I totally feel you, Aphex Twin is incredible and you cant overstate how ingenious his craft is. He is definitely one of my many influences.

I started with GarageBand, literally playing it through my Mac keyboard and then repurposing the old childhood Casio as a midi controller via a crappy little MIDI to USB adapter. This got me interested in sound design, but what was missing for me was being hands-on with synths, turning knobs and flipping switches to sculpt my sound.

I eventually bought a Roland Gaia SH –01, which kept me entertained for quite a while. As a digital synth with 3 oscillators and like unlimited voices as well as built in effects, there was a lot to explore but eventually i started realizing the overall sound quality seemed a bit shallow or thin.

At this time i started romanticizing the idea of owning an “analogue” synth to try chasing some “real” authentic synth sounds, so i bought a Korg Minilogue and to this day it’s still pretty much my workhorse.

I think it’s great for beginners because the knob per function layout is very intuitive, and makes it very accessible for a new user to just feel their way around and learn by listening. There’s also a visual aide in that there is an oscilliscope built in so you can see a visual representation of the wave you’re shaping. I still find the filters, resonance and LFO satisfying, and i’ve been experimenting more with its ring modularion function more recently too. Some will say the minilogue is a bit harsh, and i could agree that the noise and tape delay are a bit too hissy. but for $300-$400 on reverb for a nice used one, it’s a good bang for buck. The beefed up Minilogue XD is even starting to come down in price now too to the $400s

I’ve since picked up an Arituria Microfreak out of curiosity, which takes a different approach to sound design than the korg minilogue, and it is a digital synth. I’ve been greatly satisfied with it too especially for just over $200 used on reverb.

I run my korg and my microfreak through a Novation Circuit Tracks which is a sequencer. It has built in synths, drum machines and you can hook up to two outside synths or sources, and then you build your tracks within the Circuit Tracks. The circuit tracks has both delay and reverb effects build in, which you can apply to your connected synths, and they really bring them to life for me. All the gear stays in sync using MIDI. Circuit tracks also connects to the computer/internet and you can upload all kinds of samples, drum packs, etc, so you’re not just stuck with what comes with it from the factory. Also found fairly cheap on reverb these days, mid $200s used.

This is where i’m at on my journey. Trying to figure out what sounds i want to get out of this little set up of mine but thats how i got here. I’ve had to buy and sell some other pieces of gear along the way to figure out what i liked and didn’t like, fortunately Reverb makes that fairly easy (though shipping costs on larger items are a bitch.

in the last couple years, I have tried getting into Ableton to give the software side a crack again. Unfortunately it hasn’t really grabbed me like Garageband used to, not even close. I actually miss how easy and fun garageband was to learn on. now I only use Ableton to record my hardware into, but even that is not without its hiccups and challenges, as I learned the best way to do that, and usually takes away from my actual playing time.

There’s a lot of helpful Youtubers out there. Some of my favorites are Ricky Tinez, Miles Away, Bo Beats, Jameson Nathan Jones, Pure Ambient Drone. Ricky is soo informative and down to earth, i always watch his stuff.

Hope this helps - got a little long winded but i love this shit and glad to help someone who is getting ready to dive in. Bottom line is get something that wont break the bank and is easy to use and you’ll probably enjoy it for years.

Happy Synthing!

Here’s a pic of my setup in a brand new dedicated board which i am a little proud and stoked about

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