I did buy my first synth in 2000, the Novation Nova. A pretty amazing bang for the buck package. Not everything I was looking for sonically but a damn good start.
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An Ensoniq ASR-X would’ve been a good buy in 2000. Get one with a synth card installed and you’re good for all in one music production.
You could still find MC-202s for around $300 back then.
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I was also 18 in the year 2000 and bought a Korg MS2000. Very happy 
Which I think was just about around your budget.
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I had a Waldorf micro q, same or nearly the samw engine as the blofeld, sounded top but was hard to program, needs a good midi controller. Waldorf Rack Attack as drum synth, but they need a good sequencer to really shine. Both would work well with the octatrack in the future or maybe a hapax was needed back then.
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Elektron Sidstation.
At least that’s what I did. 
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me too! not the wisest decision in retrospect!
Well I’m sold
I knew that was one of the synths Air used on Moon Safari. Lucky 18 year old you!
I was 18 in y2k. And into electronic music. And going into college. That year, I bought a few different synths and drum machines…Roland Alpha Juno 2, TX81Z, TR-505, Korg EM-1 (the one that had both drum and synth sounds in one box). Shortly after that, I bought an EMU ESI-32 sampler and ran Cubase 1.0 on a Pentium 120mhz laptop running Win95. That was probably my most prolific time making music. Limited gear and all the time in the world.
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I was a student in 2000
This was my kit
2nd Hand Ensonic Mirage
Boss SP303 sampler
Boss Dr202 drum machine
Pentium II pc running Fruity Loops 4
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All I owned was a $100 fender acoustic guitar around 2000. Traveled all over with it, loved it! If I could have added something it would have been a drum machine and a two track portastudio.
Unfortunately all my money was tied up with booze and partying. Good times though and zero regrets!
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In 2000 I was a junior in college and purchased a Korg Triton with a grant from my school.
I used the Triton alongside my brother’s hand me down laptop and a CD full of warez from, uh, someone. 
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I was a broke student but knowing what I know now I should have started with an oxygen 8 controller and the DSI Evolver desktop.
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I am pretty sure my main rig at that time was… ensoniq asr-x / korg ea1 & er1 (my mc-303 died in 99)
I was in a band with my roommates at the time which added…another asr-x / quasimidi raveolution 309/ oberheim matrix-6 / 2 korg prophecy and a korg trinity
mixed through 1202 with lexicon vortex as fx send
there was other stuff around but that was the setup that we kept wired and jammed on.
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None, you couldn’t afford any.
You’d build a crappy computer from thrown out parts with a Soundblaster Sound Card and use some Altec Lansing computer speakers from the thrift store.
You’d also use a cracked copy of fruity loops 1.3 and Steinberg Neon + One Ping Only your only software instruments.
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That’s kinda what I was getting at here. What could you get for £500 in 2000?
With inflation, that’s about £900 in today’s money.
If I was buying my son £900 worth of gear today, I’d have a tonne of choice.
By 2000 most classic gear was expensive, but there were a few affordable low key sleepers (which have gone up now) and some cheap analog like MAM stuff.
Off the top of my head
Yamaha TQ5, TG33, SY55, RM1x all quite cheap then
MAM MB33/FAT Freebass
Roland MC-303/MC-505
Cheetah MS-6
Oberheim M1000
Akai S700
Atari ST/Amiga
Shit tons of rack fx were cheap then, from older Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Zoom, etc to stuff like BBD delays and spring reverbs.
But if you want some more ideas have a look at the classified ads in the magazines here, quite funny how prices change over time.
Edit - actually there might not be any/many as recent as 2000 there.
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A little after that, but I got an Akai MPC1K and Microkorg around 2002 and that was a killer combo that would stand the test of time.
If I were to go back in time and were on a tight budget I would get an SP-303 and cassette four track. Cassette four tracks were pretty cheap back then because everyone was going digital.
Juno 106s were cheap back in the day as well. I got one with a missing slider for $100.
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