the mod sliders are a bit wobbly. I would'nt mind a Deepmind either, its a phat sounding DCO poly that is Juno-ish and waay more!

Thank you 🙏

Yeah it's one of my favorites. It often sounds pretty rough around the edges, but it's really fun and powerful

I dig this approach! Definitely something I want to dive into myself at some point.

I might look into this. I have the Launchkey mini Mk3, and it already has TRS A MIDI out so I wouldn't need any adapters...

^^noob... why even ever turn off the computer:) no seriously. standalone/ hardware sounds nice until you realize that it can open another can of worms... Cables, sync issues between all the gear, storing patches and settings for whatever piece of music you are creating... and yeah all that will apply unless you only use a single synth plugged into some stereo system which we all know will most likely not be able to make a complete track without some major compromises..

Me too, i used to fiddle with my midi keyboard, now i own a digitone , i make my tracks on it then add on other instruments on my daw.

Haha fair enough

haha yes, that is an acquired taste if I´ve ever seen one. I´d say the RD-9 drum machine comes really close to the Nostromo spaceship interior design;)

As an example of a relatively small but nice setup, my personal setup is: - Groovebox / DAW: Akai Force - Headphones and speakers - A cheap mic - MIDI keyboard: Arturia KeyStep (but the newer "37" model would be better) - Sequential Pro 3 - A cheap mixer All I really need is the Force, headphones, a mic, and a midi keyboard. I use the mic to do extremely rough sketches of songs, humming parts in real-time so I can capture ideas quickly before they evaporate. Then I sequence what I hummed, add layers, and arrange the parts into a song. The Pro 3 is a nice extra, for making more interesting sounds, faster, with more hands-on control. It can do crazy stuff, and great sounds basically just fall out of it at the slightest provocation. It's also nice having two keyboards so I can noodle with a bass and a lead part at the same time. But it's definitely a luxury, not a necessity. The mixer is just so I can connect more than one thing at a time to the Force, and easily monitor and adjust levels.

I think if someone has some familiarity with wavetable synth plugins with lots of modulation options (Serum, Vital, etc), they won't have too much trouble diving into the MicroFreak. And for people newer, they should be able to ease into it with just the virtual analog engine and filter, then work their way into more and more complexity. But it's definitely not for everyone, there are plenty of people who don't click with the interface or the sound. But it's pretty competitive in terms of its price to features ratio.

@@GabeMillerMusic Maybe one day I'll learn my way around it since everyone seems to think it's so awesome. I kinda wish I'd waited and got an Uno Pro instead since I really like my little Uno Synth aside from the very limited interface.

@@EnochDark It's Ok Enoch-What I would say is dust of the MicroF and update it's firmware/ patches. I personally am befuddled by programming it's matrix, etc. But the first patch out of even the stock install, play along to Dark Side of the Moon. There are only two knobs that lead to joy-the analog Filter knobs-Cutoff and Resonance. They are hilarious through all of the myriad patches, but that is the brass tacks to maybe hope you can enjoy it. There is a third joy interface, the weird expression strip on the upper right of the capacitive keyboard. It is hilarious because it's function changes depending on whatever weird patch you dial to. And That's it. Treat it like it's a m alfunctioning old analog synth- and use it as relish to supplement Synths that you are already familiar with. I hope this helps you and others as well. Peace! :-)

Tbh I just use it as a prop for videos because I like the clean color pallette, I haven't actually learned to solve it yet. One of these days...

@@GabeMillerMusic Never too late! I just picked it up in my 40's. You could do it... it's quite the party trick.

must be nice to have that drop 8 hundo on a FIRST synth money...

Yeah I tried to stick to budget options for that reason. The Wavestate looks dope but people dipping their toes into this world probably can't/won't drop that much on their first go.

@@GabeMillerMusic you are correct!! So get the korg volca Drum.

@@EnochDark it all depends on perspective. I have seen some kiddos who did get into synths with these atrocious little mini-synths (not talking about the synths mentioned in the video) for a couple of hundred and they had a really really bad time. at some point there might come the realization that all those glorious youtube product placements are not showing you the "real deal" and you are left with a one-trick pony that is hard to use, has no built-in effects, and does not do anything noteworthy on its own, at least not in the context of making music... it does not necessarily mean you have to spend a big amount of money but you have to take a look at what makes sense and what can offer you enough versatility and playability for the money and not become obsolete once you get your hands on "better"/ more expensive gear. Trying to get your hands on a good "keyboard" with at least 49keys (used keyboards with midi or dedicated midi controllers), a small audio interface, and a cheap or free DAW, with some free VSTs will open up your world enough musically to be able to determine at some point what else you would want out of hardware, and you can then gradually ad to your collection whatever sounds or workflows you want (hardware or software). Going cheap can just bite you in the ass and I am not particularly talking about the synths mentioned in this video... But there are so many little synths that look so good in a video but will offer almost nothing on their own.

@@philxdev I guess but that didn't stop me from playing my cheap guitars...

Funny enough, I did actually take a stab at making exactly that, with a focus not on how the synths work, but instead how they might fit into someone's workflow. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Jp4TRK1RqAk.html