Is every synth a compromise?

[The Elf]

There you go. A Nord Wave 2 is a long way from my 'uncompromised' synth. It lacks things I'd want, and it includes features I have no need of.

So...

One man's 'compromised' is another's 'ideal'.

[N i g e l]

The Nords do have the wooden waggle stick for pitch bending, I really like that.
Not really keen on the stone wheel.

[ajay_m]

Probably yes. On the other hand, the 49 key hydrasynth I bought a couple of years ago is about the only piece of gear I've ever owned that really didn't disappoint me in any way i.e my fantasy of a 21st century cs80 wasn't shattered.

[tea for two]

Some musicians say they feel like one with their musical instrument.

Try to find a synth/s module/s software/s that does this for us.

It need not be perfect. It may have lots of compromises. Same as us.

[Arpangel]

It's almost as if it would be nice to be able to put together a custom collection of components such as LFOs, filters, oscillators and so on to match your own requirements. If they were all roughly the same size and had the same power requirements they could occupy a chassis of some kind and that would be nice because then there could be an ecosystem of different sorts of podules* from which you could mix and match to your heart's content.

* We could call it a podular!

Modular is "alright" but it’s lacking one very important component for me "polyphony"
To get a modular to play polyphonically to any useful degree, is a total pain, we need more polyphonic modules, that would be a genuine revelation to build your own modular polysynth.

[MarkOne]

It's almost as if it would be nice to be able to put together a custom collection of components such as LFOs, filters, oscillators and so on to match your own requirements. If they were all roughly the same size and had the same power requirements they could occupy a chassis of some kind and that would be nice because then there could be an ecosystem of different sorts of podules* from which you could mix and match to your heart's content.

* We could call it a podular!

Modular is "alright" but it’s lacking one very important component for me "polyphony"
To get a modular to play polyphonically to any useful degree, is a total pain, we need more polyphonic modules, that would be a genuine revelation to build your own modular polysynth.

Definitely doable though with the Hermod 8 voice thingy. You just need 8 of everything (or 16 to get separate filter and amp envelopes). And a very big box of patch leads. But wow, a different texture for each voice. That alone might get me saving for a modular.

Oh wait, I don’t have anywhere to keep it

[RichardT]

Yes, in some ways I think every synth is a compromise. At the same time, so are all musical instruments. It’s not a problem, so long as we know the limits and capabilities of our instruments.

It does mean that you may need a number of synths in your arsenal. I guess I have around a dozen soft synths and synth-like sample libraries that I use regularly. Others have considerably more than that.

[Eddy Deegan]

I love my Hermod but Cre8audio's NiftyKEYZ keyboard case is also very useful as it can do anything from 1 to 4-voice polyphonic Eurorack control, either with splits or layers.

The Winterbloom "Castor and Pollux" (Juno-style dual oscillator module) works wonderfully with it, and I've also got a 2HP Pluck in mine.

[Arpangel]

Trouble with modular polyphony, is that you do need multiples of everything, it gets very expensive, and, unwieldy.

[t-sun]

There’s always Max/MSP.

The only synth that didn’t feel like a compromise that I loved was Vaz Modular. I guess the issue is that you’ll need a soft synth of you want a truly unlimited tool. Of course, the limitations are usually why i LIKE a piece of gear.

[Martin Walker]

The only synth that didn’t feel like a compromise that I loved was Vaz Modular.

I'm glad someone other than me remembers Vaz Modular - I had great fun reviewing its various releases donkey's years ago

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/so ... modular-21

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/so ... y-vaz-2010