I know we’ve had similar threads to this; downsizing, curing GAS, etc; and this is a kind of combo of those threads;
I’ve got myself into a situation over the last 5 years (I’m still citing Covid as the main reason, which is bs) where I’ve amassed too many poly synths. (And I mean synths with keys here, none are desktop modules, there’s more of those lurking…);
Analog Keys
Prophet 6
Prophet Rev 2
Prophet 12
Prophet X
DSI Pro 2
Arturia Polybrute
Roland JD-XA
Waldorf Blofeld
Korg 01W
Moog Matriarch
I’m now looking at this list to decide which ONE (or two MAX) I should keep and commit to selling the others.
Every one of them is fantastic in their own way, every one has it’s own charm/vibe… but I want to go deep on one now, not wide on 10+ instruments.
Has anyone else been through a process like this?
Any thoughts on what you would keep and why?
(I want an all rounder poly, that’s fast to get ideas with and enjoyable to sound design on; and a few of them hit that criteria.)
Anyone thinking 'Sell them all and get ‘X synth’??
Flip it around and decide which one or two you want to sell, and after that let it settle and decide if you want to do that again. A much easier process.
I am leaning towards the Prophet X… and I was thinking if kept 2 it’d be the PX and Prophet 6 to give me the straight ahead analog poly (as in I don’t want the deep diving of the Polybrute or Prophet 12 alongside the PX if I keep that)
I like that idea, but this is coinciding with me having to physically downsize my space in the next few months and I have a load more music gear I have to move on; my guitar situation is way worse than my synth situation.
So, it’ll all be on eBay/Reverb (and some here) by the end of October.
I still play live shows… Moog One is PolyBrute territory, and I’ve not wanted to use that live because of the size, weight and general sensitivity… so the Moog One is out for me.
I think this is the reason I’m stacked on Dave Smith synths, but, apart from the Blofeld and Korg, they’ve all had that effect on me at some point.
I love how much ground the Prophet X covers, and does it so well, along with all the mod/fx functionality that I would think of (…and running it into the Analog Heat rounds it off).
The Prophet 6 and Matriarch induce the joy/smiles of analog simplicity and purity.
(I should add as a caveat to this; I have a Moog Sub37 that is going nowhere… I class that as my ONE mono synth.
I also have an A4mk2 and Digitone that are part of my core setup at this point.)
For me, if I could have only one poly keyboard it would be the Hydrasynth, I’d sell my AK and replace it with an A4Mk2 to stay within the letter of the law. Or just argue that the AK is really four monos, not one poly.
Monos are harder - I’d have a hard time choosing between my Syntrx and Voltage Lab 2. I wouldn’t want to give up my 2600m or Minibrute 2S.
If you can’t come up with which synth to keep on your own, then resolve to get rid of them all. Let that sit with you for a few days and see how you feel. Either you will feel strongly about keeping one or recognize that you could let them all go. In the latter case, you were buying stuff just to buy it.
If you aren’t in a cash crunch, consider boxing everything up except one. Doesn’t matter which, just pick one. Focus on it for a month. Then box it up and focus on the next one for a month. Keep doing this until you have a handle on each synth in isolation and then consider which to sell.
If you just need to reclaim space, the AK can be repalced with a much smaller A4. Blokeys can be replaced with a Blofeld. 01W can be replaced with any of a number of 1/2 width 1u Korg desktop modules. The JD-Xa could be approximated with the tiny MC-101.
I wouldn’t worry too much about this. Take one which feels good to you at the moment. I mean, we all know that this won’t be an ultimate choice. There’s just too much interesting stuff out there
Narrow down the time range to two months or so. It will be easier to pick something if it isn’t FOREVER. And meanwhile you can take photos of all the stuff you want to sell, put them into boxes and stow them away for a while. It will become apparent very quickly what you miss and what you don’t care about that much.
I had Matriarch + Prophet 6 but as I pretty much never used a poly synth on an actual track, I sold the P6 and was left with the Matriarch and my Elektrons (MD, MnM, Rytm, OT). If I ever get another poly it’ll be either a P6, P5, Take 5 or P12. But even the Matriarch alone covers so much territory (even some ”poly” duties), so it’s not like I need a poly.
If these were on the smaller / less expensive side, then yes. But it’s more like a flagship next to another already. So lots of good stuff to choose from already.
I’d say to keep the Rev2 and sell the rest. I am biased as a Rev2 made me the most creative I ever got with music, wrote some of my best songs on one. Don’t have it anymore, but that’s my story, yours should be to just keep the Rev2.
Spend all the synth money on one killer recording chain, like a top notch DI, good mic pre/channel strip, killer ADC/DAC, etc. I downsized recently and got a Radial JDI and an RME interface with the money so that I can’t spend it on more synths but it makes what I have left better. No noise, deeper sound, makes my 4 synths now sound a lot better than 10 synths before.
