Real Polysynth

The Lounge Other Gear
#21

so, you’re looking at a nord then? I haven’t played one put i understand the nord Stage 3 to be the best of both worlds - right?

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#22

Isn’t it that you have to play at lower level when stacking notes?

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#23

Prophet 12?

#24

Get a Digitone.

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#25

TB-303 will solve this problem.

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#26

Do what everyone else does: obsess about it for weeks and then buy a Rev2.

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#27

:rofl:

#28

Nord lead A1

#29

I recently got a OB6 as my first analog poly and been happy ever since. With the new vintage knob update it got even better. Don’t know if its within you budget?

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#30

OB-6 sounds very sweet.

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#31

Korg Prologue 8?

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#32

Peak/Summit

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#33

I have an old Russian Junost-21. it actually distorts when you play chords. IIRC it’s built on a bad version of old string machine tech, so in theory can play as many notes as there are keys. But it can’t. Beyond 3 it makes an ugly, crunchy mess. If the envelopes were better it might make a good techno machine. It’s shit, don’t get one.

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#34

Yes.

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#35

This thread is a bit aimless, no idea of the synths you have tried or budget. I imagine you will get all kinds of suggestions as a result.

I think one of the factors that designers take in to account when designing a polysynth is that it can play chords and the “apparent thinning of oscillators” to allow this. That is why the Internet will tell you that monosynths are better for leads and bass as they normally only require one note at time.

I find it hard to believe that of all the polysynths you have tried, they all sound awful when you play more than two notes. Are you playing them at the lower end of the frequency spectrum? That could account for it. Maybe spread out the voicing of your notes for the chord you are playing.

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#36

Maybe a synth you can better understand how to program patches?

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#37

“Most” poly synths don’t sound bad when you play chords on them. I’d wager it is the exact opposite. “Most” sound just fine. “Most” of the world of electronic musicians, from hobbyists to well paid professionals, get on just fine with everything from lower end poly synths to higher end ones.

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#38

The MM2, Peak, Blofeld, Virus all sound absolutely wonderful on poly duties. If you’ve tried a TI I’d suggest taking more time with it. One thing the Blofeld and Virus have going is > 8 voice polyphony (the MM2 is 12 voice). Peak is 8. The Blo and Virus can also layer as they’re true multitimbral (the MM2 is bitimbral, and you could upgrade to the summit for more voices and two sounds if the peak is your thing).

It’s all about dialing in your sound and style. Any one of these machines can make amazing or awful music, and if you’re looking for chords, pads, comping, then the authenticity of the classic waveforms is almost never going to be heard because your chords are sitting back in your mix. On your leads is where you’re more likely to hear that.

Also the blofeld and MM2 (if you can get it) are in a much more affordable category. If you don’t like the blo encoders, grab a knobby little controller and map it out for more control and never touch them.

Or you can get a tetra and have four-note chords and the Dave Smith sound for cheap.

Lots of options, but if you don’t like the peak, micromonsta 2, virus or blofeld I think you’re going to struggle to find something you love in a budget you can stomach.

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#39

Endlessly on Elektronauts:

@shinobi
There are trade-offs that you need to make arising from your various preferences:

  1. You want “unison poly”, which means that you need a fairly high voice count and probably multiple layers/timbres, which calls for a digital synth;

  2. You want low- or no-aliasing, which calls for either analogue or super-high-quality digital, which are expensive; as far as I know, the Nord Lead 2 and 2X are pretty good compared to the others you mentioned for aliasing, which may explain your relative preference for that;

  3. You have a certain budget, somewhere below 3,500 USD.

The first preference may be the easiest to address or rule out; I’m not a polysynth expert so I don’t know of any synths that have this “unison poly” feature, apart from stacking multiple sounds. If you know of any synths (even vintage ones that are out of scope for what you want now) that do this as you describe (without stacking multiple timbres), then letting us know would guide us towards helping you.

Otherwise, you need to consider something like a Novation Summit or Sequential Rev2, which can stack two sounds and still be polyphonic. Or consider stacking more than one synth to get the sounds you want.

Edit to add: consider Waldorf Kyra, Korg Prologue 16.

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#40

So this is what he was referring to.

1 Like