Just wanted to hear your suggestions - I’m looking for a non-eurorack poly desktop synth (doesnt necessarily need to be a module, can have a keyboard as well if it must) thats fun to work with for some sound design potential, something capable but with a good UX still, so it would be fun to just make patches on my time away from the computer. I mostly use software as I work as a sound designer, but for making music I’ve found it does helps me using hardware and not be in front of a screen, as a sort of work-hobby seperation.
I’ve heard some suggest Waldorf Iridium, Hydrasynth, Supercritical Redshift in this regard, these seem pretty good to me but haven’t tried, I’d really like to have something thats not too cumbersome or menu-divy (maybe that would be the case for iridium?) but still has some more advanced/experimental features that makes it fun to design interesting sounds, not necessarily just a VA polysynth or something “classic”
Built-in sequencer is not super important to me, i have some external ones, T1 and Oxi 1
Budget irrelevant
things i have tried for reference that i didnt gel with super much:
Arturia Microfreak
Digitone (its great but Im not a huge FM guy, at least not only FM), A4
Microkorg (ages ago, its great but patching stuff used to not be fun, maybe the Microkorg 2 is good?)
sorry if this thread feels redundant, i’ve looked at other posts for suggestions but still felt like making one and would still love to get some suggestions
I don’t find the Iridium to be particularly menu divey, it’s relatively intuitive. There are some odd UI behaviours, I don’t like the way the save patch functionality has been implemented, but my workaround now is simply to save a patch to the desired slot at the outset, rather than finish crafting an epic patch and not know when slots are empty when it comes time to pick a destination slot.
You should really try the Iridium Core. I was sold After 20 minutes. I found it so intuitive. The large screen makes it very easy to see what’s going on and to take next steps.
Virus is a great sound design machine but a little old now; on the plus side it’s relatively cheap, but you could also just go to dsp56300.com…also applies to classic Waldorf gear.
I second that. Actually, for me the Iridium is pretty quick and intuitive to program. Most options are directly accessible via dedicated buttons and I like the overview on the touchscreen. Perhaps you could try it out in a shop nearby, to see if it works for you. In any case, the sound design options are endless
