Synth fundamental class

Fuengi

I've watched about half a dozen review videos today on Synths and still none the wiser. They all seem to consist of one or two men talking about filters while twiddling knobs, occasionally some awful noise will occur but there is no explanation what it was or where it was coming from.

Can anyone help me with the following basic info;

1. Is there a synth with a sequencer that has some decent drum / keys / brass / bass sounds built in.

2. My strong preference would be never to connect it to a PC so I'd need to play it through an amp with a full range speaker. 

3. I would prefer pads to keys, but keys and pad combo would be ideal. 

Cheers! 

horse

Roland mc101?

octatonic

Check out the AKAI MPC Live.

Funkfingers

Wiz for the AKAI. Pro kit.

Some of the older Roland MC-n0n boxes are chock full of usable sounds but the sequencer section may not be immediately intuitive to use. 

Difficult to make meaningful suggestions with no reference to budget. 

Check out some of the new gear day Discussions started by GavRichList for all manner of interesting equipment. 

Fuengi

Funkfingers said:

Wiz for the AKAI. Pro kit.

Some of the older Roland MC-n0n boxes are chock full of usable sounds but the sequencer section may not be immediately intuitive to use. 

Difficult to make meaningful suggestions with no reference to budget. 

Check out some of the new gear day Discussions started by GavRichList for all manner of interesting equipment. 

Sub £500 budget. 

Fuengi

horse said:

Roland mc101?

Looks a good bet.

Keefy

This might help: How To Make A Noise

Funkfingers

I have a semi-redundant copy of this Rob Papen instructional book/DVD.



https://www.robpapen.com/dvd-sound-design.html

https://www.robpapen.com/book-dvds-user-comments.html

Fuengi said:

men, talking about filters while twiddling knobs. Occasionally some awful noise will occur but there is no explanation what it was or where it was coming from.

Sample those noises first. Ask questions later. You will be making your own drum sounds.

paulmapp8306

The OP needs to define more what he wants - particularly from "built in sounds".

On a very basic level, a traditional synth "synthasises" a sound from 1, 2 or 3 base waveforms - most commonly sine, triangle/saw and square/pulse which are passed through variable filters to shape the tone.   They dont go traditional "brass, bass, drum" sounds really - its electronica.   They can get brass like, string like and drum like sounds but thats about it.

Things moved on the Frequency Modulation (FM)_ where one waveform controls what another does (DX7) which provided better bell and piano type tones - again brass/drums/bass were very electronic forms.  There was also wavetable synths that used several waveform samples and swept through them to provide a more moving sound.

next up was sample and synthesis (Korg M1) that used a sample of a waveform (sometimes real instruments) to provide (usually) the initial tone and then used synthesis to generate the rest of the note (trails/decays normally).  As these used real instrument samples (though basic ones) they got a lot closer to real brass/drum/bass sounds. 

Finally are the modern Romplers - that hold a ton of waveforms in ROM chips (hence the name) and played them back - not really a synth as the early ones didnt really synthesis anything - they just played samples back - but for real instruments its a lot closer.  This is what most modern keyboards (that arnt true synths) do.

Very basic - but basically what happened.

If the OP wants electronica sounds, then yes he wants a true synth (or FM or wavetable or mix) - but most will have a few sounds programmed and maybe not what he wants, and fewer still have sequencers (you can add a hardware sequencer to do that if you wish).    If he wants more natural drums, brass.bass etc he needs a modern keyboard or workstation - most of which have onboard sequencers to some degree or another - however I dont know any that use pads rather than keys.

Once we nail down the sounds hes looking for with his wanted presets (maybe some song examples) wed have a better chance of giving him options.

danishbacon

@paulmapp8306 wis'd for a very well synthesised rundown

Fuengi

paulmapp8306 said:

The OP needs to define more what he wants - particularly from "built in sounds".

On a very basic level, a traditional synth "synthasises" a sound from 1, 2 or 3 base waveforms - most commonly sine, triangle/saw and square/pulse which are passed through variable filters to shape the tone.   They dont go traditional "brass, bass, drum" sounds really - its electronica.   They can get brass like, string like and drum like sounds but thats about it.

Things moved on the Frequency Modulation (FM)_ where one waveform controls what another does (DX7) which provided better bell and piano type tones - again brass/drums/bass were very electronic forms.  There was also wavetable synths that used several waveform samples and swept through them to provide a more moving sound.

next up was sample and synthesis (Korg M1) that used a sample of a waveform (sometimes real instruments) to provide (usually) the initial tone and then used synthesis to generate the rest of the note (trails/decays normally).  As these used real instrument samples (though basic ones) they got a lot closer to real brass/drum/bass sounds. 

Finally are the modern Romplers - that hold a ton of waveforms in ROM chips (hence the name) and played them back - not really a synth as the early ones didnt really synthesis anything - they just played samples back - but for real instruments its a lot closer.  This is what most modern keyboards (that arnt true synths) do.

Very basic - but basically what happened.

If the OP wants electronica sounds, then yes he wants a true synth (or FM or wavetable or mix) - but most will have a few sounds programmed and maybe not what he wants, and fewer still have sequencers (you can add a hardware sequencer to do that if you wish).    If he wants more natural drums, brass.bass etc he needs a modern keyboard or workstation - most of which have onboard sequencers to some degree or another - however I dont know any that use pads rather than keys.

Once we nail down the sounds hes looking for with his wanted presets (maybe some song examples) wed have a better chance of giving him options.

You're correct, I don't think I need a Synth, probably just a half decent keyboard with a selection of voices.

Strangefan

Fuengi said:

paulmapp8306 said:

The OP needs to define more what he wants - particularly from "built in sounds".

On a very basic level, a traditional synth "synthasises" a sound from 1, 2 or 3 base waveforms - most commonly sine, triangle/saw and square/pulse which are passed through variable filters to shape the tone.   They dont go traditional "brass, bass, drum" sounds really - its electronica.   They can get brass like, string like and drum like sounds but thats about it.

Things moved on the Frequency Modulation (FM)_ where one waveform controls what another does (DX7) which provided better bell and piano type tones - again brass/drums/bass were very electronic forms.  There was also wavetable synths that used several waveform samples and swept through them to provide a more moving sound.

next up was sample and synthesis (Korg M1) that used a sample of a waveform (sometimes real instruments) to provide (usually) the initial tone and then used synthesis to generate the rest of the note (trails/decays normally).  As these used real instrument samples (though basic ones) they got a lot closer to real brass/drum/bass sounds. 

Finally are the modern Romplers - that hold a ton of waveforms in ROM chips (hence the name) and played them back - not really a synth as the early ones didnt really synthesis anything - they just played samples back - but for real instruments its a lot closer.  This is what most modern keyboards (that arnt true synths) do.

Very basic - but basically what happened.

If the OP wants electronica sounds, then yes he wants a true synth (or FM or wavetable or mix) - but most will have a few sounds programmed and maybe not what he wants, and fewer still have sequencers (you can add a hardware sequencer to do that if you wish).    If he wants more natural drums, brass.bass etc he needs a modern keyboard or workstation - most of which have onboard sequencers to some degree or another - however I dont know any that use pads rather than keys.

Once we nail down the sounds hes looking for with his wanted presets (maybe some song examples) wed have a better chance of giving him options.

You're correct, I don't think I need a Synth, probably just a half decent keyboard with a selection of voices.

Sounds like you need one of the high end yamaha prs keyboards, howveer you could do alot worse than getting a synth and creating your own sounds just make sure it's got some presets you like... Maybe the smaller  roland jdxi or an mpc live touch, 

paulmapp8306

budget of £500, Id suggest (for a new keyboard rather than used) a Roland Juno DS61 for £509.  Its a keyboard (not a bad thing) has a tone of nice sounds (including all the ones you want).

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/roland-juno-ds61-synth

Alternatively, you could look at the Roland JD-Xi  its 3 octaves and has Mini keys - But its more synth based (if thats what you want to get into) and also has some of the stock sounds that would probably suit.

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/roland-juno-ds61-synth

As always check them out in person as one may suit your needs much more than the other once you see/try them.

You could also look at the Korg Kross 2 - a little more but still sub £600.  Similar to Rolands Juno - possibly not as nice a keybed but a slightly more capable engine (not that the DS is bad by any means).

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/korg-kross2-synth-61-keys-matt-black

Not sure Yamaha does anything quite that low in budget, though theres always used.  Used opens up a lot of possibilities.  Any of Rolands FA/Fantom S/X/, JV or CP boards - Korgs Trinity/Triton/Karma (all 1990s boards but will probably do what the OP wants well enough) - though trying before you buy and comparing isnt always easy there.

Id seriously go look a the Juno DS.  Bang on budget, nice little workstation - has sequencer, and enough keys to learn on.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7phR0ZHr2g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owWzJVh2ink