Recommend me some synths

[bcass]

I played around with a friends MicroKorg a few years ago and found the interface to be very fiddly. It would be so much better if there was a model with more knobs on it. It's surprisingly capable, sound-wise, though.

[RiK]

I played around with a friends MicroKorg a few years ago and found the interface to be very fiddly. It would be so much better if there was a model with more knobs on it. It's surprisingly capable, sound-wise, though.

The Microkorg XL is the same synth engine as the R3 (which I had for a while), which is a cut-down version of the MS2000 (which I had BITD) and subsequently the Radias (which I own now..).



Plenty of knobs on there..!

[bcass]

Nice. Just looked up the MS2000. That's also a tasty looking piece of kit. Ridiculous that they can be bought so cheaply 2nd hand (around £300). The Minilogue cropped up quite a bit when I was on the lookout for a new synth. Amazing little analogue device for the money.

[RiK]

Nice. Just looked up the MS2000. That's also a tasty looking piece of kit. Ridiculous that they can be bought so cheaply 2nd hand (around £300).

Yeah it's great, though the keyboard version was unnecessarily large.

The Radias is an absolute beast compared to the MS2000, an evolution of the same sound engine (you can actually load MS2000 sounds into the Radias with very minimal tweaks) but it's more like having four MS2000's in one box, with 24 voices instead of 4, plus multiple sequencers, drums and effects. Every program is basically a four-part combo which can be split/layered in all kinds of interesting ways, and you can run two separate step sequencers and an arpeggiator in parallel and still leave room to play on top.

It's basically Tangerine Dream in a box.

Never selling mine!

[RiK]

The Minilogue cropped up quite a bit when I was on the lookout for a new synth. Amazing little analogue device for the money.

Indeed, though that's it's little monophonic brother the Monologue in the pic. Made to measure on the Radias' laptop shelf though eh?

[RiK]

This is a super-simple demo, but it's actually the video that tipped me over the edge to buy a Radias.



Same guy, also Radias (he's just controlling it from another keyboard)


Pure Radias, only using the internal effects + a bit of compression in the DAW when recording.

A bunch of other random Radias vids in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... rE12IjFoeY

[bcass]

Those pads are very nice. I hadn't come across the Radias before. Would you class it as the best VA of its era? How would you say it stacked up against something like the Virus TI2?

[RiK]

Tough call, on paper the Virus is the more powerful machine and don’t get me wrong I still have one on my someday/maybe shopping list, but for me the immediacy of the Radias and it’s program structure with the step sequences, modulation sequencing, arpeggiator, PCM drum sounds etc. make for an immensely powerful and satisfying machine. I’m really glad I got mine, and let’s not forget you could pick up two of them for the typical cost of the Virus TI2...

[gravy]

Depends what you want to use it for; if it's live jamming you might find the Radias' limited multitimbrality an issue.

The Vi2 has motion sequencing and arpeggiating but for those functions, the interface is a little menu-divey. The VST plugin is pretty good for setting that stuff up.

[RiK]

Depends what you want to use it for; if it's live jamming you might find the Radias' limited multitimbrality an issue

Surely you've got that the wring way round?

You'd want multi-timbral for sequencer use, and in that respect the Virus wins hands-down. It's probably just about the ultimate hardware synth of it's era for computer integration, after all it's the whole USP of the 'TI' bit, but for live jams I want immediate playability. The program setup of the Radias is perfectly suited to *playing* it live, with the keyboard splits / four part programs with he integrated sequencer structure it's brilliant for live jams.

[Deckard]

I had a Virus....once......it was amazing..that and the Pro-One should never have been sold - sad days.

[gravy]

Depends what you want to use it for; if it's live jamming you might find the Radias' limited multitimbrality an issue

Surely you've got that the wring way round?

You'd want multi-timbral for sequencer use, and in that respect the Virus wins hands-down. It's probably just about the ultimate hardware synth of it's era for computer integration, after all it's the whole USP of the 'TI' bit, but for live jams I want immediate playability. The program setup of the Radias is perfectly suited to *playing* it live, with the keyboard splits / four part programs with he integrated sequencer structure it's brilliant for live jams.

It depends what you're doing and how you're doing it. I use the midi sequencer on my Octatrack or pyramid to drive some kit. I can play some stuff live on the Virus but also have accompanying sequenced tracks for backing. It even does really great analog style drum noises. I used the blofeld the same way.

The virus is pretty immediately playable but needs some prep; picking your patches, sequencing, doing any keyboard splits you'd want but that's pretty much like any synth. Luckily you can save that setup on the machine or through the computer integration. I don't use it much though and set up patches or multi-part scenes using the interface on the front. It's pretty similar to the Radias where they've chucked a load of physical controls on the front to play with while you're making a noise.

[RiK]

It depends what you're doing and how you're doing it. I use the midi sequencer on my Octatrack or pyramid to drive some kit. I can play some stuff live on the Virus but also have accompanying sequenced tracks for backing.

Yup, as I said..

You'd want multi-timbral for sequencer use, and in that respect the Virus wins hands-down.

But for me, my live jams are more discrete devices, each with their own sequencer doing it's thing. At present in my hardware jams I don't have anything sequenced by another device - yet!

I say yet as I plan on adding a Digitakt which will also take on sequencing duties for the Blofeld and JV2080, and when the Neutron arrives, the Beatstep Pro will look after that (and possibly the Model D) :-)

[(o)(o)]

Really loving the sound and look of the hand made, hardwired JMT synths



https://www.perfectcircuitaudio.com/jmt-synth

[gravy]

That does look nice.

Really like the look of the Moog Subharmonicon