I was watching a video where the guy was going through recent synth’s on Sweetwater and I felt he had a point…
I remember it wasn’t long ago that spending three grand on a synth was serious money that many thought was crazy…
Now it is insane how many synth’s they have on offer that are five grand, they obviously have many cheaper options that are amazing too… however I’m just wondering when did it become ok that a top shelf synth from a famous company go for prices you buy a used car for?
I thought the premise was how this stuff is so much cheaper then back in the seventy’s but while yes, is it that much cheaper?
Idk, I guess they are way more powerful and stacked full of better sound or options then the three grand ones but I don’t get why they are two grand more?
How are people affording these when everything is getting harder and harder and it feels like we are just barely getting by… It feels wrong somehow to me… I make decent money too, I just don’t feel good about any of these prices honestly.
I wasn’t around in the 70s but I remember wanting virus c or nord (something red 
) in the late 90s and it was pretty expensive.
weren’t good synths always been expensive? and nowadays there are way more affordable versions?
the pandemic bumped up the prices for everything for sure, but I still think there’s way more affordable priced synths then 30 years ago, and honestly if price is the issue, then software world offers you a whatever you need nowadays for a fraction of a cost of the expensive ones.
if I take a look at Juno 106 for example - $1700 for 6 voice synth with 2 types of oscillators and two filters, we’re talking $1700 in 1984… if you adjust it to today’s money that’s reeealy expensive.
Dirt cheap compared to the old days.
Yes I agree, but I guess that is my question, if you can get a mini freak for $600, why is a third wave five grand? I get why people want them, but just why is it so much more when it doesn’t seem to cost close to that to build? I’m just wondering why that has become ok as the new normal… people seem ok with it and buying multiple synth’s that cost like that, but why is that ok to them?
I would say if there was some R&D costs that will reflect on the price, not every synth is clone from the past, sometimes it costs to create a long living product so you pay for that, you don’t have to though, you can sure go for a variety of affordable and capable options, but I guess if these synths are being sold then someone wants to buy them…
No. It’s good to have expensive, or premium, options but the barrier to entry has never been lower.
What trips me out of that I get spending five grand on your one special lifetime synth that you love and covet, but these days it is just another one and they’re is a mark 2 a year or two later and they sell it for three grand to get the new one and nobody really makes a big deal that the guy just burnt two grand to nothing just for a couple years of playing it with nothing to show and is ok with that… it just gets under my skin a little how I feel maybe the whole market is kind of playing us and no way I could do that… crazy times I guess.
in fairness isn’t quite a lot of the tech in a minifreak Mutable Instruments open source stuff?
So there’s massive cost saving immediately.
home and auto maintenance and ownership is what’s too expensive these days! Have to do minor roof patch up for shingles and quotes range from 2-3k and a new roof over 20k! That is what is expensive not synths.
I feel like there are more options in all price ranges in recent years. A lot of the more expensive synths are polyphonic analog or hybrid machines, that are either flagship models or vintage recreations. But there is also mid-tier where you can get something like a Peak or a Take 5, and a less expensive tier where you can get something like a Minilogue or Minifreak.
And things might seem more expensive, but in some ways are cheaper now. The original Rev1 Prophet 5 was $3995, which is a little more than the asking price now for the Rev4 version, but, $3995 in 1978 money is actually $19,200 in todays money. So it is expensive, but it is also kind of great deal.
No, but they’re becoming too possessive. Imo, etc.
I think there is a factor of more little guys making big synths… but then also some bigger companies pushing a big flagship… but yeah I think it is mostly that companies have discovered there is indeed a bigger market than they thought for the extreme flagships or limited run synths. I think there is something about expensive things being more recession proof as the people who can afford them are less effected by recession in the first place.
Yeah although I feel this just as much if not more so on the cheaper synths, there is an element of trying to market and sell gear like it is a consumable that you use up after a year or two and then you need whatever is next.
Personally I probably wouldn’t buy any single new synth for 5k but I would consider it on something vintage that I was in love with. New stuff I find you are far more likely to be getting caught up in hype and have people gaslighting themselves into singing the praises of the device to prove the worth to themselves. But that all also takes my budget in mind, some people do actually have the budget to be readily grabbing as many 5k synths as they want… and there is nothing wrong with being hyped up about cool new instruments.
If you read any good or significant musician’s interview, you will notice how expensive it was to have a synth in those old days. They almost talk about those as lifetime goals. Today I can get 3-5 synths that will forever be good enough for me for about $2000.
This is wild! I recently called a technician for my garage door and he asked $80 upfront just to look at it! And literally today I got my car back from the service and paid $220 “diagnostic fee”! WTF!!! How am I going to even save money for my later years I don’t know…m
I think if you look back at some synths from a decade or more ago that their prices will be much higher than you might have thought once you adjust for inflation.
Like the Yamaha DX7 was £1.5k according to Wikipedia, not sure if that was just the initial price or if it dropped heavily soon after, but in today’s money that would be nearly £5000.
If we take something a little more recent like the Virus TI Desktop which was £1200 according to the SOS review, in today’s money that’s about £2000. <–EDIT got this wrong initially, that should be about right.
I remember I bought a mpc 1000 when they first came out for a grand and I’m sure people would say that is three grand in today’s money but really it felt just like a grand feels today… in fact my retro mpc live 2 was $1200 and I feel it is about the same quality and feels similar… so I know it can be done. Stuff cost more sure but a grand is a grand… I’ve watched his basically almost finish a house in a week next to mine and I’m sure they will want around $550,000 for it and I have no idea why it is so expensive… I have watched everything that went into it and no way they have spend 2-3 hundred grand on materials and labor… I think some things are just being easy over priced because they are getting away with it and nobody can really do anything about it…
I get there are cheaper synth’s that are a good value, I said that. I just don’t see how a Waldorf Quantum needs to cost five grand… I Guess people are ok with it though.
I feel very much the same about synth prices (the flagship ones) getting too expensive, but at the end of the day I’m more than fine with it, at least works very well for keeping GAS in check and reconsider used or cheaper vintage gear!
Everything is too expensive nowadays.
Living costs in general have gone up. I’d say that synth prices are about what you’d expect in the grand scheme of things. The idea that synths are more expensive these days is kind of an illusion due to inflation, and maybe there’s more big expensive synths now because the market is bigger? I’m not sure about that actually because I wonder how much DAWs and plugins being so prevalent have eaten into synth manufacturer’s bottom line.
TBH I feel like an UDO Super Gemini for £3.5k is really pretty good considering what you’re getting, I hope I can afford one someday soon. I heard that the price will increase soon.
guitars are wild, there are $20-15k guitars on sweetwater and it’s cool, but a synth for $3k and everyone loses their minds