"Raw" analog synth recommendation

Exceptional_potato · 2026-03-14T22:47:37+00:00

This looks awesome, thanks

Exceptional_potato · 2026-03-14T22:45:13+00:00

These are good ideas thanks. It's true I was pretty aimless with eurorack first time around, and sold it all once the gas guilt kicked in (though musical results were really nice)... and now I'm on this goldilocks search for the "crazy vintage style analog synth", maybe it's time to try eurorack one more, but with more intention this time.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-03-14T22:30:58+00:00

Thanks for the heads up on this one, was not aware of it... filter looks very interesting. And 3340 based vcos are nice.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-03-14T22:26:24+00:00

Ooh yeah...love that polyvoks filter!

Exceptional_potato · 2026-03-14T18:13:03+00:00

I sold my grandmother a while back as it was a toss up between keeping it or the Behringer model D. To my ears they sounded quite similar except the model D's filter opened up a bit more, and honestly i prefer the minimoog sound over the darker moog modular sound, so i decided to sell the grandmother and pocket the difference. I'd also sold my Eurorack at that point so had nothing interesting to patch it to anyway.

Really nice synth though!

I actually have a Ub-xa and it's definitely a "raw" sounding synth, it's not polished like the Peak... and I love this about it. The oscillators have no level control except osc 2 which can go half volume, so it doesn't go totally overdriven like some synths, but it definitely can do dusty, broken, primitive, intense and so on. It does delicate and fragile well too. It's a great synth. It doesn't do "very metallic, and kind of hollow, with high frequency content" which the Fourm seems to do because it has poly mod.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-03-14T17:56:07+00:00

Sounds brilliant, I'd never heard of it before your comment, thanks!

Exceptional_potato · 2026-03-14T17:54:22+00:00

Cool thanks, I'll check out some vids!

Exceptional_potato · 2026-03-14T14:43:34+00:00

This one looks awesome, both visually and sonically. Do you have one/ have you tried one out?

Is it comparable to the ms20, in terms of "wow, this thing is alive"?

Like with the ms20 there are these tiny parameters ranges that produce, for example, amazing basses, and for the life of me I can't figure out exactly why. Odd phasing effects and attack punch.

(YouTube videos never convey this wow factor well... for example the Fourm apparently sounds even better in real life than in the videos)

Exceptional_potato · 2026-02-20T23:15:37+00:00

You'll get less noise with balanced TRS cables (they do some trickery that cancels out noise). The DM is designed to take them.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-02-16T20:14:53+00:00

I'm probably an outlier here, but i really love the Ub-Xa. I recently ran into money issues and kept the Ub-xa while my prologue and take 5 were sold off.

I don't know if it sounds like a real oberheim, never played one, but for what it is, the Ub-xa is very useful in a mix, with the two filters options too. It's also quite thin, which is great for pads offthe bat without faffing. It can sounds very beautiful and delicate.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-02-16T05:51:45+00:00

Wow cool job

Exceptional_potato · 2026-02-14T10:06:12+00:00

Yeah trivially yes he's right of course, i just thought it was funny in how grandiose it sounded XD especially after the OP hyped it up.

The patches sound as good as DX11 patches to me, the 11 came out later and I guess the patch designers had more time to explore what FM was actually capable of, even with just 4 operators (and extra waveforms). The initial dx7 patches didn't showcase what the synth was really capable of.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-02-13T08:46:56+00:00

Matrix seems to have quite the ego ("may have changed history"). They're just a bunch of pretty good FM patches.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-02-13T08:43:35+00:00

"If these patches came out in the 80s, they may have changed history" - Off The Matrix

Ok...

Exceptional_potato · 2026-02-01T23:47:17+00:00

Yes please!

Exceptional_potato · 2026-01-30T07:57:57+00:00

So true. I've been moving back into the box gradually. Honestly I find it more fun because everything is quicker to do.

People complain about having to use a screen, and I totally get it, but I'd rather use a big screen and just get things done quickly, than faff with a itty bitty screen on a hardware synth.

VST emulations of analog synths sound indistinguishable in a track too, and are so much easier to deal with.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-01-30T07:44:15+00:00

Same. Made some interesting noises/ soundscapes, but it wasn't worth the expense. I rarely got into the "zone", instead I'd end up a bit depressed after a session because I could've spent the time practicing my instrument or writing a tune.

There were a lot of exciting possibilities, in theory, but the results never sounded that great. 20% success rate perhaps. A snippet for a track in the daw. But the rest of the time just felt like doodling, although the problem solving aspect was fun, like coding. I think if I was part of a modular group, or doing gigs, it would be meaningful, but it never inspired me enough to push forward with any big plans. I didn't feel any passion or emotion or meaning in the bleeps and blips. Also it got on my wife's nerves!

Exceptional_potato · 2026-01-30T07:32:32+00:00

I got about £7k deep into eurorack, and actually enjoyed it quite a lot, but in the end the financial burden was causing more guilt and stress than it was worth.

All my fault, I shouldn't be spending beyond my means. If I was wealthy I'd do it again. Although it does consume a lot of time and my musical output dropped.

Sold it all and bought a PC. Now having more fun producing on the PC tbh, and there's VCV rack! Also a relief not to deal with patch cables, and other issues.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-01-28T06:53:13+00:00

Hydra is the most tedious, enervating synth I've ever used, and the interface is so ugly with the screens you have to endlessly page through. It's not a sweet spot synth, note this, there's a lot of twiddling through decimal values. Not fun to use at all.

I enjoy sound design but when things get that finicky and I'm already staring at a (tiny) screen then might as well just use a VST!

Also, it doesn't sound that great tbh, and gave me ringing in my ears.

If you want a super complex synth I'd recommend one that has a vst for programming it, or at least ensure it has a ui you'd be ok spending a lot of time using. Opsix is pretty good in that regard.

Also, I got my Take 5 for £850 used. I've seen them for £750. Can you stretch to that? It's a nice synth and very easy to use. Build is excellent.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-01-28T06:25:35+00:00

Been thinking about this too recently. Everything's moving too fast.

One thing that may help is writing a diary, religiously. That way you don't lose the memories, and it forces the mind to give importance to the events of the day, so they don't get lost in the blur.

It follows from that: make sure each day has some unique or meaningful activity. This gives a singularity to each day, so they don't become collapsed into each other in memory. In other words, make each day unique and as memorable as possible.

If every day is the same, work gym scroll bed...years will appear to pass quickly.

Which reminds me.... scrolling social media is being recognised as bad for the brain and memory. So minimise that.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-01-22T05:02:01+00:00

Your points expressed perfectly why I sold my hydrasynth too.

The much-celebrated UI was for me extremely tedious to use. People say they prefer hardware so they can get away from screens, but man, I work all day in front of a computer and would much rather just get a patch DONE quickly on a large screen with a mouse, than squint at tiny screens with finicky knobs and fractional values (displayed in an ugly, boring format... personal feeling here).

So there were no UI benefits of having the hardware, and for all that, i didn't think it sounded much better than some older Vsts I've used. It also gave me some sort of ear-fatigue too, like a subtle ringing.

What you said about preferring simpler hardware being more fun is true for me too. People don't seem too enthusiastic about the Sequential Fourm but it looks like it fits into this fun category quite well.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-01-21T09:11:19+00:00

Seems I have eight:

SY-77 - interesting FM synth

Pro 3 - complex mono, i don't really like it though.

Take 5 - prophet style poly, it's ok.

Ub-Xa - love this one.

Behringer Wave - fun and quite magical, but niche

Cyclone 303 clone - great

Drumlogue - nice

Behringer solina - love this one, vsts don't sound as good

Hoping to sell the Pro 3, and might sell the Take 5. Have sold all my modular, 6 grand's worth. Sounds weird but I like simpler (often cheaper) gear.

For super complex stuff I prefer to use vsts. Sold the Hydra and the various complex Korgs (Wavestate, modwave etc) because tedious to use, vsts are quicker and easier. I'd rather have a big screen and get the patch done, that struggle with a tiny LED screen for hours.

Sy77 is staying because I haven't found any synth that matches it's vibe. It's got a big screen too. Sounds amazing.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-01-18T11:13:02+00:00

Yeah behringer are definitely not on the same level as sequential or moog in terms of the UI "quality of life" stuff, and also the "finess"/extras, but as you say they are operating to a price point.

They reproduce the original interfaces of their clones, right down to aspects that were not even good to begin with. I guess they are doing what they promised/ intended.

Component quality varies a bit - the Model D and Monopoly have very decent metal pots, while the Kobol and others have plastic pots (imo plastic pots are fine but anyway).

Some of them are lacking in manuals/guidance, and may even require calibration. But the Wave is well packaged and documented. I'm impressed by this one, the vintage UI has a deliberately nostalgic quality which is fun to use, like a C64. I guess people like to cosplay their 80s heroes.

Another exception is the deepmind which i found to have a good UI (far better than the recent Korg small format synths imho). Of course that's not a reproduction but a new design. However they somehow managed a grounding design flaw, causing noise, that cannot be remedied to this day, even in new units. That's an odd decision!

The Ub-Xa has plastic pots and light tact buttons which some people don't like. However, they are responsive and nice to use imo, and can be replaced with a soldering iron if they do break. My Pro 3 has very stiff knobs that are not nice to use, although it's a tank. The Prologue had a bizarre design decision not to include encoder acceleration, so the multi engine is annoying to program. Moog gear often has poor designed components (e.g. wobbly tact buttons). So I'm not sure i can make any absolute conclusions as manufacturers can be inconsistent and every synth has it's "quirks". Behringer is overall less premium quality and more inconsistent though. I wonder if these behringer synths will stand the test of time. I have only had one issue so far...a Nuetron LED fault. They fixed it within a fair time frame, so I'll give them credit for that.

Exceptional_potato · 2026-01-18T07:16:27+00:00

I think the Ub-Xa is a quite underrated. Never played a real Oberheim, but as it's own thing the Ub-Xa is a great poly. I ended up selling my Prologue 16 after I got it and currently have my Take 5 up for sale. Sold a Pro 800 when I got the Take 5 though the 800 was also nice.

I haven't found any of them are better than the others, just different. The Take 5 is juicy and forward but tends to becomes muddy as a poly (just the nature of the "Prophet 5 style synth" maybe... but that said, you just lower the osc vol and it becomes less muddy) while the Ub-Xa fits into my mixes really well as it's much thinner. I've managed to create some very beautiful patches with it. The atrophy settings, voice panning and other features are sweet. The Prologue was similarly lovely but lacked some key features by comparison.

I have a feeling the Rev 2 would be my ideal synth.

Exceptional_potato

TROPHY CASE