If you have a push 2 and live 10 suite wavetable is a fun graphical synth to tweak on the push.
If you’re getting into synthesis I’d recommend
Moog voyager
Prophet 6
Nord lead séries
Novation x station
Bass station II
It’s interesting I actually find the sub37 more immediate than the sub phatty since they both share the same sound engine moog just brought more of the functions to the front panel rather than having to dive into the menus. To each his own…
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Exactly!
Immediate is different for everyone. Is a synth immediate because it has presets, immediate because it has a wide sweet spot, immediate because there is no menu diving… we all like different sounds, different styles…when discussing the most immediate synth you have played, not everyone has played with the “non-immediate” Micron to compare it with, lets say, the “more immediate” Blofeld…
Experience & skill level also play a huge part. Was the synth immediate the first day you had it …or immediate once the functions were learned.
Someone asked if the op-1 would be considered immediate… I haven’t had it very long (love it!), but as far as I can tell, when it comes to the synths, you start with a preset. You can get ideas down quick, but tweaking knobs can drastically change the sound & there are a lot of sound design options. So I personally wouldn’t call it an immediate synth, but I bet a lot of other people would disagree.
Most of my experience is with samples all though I do love synths, but I’m still learning how to make sounds from scratch. I would consider all my synths immediate when it comes to following the sound / letting the sound guide me, but when it comes to making a specific sound from scratch, I only know how to make a handful of sounds, so I’m not experienced enough to answer that question.
Still I’ve enjoyed reading this thread… so far it seems synths made by Nord & Moog got mentioned the most (quick observation, I could be wrong)… I bet it’s because the synths in question have wide sweet spots & not a lot of menu diving…
Also I can see why modular synths were brought up. If you know how to make sounds from scratch & know how to use them, I bet it’s pretty quick to make what you want. I wouldn’t say immediate for a beginner, but someone with experience, I see it.
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The TO already has a 6U Eurocrack System, so the modular recommendation was not what the TO was asking for.
I’ve got a few Elektron machines, and a 6U Eurorack system
IMO, If a synth is immediate it should mean that with little knowledge of the specific synth itself anyone with synthesis knowledge could sit in front of it and produce decent to good result relatively quickly.
A synth may seem immediate for a a long time user because of knowledge of the synth and muscle memory, but this is the result of time spent and the exact opposite of immediacy.
The electribe emx1, yamaha cs Reface, and are quite immediate in the way I’ve described immediacy.
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An immediate Synth must have a preset saving Feature.
I immediately get frustrated on the Octatrack but am fine a few days later… Sorry to derail 
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No one for the DSI rev2?
It Is a so great synth!!
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Valid point. I make Virus patches from an init patch and I would argue it is pretty immediate that way. It’s not WYSIWYG but it does have a layout such that it is quick if you know synthesis and know what you’re after.
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I found the microbrute very immediate without presets
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Let me know what settings you are using on your Dominion or Sub37 and I will try to reproduce it on the NLA1
As much as I like and prefer my Rev2, and even though I’m getting rid of Nord L4 and A1, I still think the Nords are better “instant gratification” synths because they have a wider sweet spot, and the Rev2, well, behaves like analog synths do.
Anyway, my vote goes to the Lead 4. Excellent layout, no fancy stuff, no menus, and all the filters you need. X4!
At thrice the cost, OB6 or Prophet6. Less flexible than the Nords (& Rev2) but the limitations I have on the OB6 means less permutations to settling on a sound.
First thing first … I don’t want to start a discussion digital vs analogue here … but here two analogue Moog-ish synths are compared to a digital instrument.
From my experience I can tell that sometimes even good emulations of analogue synths may lack particularly at the bottom end, if they are directly compared to an analogue instrument. I have found myself differences between Korg MS20 emulation and hardware, between Korg Arp Odyssey emulation and hardware, and a few others. Even the Jupiter-8 simulation of the System-8 has less fullness at the bottom end compared to the original.
But with some FX, like compression and EQ, we can support some VA to be hard to tell apart from analogue sources
To me, it means: when you have a thought about how you’d like to change the sound, you can make that change very quickly and intuitively.
In that sense, any machine is intuitive once you’ve used it enough, but ideally you don’t have to and don’t risk forgetting how to use it if you don’t touch it for a month.
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My synths are currently packed away but I’ll post a recipe when they’re set up.
@SoundRider totally fair argument digital v analogue. Nord IMO does an excellent job at emulating analogue. The most convincing example for me was using 48 dB filter on the Nord lead 4r I used to own.
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See? Program => Preset
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a mixture of both
IMO ‘no menu diving’ is a very important precondition for designing an ‘immedate’ instrument.
But there is a second important property too and this is the ‘layout’. The layout has to have a logic, which is easy to perceive and to learn, and, which better follows the sound creation and shaping process and it should be similar across similar instruments.
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To me presets just means it’s immediate to pull up a sound you already created.
Again, an immediate synth is different for everyone, but what I consider to be an immediate synth is a synth with a wide sweet spot. A synth that you can make a sound with, from scratch, quickly.
However, I do understand why someone would think presets equals immediate… but it wouldn’t be immediate for people who do not use presets.
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