Buying Your First Analog Synthesizer: The 2015 Guide

In just the blink of an eye, another year has gone by, and that means a new synth guide is needed.  The beginning of 2015 saw the announcement and release of some new, exciting gear from synth manufacturers around the globe!   I'm going to mark the synths that were not announced or released at the time of last year's guide with NEW, so you will be able to easily distinguish what's new.  I've also added some digital or not fully analog gear, so I'll be marking that accordingly to.

In addition what you see below, I plan on expanding this guide as new gear comes out and as new questions come in from readers.  If you're looking for something else, or have a question, shoot me an email and check back to this page soon.

As with previous iterations of this guide, it will be focused on new synthesizers, so don't expect anything that's not currently or very recently in production.  I've also mainly chosen to focus on analog synthesizers, although there will be a couple recommendations that are not analog in some form.

Special note:  I've included Amazon links on the names of all the synths, so if you're interested in buying from Amazon, use that link!  Not only will it help support the blog, but you will also find Amazon has sales at times, so you'll find $10~$50 off on some synths.

Buying Your First Analog Synthesizer: The 2014 Guide

EDIT: Looking for the 2015 guide?  CLICK HERE!

It's already that time of year again-- Musikmesse 2014 has come to a close, Winter NAMM '14 ended in January, so most of this year's synth offerings are out in the open, waiting to be picked apart.  While only a handful of new synths have been added to the roster this year, some of these are very significant, and have changed the recommendation order.  I'm going to mark the synths that were not announced at the time of last year's guide with NEW, so you will be able to easily distinguish what's new.

As with last year, this guide will be focused on new synthesizers, so don't expect anything that's not currently in production.  I've also mainly chosen to focus on analog synthesizers, although there will be a couple recommendations that are not analog in some form.

Special note:  I've included Amazon links on the names of all the synths, so if you're interested in buying from Amazon, use that link!  Not only will it help support the blog, but you will also find Amazon has sales at times, so you'll find $10~$50 off on some synths. #ad

Amazing Machines MIDITRIBE I/O Review

The MIDITRIBE by Amazing Machines

I received an interesting piece of gear courtesy of the folks at Amazing Machines, a small company based out of Brazil.  It's the MIDITRIBE I/O, and it's a mod for the Korg Monotribe to give it MIDI In and Out.  The installation doesn't require any soldering, just opening up the Monotribe, screwing in the board, plugging in a small plastic clip to the Monotribe board, and looping in the MIDI In and Out cables through the back cover of the Monotribe (it's worth noting, this mod will void the warranty on your Monotribe immediately).  The MIDI ports themselves are high quality and metal, so they won't crack or break.  There are a few different ways to have the MIDI cables attached; I have the way recommended for quickest use by Amazing Machines which has the MIDI cables coming out of the battery compartment.  I haven't been able to shut the battery compartment due to the cables, but the batteries stay in well enough where I don't need it for now.  If you have the wall adaptor for the Monotribe, you don't need to worry about this.  You could, of course, drill small holes in the side of your Monotribe to let the wires hang out and close the battery compartment, or even create proper MIDI ports right in the side of the Monotribe.  It's up to you, but the very basic setup is easy and only requires a medium size and smaller screwdrivers.

Is 2012 the start of the Analog Synthesizer Renaissance?

This has been on my mind for a few weeks, and I've wanted to post on it.  With all the recent announcements of newer and cheaper analog synths like the Waldorf Pulse 2, Moog Minitaur, and Arturia MiniBrute, analog synths are once again widely available and musicians have a diverse selection.  Korg also notably released a Facebook mini-survey asking what users liked most about the Monotribe (Korg, if it isn't obvious, it's the fact that it's cheap, great sounding analog equipment!)  This definitely hints that more is planned from the analog realm for them.  Before this year, there wasn't quite as great of a selection.  Not to discredit the Dave Smith Mopho and Moog Little Phatty, but those synths pretty much gave two options: a cheap, few knob module, or an expensive (albeit more affordable than, say, a Voyager) proper mono keyboard, at least until the Mopho Keyboard was released.  While these are both outstanding pieces of hardware, the lack of variety was a bit of a downer considering every music company had a signature analog synth 20 years ago.  Anyone new to the synth world would have to put down quite a bundle to properly learn analog synthesis, or take a gamble on a retro keyboard from a shady eBayer that may not last.

Korg Monotribe Review

Click here for an a closer look at the Monotribe's front panel.

A couple months ago I got my hands on the Korg Monotribe, one of the newer members of the Monotron collection.  I figured it would be worth reviewing since it's recently had its software updated.  The Monotribe is basically a rethought version of the Monotron, the single-oscillator analog module, with more features added, including a sequencer for the synth and the added analog drum sounds.  The three drum sounds included are a bass drum, a snare, and a closed hi-hat.  The synth is a single oscillator with selectable waveform (square, saw, and triangle) with the classic Korg MS-20 low pass filter with resonance.  The synth is played by ribbon keyboard, which can be locked into key across an octave, played continuously across an octave, or set to wide mode, which can encompass the entire frequency spectrum of the synth on the ribbon.

Korg announce 2 new Monotrons

What a nice little treat for Friday!  Korg has announced two new additions to the analog "mono" family, the Monotron Duo and the Monotron Delay.  These are the siblings to the original Monotron, sharing the same MS-20 filter and oscillators, but each has replaced a function of the original.  The Delay features, obviously, a Delay, but omits the pitch knob and the resonance.  It now features a wide-range ribbon for sounds across multiple octaves.  This delay is really exciting because it can process external sounds-- that's the true value of this item.  The Duo features a ribbon that can lock to major, minor, or chromatic scaling, and features two oscillators that can be used to cross modulate one another.  It also omits the original Monotron's LFO.  Check out the videos above and below for some compact analog goodness.

Dear Korg, while you're at it making these great little analog treats, why not combine them to make a new analog classic?  You're halfway there.  Adding some envelopes, a keyboard, and a little bit more size to the unit for this low of a price would make it a musician's dream.  Everyone would want one.  Pretty please, Korg?

The DSI Tempest is almost here...

All you lovers of drum beats and Analog/ Digital combos can rejoice that the much sought after Dave Smith Instruments Tempest is almost here!

The release date of this soon to be legend has been clicked back a few times, but it looks as though we've just about made it-- I've most recently heard it should be just about ready in another week.  If you haven't heard about this thing, be prepared to be talking about it for the next twenty years-- this is just about as classic as it's going to get.  Dave Smith, who helped pioneer polyphony in synths and created the Prophet 5 and Pro One, teamed up with Roger Linn, who created the LinnDrum and other classic drum machines.  Mixing these two together is a recipe for awesome, as they're both incredible innovators in music technology.  Great drum machines seem to be dying down, and analog drum sounds are becoming even rarer, but the Tempest is going to change all that.  Not only does it feature analog oscillators and the warm Curtis filter found in the other DSI products, but it also includes 2 digital oscillators per voice as well.  Not only that, but it also has samples of Roger Linn's older drum machine creations.  This represents such an important step in music tech because of the beautiful marriage of analog and digital sounds, which compliment each other so nicely, as we could see in the DSI Evolver and PolyEvolver.  This is pretty much the perfect piece of equipment if you're looking for a high end drum machine of today-- but enough gushing, watch the video below.

Hopefully we'll see this thing shipping in another week or so-- I'm sure the last little bits are just tiny software issues ironing out and are worth the wait.  After this, who knows what's next for DSI?  They have synths in pretty much every price bracket... perhaps we'll see a keyboard version of Tetra, or something even grander...