Відео

Hey, is it possible to connect an external controller to the Hydrasynth Explorer to kind of try to compensate for the lack of the ribbon found on its bigger brothers?

Thanks Scott!! Looks wonderful!!! SynthGraphics is great and so glad to hear all is well in that camp!!! Wonderful!!!!

I think it is a special kind of art, working with modular synths. I'm interested in them, but would not want to have one myself, exactly because of the reasons you mentioned. But I'm getting more and more interested in the Hydrasynth...

You my friend have the best hair in UA-cam synth land… VultureCulture the best beard. Rock on 🤘🏽

- Nice !

12 minutes 47 seconds of pure terror but I was pleased to see it all worked out in the end... phew!😅

I've got the overlay for my Kiwi 3P. Extremely useful.

You made it look easy, no bubbles and a perfect straight fit, I think they call it experience 😅, thanks Scott, love the good advice and tips ❤

Thank you for this video! I just picked up a Montage 6 at a great price and FedEx broke my right side panel, bent the metal side frame and snapped the same under part on the top key! I now know exactly what to do in terms of obtaining a repair estimate and finding replacement parts.

When a video makes you smile and nod your head out of respect for both parties, it’s a good day 😊 Edit: after ensuring alignment on all sides, you should have started to peel back from one end, stuck it down, and then worked your way along, unpeeling and sticking as you go. That way you get a little chance to pull things into alignment if they wander a bit.

Yeah I remember that video you posted. Glad Jamie is doing better, and a free pass on this make complete sense.

If the JDXi had better keys it would be the king of all mini synths. It covers so much ground. The engine actually supports aftertouch even though the keyboard doesn't. And yeah menu diving is as always obnoxious but there are some app editors you can get.

Of those I have the Mininova and Roland JD-Xi, and I am quite satisfied with them, because they cover a wide sonic range and also the drum machine capabilities on the Roland and the flexible arpeggiator of the Mininova complement each other beautifully

For what it's worth, i got a hydrasynth explorer as my first actual synth about 2 Christmas' ago and i still love messing with it to this day.

I 100% agree with you Scott. I had a very large Modular system with all the "must have" modules. It was very frustrating and a very expensive endeavor. I sold it all off and replaced it with two ASM Hydrasynth Deluxes, a Novation Summit and a Modal Argon 8X. These are much more musical IMHO.

Didn’t even realize these kinds of possibilities for synth routing. Mind blowing.

No mini keys, please!

I actually enjoy the keybed a lot more than the jupiter xm. Lol

I believe that people who already have the Yamaha Montage have no interest in using the plugin if they already have the hardware.. the question is, is there any way I can buy the license even without having the hardware?

Thanks for the cautionary tale, Scott - appreciate your openness and honesty - but I'm still none the wiser about how you got into synths and this channel!

Bravo......I have one......love it.......but why don't we have soda water fountain ...........cheers

How are any of these for beginners? Surely a simple monosynth ( possibly even 1 oscillator ) would be much more suitable for a beginner learning subtractive synthesis. Jen SX1000 was designed for people to learn on back in the day.

These videos are so dope, thank you Scott! I have a question, I know you’ve done videos on the summit, do you know if the summit has a favorites bank or a 8x8 patch selector? It’s hard to buy any synth that doesn’t have a patch selector button group to chang programs

A decent selection. Although I think the JD-Xi is a plasticky fingerprint magnet and a menu-diving nightmare it's very powerful (but my least favorite of the recommendations). A shame about the $700 limit because for $800 I'd unreservedly recommend a used Studiologic Sledge 2.0

Agree on the Roland JD-XI. I have this synth and i like the possibilities that it offers for the price but just hate the user interface.

Hi! Inspired by your videos about Cobalt 8 I decided to buy one. It is used and have firmare version 1.2. I agree with you about issues found in earlier versions so i decided to instal V2. But i can`t find any Modal electronic support on the internet. Is there some usefull link that works today, in 2024. Need help. Thank you. Syncererly Vlatko

I bought an SH-4D as a beginner synth. The fact it can play 4 synth parts plus a rhythm part and has an basic sequencer drew me over the line. Since than I added a polyend play as a sequencer….that combo is just fantastic for the music i make.

I miss the old Scott....I miss the long hair 😮‍💨

Kinda weird to see the Microkorg on the list since it really only becomes more usable with a software programmer, as the quasi-menu diving on the thing itself is not really the kind of direct access you would want from a synth. But since this models is now being phased out by Korg after over 20(!) years (i think it came out in 2002), i'd say get one while you can. Remember, it uses the same virtual analog architecture as the MS2000, which still holds up amazingly well even today. The Arturia Minifreak is definitely a no-brainer and really deserves to be on this list, as it gives the beginner the most bangs for the bucks. Just as the orignal Microfreak that costs even less but sadly has absolutely ZERO internal effects. Depending on what you need (actual keyboard or internal effects) i would say the Minifreak and the Microfreak both should be on the list.

Recommending System 8 and refusing to consider FM synths is strange. Opsix can easily do your "oscillators through a filter" subtractive stuff. Actually if one owns Ableton Standard or higher one of the best learning synths that they already have is Ableton's Operator.

I totally disagree with a couple of your suggestions, and that's why I'm giving you a like and subscribe. Most people don't have any unique takes and just regurgitate the same synths. I like that you had an authentic opinion.

Nice video. Things have moved on a bit from this thankfully. I supported the company from the very beginning and sad to see how they have gone. I have a 002 and 008 in my studio area, both with FX cards. These are classics for sure, but even these were not really supported and the updates stopped. Mark.

Hi, thank you for this interesting video. I have an issue with my Roland D-10 which is similar but not identical to one you described, maybe you can help me. The issue is that the lowest 8 keys only play once and then become non responsive. The sound is at minimum velocity no matter how hard I play, and keeps sustaining until reboot or until I run out of polyphony playing other keys. Oftentimes, the problem will fix itself after a while that the synth is powered on (like one hour or so). I opened the thing up today and ran some continuity tests with my multimeter, I seem to have found nothing wrong with the wires or keyboard itself. I cleaned up the cable sockets with contact cleaner spray, but to no avail. Do you have any ideas about this at all? The only thing I can think of is that the gate array IC chip that does the key scanning has gone bananas, in which case I am screwed. But I would think such a failure would affect the entire keyboard? Any help will be greatly appreciated. P.s. a few years ago this synth had this problem, I played keyboard very little at the time so I didn't care. Then somehow it magically fixed itself and kept working for years until a couple of days ago. Weird...

Your title is wrong. It should say 'this is my top 12'. It's clearly not the top 12 in general.

I like it when you do these reviews. I wonder if you would ever do a review of some of the newer Korg synths like the King Korg Neo?

What are your thoughts on the Juno-X? I am going for the Juno sound(s) but am still wondering if I should just get a System 8 or a 106.

MiniNova, you have no direct control for modulation settings, you have to menu dive to get that. Reface CS, downsides: ONE ADSR, you either find a sweet spot mix between filter and amp, or you can go all the way either just filter or just amp. A decent cheap learning synth and of course very portable. I'd recommend buying a good reverb FX pedal, as that is missing in the FX section. Also you can't combine the FX in it, so again buy some pedals to get that ability ( or plug-ins for a DAW ).

I need a simple, real vco, "beading" sweetspot poly. ....I have a Hydra and a Virus. The last thing I need is another virtual analog. Your continual extoling of Modal and the Cobalt8 has me gassing anyways though, dang it. Maybe I'll just pass on a fancier poly, and get a Pro-800, so I can afford a Cobalt8 too. hmmmm....

how do you unbox and never touch the keys / make a sound? Seems strange.

I like your choices except for the Monopoly. I think the Monopoly is a terrible beginner synth. The panel layout is awful, and since it only has one filter, it isn’t really polyphonic. I have been recommending the Casio CT-S500 and CT-S1000. Although these are home keyboards that are primarily sample based, they have filters that you can change the cutoff and resonance. You can change the envelopes, and you have a nice assortment of effects. You even have portamento. It has bluetooth midi so it makes a nice keyboard controller especially for the iPad. Running Kong’s Monopoly software in the iPad gives you a better monopoly than the Behringer hardware unit. The software version is fully polyphonic and has hundreds of presets. The CTS-500 has a street price of 380, it covers a lot of bases.

Hello Scott. I have a question about AWM2 elements in the new Montage. The manual says "AMW2: 128 Elements (max.)". The question is, each part can use up to 128 elements, or the AWM2 engine's limit is 128 elements, and these elements can be shared on one or more parts? With more simple words, can we have, for example, a 4-part performance with 32 elements per part (total 128 elements) or we can have a 4-part performance with up to 128 elements per part (total 512 elements/performance)? Thanks for any answer.🙂

Спасибо!Проблемы с синхронизацией MIDI бывают и при подключении к Cakewalk

JD-Xi is not hard to find used for $250 which is pretty good

Does the DAW just automatically send the clock out or do I have to set it up that way? Is the Hydrasynth getting its sync from the MIDI cable or from USB?

Thanks 🙏

I have noticed that most of your synths you own are not actually real analog synths like Oberheim, Deckard's, Moog Etc. etc. I was wondering whether you like the real deals or too much to mess with. For the first time ever I bought both the new OB-X8m and Deckard's and once I did have a Moog, forgot I had that one. There's something special about the real thing and I'm sure you've had those at some point. It's actually a blessing that we can now buy these and they aren't $30K.

pad 7 is really good

Hey Scott, great video! I really appreciate the way you explain gear with their strengths and weaknesses. It's very helpful to budding synthesists like myself. Cheers, from Australia 🤙

I know it's not new release but still relative cheap . . but as as the story goes start at the beginning as with early pocket programmable synths like the tiny Casio VL tone 'toy' . . even on own but through effects get weird sounds ambient background atmospheric which I think are synths strengths rather than the cacophony of every sound possible played in sequence . . same reason why I like 3 & 2 & 1 , raised action slide guitar . . too many strings muddies the waters

Man they released it in a bad state I only found out about all these problems today a few days after buying it. Only issues I've noticed is my Peak and Summit changing each others settings and if I change preset on one it changes on the other I've put it down to user error and disabled them interacting with one another in Peak settings CC/NRPN and Bank/Patch REC+Tran to disabled.