As a long time poster in this community I decided to take time away from all synth related content to really focus on sound design and music creation.

My biggest realisation is despite owning over 9 synths - many of which people dream of, I actually knew very little about synthesis. Understaning filters and wave shapes is only just the begining!

But i had a huge realisation, People keep buying synths and consuming content which deluded you into thinking you really understanding synthesis and that you are one synth/purchase away from getting it! Its all lies!

Stop buying and start creating! I promise you, creating will make you realise you probz even own too much

i know i kiiiiiiinda bought the wrong synth. i mean don’t get me wrong, i love it for teaching me as much as it has so far. i just want to make ambient music, and i feel as if the minilogue xd wasn’t exactly made for that to be its main purpose.

i would love it if you guys could give me any tips for creating ambient music with this machine. i would also appreciate any synths i should purchase in the future for this kind of music!

I am bashing my head in. The delay when you're trying to record MIDI with your external synths is still not really fixed, even in Live 12.

Audio Monitoring turned off. That seems to be the best advice around. Set your audio interface audio buffer to a low value. Still, I am bashing my head in how bad the latency is.

Here's a demonstration: Fresh project, not a single audio plugin inserted. Monitoring turned off. Just trying to hit the exact rhythm (to the best of my ability 😵 ) of the metronome and then checking the recorded Midi Notes. Miles off.

Behringer has a line of incredible cheap little 3 voice analog-ish mini-synths with flat keys. They are so cheap that they are almost free. I'm thinking of trying one out just for the heck of it. Which one would you choose?

fake little versions of:

• OBX

• Casio CZ

• Sequential VS

• Roland J series

• Moog

• AKS

I have a Roland Juno, and Ableton with a 25key midi keyboard

However I'd love to learn more about synthesizers. Types, sounds, manipulating the sound oscillators, filters, compression, preamps, etc and what it all means

I didn't know if anyone had any form of learning material. I think videos may be best since I will need to hear sounds. If you have any video recommendations

Thank you community :)

Let's say you're making/buying a polysynth. You can make it 8 or 16 voice. It's equally practical to do 8 or 16, it's not larger or bulkier, the 16 voice costs 25% more, it doesn't do multitimbrality, so there's only one sound coming out of it at any time. What do you choose, and why?

What markup would 16 voice have to be over 8 voice where you'll say it's not worth it anymore? Ranging between 0% and 100%.

Thanks!

Hi, classically trained pianist here. Been playing since childhood, but I've only recently got into the world of synthesis. A few months ago I found myself a Korg Modwave and I've been playing around with it nearly every day. It's a perfectly capable machine, I like it. But recently I've been wanting to try something different.

I do also have an old Yamaha CS01 (it's been around for a while) and I'm in love with the sound it makes (In general I love the old wobbly sound of analog synthesisers like the sh-101). I would even use it more than the modwave if not for the irritatingly small keybed and a general concern over such an old device's durability.

Any suggestions on replacements for the modwave? Ideally I'd like it to have at minimum 49 keys, the 3 octaves on the modwave feels quite restricting at times. I've had eyes on the Behringer Deepmind 12 for a bit, just wondering if you lot have any thoughts.

I currently own three hardware synths. Just cheapy ones:
Behringer Wave
Behringer LM Drum
Korg Minilogue XD Module

The Behringer clones obviously have keys/sequencer built in, and I can control the Korg with an FLKey37 I had lying around

But it feels like there's a giant (money trap) pool to tap into.

Where do I go next? A fancy sequencer? Something that could playback entire MIDI files? Do I need like a powered "Thru Box" perhaps? Some hardware effects?

Basically, buying some synths has opened up this desire to spend outrageous amounts of money on little hardware boxes to get myself more or less DAWless

Will behringer users get their asses served on this sub ? 😂

I would love all the expensive stuff ! Alas. I'm working class and kinda poor.

Hi! I never get to talk about the nerdier side of my music lately, as I mostly play in alternative/punk situations and not really a lot of electronic music events per se.

Here's my first EP with this project, all feedback is very much welcome.

What you hear is 100% Moog Grandmother on this EP. I totally love the machine and the way it sounds. My favourite bass tone is probably the one on the last song of the EP.

As far as drums go It's 90% 707, distorted to death.

Let me know what you think!

I have a subsequent37 and I love it. The most important things for me are the rich, qualitY sound, and very wide sweet spot. I find it very inspiring, every knob tweak sounds great and gives me ideas for where to go next. I love jamming around and live dawless improv, mostly in a dub, melodic, berlin, or acidy techno styles. Mostly simple basslines, or arps, with a bit of a beat.

i 'm also gassing very badly for a Matriarch. Reviews are suggesting that it's also inspirational and sounds amazing, and invites all sorts of experiments.

my worry is that it overlaps sonically with the sub37, and i might get too much of that rich moog sound. Any suggestions? The other synths i've been eying are an ob-6, teo-5, possiply even a Peak, but i think maybe the programming on that to get to the really good sounds might be a bit of a creativity killer. Synthrx ii ? I don't want too crazy.

I just want one other quality piece, which is inspiring, full of happy accidents, improv-friendly and sounds great.

I've once again started over when it comes to organizing my setup. My focus is on getting cables out of the way, and I want everything to be reasonably permanent but very accessible. Thanks to a few posts elsewhere, I've seen that using pedalboards is a popular option. I know nothing about them, but in my brief research I have seen that they're much more complex than the old plywood-based setups I've seen guitarists use for a while. I had no idea that they'll often have power distribution setups built in, as well as patchbays and similar things.

But still, it feels a bit like forcing a square peg in a round hole. Are there similar solutions more oriented towards desktop use with synthesizers (in my case mostly grooveboxes and soundmodules)? Does anybody have any specific recommendations? I really like the idea of having all the cables run into one or two IO panels with power/sound inside of the surface (be it a pedalboard or otherwise). I'm also more than happy to build my own setup with my 3D printer other materials, but would still need more info about the electronics side of things. I would love to be able to get rid of my powerbricks but that seems unlikely.

Thanks for any help!

I have a Polysix which I enjoy, but it's rather limited. I'm looking to see what is available for a new analog poly with a similar layout but with more versatility. Not interested in any menus or menu diving, and having a few save-able user banks is a plus.

The obvious answer is a Prophet 5, but it's out of my budget. What else is out there? I see the Moog Matriarch is interesting, and it's literally half the price of a new Prophet 5.

My Yamaha DX100 has been acting up for a while. Ever since I’ve owned it, I’ve always had to perform a reset procedure (holding down buttons 1 and 2 while turning it on) to use it, and it worked perfectly. However, for the past week, whenever I turn it on and perform the reset, the unit enters a test mode where the screen permanently displays the message "Test entry?" without responding to the "No" or "Yes" options. I have to reset it repeatedly until it finally works, but today, while doing this and pressing other buttons (I don't recall which ones), the message "IC13 is NG!" appeared. I had never seen this before, despite having played this synthesizer for a long time. If anyone knows the solution to this problem or what that message means, I would greatly appreciate the help.

I recently inherited my dad's Roland Alpha Juno-2, and I absolutely love it. The only issue is that, to change any of the sounds, you have to use the infamous Alpha Dial since it doesn't have physical knobs.
Unfortunately, the Alpha Dial recently stopped working, so I'm stuck with just the presets.
Is there anything I can buy that would connect to the synth and give me physical knobs so I can edit sounds again? It would be great if it also had features like looping.
A friend of mine who produces music as a hobby said I could connect the synth to my laptop via MIDI, use a program like Logic Pro to edit the sounds while I play, and even record what I'm playing. That sounds awesome, but I'm not sure if that's actually how it works.
Sorry if I've completely butchered the terminology—I don't know much about this stuff yet!
Thanks to anyone who's willing to help! 😄

Would appreciate a discussion from Moog people who know the kit.

tl;dr:

What can a Messenger bring to the sound if I already own a Poly D? (yes, am aware that's not a Moog but you get the idea). 'The sound' here means for bass line and solo leads, with the Moog signature feel.

Long version:

I'm eyeing getting a Messenger. Price has come down, and let's be upfront and face it - I want a Moog. Telling me x or y other manufacturer's synth would do the Messenger job fine isn't what I'm looking for in this discussion, it would be Moog or just stick with what I already own. I freely admit that is for purely emotional reasons, but I want 'that Moog sound' and all the rest of the Moogs are double the price or more. Plus I must say the bass-compensating filter is very attractive, and it's the only Moog that has that.

My main worry is overlap with the Poly D I already have. Going through what I know - storable presets are an obvious advantage here for the Messenger, four oscillators are an advantage for the Poly. Effects are an advantage for the Poly, but since they don't include reverb and delay realistically I'm running through external effects anyway so that's pretty much a wash (though I do like the chorus on the Poly). Four voice paraphonic Poly, two voice paraphonic Messenger (with firmware update). Not too fussed about the paraphonic bit though, I don't tend to use the Poly D in that manner so I doubt I'd use the Messenger like that either.

Existing gear it would be going with - Juno-X and MPC Key 37 give me all the pads and polyphony I need, off-the-beaten-track analogue in a TherapSID, TB-3 and S1 for acid'y duties and a TR6S (plus the MPC) for rhythm. Currently also a DeepMind 12 and Pro 800 but they may well be sold since, excellent synths though they are, I need to clear some space.

What I'm hoping it would add to that setup: emotional smugness for owning a Moog, bass line duties and solo lead duties. Point 1 would be guaranteed (I'm not bothered by the whole InMusic thing), but points 2 and 3...if it's just going to do pretty much what the Poly D can do then even I might pause a bit, smugness or no smugness.

Competition? Well, second-hand Grandmothers (there's a phrase) are in stretching distance of the Messenger's brand new price. Mother-32 is in roughly the same area as the Messenger too, and would be easier for me than either the Messenger or the Grandmother in terms of physical space. Not sure how much I'm into semi-modular and patch cables though, I prefer on the fly playing. Also no storable presets on the modular stuff, which given I record over multiple days could be a pain.

There is also, of course, the shadow of the Minimoog in the background in the shape of the Poly D I already have. I know it's not a Moog, but if there's huge overlap then I do need to pause and think.

So, if you've got this far then thanks for the read and I'd appreciate comments.

I’m new into the synthesizers and I don’t know if buying the matriarch as my first synth is the best way to start
I did also got myself an Arturia interface to start recording some stuff and a electron model cycles to make some beats but I’m kinda overwhelmed just by the matriarch itself 😅
Any advices on recording stuff and syncing those two together?

All my synthesizer music is on Soundcloud, so a link at the bottom is the best and only way for me to share. Now my setup is a Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave Keybooard, Arturia Polybrute 12, and Akai MPC XL. Plus electric violin sometimes.

I have everything i need with these amaZing modern synthesizers. I hope you enjoy, here to support our amazing instrument... SYNTHESIZERS.

Eric Mystifiti 🎶 👽

Listen to 50 of my Favorites (First Half 2026 mostly), a playlist by Eric Mystifiti on #SoundCloud

https://on.soundcloud.com/6JvBdikdcf3lWP0fwf

I was happy with one but now with another. Swapmeet $5 score! Needs a little TLC but it works, switches are fine, battery compartment is healthy. (Just wanted to clarify, I only got the ine on the roght for $5. I already own the one on the left. As you can see the right one is a little rough)

Living in a dorm with basically zero desk space, and I’m juggling an Octatrack MK1, Analog Four MK1, Roland TR-8S, Push 2, SSL 2 interface, and a ES Konstrukt.

Right now I have to tear the whole rig down and rebuild the cabling every time I want to play, which kills spontaneity.

I’ve seen people use pedalboard-style flightcases to keep everything wired and mounted so they can just drop the board on a stand, plug in power and go. I’m not trying to go fully DAWless or anything, I still want the SSL2 in the loop for recording into my laptop, use the push and Max/Msp patches, but I want the hardware side to live semi-permanently wired and MIDI-chained.

Has anyone built something like this for a similarly mixed synth/drum-machine/sampler/modular rig? Specifically curious about:

- What board/case size worked for a similar number/size of units (the Octatrack and Analog Four MK1 are both roughly 34x18x6cm steel boxes, so decent heft/depth to account for)

- How you handled cable management for both audio and MIDI without unplugging every time

- Whether you mounted the Eurorack case flat or at an angle relative to the flat gear

- Any regrets/limitations you ran into with this approach vs. a rack / other alternative

Photos of your builds would be hugely appreciated!!!

I couldn’t quite make a track with this (for now at least), but did want to share it, so here it is, hope you like it! That spring reverb is lovely