Most underrated synths...

[Arpangel]

Martin Russ' fairly epic reviews of the SY77 and SY99 in Sound On Sound make pretty interesting reading if you're into the SY series.

The SY77 was the first of the FM+AWM machines, but Yamaha learnt a lot from it and improved on many shortcomings in the SY99, which is the preferable machine to get if you want an SY. They are still reasonably inexpensive when they come up, but they are pretty large, so you'll need some space to entertain one...

https://www.cashconverters.co.uk/shop/p ... 0catalogue

£399 + £25 delivery. Just sayin. I got no room!

...yeah, I did dabble with an SY77 at one time. The SY99 is supposed to be pretty decent if you know what you're doing with it. My understanding was that the SY85 was a totally different kettle of fish (sample-based rather than FM) and not so cool, but, Eddy seems to have time for that one and he knows his synths. Me...I'm lazy, and getting interesting new sounds out of FM is too much like hard work.

(I got the impression they were more powerful than the DX7, but in their obscurity they went for less, at least they did some years ago. But then again, membrane keys FTW.)

^^^^^

Yeah, 77/99 are great, but.....
I have better things to do with the rest of my life other than staring at menus battling with FM.

[Drew Stephenson]

Yeah, 77/99 are great, but.....
I have better things to do with the rest of my life other than staring at menus battling with FM.

What you need is a piano...

[Stickman0_3]

I used to have a Korg DW8000 and liked it. The programming process was a bit repetative as you had to pick a parameter and edit it, then pick another and edit it, plus it had limited controls. Apart from that, it sounded really good.

Another synth I had that was interesting was the Kawai K3m.

[BillB]

I’m not sure DW8000’s and EX8000’s are under-rated any more. Folks who know of them know they have a great sound - one of the very first digital-analogue hybrids. And Espen Kraft has been doing his bit to publicise them. Don’t think you would see an EX8000 under £4-500 these days.

[Stickman0_3]

I'm beginning to wish I'd never sold it. Nowadays, I have an MS2000r which I love.

[The Elf]

Just to follow up on the Tetra...

I got it. It's an excellent synth saddled with *the most* abysmal piece of editing software I've had to endure. This is the kind of software that would make most people give up in exasperation within minutes, but I am a patient guy. I managed to get results, but it it was a fight from start to finish. Just trying to get a rename to stick to a Preset is a battle royale. I had to lose and re-find Presets over and over again just to get them written into a Bank.

To say that this software is flaky is a vast understatement. And we are expected to *pay extra* for this binary junk?!?! Soundtower - hang your heads in shame.

I certainly won't be paying for any other of the editing software if the full-blown standalone editor is this poor.

Unfortunately, given that you all but *need* the software editor to program this thing, it leaves the Tetra with a bit of a problem. It's such a terrible shame. In use it sounds fantastic.

I can manage to scrape through it, but it takes patience and care to not lose anything. The patience is rewarded - it is, indeed, like having four Pro-Ones on tap (my favourite bass synth), but it goes WAY beyond that, with sub-oscillators on *every* oscillator, four LFOs and three envelopes per voice, and oodles of modulation options.

The sequencer doesn't interest me - I suspect if I had to use the software editor to access it then it would probably interest me even less.

I will likely look into the potential to create my own editor in MIDI Designer Pro, but that's time I begrudge spending when I could be making music with other synths.

[muzines]

The Kawai K1 is a seriously under-appreciated synth, most people tend to think it's pretty poor.

[muzines]

The Kawai K1 is a seriously under-appreciated synth, most people tend to think it's pretty poor.

Wait.. did I say *under-appreciated*..?

No, I meant the other thing...

It's a terrible synthesizer with only a handful of decent sounds which use the samples, none of which you can change much because there's essentially no tone-shaping or filtering other than a terrible distortion feature. The only other interesting feature is that you can delay each of the four layers in a patch, but that's about it - once you used sounds with the 12 or so samples that sound ok, everything else will sound the same, and the inbuilt thin and buzzy waves are next to useless (because no tone shaping etc).

[Stickman0_3]

Wasn't the Kawai K1 dubbed "The poor man's D50?" or something?

[muzines]

Wasn't the Kawai K1 dubbed "The poor man's D50?" or something?

Yes. That's pretty much why I bought a K1r back in the day...

It let you "chiff" and "aaah" and layer sources, but with no effects and lower quality etc...

[Stickman0_3]

I remember buying a Kawai K1r. First impressions were good, very good. But as time went on, I was beginning to wish it had an effects section. Then the K1 II was introduced with basic reverb, but by then, I'd moved onto (or back to) the Yamaha SY35.

[BillB]

Just to follow up on the Tetra....
To say that this software is flaky is a vast understatement. And we are expected to *pay extra* for this binary junk?!?! Soundtower - hang your heads in shame.

Soundtower editors usually seem to get a bad rap from users online. Shame that DSI (and Korg with the KingKorg) - and others - went to them.

There is a Mopho editor within Patchbase for the iPad - don’t know if that would work with the Tetra... I tried is with the Prophet08 and it wasn’t great, but the Tetra has more in common with the Mopho than it does the Pro08.

[BillB]

And another (VST) Tetra editor.
https://codeknobs.com/products.php?id=16

[The Elf]

And another (VST) Tetra editor.
https://codeknobs.com/products.php?id=16

Well it can't be any worse than the 'official' one. But looking at the spec I do reckon I can rustle one up in MIDI Designer in a couple of hours.

[Arpangel]

There has to be a section for the worst name given to a synth...the "Fizmo" it put me off straightaway, without even hearing it, I imagined all these awful fizzy early digital patches, and we always used the word fizzy to describe anything we didn’t like.

[BillB]

And another (VST) Tetra editor.
https://codeknobs.com/products.php?id=16

Well it can't be any worse than the 'official' one. But looking at the spec I do reckon I can rustle one up in MIDI Designer in a couple of hours.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but MIDI Designer, TB MIDI Stuff etc cannot read incoming patches and parse the parameter values so that they are reflected in the editor settings. Unlike say Patchbase, Codeknobs , MIdiQuest etc editors. So you cannot effectively *edit* existing patches, but you can create them from scratch - perhaps starting with matching INIT values in the editor and the synth. Is that how you work?

[The Elf]

And another (VST) Tetra editor.
https://codeknobs.com/products.php?id=16

Well it can't be any worse than the 'official' one. But looking at the spec I do reckon I can rustle one up in MIDI Designer in a couple of hours.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but MIDI Designer, TB MIDI Stuff etc cannot read incoming patches and parse the parameter values so that they are reflected in the editor settings. Unlike say Patchbase, Codeknobs , MIdiQuest etc editors. So you cannot effectively *edit* existing patches, but you can create them from scratch - perhaps starting with matching INIT values in the editor and the synth. Is that how you work?

I can certainly correct you as far as MIDI Designer goes! I can't speak for the others.

MD will not only reflect incoming MIDI and update the on-screen controls in real time, but it is also possible (with the use of a little plug-in called 'StreamByter') to parse entire sys-ex dumps and update the on-screen controls to reflect the current patch.

I've created several MD Layouts that take advantage of this - the Roland MKS-70 and MKS-80 for example. When I change patch on these devices I capture the incoming sys-ex data and my iPad screen shows me all of the current controls in their correct positions - then I can tweak from there. Anything I tweak on the synths themselves (or from the MKS editors) will also update the MD Layout.

At a pinch, when the device doesn't volunteer its sys-ex on patch-change (the reface series, for example), I can create a 'Get' button that asks the synth for a sys-ex dump. This is useful when I've been tweaking with the MD Layout active and I need to capture and store the current patch. I have reface CS, CP and YC Layouts that take advantage of this.

You can imagine, for such as the reface, which have no patch memories of their own, creating my own MD panels to catch and store their settings is a huge benefit!

From a quick look at the manual the Tetra looks like it has the necessary abilities for me to achieve what I need.

[BillB]

Ooh, didn’t know that. I’m going to have to give MD another look. I just assumed it was like TB MIDI Stuff with a different screen layout. Definite food for thought. I have found its split screen approach confusing in the past, but seems I need to invest a bit more time to get to know it better.

You have mentioned MD many times, Elf. Has there ever been a thread dedicated to discussing it? Might be a good idea. A few insights (like the bombshell above) go a long way!

[The Elf]

Ooh, didn’t know that. I’m going to have to give MD another look. I just assumed it was like TB MIDI Stuff with a different screen layout. Definite food for thought. I have found its split screen approach confusing in the past, but seems I need to invest a bit more time to get to know it better.

You have mentioned MD many times, Elf. Has there ever been a thread dedicated to discussing it? Might be a good idea. A few insights (like the bombshell above) go a long way!

I thought I had raised a topic, TBH, but I will now...

https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=74161

[babeleGrande]

The Waldorf Pulse. Massive and very usable sound. They’ve always been dirt cheap too so you can stack several of them and play them polyphonically. A bit of a pain to program via the front panel, so you have to spend a few hours thinking and tinkering with a MIDI controller to set it up for editing, which may be off putting for people that look into analogue monosynths for their immediacy, but totally worth it.

[BanquosGhost]

I'll put my neck out and say the OB12...

Not everyone's cup of tea (that's putting it mildly), but I've had mine since 2005- yes, it takes patience to get the best out of it; yes, it's a fiddle to get it to sound right (but not to program); it can't really compete with my Prophet8r2 or my Matrixbrute for versatility (or a bunch of other things)...but: it doesn't really ever sound like anything else, it does "wierd" better and the sounds it makes fit very nicely into mixes alongside the heft and beef of the P8/MB.

It does fabulous pads (that mix nicely as I say); great "thin" sounds that augment what other synths do and great "what was that??" noises.

I made a decision last year sometime of not buying any more synths- my three go-to's (OB12, Prophet 8 and Matrixbrute) have to produce all the sounds I use- that's forced me to go even deeper into the capabilities of all three- I've found the OB12 augments both of them very nicely.

This track shows the P8 and the OB12 doing all the heavy lifting (the MB is doing the fade-out arps only)- https://open.spotify.com/track/4XU52xhD ... bmsRwrk3eA

[The Elf]

It does fabulous pads (that mix nicely as I say); great "thin" sounds that augment what other synths do and great "what was that??" noises.

Well done you. It's very easy to dismiss a synth that sounds lacklustre on its own, yet makes magic when combined with others. Despite what my learned friend above might say ( ), the K1 (I have a K1r here) falls into that bracket perfectly. On its own it's a junky piece of nonsense, but combine it with 'better' synths and it adds something wonderful. It's pretty much a three trick pony (only the choir, strings and flute sound any good), but it's a great trick.

Then there are the synths that sound appalling in isolation, but become something amazing in a mix, such as the ARP Pro Soloist. This is easily one of the weediest synths ever made, but throw it into the melee of a mix and something incredible begins to happen.

[BillB]

I'll put my neck out and say the OB12...

Good call
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/oberheim-ob12-v15
Always liked the look and potential of this synth.

[BillB]

Despite what my learned friend above might say ( ), the K1 (I have a K1r here) falls into that bracket perfectly. On its own it's a junky piece of nonsense, but combine it with 'better' synths and it adds something wonderful.

Looking forward to your examples...

[Dave B]

Nice ones chaps.

I tried a few times to pick a Pulse up 'dirt cheap' but I was obviously too dirty and extremely cheap so never pulled it off. The idea of a rack mounted, 3 oscillator monosynth was very appealing - a sort of poor mans Minimoog for lead parts. One of these days I'll have a fiddle with one and see if I missed out.

And the OB-12 is a funny one. Look .. it wasn't an Oberheim - it just had the badge. So I was a little skepticaly, but still have come close a few times to splurging on one just to see what they were capable of. But the s/h prices reflect the name on the badge, sadly, so I've never really been serious about getting one.

One of my favourite underrated synths was my old Roland D70. Slim, light, excellent keybed, large display, cool sounds, I loved mine to bits