What was your "game-changing" synth?

[vonnor]

Memorymoog plus

 

~ vonnor

[mpn_user7629]

E-mu Proteus/2

[EscapeRocks]

A brand new Prophet 600 in the early 80's.  My very first experience with MIDI, sequencing software that led me down the MIDI rabbit hole 

[LarsHarner2]

The first one I had which stood out-  Yamaha SY55. Now, besides the piano and organ sounds- there was a awesome sound called GX dream that I loved.

 

Fast forward a decade- in '02 I got both the light edition of the Triton and the original Motif 6- which to this day remains the most solid keyboard I owned. 

[timwat]

K2500.

 

I had already owned a series of subtractive analogs, and had gigged some legendary units like CS80, original Prophet 10 (the two manual beast), as well as more obtainable pedestrians like the Source, Polysix, spent my time trying to create a decent new sound on the DX7, been initially wowed by the D50, and had learned hardware sequencing on the M1 (like many of us did).

 

But none of that prepared me for the sheer weight and gravitas of the sounds from the Kurzweil. At the time, K was truly in a category of their own in terms of what came from the outputs. 

[CEB]

In hindsight they all had keys and they all played notes. But as far as changing the actual game for me was. 
 

1) Workstations with 8+ Zones and the amount of polyphony adequate to eliminate the need for MIDI.  I carry clonewheels but they are strictly stage organs with zero MIDI connections. 
 

2) Patch control you get with Korg SetList. 
 

Computers would most probably be a game changer and a possible money pit if I would have jumped on that technology.  To have your whole rig together with SetList and patch management in a single laptop would be killer.  Any VST you want. I just never went there. 

[Malcs Myth]

Roland Juno 6 in 1984 was my first proper synth, so it was a game-creator!

 

Roland D50 in 1988 because of the space-age sound and built in effects - the double chorus is it’s true secret

 

Kurzweil K2000 in 1993 was an absolute revelation.

Not just the VAST synthesis blocks, which could be changed around (I made sure it could do PWM, by far my favourite synthesis ‘thing’), and not just for the sample playback (incredible fun playing full quality John Williams Jurassic Park stabs…). The amazing thing was being able to load crappy mono, muffled Ensoniq and Akai samples in, and through VAST transform them into something fantastic!

[Magpel]

As a guitarist and songwriter/composer who loves to write and arrange on keys, the Roland U20 was my intro to digital, sequencing, multitimbrality, and all that good stuff--paired with an Alesis MMT-8. I will always have fondness for that rig, not for the way it sounded (though it was the piano sample that steered me to the U20, over the M1 and a Kawai unit the store had in that day) but just because of where it took me--unlocked the arranger in me in a way that my Yamaha 4 track had not.

When I decided to teach myself the basics of synthesis, I started, for God's sake, on a Korg Z1. Lol. But I worked my way to the bottom of that damn thing--the pretty crappy VA, and the physical models that ranged from laughable to strangely awesome. Parted with it a few years ago, with no real regrets but nostalgia whenever I see one or hear it mentioned here.

Early sofysynths played a huge part in my knowledge of synthesis--even though I'm 60, I'm a guitarist. Keys were not part of my past except my dad's baby grand and a Vox Continental that lived in the house for while.

A softsynth I really used to grok the basics of subtractive (and used on a ton of music) was the old rgc:audio Pentagon 1, a synth with fixed modulations but so so many thoughtful touches. man I really appreciated that synth and that company. I did graduate to his Z3Ta but by that time the doors had been blown off the softsynth world. Anyone know what became of Rene? I know he went to work for Cakewalk and rgc disppaeared, like Camel to Apple.
 

NOW...the completely exasperating and amazing Moog Matriarch. A sound that never fails to delight me; behavior that never fails to bedevil me.

[Justin Havu]

First game-changer was a Korg Polysix.  It was the first keyboard I ever laid hands on that allowed me to make my own sounds.

 

Second one was the DX7.  Being born in 83 and growing up with 80s music, it was eye-opening to play the very instrument responsible for many of those signature sounds.

[CyberGene]

As a relatively younger guy who was mostly into acoustic piano and Rhodes up until recently, I started digging into synths only 3 years ago. I owned and sold a few of the latest (and still current) synths but my game-changing synth without a doubt is the Hydrasynth because its intuitive layout and great modulation options taught me almost everything about the basics and the depths of synthesis that I struggled to grasp before. 

[Adam Burgess]

My first sort of 'proper' keyboard was a Roland U20. That thing did hundreds of gigs. And I loved the sleek look.

But, only 6-part multi-timbral became a bit limiting after a time while sequencing and stuff. Saved up for an XP50 and that played until it literally fell apart.
Amazing for me at the time, that thing. I did miss the additional outputs from the U20 - handy for click tracks etc! But, the on board floppy drive saved me from bringing a Mac to gigs 😛 Always with Roland, there's pros and cons!
 

[Jose EB5AGV]

45 minutes ago, Adam Burgess said:

My first sort of 'proper' keyboard was a Roland U20. That thing did hundreds of gigs. And I loved the sleek look.

But, only 6-part multi-timbral became a bit limiting after a time while sequencing and stuff. Saved up for an XP50 and that played until it literally fell apart.
Amazing for me at the time, that thing. I did miss the additional outputs from the U20 - handy for click tracks etc! But, the on board floppy drive saved me from bringing a Mac to gigs 😛 Always with Roland, there's pros and cons!
 

 

I have just got a Roland XP-50 for a pretty low price, because it needs some electronic work (but is externally very well preserved).

 

Probably won't be the "game-changing" one for me, but I am eager to fix and play it 🥳

[aronnelson]

On 6/1/2023 at 6:50 AM, justin_havu said:

First game-changer was a Korg Polysix.  It was the first keyboard I ever laid hands on that allowed me to make my own sounds.

 

 

The cassette loader for Polysix LOL!

 

I remember having a DX7 and hearing the D-10 demo (probably done by Eric Persing). It was amazing to hear all the sounds playing. The CPU was so weak, but it had some decent sounds. Since then, I want the same but more. More polyphony, more stacked sounds on a keyboard. A Korg Kronos with twice the polyphony will do.

[KenElevenShadows]

Korg MS-20 analog patchbay synth and, believe it or not, an Emu Proteus III, which was the World Music module, which figured big on a couple of my albums. I don't use it a ton now, but when I do, I am so glad that I have it. I don't have anything else that's quite like it.

 

As a bonus, I picked up both of them used for very reasonable prices.

[felis]

Oberheim Matrix 6.  

[David Emm]

4 hours ago, KenElevenShadows said:

Korg MS-20 analog patchbay synth and, believe it or not, an Emu Proteus III, which was the World Music module, which figured big on a couple of my albums. I don't use it a ton now, but when I do, I am so glad that I have it. I don't have anything else that's quite like it.

 

That's because it stands semi-alone, aside from its direct descendant, the Planet Earth module. Its the last piece of hardware I won't sell off to buy more softsynths. A lot of its value comes from having Ed Mann's fingerprints all over it. He did some serious playing with Frank Zappa. His collection of world instruments is huge. Read the Wiki, be amazed. He's still active today.

 

E-mu really knew how to astound. I never quite got there, but I always thought a pair of their Morpheus synths would have been cosmic, one for each hand. Their filter modules were presets, but there was a wad of them and you could sweep through them with a pedal, for example. There's never been another hardware synth like that. Playing while you rode that pedal made it speak a new tongue.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Mann

[KenElevenShadows]

2 hours ago, David Emm said:

 

That's because it stands semi-alone, aside from its direct descendant, the Planet Earth module. Its the last piece of hardware I won't sell off to buy more softsynths. A lot of its value comes from having Ed Mann's fingerprints all over it. He did some serious playing with Frank Zappa. His collection of world instruments is huge. Read the Wiki, be amazed. He's still active today.

 

E-mu really knew how to astound. I never quite got there, but I always thought a pair of their Morpheus synths would have been cosmic, one for each hand. Their filter modules were presets, but there was a wad of them and you could sweep through them with a pedal, for example. There's never been another hardware synth like that. Playing while you rode that pedal made it speak a new tongue.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Mann

 

Impressive, thanks!

 

I love the gamelan and associated instruments in particular.

 

Now that I am remembering, I purchased them both used from the same person! I also purchased my electric bass from him as well, so I got quite a lot for very reasonable prices. 

[CHarrell]

I was a big acoustic snob ten years ago and immediately turned my nose up at anything that sounded "overly" synthesized as corny. However, a friend played the theme from Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence for me and I teared up from how beautiful it was, which opened my mind up to synthesizers being a powerful musical tool. So I was at a prime point for being hooked for life when one night, I noticed my roommate's brother had left a little keyboard in our living room, called the..."MicroKorg"? It looked like a cute lil toy but I couldn't resist the novelty of playing it...and I became enchanted for hours. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was just so awestruck that I could play the same ol' black and white keys I'd been playing on for years at the time, but these beautiful, new timbres were coming out from underneath the fingers. "I'm, MAKING, these sounds come to life!"

 

I never did quite learn how to use that thing, but not too long after I got really into FM synthesis, falling in love with FM8, and then years later, the Minilogue XD was what really got me to intuitively understand subtractive synthesis in a way VSTs never could do. So yeah, I'm a Korgi boy...my dream synth is a modernized MS20/Prologue hybrid.

[drawbars]

Mine was a Roland JUNO-6.  My first polyphonic, and the lack of stored programs actually *helped* me, because it forced me to learn how to program a synthesizer quickly and accurately on a gig.  I had 5-6 'go-to' sounds that I learned cold, and could move to without any, "Hang on guys.  Let me find my sound."  That knowledge still helps me to this day.

 

My next one was the Yamaha TX-81z -- or more accurately, *four* of them.  I started with one, and immediately decided I needed another ... and another ...  I got good enough at FM synthesis -- specifically, 4-op/8 waveform FM -- to eventually buy an MKB-500 (?) master keyboard and remove everything from my rig except an EP.  I did everything on that TX rig:  organ, pads, synth lead, guitars, you name it!  In hindsight, some of the sounds weren't all that accurate, but it worked for a cover band in the late '80s!

 

[Tusker]

I'll stand by the original Nord Modular, which I mentioned in the first page of this great thread. But I think I should mention two strong runners-up.

 

First, the Yamaha VL technology made me think differently about what I could say musically. And the physical modeling descendants of VL are a great family. Every time I use physical models like Reaktor Prism or Pianoteq or Expressive E Arche I feel that synthesis has become organic. I have not yet embraced the Eaganmatrix, but I am sure it inspires creativity also.

 

Secondly, it may seem weird to say this, but the DAW is also becoming a synthesizer for me. We can have plugin chains and save these patches in the DAW, so it takes just one click to recall the whole chain. One of my favorite DAW patches has Antonio Blanca's generative sequencer NOD-E in the "midi effects" section of the patch. You hold down some notes and NOD-E sends patterns to a plucked/struck physical modeling synth called Imagine. These patterns are then creatively expanded by two Valhalla effects: SuperMassive and Shimmer. It's a fun "space-music" patch which can ebb and flow depending on how you control the elements. The DAW is now a modular synth with instantly recallable patches. 

[CHarrell]

5 hours ago, drawbars said:

My next one was the Yamaha TX-81z -- or more accurately, *four* of them.  I started with one, and immediately decided I needed another ... and another ...  I got good enough at FM synthesis -- specifically, 4-op/8 waveform FM -- to eventually buy an MKB-500 (?) master keyboard and remove everything from my rig except an EP.  I did everything on that TX rig:  organ, pads, synth lead, guitars, you name it!  In hindsight, some of the sounds weren't all that accurate, but it worked for a cover band in the late '80s!

 

 

Dude that's wild! You actually programmed those things?

[drawbars]

@CHarrellYes, you can ask my wife, who often found me still in the band room at 3AM on weeknights.  (I had a day gig as an engineer!)  It took a lot of work, but I was determined not to buy the sound file collections.  Eventually, I was able to program acoustic guitar, analog synths, and even Mellotron-like strings.

 

[CEB]

On 6/13/2023 at 6:54 AM, drawbars said:

 

My next one was the Yamaha TX-81z -- or more accurately, *four* of them.  I started with one, and immediately decided I needed another ... and another ...  I got good enough at FM synthesis -- specifically, 4-op/8 waveform FM -- to eventually buy an MKB-500 (?) master keyboard and remove everything from my rig except an EP.  I did everything on that TX rig:  organ, pads, synth lead, guitars, you name it!  In hindsight, some of the sounds weren't all that accurate, but it worked for a cover band in the late '80s!

 

 

I love the TX81z.  I still have my pair.  I slightly detuned the 2nd one and ran them from the same MIDI receive channel with identical patch loads.  The pair sounded huge.  I just treat each TX module like its an oscillator.

 

That method carries over to how I use the MOD-7 engine in the Kronos.  I like to lay identical layered MOD-7 zones in the Combi and detune the 2nd zone to get huge FM.

 

PS If Moe had 2 DX7s he would not have needed his trebuchet.  LOL

[Piktor]

On 6/13/2023 at 11:38 AM, CHarrell said:

 

Dude that's wild! You actually programmed those things?

Didn’t everyone who owned one create their own patches?  Most of the factory patches were not useable. 

[drawbars]

23 minutes ago, Piktor said:

Didn’t everyone who owned one create their own patches?  Most of the factory patches were not useable. 

I agree, but I was the only guy I knew who programmed more than a couple of them.  I think FM synthesis scared many players, because it's pretty easy to get lost, if you're not methodical.  I always had a 'synth policy' -- including FM:  1) audition the factory patches; 2) at most, keep 8-10 of them; 3) erase everything else and start over.