Looking for a new synth - advice please

John_A

Well, I used to play keys in a band and I'm pretty competent, I have a piano at home and play quite a bit but the last synth I had was a Korg Poly 800 which shows how long it was ago!  The 'virtual analogue' synths have caught my eye and the Nord Lead A1seems to tickle my fancy based on the demos I've listened to.  Any reason not to buy the Nord, and any other recommendations?  Ideally looking for full size keys, multi timbral, split keyboard and great sounds, it will be mostly a live instrument but get used for recording too

goldtop

First question: mainly for open-ended synthesis or also for lots of 'bread and butter' sounds? Realistic with lots of multisamples (organs, EPs, basses, acoustic instruments, etc) and/or creative synthesis with an easy to use interface?

I think the NL A1 is multitimbral, but only 4-part (like most of the NL series) if that matters.

Definitely have a play with an Access Virus, too.

John_A

I'm covered for pianos and organs, with my piano, so really just synth noises, pads and stuff. 4 part multi timbal is fine, it's for performance, so 2 part would probably do for splitting the keyboard, but the layering might be nice. I'll check out the virus cheers

goldtop

The Virus has a rep for being a bit of a 'trance' machine, but it's much more flexible thgan that. Same with the Waldorf Q. After the Poly 800 these are going to look super deep.

I have a Nord Lead 3, which has the best user interface of any programmable synth (rotary encoders with a LED ring to show all knob positions) and also does nice FM tones in addtion to the typical VA sounds. I think the NLA1 is a bit different.

John_A

Listened to the demos and the nl a1 sounds very similar to earlier versions, but with a few more features, I do like both the look and the sounds of the nords, just wondered if there was any good reasons not to buy one, or compelling reasons to buy somthing else.  

Peoplecare raving ing about the new wardolf but all the demos I've heard have been a bit thin, big pads are what tickle me

zepromz

I'm selling a Nord Lead 4 if you're interested, asking 1100 ono, collection only from West London.

John_A

@zepromz I'll give it some thought, cheers

got myself totally confused at all the options, started thinking about a controller + soft synths and got even more confused at the range of controllers.  Ranging from the Korg taktile with some handy built in triton sounds but very light on features to the Akai advance and NI Komplete which look like they'll take an age to figure out.  Think I need to have a good think about what I actually need

lasermonkey

The new Behringer Deep Mind 12 looks very tempting, especially for the money.

wave100

The forthcoming Dave Smith Instruments Rev 2 looks awesome if you have a couple of grand to spare...

goldtop

DM12 and Rev2 are true analogue, and like most of those, they aren't multitimbral.

wave100

In some of the vids DS is talking about splits and stacks. Not sure if they would be addressable on separate MIDI channels though. It's definitely giving me GAS .The Oberheim SEM-X is too - Eurorack format SEM! These are great days for synth players - so many options.

colourofsound

I have a lovely Roland RS-50 synth with case and stand if you're interested. All digital of course, but decent Roland quality. Maybe not very sexy but worth letting you know!

John_A

Should have updated the thread - I got a Novation X-Station which is keeping me happy on the synth front at the moment - Cheers