Let Me Choose Your First Synth (under $250) 

Oh wow! That’s a great tip and I had no idea! That would probably have saved me a lot of time…

thank you!!

I’m so glad you said that! You’d be surprised how controversial this was. Or maybe you wouldn’t 😂 For example somebody suggested that subtractive synthesis was old fashioned and we should all learn FM. Whilst I totally respect anyone who comments, I definitely find myself very politely disagreeing. I programme FM from scratch and it is not the first thing to learn 😂

OMG you have a Yamaha TG-33? You know that a certain famous synthpop duo used that for strings over the Emulator and their programmer was sworn to secrecy, right? I've been meaning to get one for ages! Really appreciate you watching and your comments, as ever :) Watch this space for more 80s programming builds and stories. Apologies in advance if not all videos are about synthpop but I promise they'll all be entertaining!

"I'm 55 yr old, just getting into synths, big fan of the 80s music I grew up with, and a deep diver (maybe ADHD?)” You just described me.

Oh amazing! Honestly whichever you get I would be surprised if you had buyer’s remorse - they’re both pretty amazing. Plus, assuming you buy second hand having researched the right price, you could always sell it if it doesn’t work out. Goes without saying that you can’t do that with plugins.

I know that Syntorial course and it’s great. I also love the Minibrute! It’s a really great synth and a lot of fun to play and programme.

Oh fantastic!

That’s how I feel too! They do everything from 70s electronics to ultra modern. So great…

That’s so amazing! I know it sounds crazy to avoid a synth with presets, but the advantage you get by seeing the whole patch at once is profound! Feel free to hit me up with any questions :) I’ve spent the whole day editing the next video (which is about forgotten synth bass production techniques from the 80s) and I think I’m gonna have to do it all again tomorrow. Oh well. Turns out making videos is a lot like making records - if the take isn’t good enough you can’t fix it in post. Really appreciate you watching, and the massive vote of confidence in getting the Pro-1, and of course the comment.

@@DistortThePreamp okay I do have a question. If you made some music and wanted to perform it live, would you leave you Pro-1 etc. in its studio rack and perform with phrase sampling / Ableton Live etc. Or would you bring synths and sequencer with you to the gig? So basically how would you perform live?

That’s a very interesting question. It rather depends on the situation, but here are some general rules. - Expected to re-work everything for live. At the minimum you’ll want to re-mix into four basic stereo stems, but it’s not uncommon to entirely re-programme everything just to make it work live. - in a live set I would typically consider standardising some of the fundamental elements like kick. It’s hard enough to get a good front of house sound, without the engineer finding that the kick’s change again afiter they’d got it sounding good - you need to think about what playing live means for you. Does it mean playing a part in a keyboard? Or does it mean twisting knobs while the sequencer plays the part? This question is going to be very important when you re-build as a live set. - hardware is terrible in the road. If you take a real analog synth out, you will need a plan B in case something goes wrong. Very few of the big bands use genuine hardware live any more - they just break down all the time. Speaking personally, I would use Ableton, with a carefully built live set and controller keyboards running Apple Main Stage to control synths, keyboard splits, etc etc etc. Apple Main Stage is absolutely excellent, especially its ability to manage set lists, etc. I’m not playing live at the moment, but I would no longer take racks of gear out. That’s what I used to do, and it was a huge headache. It means you have to do a lot of work in preparing a live show, but something like Ableton and Main Stage are, IMO, the way to go.

My live electronica is hardware based but quite simple . Run from an mpc, and a boss 880 drum machine alternating songs; where all drums and most basslines are sequenced and running a synth each via midi. All pads and top lines are played live on a ms2000 and a blofeld, an odyssey and a kaosalator pro. Everything has its own mutable channel on an analog desk, just a behringer, and sends go to analog delay and an eventide eclipse. I haven't toured this setup but it wouldn't be hard to make resilient. Nothing is ever the same twice but its fun making live acid by the seat of yr pants. I sometimes fail.

The limited edition boutique version of the Jupiter? Oh that’s such an interesting module. I always meant to get one but never for round to it and I wasn’t sure where I’d put it in my setup. So you got it with the mini keyboard? That sounds so awesome. Did you find the small sliders a problem? I’m guessing not…

@@DistortThePreamp Yes the boutique edition 😉. The small sliders are ok, but you sometimes have to adjust very little and carefully to find the sweet spot 🙈. The mod ribbons on the left side are the parts of the module that react poorly and hardly allow fine controlled modulations. 😊

I completely agree! Pedals play extremely well with synths! And all the Arturia stuff sounds fantastic!

So true about Behringer synths. We're living in a golden age of affordable instruments.

Absolutely. Incredible value. Stick with it!

Haha, yeah. I’ve never tried the crave but I always wondered if you could use it like a more flexible 303? In other words for mid-range repeating bass parts. The Poly D is, of course, fantastic.

Oh, that's a really interesting trick!

Best present ever! Was it a total surprise or did you request it?

@@DistortThePreamp it was a surprise 😋

@@kostisv that’s a very nice synth, and a very nice present :)

That’s a really good trick. I was literally doing this today for a weird reason - I’m making a video about bandpassed noise (all will be explained) and I wanted to see if I could use low passes noise on the Pro-1 and then run into the Model D with the filter in high pass mode. It all worked but it was pretty tricky to rig up key tracking on the cutoffs. I was using CV with stacking cables and it didn’t really work 😂I’m so glad you liked this video - it doesn’t get as much love as the others but it’s definitely an authentic presentation of how I feel. So thanks for watching. amd for commenting!

@@DistortThePreamp i love the moog mix out into the filter in 303 (if your select half way betten square and saw osc it turns off the interal 303 osc sound) i find it too hard to program the 303 so i play it on keys . only issue is theres no filter pitch trach) your noise experment sounds like its getting into eurorack land hehe I cant handle any thing more complex than an ms 20 im scare off all those patch cables . what ever your doing keep doing it . more people will come to watch and relax

Hahaha! Actually the noise solo is just noise through a band pass with keyboard tracking and a four note sequence to change the filter every bar on a four bar loop! There’s honestly zero complicated routing! All of the ‘game’ is playing the Drawmer gate controls like an instrument - so throwing it in and out of bypass, changing the hold, range etc. Super easy, but a very cool sound!

Oh Amazing! Obviously it’s a great synth but make sure you don’t overlook things like oscillator sync! The very first video I uploaded to this channel was shockingly bad - I had made it to remind myself how to make a sound and I just posted it to get over fear of upload. But it does, just about, show you how to make a hard sync sound. I *really apologise* for it not being at the standard, but it will at least show you the basics :)

@DistortThePreamp I got a basic bass patch going, a la Dare, and then checked and realised the firmware was well out of date. I patched it up and without changing any knobs, the sound changed but also improved, luckily 😆

I think this is quite an interesting idea. I think I’m still inclined to teach subtractive first, but that’s not to say I’m correct - waveyable synths are very interesting and, of course, *all over* iconic 80s recordings in the form of the PPG. You also make an interesting point about the Opsix. I love programming FM but, again, in my experience, people struggle to get their heads around the concepts. Having said that one of the wonderful things about FM is that it’s easy to get sounds that don’t particularly sound like anything you’ve heard before. Really appreciate you watching and taking the time to comment :)

@@DistortThePreamp well, Opsix isn't necessarily about FM, it's just one of its capabilities. I recently started to make a patch of synthetic percussion on it for one of my projects, made some nice sounds using noise into resonant filter but didn't use FM because I just didn't need it so far (but probably will use it for some hihat-like sounds). It's what I like about Opsix - it's a set of simple tools - filter, oscillator, FM, ring mod, filter FM - that are put into some structure making a more complex whole but it's up to you to decide what that structure is. You can just have 6 oscillators sounding in parallel, or three pairs of oscillator + filter, or filter output modulating another filter's frequency, some very classic architectures or some experimental ones. I think it's good for learning because it makes one pay attention to the architecture of audio signal path. Maybe a perfect hardware for learning would be a modular setup with small amount of very simple modules... but I guess that wouldn't be very affordable.

I’ve always thought that the ARP 2600 is the perfect learning synth. Probably in its original large scale format. I think it might even have been used as a teaching synth…

@@DistortThePreamp the 2600 is the best learning synth fitting your constraints. Except the price, about 500 € in the Behringer version. As far as I recall, it was designed with teaching in mind, but I have to look it up to confirm my statement.

It really is the best mono in my opinion and I’m sure (again, without looking it up which as we all know is cheating) that it was conceived as a teaching synth. If somebody has (a) the budget, (b) the desk space, and (c) was prepared to put in proper time, then this is surely the perfect synth to learn on. I’m still trying to figure out what the best synth to learn additive would be… it’s a much harder thing to teach I think because the timbres are less intuitive…

My ‘confession’ is that I actually bought the Model D first lol. They’re both fantastic and there is *no substitute* for dialing in a sound using your hands with knobs - you just can’t do that with a plugin. Also the Model D is always hilariously out of tune when you fire it up, and even when it’s been on drifts a little but. Plugins don’t emulate that, or the way that you tune the oscillators by ear. The Pro-1 is more of a workhorse though. Obviously you need both, plus the Wasp, Cat, Neutron, and all of them. And a barn to put them in along with a huge patchbay.

@@DistortThePreamp so much to think about lol, and yeah I already feel I NEED alot of Behringer synths lol, but I have to start somewhere... Heck... Probably the Model D and later the Pro-800 before going haywire for all :D like - I wish the Behringer DS-80 was out lol

Haha! Although, with regard to your comment about the Behringer CS-80 clone, I’ve been incredibly impressed with their UB-Xa because of its poly-aftertouch. In my view the main thing that the CS-80 had that no other synths had was its ability to control the expression of a note _after_ it had already been played through, mainly, poly aftertouch. Sure the oscillators sounded fantastic and it had lots of other features, but really it was the poly aftertouch. This is why, again IMO, I would take the Behringer UB-Xa over any genuine Oberheim at any price. I think Vangelis would love the Behringer UB-Xa…

@@DistortThePreamp actually landed on a used Behringer Pro-800 in the end, for only €380 - together with the Keystep 37 wich i already have it's a analogue 8 polyphonic synthesizer with aftertouch... Insane...

Oh that’s totally insane! And what an amazing synth the Pro-800 is! Have you installed the firmware update that makes the envelopes faster? It’s so funny that Behringer faithfully imitated the slow envelopes of the original only to have the users complain! Really the updated faster envelopes make it much more like a Prophet V in terms of its sound capabilities. I’ve banned myself from buying new gear, but the Pro-800 would be very high on my list. Possibly at the top. I always run out of polys when I’m working stuff up live, and it would be so useful. Also, they’re VCOs not DCOs but you can run a *tuning routine*, right?! And the parameters are midi addressable over cc? Just amazing. I have a rack DeepMind (which is a very underrated synth) and one of the things I do all the time is setup a long sequence playing notes and another short looping sequence sending parameter changes to, say, the VCA decay. Uli deserves some kind of medal.

Haha. I know it sounds like a joke, but I guess the point is that back then we all filled out patch sheets by hand whereas now we all take photos. So the little white lines are important 😂 God only knows how anyone would call up a Minimoog patch on a dimly lit stage though - i find the original buttons hard to read in a studio!

The choice of champions ;)

Behringer- the bully in the synth world.

Yes. Those the Model D and the Pro-1 were the first two Behringer clones I bought and they are very different in ways which are not obvious from the front panel. I'm probably guilty of not reaching enough for the Model D for non-bass sounds. Must try harder.

Around the same time (1983) I bought my first real synth, a Moog Rogue, on sale for $99 (new!) at Sam Ash. I think it checks all of these boxes, and I still have it.

@@edgeof60 Very nearly got the Rogue when it came out to compliment the Prodigy but ended up saving for an ARP Omni instead as I'd played a friend's and liked the Jean Michel Jarre Oxygene/Equinoxe sound and those 'icy' strings. The Rogue was so tempting because it has V-Triggers so can interface with Roland and ARP gear.

Ah, I live my Neutron but it does sound different. Originally I always used to patch around the overdrive and delay circuits to get a ‘purer’ sound. But your question is very interesting because it goes to the heart of why synths sound different. Sure it could be the oscillators or the filter, but it’s also the programming interface. I think I should be able to replicate Pro-1 sounds on the Neutron but blending and mixing oscillators isn’t quite the same as just turning them up. And fast switching from square to saw like you can on the Pro-1 isn’t the same on the Neutron. So the reality is that I *never* us the Neutron for bass or plucks simply because I can dial up the sounds easier on the Pro-1. What I *do* use the Neutron for is very sharp percussive sequenced sound, drones, and stuff that’s more suited to it. Also, these days, I prefer to keep the OD and delay circuits in. Couple more points: have you seen my video on Noise? That’s obv done with the Neutron because it has a resonant band pass filter. And finally, I made a fantastic Vox Humana patch using the Neutron but ‘borrowing’ LFOs from the Model D and Pro-1. I was going to make a video but became convinced it would be boring and Vox Humana ‘had been done’. Really appreciate you watching, and your comments.

Forgot to reply to your USB midi comment. Yup - Midi din all the way. I keep USB plugged up for the editor so that I can do things like change the waveform selector from continuous to stepped (because I am never gonna learn those crazy panel combinations) but I find USB midi to be very weird and unpredictable. So I only use Midi din. I’m running about 20 channels of Midi over two circuits, and one of them gets distributed through a Yamaha midi box from the 80s. I get congestion, and sometimes one of my old drum machines can’t cope and drops snares and kicks. But it’s still better. And when it comes time to track, I stop all the musical synths and just play the rhythm track into the daw. I get midi drift, nothings perfectly on the grid, and it all sounds amazing. In fact when I moved everything onto a grid it sounded like computer music. So yeah, Midi cables FTW.

Oh good grief - so embarrassing! Those are both fantastic synths. The Novation is of course great, but I also love pretty much all Arturia synths and the MiniBrute 2s is just amazing! I don’t think it’s for beginners (maybe I’m wrong?) but once people have figured out what they’re doing it’s a wonderful playground! Thanks for your comment. I really appreciate it…

@@thestonedrummer6147 The Pro-1 is mono which means it can only play one note at a time, and for pads you really need to be able to play chords. However the Pro-800 is excellent for pads (as are many others).

Quality heckling!

I don't drive, but of course I totally agree! :)

That's really kind, and an interesting comment. I'm absolutely trying to make this channel about actual production techniques used live in the wild, rather than sweeping filters on the latest synth. The Roland SH-201 must have been fun. For me controls are pretty critical, and I don't care so much about whether the oscillators are analog or modelled. The reason I don't use soft synths at the moment is only that I like dedicated controllers with zero latency. I wouldn't have a problem with using, for example, the Roland JX-08 Boutique in a production (despite what Espen Kraft says). Having said all of that, for space reasons I need everything to be racked up so no large synths for me unless/until I get a bigger studio. Really appreciate you watching, and taking the time to comment.

@@DistortThePreamp yup! i'm in, and as for now your channel isnt big yet, it's cool to have you responding and to be able to chat. in 2006, getting an analog synth, even va was still pretty expensive. I thing there are greart digital generator and great analog ones aswell, they participate intoo having a broader palett of sounds, so imo the debate about analog vs digital is not that intersting, that being said, i started with computers (amigas lol, in 98, great breakbeat live sessions in the free party scene of the south of france, so it worked, and that why i'm not a big fan of snobbism in audio), but when i was able, i got my me an mpc and then forgot about virtual computer stuff... I design and build audio gear for a (modest) living (lately worked a lot for the dub sound system scene for fx and processors). I have mooved in a bigger place lately and i will be working on a new channel ("voodoo'in audio" i think i'll name, it) and now i'm gonna have more time for making nice vids aswell, i'm planning a series on delay techniques (based on craig anderton's tremendous book on the topic). What i find inspiring in your way of doing this is it soesnt get boaring like often they get when guys share theyre techniques, it stays intertaining, i'm not a big fan of those 3 hour vids on an ableton screen, and i'm a hardware gueezer myself. All the best man, maybe later if i get that channel going we could try some cool things and experiments, i, as an electronician am planning to make easy and afordable tools for studio, mounted or in diy mode (like the tape head tranceiver to put in an echoes feedback or to give a tape style treatment), and i'm hoping i'll be able to find a few youtubers i could send some things to for them to experiment.... So please, just in case, remember that channel name, my next comment might be in that name.... and just in case you have a minute you can check myt channel to see what kind of gear i have been working on these last years....

I’ve looked at your channel and the stuff you’re building looks very interesting. I also looked up Craig Anderton’s book which I wasn’t aware of - I found a PDF and it’s sooo interesting. It’s very hard work making these videos not boring, so I’m very thankful that people like you enjoy them…

@@DistortThePreamp yeah that book is tremendous... thanks man. i was shure you'de love that book, the way you talk about your topics exploring tecniques with synths, it's the same type of approach.

Thank you!

You make interesting points. The reason why low pass is the traditional filter is because the way people typically think about subtractive synthesis is to start with a sound that's rich in harmonics and then take them away, and obviously harmonics are above the fundamental. So filter's are really about harmonics control, although of course they could also be about tone shaping. FM is a fascinating type of synthesis but very hard for people to understand, unless they just want to turn knobs and see what happens. So I tend to think that people should start by learning what the waveforms sound like, and once they can distinguish a saw from a square easily and understand why those waveforms sound different then they can move into why hard syncing one oscillator to another can change the shape of a sine wave and add harmonics, and clipping a sine turns it into a square, and so on. I think people that understand subtractive well should be able to look at a mono synth panel and known what sound it would make by reading the controls. Whereas a lot of people couldn't necessarily explain from scratch how to use FM to make a cymbal or bell, and why that sound is produced. This is not to disagree with you -- I absolutely think your point of view is legitimate! -- but personally I'm still inclined to 'teach' subtractive before FM :-) Really appreciate your comment though!

@@DistortThePreamp FM, I think, isn’t that complicated. It lacks A. people who teach it in a non-complicated way B.FM synthesisers that support that fully. For B: I’d like to have an oscilloscope, a spectrum analyser, many outputs that can be routed into those displays, showing you the waveforms you start with and you end up with(meaning show separately the frequencies of the each operator , the resulting FM output of each stack and the final result. Make it show lissajous figures, chladni figures. An XY- controller 10by10 cm to change 2 parameters at once. The subtractive synth that would support that would be Modular synths but every synth learner of any type would profit from that. At least that’s my opinion. For A. FM is believed to be complicated because the first FMsynth had an unfriendly user interface. Show what an LFO does but use a full frequency oscillator. That’s all what’s behind FM. Algorithms are just layering things in different ways and if you look with that in mind they’re easy to understand. At first just use integer ratios 1:1, 1:3, 2:1 experiment. The Opsix is a step in the right direction, but it leaves room for improvement (at least on the education side) If a subtractive user is allowed to use delay and reverb, so are you.

@@hermask815 I think you're right on both points. For B, like you say, something that would give you a visual representation would be helpful, as would having a seriously basic FM synth. Limit operators e.g. allow only 2 operators to be carriers, 2 to be modulators, and maybe re-name some of the parameters to sound less mathematical - have a knob that alters ratios without calling them that for example. FM came well after subtractive so I think to make FM understandable to more people it really needs to be explained and represented in a way that's as similar as possible to what people already know, while still somehow explaining the principles. Which are simple in nature - it's sine waves interfering with sine waves - but complex to visualise and anticipate.

Not a stupid question at all! But just to check, when you wrote ‘…midi to trigger a Monday synth…’ that was autocorrect, right? You meant to write ‘Moog’? Could you also, possibly, give me the time code of the video so I’ve got context? Appreciate you watching and your comments :)

@@DistortThePreamp thanks for the reply. Well, my question has multiple errors when I think and look back sorry. Yes, Moog Grandmother is my synth. So it has USB and midi in/out. When I look back, it was actually your Ambient Arps video that I had in mind where you say (or I understood) you created (with a live performance) and midi sequence which was then used to trigger the Model D and Pro synths to get a good comparison. So…., I guess my questions are (a) I cam make a midi sequence in Logic, but how practically do I get that to “trigger” (maybe the wrong word) the Grandmother. So far I’ve no succeeded, and (b) is the track you produced the outcome of one play through a single midi sequence, or were there multiple sequences you ran one after another to get the final audio? My question came about as I thought I was hearing layers and multiple notes from a mono synth. On reflection, maybe that was partly your point. Maybe that’s the delay cascades? Just FyI, I’m a guitar player in my 60s who is proving out the cliche as I buy my first synth and peak my head down that rabbit hole. Help me, I’m afraid I might be falling…….

No problem at all! Let me start by telling you about how I made the ambient arps music. First I created the arps by playing them live into my sequencer which recorded the midi. I was playing chords with an eight note arpeggiator running but so that I could hear an approximation of the finished effect I was playing against a kick drum and also monitoring the sound of the synth through the dotted eight delay. I needed both hands for the arps as well as a foot for the sustain pedal so I couldn't manipulated the controls on the synth as well! However, to be clear, it was a genuine single live take with no editing. From memory I set the track record length to something huge like 128 bars and just kept improvising until I could tell it was looping back Then, once the arps were recorded (note: actually only the chords were recorded since the arp is a midi effect in the sequencer) I played it back out only this time I was standing at the synth manipulating the sound. This also mean that the arp music for both synths was exactly the same notes. There's only one part and no layers, but as you guessed the combination of the cascading delays and reverb make for a very full sound. Second, let me talk about you controlling your synth from Logic. Unfortunately I'm not a Logic expert, but the principal (regardless of daw) will be this: - you create a midi track, sometimes called an instrument track - you drag the midi clip onto that track - you set the output of the midi to be your synth which should appear in a drop down list. You may have to pick the output midi channel and then make sure your Moog matches, but that's won't be hard. - it's possible that you might have to go through some pain with the Apple Midi Setup (or whatever it's called these days). My strong guess, however, is that you won't and everything will be plug and play. I'm so sorry that I don't know enough about Logic to give you step by step instructions, but I imagine that you should be able to find a clear guide on RU-vid because your use case is very common. I'm assuming you downloaded the midi clip from the ambient arps video right?

I think the Kobol is an excellent synth. I think it’s a little more complicated than either of the Model D or the Pro-1, plus because it’s not based on such a well known classic I’m not sure that it will be quite as easy to buy or sell at the right price. However, if anybody decided to choose that for their first synth then it’s a fantastic instrument!

Thanks Kurt!

Right! I honestly cannot recommend that synth highly enough. I almost sent mine back when I got it and it took me a while, but it’s well worth the time. You probably know the story - how Behringer’s Manchester synths team were working in a Juno clone but kept adding more features. So the first thing I would suggest is to ‘hobble’ your deep mind into a Juno: call up the default patch, reset the sliders, set the VCA and VCF velocity controls to zero, make sure the fx are bypassed (which btw bypasses that digital converters so it’s now a true analog signal path), and click all three envelope buttons so you, effectively only have one envelope. Then learn to make the utility synth patches. However, my experience is that not only do you learn to *love* the extra functionality, but I now even love some of the fx! But, just to emphasise, the extra functionality includes oscillator sync, pitch control etc over the second ‘oscillator’, a mental mod matrix, full midi cc over every parameter… it’s an amazing synth that just wasn’t terribly commercially successful. Also, don’t worry about the inbuilt patches being a bit ‘dreadful’ - that’s an occupational hazard of pretty much all synths. House patches are meant to show off the synth and sound as gaudy as possible. They rarely work well in a mix. Final tip: to get the Juno chorus sound, use the ‘Chorus’ effect (not Dim D or whatever they call it), put it in Send mode, and change the mod speed to 0.4. That sounds pretty close to me, and easily close enough for a mix. I could go on, but I fear my gushing would bore you 😂 If anything I’ve said above doesn’t make sense, let me know and I’ll make 3 min private video.

@@DistortThePreamp normally when I get a synth the first thing I do is blank out all the patches, but the cat I bought it from had a really cool aftermarket pack loaded. There's a way to get it to more in-line with the juno-60 over the 106 as well, but I absolutely understand what you mean. But yeah it can sound absolutely amazing for ambient type music and some other genres For my own sound design so far I feel like I get more prophet-5 sounding patches then Juno patches though that just might be me. I also found a great video on converting it to a sort of pseudo additive synth with using the well done filter calibration and the KBD tracking. I would say where i've been least impressed has been with low-end bassy type sounds, I've been able to get it to "servicable" but nothing great so I'm considering something to fill in that end. Hence how I ended up here :D

Ah - well this video is really about ‘performing ratter than programming’ synth bass, so it’s a production technique rather than sound selection. To get the biggest bass out of the DM12 I would definitely use the Bass Boost button (which mimics one of the Juno’s sonic characteristics) but if at the end of the day it’s Prophet bass you’re looking for, you could of course consider selling the DM12 and buying the Pro-800, unless you need a keybed? You could probably do that trade at a profit. I don’t generally use the DM for bass, although to be fair I didn’t use the Juno for bass either back in the day, or even the Prophet. Apart from some FM bass I’ve always used mono synths. I’m not sure there’s a sonic reason - probably just that I didn’t want to tie up a poly with a mono bass line (even though sometimes you want the bass notes to ring slightly).

@@DistortThePreamp yeah that's what im saying, i'm trying to figure out a good mono to pair with it. I have a microfreak i've had for about a year now and it just doesn't do it either haha. I'll find the right one eventually though :D

For mono synths I would suggest either the Model D or Pro-1. They’re both amazing, but maybe the Model D? Have you seen my Ambient Arps video? That showcases both pretty well (as does the Plucks video)…

The Pro-800 is *such* a great synth! The only reason I didn’t recommend it for beginners is that, because of the presets, you can’t visually match the knob positions to the sound you’re hearing which I don’t think is great when you’re learning. I suppose, ironically, I would prefer it *not* to have presets for beginners because, for me, a beginner’s synth should be a tutorial tool rather than the most features for the lowest price. However, I’m aware that a lot of people would disagree with that point of view and, certainly, it’s a more flexible synth. And it’s also a little more expensive. Really appreciate you watching and taking the time to comment :)

@@DistortThePreamp There is the perf button, which causes the synth to take all of its instructions from the panel rather than any preset data, effectively making it 'preset-less'. Beginners might not pick up on this distinction, however, and just get confused. Seems like presetless, knob per function is the way to go for a first synth. I like the idea of 'earning your patches'

‘Earning your patches’ is a great way of summing it up 😂 I was starting to feel a little silly when, in my earlier reply, I realised that I was effectively saying that patches weren’t a good idea for beginners! But I do think it’s true…

Will do! I use the Neutron a lot and it’s a bit difficult to know where to start! It’s really quite deep, especially when you wire it in to other systems. I was going to do a video where I showed how to make the Vox Humana patch using the Neutron but borrowing two LFOs and attenuators from other synths. The patch sounded *amazing*! However I sort of concluded that vox humana had ‘been done’ on RU-vid and people wouldn’t find it interesting. Do you agree? Let me know if you have any topics you’d particularly like me to cover on the Neutron! Really appreciate you watching, and the comment :)

@@DistortThePreamp Awesome. For me the most confusing part nowadays is the internal ("invisible") routing that I just keep forgetting after a month or two of not touching my Neutron..lol, its like a constant source of wonder for me. (like: ASSIGN->ATT1 CV and both attenuators when unpatched..). That being said, I plan to keep it as a cheap but feature packed Eurorack utility module (LFOs, ATTs, slew, sum, etc. - thats unbeatable).. :)

I completely agree. I can never remember which envelope is which! I got one of those overlays but then never got round to putting it on. The thing that surprises me most about the Neutron is how much I like its overdrive and delay. When I first got it I rolled my eyes and patched around them. Now I see the overdrive as a critical piece of tone shaping, and the delay sounds very nice without being overly prominent. And I totally agree that it’s an unbeatable feature set at the price!

Yeah, the Neutron is great and it is original as the Deepmind (to calm Beringer hate), why did it not win your vote?

This is absolutely on my list! I seem to be spending all my time making RU-vid videos at the moment, but when I get back to, y’know, working and producing… 😂

@@DistortThePreamp It does incredible harmonically rich bass , the filter is the incredible and capable of outstandingly fast switching for Techno. The Bespoke chip design was also overseen by the guy Rob Keeble (AMS Synths).

This is true 😳

Who you see is where you go.

I am so sorry about this! The channel is very new and I did not have the audio sorted out on these early videos. I believe the problem has now been fixed. Would you mind checking the latest video -- is the audio okay there? I really appreciate this comment btw.

If you were to buy one and only one synth, and had the space, I would consider the Behringer UB-Xa (currently £999). On the face of it it’s a very good clone of the Oberheim classic with some very nice twists. It’s a genuine analog poly with 16 voices, it’s bi-timbral so you can use it to play two different sounds at the same time (for example, you could split the keyboard), but here’s the truly amazing thing: it’s has polyphonic aftertouch. This means that you can play a chord and then just choose to bring out one of the notes by pressing. This alone makes it an extraordinary piece of equipment. Poly aftertouch is absolutely critical to get close to the kind of moody atmospheric music that, say, Vangelis made for Bladrunner and although he used a CS-80, the reason he chose that synth was not really the sound of the oscillators (although they’re great) it was the way he could isolate and manipulate the sound of a single note from within a chord. I really rave about this synth. I would take it any day over the original Oberheim even if the Oberheim were cheaper (and it’s nowhere near cheaper). So if you get that you’ve still got a grand left over to get a lava lamp and a load of chocolate.

@@DistortThePreamp personally, I’d go for one of these.. GS Music E7, Arturia Polybrute, Novation Summit, Oberheim TEO5

I like the Oberheim. I *love* the Polybrute, but I find it has a bit of a 'sound' so it isn't quite as flexible. Also, unfortunately, it might be a bit harder to sell (if you ever need to). All great choices though :)

Exactly - chords are cheating! I actually started production on a video called ‘Chords Don’t Exist’ but I think it’s too theoretical a subject. Although, FWIW, it’s only in the last couple of hundred years that we have been thinking of music in vertical chunks. Prior to that it was considered to be horizontal lines interweaving. Fascinating but, as I said, probably too theoretical.