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I was looking at these M-Audio Synths and wondered why they have dropped to such a cheap price?

This guy states a few 'might be' problems but on the whole it sounds good..
[youtube][/youtube]

I have no first hand experience and I assume you and I have read much of the same things concerning software stability, especially with user patches where the programmed values drift sporadically during performance or save wrong. This pretty worrying ONLY if you're considering one of these for live purposes, IMHO. In the studio, as long as frequent MIDI dumps are made, these problems would add up to little more than a few minutes of lost productivity and minor annoyances, which is NOTHING if you consider how cheap these are and how good they sound.

EDIT: Apparently there are also manufacturing issues with the case and the keys apparently "feeling cheap". Again, not something I would worry about too much if the thing never left my house.

Thanks for the input.
It would be for home use, but I do intend to incorporate it into live use eventually, albeit in a laymans way. Damn tempting, considering other gear in this price range. Korg Monotribes aren't much cheaper.

are you looking at the cost on thomann as they seemed to drop the price to about £170. They are very good synths by all accounts & I was tempted to buy one, in fact if the price of dropped when I bought the R3 I would of got it in a snap. From what I can tell the price drop is due to the parent company breaking the sub companies apart and also its to do with distribution in Europe. Thomann was the first to drop and the UK sites had to drop as a response.

One other thing to be aware of is that you have to do a lot of editing on the computer for the patches.

I think you would like it a lot, for the price its a steal and like you said a monotribe which doesn't have midi isn't much cheaper.

edit: I think Viljami bought one after seeing the price and asking questions.

edit: fran what do you intend on doing with it anyway? there might be something better to use for home use. saying that, most midi controllers are more expensive than this

lorez wrote:edit: fran what do you intend on doing with it anyway? there might be something better to use for home use. saying that, most midi controllers are more expensive than this

In the past I've tried to incorporate Synth into a couple of bands, just hands on stuff- a few chords or monophonic lines etc. That was with a Microkorg and a Yamaha CS 30.
But this time I'd like to actually get into using a sequencer and compose an whole piece of music with drums etc. Maybe with a view to take it out live.

The computer editing side of this Synth does put me off a bit, but I suppose its unavoidable with what I want to try and do?
We already have a midi keyboard so alternatively I was wondering about some analog modelling stuff for that, but then, would I need a separate sequencer and drum machine? I know I could possibly get all this stuff in the form of software but I dont want to be relying on everything being on the Laptop.

God knows, I'm a bit new to a lot of this stuff

Made the mistake of watching this the other day, and if I hadn't just bought the SG, I'd be getting my name on a waiting list...

[youtube][/youtube]

benecol wrote:Made the mistake of watching this the other day, and if I hadn't just bought the SG, I'd be getting my name on a waiting list...

[youtube][/youtube]

thats on my shopping list, seems amazing for the price

Fran wrote:

lorez wrote:edit: fran what do you intend on doing with it anyway? there might be something better to use for home use. saying that, most midi controllers are more expensive than this

In the past I've tried to incorporate Synth into a couple of bands, just hands on stuff- a few chords or monophonic lines etc. That was with a Microkorg and a Yamaha CS 30.
But this time I'd like to actually get into using a sequencer and compose an whole piece of music with drums etc. Maybe with a view to take it out live.

The computer editing side of this Synth does put me off a bit, but I suppose its unavoidable with what I want to try and do?
We already have a midi keyboard so alternatively I was wondering about some analog modelling stuff for that, but then, would I need a separate sequencer and drum machine? I know I could possibly get all this stuff in the form of software but I dont want to be relying on everything being on the Laptop.

God knows, I'm a bit new to a lot of this stuff

i've been considering selling the R3 as I've been using ableton live and the laptop more than anything. Ableton is perfect for what you want to do, especially in a live situation and you can use a number of midi triggers to set things off.

If you want a sequencer/drums/synth set up then maybe a groovebox like one of the korg electribes might be perfect if you want to keep this all hardware based.

THANKS FOR REMINDING ME.
Welcome back to the endless battle: Buy the Minibrute, or continue saving for a Voyager?

lorez wrote:If you want a sequencer/drums/synth set up then maybe a groovebox like one of the korg electribes might be perfect if you want to keep this all hardware based.

Looked at the Electribes numerous times, they look impressive. Can I connect the Midi Controller to an Electribe for the Synth section?

Fran wrote:

lorez wrote:If you want a sequencer/drums/synth set up then maybe a groovebox like one of the korg electribes might be perfect if you want to keep this all hardware based.

Looked at the Electribes numerous times, they look impressive. Can I connect the Midi Controller to an Electribe for the Synth section?

some of them you can, it might be worth taking a look as there are a lot of variaties about. this might help

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpbb2/ ... 31c67905e1

but if you have computer & midi controller take a look at the free trial of ableton live as well

lorez wrote:

Fran wrote:

lorez wrote:If you want a sequencer/drums/synth set up then maybe a groovebox like one of the korg electribes might be perfect if you want to keep this all hardware based.

Looked at the Electribes numerous times, they look impressive. Can I connect the Midi Controller to an Electribe for the Synth section?

some of them you can, it might be worth taking a look as there are a lot of variaties about. this might help

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpbb2/ ... 31c67905e1

but if you have computer & midi controller take a look at the free trial of ableton live as well

Thanks Chris.

You might want to take a gander at old VA synths, too.

Some of them offer a much more tactile approach to programming (by way of knobs and sliders and whatnot)
This also makes them better suited for performance applications. I often see Korg MS2000s, Roland JP8000s and Yamaha AN1Xs go below $500 on ebay.

I can vouch for the JP8000 as having one of the best interface for introductory synth programming. Everything is layed out in a way that really helps to understand the destinations of stuff. It also has a pretty unique sounding engine.

laterallateral wrote:You might want to take a gander at old VA synths, too.

Some of them offer a much more tactile approach to programming (by way of knobs and sliders and whatnot)
This also makes them better suited for performance applications. I often see Korg MS2000s, Roland JP8000s and Yamaha AN1Xs go below $500 on ebay.

I can vouch for the JP8000 as having one of the best interface for introductory synth programming. Everything is layed out in a way that really helps to understand the destinations of stuff. It also has a pretty unique sounding engine.

Unfortunately in the UK, like guitars, normally work out at a £ for a $ even second hand.

I was also going to suggest taking a gander at the Roland sh201. On a good day you can find them for less than £250

laterallateral wrote:You might want to take a gander at old VA synths, too.

Some of them offer a much more tactile approach to programming (by way of knobs and sliders and whatnot)
This also makes them better suited for performance applications. I often see Korg MS2000s, Roland JP8000s and Yamaha AN1Xs go below $500 on ebay.

I can vouch for the JP8000 as having one of the best interface for introductory synth programming. Everything is layed out in a way that really helps to understand the destinations of stuff. It also has a pretty unique sounding engine.

yeah definitely look at the old VA synths. nord lead, JP-8000, MS2000, AN1x, Alesis Ion. the only thing really comparable to them are old analog polysynths which are ten times the price, have less polyphony, aren't multi-timbral, and might not have MIDI.

monophonic synths (analog or VA) are great but they are a different beast. I think of them more like guitars. they are more of a single purpose instrument. for the sequencing sort of stuff you are talking about, the above synths are the kind of thing I would recomend.

other stuff

microkorg, alesis micron - same VA engine as MS2000 and alesis ion but with less hands on controls. around $200 used.


Yamaha DX27, DX21, DX11, DX9
Roland alpha juno, alpha juno 2
Kawai K1, K3, K4
Korg Poly-800
Casio CZ-101, CZ-1000, CZ-3000


these can all be found for very little money. you can make new sounds on these but it is a bit of work. however they are a cheap source of polyphony for sequencing stuff via MIDI. specifically Yamaha DX27 or 21, Casio CZ-101 or 1000 are very easy to find, have a classic sound and are often less than $100.

Korg DW-6000, DW-8000, Poly61 are also good. can be a little more than the former. sometimes you can find a Roland Juno 106 for a cheap price. Roland JX-3P and JX-8P you definitely can.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Novation-Supern ... 2439726%26

This could still go for pretty low. I mean, probably not but who knows?

Other ones to look out for are Waldorf Q and Microwave XTK and the Access stuff, though they generally fetch a fair penny. You never know, though...

Thanks for all the info.
I checked the Roland SH 201 out, impressed with the layout and sounds.
Not bothered about another Microkorg because of the size of the keys, even though that may sound daft at this n00b stage. Stuff like Juno's and Nord are going out of my budget, but its interesting looking at this stuff.

laterallateral wrote:http://www.ebay.com/itm/Novation-Supern ... 2439726%26

This could still go for pretty low. I mean, probably not but who knows?

I looked at some Novation stuff earlier.
To be honest, my limit is around £200, I know it isn't much and that is why the M-Audio caught my eye.

micron has full size keys. also consider that microkorg is so small you can just plug a MIDI controller keyboard into it if you need big keys. and then, cool thing about microkorg is the awesome arpeggiator which only really requires microkeys.