I’m being offered used Deepmind 12 and a Sequential Rev2 8 voice.
I can only afford one of them so I need to figure out which one suits me better. It seems to me on the surface that the Rev2 is a bit more deep and capable of more ambient-ish sounds, which I like, and the Deepmind is more suited for cooking up various 80s sounds, although it seems to be able to do lush pads as well. And the Rev2 is about 2x more expensive.
Anyone care to comment on the difference between these two synthesizers?
A quick search of the forum reveals some previous comparisons between the two:
https://www.elektronauts.com/search?q=deepmind%20rev2
What are you looking for in a poly synth?
Thank you I’ll take a look at that link.
My style is mostly lush ambient and rather dirty gritty techno. I’m loving all the videos I’ve seen of the Waldorf Iridium and the Novation Summit, and I actually think those synths would be more suited for me. But I’m being offered those two used, and I live in an island way up in the north (Iceland) with massive import taxes, so it’s way cheaper to buy used stuff here than from abroad. So sticking to local is best, but limits your choices 
Do you have anything else that these will compliment? They’re very different machines. The fx on the dm12 are really solid but I hate recommending a synth for the effects unless it’s your only kit. How important is the keybed? The dm is a little small and squishy feeling despite not being small keys.
I have A4 MK2, AR MK2, OT MK2, DFAM, Waldorf Blofeld, Ti2 and AR MK1.
For effects I have AH MK1, Eventide Space, Zoia and OTO Bim.
So In all this I see a gap for a massive multivoice analog synth for creating textures.
On that note, I’m also being offered a Sequential Pro 2 at a very good price. But I’m wondering since it’s only 4 voices, it might not be as fitting as Deepming or Rev2.
Any thoughts on that?
I’ve struggled to find a comparison of the Pro 2 with other modern synths… so I don’t really know how competent it is wrt the other options.
Whatever its other merits, the Pro 2 has four oscillators not four voices. It’s a mono synth, not a poly synth.
What are you actually looking for?
Pro2 is actually paraphonic, not mono.
You can set it to four voice paraphony, at which point each osc is a voice. Thanks to the superwaves it still sounds very thick, and they did some tricks with the VCA so that each osc has its own. The only place it’s not a true poly is the filters, which are shared across all voices.
I recently bought a Pro2 and cannot recommend it enough - it sounds amazing and has an awesome level of functionality.
The paraphony gets some way towards being a poly, but there are obviously limits, so if that’s what you’re wanting, it may not be right.
I guess I don’t really know what I want, because I’m not sure what these synths can offer, until I’ve tried them But something that can play many voices and create thick chorded textures sounds appealing.
I btw plunged for the Pro 2, since I got it cheap for $870, so I can always get my money back if I don’t like it. Have to say that I do love what the Pro 2 can do when sequenced or played with and ARP.
Now since I got the Pro 2 so cheap I’m wondering whether I should go for the Rev2 as well 
Am I right to assume that Pro 2 and Rev2 cover pretty different Sonic territories and should complement each other pretty nicely?
Correct. But considering all your other gear, you probably had the Pro2 territory covered already.
The Rev2 is excellent for this, I’m using the 16 voice with amazing results. BUT, if the 2nd hand unit you were offered was an early production model, then it’s essential to try it first or get an iron clad “no questions asked return/refund” guarantee. Early units were a bit hit and miss with dodgy pots.
The ti2 and effects all rule out everything I said about the deep mind effects. They’re not in the same league with what you’ve got. We have a lot of the same gear, honestly if it wasn’t an either or I would maybe add a peak, but I think the rev2 will do way more for you run through any of what you’ve already got for fx or ti2 etc. Nice score on the pro2 btw.
Ahh good to know. Do you know how the failure was experienced? Did they stop working, or just unresponsive and slow ?
Yeah Peak or Summit, those are really tempting. And you are right. The effects on the Ti2 are gorgeous, that stereo delay is just amazing!
It was like dirty encoder behaviour, causing values to jump around (which was not helped by the crap early OS versions). Simply bad QC on components.
You will notice it by seeing the value for an encoder or pot suddenly appear on the display, and usually flickering up and down. It was really obvious on my first Rev2 where the filter attack was one of the dicky ones, which rendered it pretty useless. But it’s all in the past (like the early DT’s), now the Rev2 is pretty much perfect imo.
Good to know. Thanks for the tip