I am making music with hardware only since quite a few years and atm I am superhappy with my combination of Octatrack + Syntakt for producing plenty of varieties of house and techno.
Something that I am missing however is a synth for pads, soundscapes, sounds that evolve slowly in the background. So far ive always been using samples for that, but in the long run i find that rather unsatisfying.
What Im especially looking for are
a) “esoteric”, dreamy, lush sounds, like the one you can hear right in the beginning in this track here:
and b) Solina-ilke strings. These are two kinds of sounds Ive been really into since a long time.
I wanna keep my setup small, so I wouldnt want to buy lets say a Streichfett + X, just one synth. As my space is limited, Id prefer either no or only a small keyboard.
I think I know pretty much all the synths that are out there, but I guess theres always something that goes under my radar. So far I havent found the one. Waldorf Blofeld might be the most promising so far.
What you need isn’t a synth, it’s high quality external FX, particularly reverb.
Check Strymon Bigsky, or Eventide H9. The H9 for maximum versatility, with smallest footprint. Bigsky if you want a more hands on knob per function reverb. As you have OT and a synth, that leaves you with a cue out/fx in slot for inputs. Maximum space conservation.
I spent a long time just buying synths until I realized that a good fx unit is it’s own synth.
Just make a big, blurry wash of HQ effect-y reverb and any source you run through it becomes dreamlike/esoteric/ambient.
A used Blofeld is pretty cheap these days, and hard to beat at that price point when you consider it’s multitimbral, has up to 25 voices, 3 oscillators, 2 filters and an extensive modulation matrix, and wavetables. All that will give you a lot of options for evolving sounds.
Effects are mediocre at best, I feed mine into a Zoom MS70, you get tons of modulation effects, delays and reverbs.
Operation is pretty intuitive and straightforward, you’ll get decent results pretty fast without stuying the manual (as opposed to FM synthesis on machines like the Digitone, where you’d need to wrap your head around the algorithms and experiment a lot to be able to get what you want).
When you get a white one, make sure the encoders are working, at least the earlier Blofelds appear to have had problems with encoders failing.
If you have the space and money for a Modwave, or a Hydrasynth, that might be a worthwhile upgrade, however IIRC none of those is multitmbral.
If you follow @Hlecktro’s advice and go for effects, consider a Beebo or a Zoia, they let you build just the effects you want, a bit like a modular synth, at least the Beebo also offers granular synthesis. Both cost as much as a Blofeld plus a MS70, but they require a bit more of a time investment.
Digitone is a good choice. Maybe consider a Minilogue XD or something else more knob per function. The little Juno boutique might be good, especially if you add some interesting effect pedal(s).
Just like clockwork the usual suspects jump straight to ‘Get a Digitone’, what a frickin’ surprise (not) as if it’s the only synth in the world.
Not even taking the time to think about it, offer up other suggestions - nope. Just throw out ‘get a Digitone’ like Pavlov’s dog, mindlessly reacting and spewing the first (and last, and only) thing to ever pop in their head whenever someone asks this question.
I love the Digitone, and sure one can create nice pads with it. But it’s not the synth I’d recommend for these kinds of really warm sounds. Warm, lush beauty can be achieved, maybe, with some effort but it’s in the outer regions of the Digitone’s sound spectrum. At least that’s my experience with it and judging by most examples I’ve seen. Especially when it comes to the Solina part. Warmth isn’t exactly the Blofeld’s comfort zone either, but I’d rather recommend that. Lots of LFOs, envelopes, filter types and routing options come in handy for evolving pads. Plus the wavetables, of course.
There’s a String user oscillator for the Korg Minilogue XD module and its internal sequencer with three lanes of automation allows for more elaborate patches than the rudimentary LFO section suggests. It’s got quite a distinctive sound though and far fewer possibilities (not counting the pretty impressive third party oscillators and fx library) than a Blofeld or Digitone. The builtin FX on the other hand are pretty good on the XD. And again, if you can get into the idea of buying additional software to install on a hardware synth this instrument can be extended to make quite amazing sounds.
Honestly, Streichfett + X sounds like the better option to me. If you really like the Streichfett and this kind of sound is important to you, none of the synths named so far in this thread can fully replace it, I think. The Blofeld desktop version can usually be found used for a lot less than any of the other options here, so that alone might make it a good choice to just try out. It’s a great synth, don’t think I’ll ever get rid of mine.
