You should take a look at '70s Korg monosynths like the 700, 770, etc in all their iterations. They can get some of this vibe going but won’t cost as much as a new car to purchase.
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I really like the MS-20 in all its incarnations. I have a vintage Mk1, but many of my friends have the mini. To say that theirs is more cooperative than mine would be an understatement (mine is often affected by scratchy pots, flaky key contacts, and all the other pitfalls one associates with vintage gear).
I love to crank both filter resonance knobs up nearly full and tweak the cutoff knobs for the most gnarly, gritty sound you will ever hear from an unprocessed analog synth… and then run it through the built-in pre-amp in the lower-right to find out that it can get even more aggressive!
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Another vote for the 3p. It’s great. I sold one to help fund some new gear, but I kinda miss it. The oscillator sync was particularly fun.
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Yeah that thing is cool how it has a very distinctive internally overdriven sound. Oddly, I find the 700 series to sound more different than I would expect given that they’re from the same era.
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Everyone loves these with good reason, was used on NIN’s 2013 tour and all over the hesitation marks album as well. My only turn off with it is those damn mini keys. You can also use the external input to process all sorts. The Behringer arp 2600 would be a powerhouse though, especially paired witha keystep or beat step.
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I love my MS-20 Mini. I got to spend some time with an ARP 2600 several years ago at Synthfest in Sheffield and it’s absolutely one of my favourite synths of all time. The MS-20 can’t 2600 but stick it through a spring reverb and it will give you beautifully odd, vintage-synth type sounds. It gets Radiophonic Workshop without much provocation, definitely!
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Absolutely. Both the MD-20 and 2600 have in common the ability to re-patch signals through a built-in pre, making both pretty great for earthquake time drums, bass blasts and sizzling lead sounds. I love them both.
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The feel totally endless, too. I can imagine owning it for the rest of my life and never discovering the full extent of what it can do. Plus I got it for £200, which is still baffling to me.
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To my ears, most of the “big” late 70s/eary 80s gear has distinct sounds:
- Moogs - present, even, predictable without being dull, steady, fun, upbeat
- ARP2600, Korg Monopoly - chewy, really gutsy
- MS 10/20: slightly unhinged, angry, scratchy
- Junos - somewhere between the Moog and the MS-x
- Oberheims - fizzy, enveloping
Of course, none of them sound this way all the time, they’re just tendencies.
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Add EMS as “experimental, burbling, cosmic laboratory, unpredictable”, and Yamahas as “expressive, brassy, enveloping” and Sequential Circuits synths as “classy, refined, smooth” and you’ll have it all pretty well covered.
They were really all very different and identifiable. With the rare (infamous) exceptions, no one was trying to recreate what anyone else was doing, but rather to improve upon it or make their own mark.
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Thanks everyone!
I think I’ll wait for Summer NAMM as really what would be ideal for my space would be the desktop version of the MS-20, since I have a Keystep and a Beatstep Pro, but the likelihood of them producing that seems low. At the moment, the mini seems the best fit for my space and the vibe I’m after. I really would like to see/try one of those Behringer 2600s in person though, just to make sure, but I’m still of the mind that it’s not as good of a fit for me as I need something that is quick-and-easy. I’m more into playing than fiddling around, which thankfully has kept me from falling down the modular rabbit hole/money pit.
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Just when I convinced myself that polysynths aren’t really my thing, I come across this Prophet 6 video and see it is exactly the sound I was after. Sadly, they are insanely expensive in Japan.
I did just get a Grandmother though and love it to death. Those two would be my ideal mono/poly duo I think.
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My mono / poly combo is the Matriarch and P6, so I know what you mean!
Prohet 6 is awesome but the u-he Repro VST gets you VERY close to that P6/P5 sound. For me polysynths don’t usually come to play until I’m putting final touches on tracks, so I could easily do that with the Repro alone. But the UI of the Prophet 6 is just so immediate. 
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Thanks! That’s very good to know! Time to fire up Repro and start playing around (I got it during a sale with Diva, but always gravitated toward Diva, so never really dug into properly).
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Have a look at the Take 5
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I’m just not a big fan of the look of it (but maybe it will grow on me over time). I think I’ll probably have to stick to the VST version for now anyway and start playing the lottery.
To be honest, it would be good to learn to program the Prophet using the u-he VST. No real point in having the real thing if I am unable to create the sounds I like.
At least now I know where to go for the sounds I’m after, and I have this lovely new Moog to play with, so it will keep me busy for a long time.
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If you like the Repro and want to have more of a hardware feel to the workflow, there’s the SFC-5 V2 (catchy name, I know) midi controller that costs about 250€ before taxes. Often if I’m working ITB I just grab a preset on the Repro and tweak it a little bit tho.
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Thanks! I’ll have a look.
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I was so quick to dismiss this because of the name and the fact that I’m scared of menu diving, but I love the form factor (perfect size for me). Most of the sounds I’ve heard from it have been way too polished and modern for my tastes, but the Boards of Canada type sounds here at around 1:00 sound great.
I have also been chatting with Sean Costello from Valhalla over on GearSpace about synth sounds from the 70s and early 80s, and he was telling me how much he loves the Take 5, so I’ll definitely be keeping it in mind as a contender.
You have great taste from all the music I’ve heard from you, so I should have been more open minded to begin with. Lol.
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I didn’t like the look of it either but in real live it looks quite nice imo. There are certainly uglier synths out there (hrrm, System 8).
It feels pretty sturdy and nicely built. And it sounds great imo. For it is the best option for a „poor man‘s“ prophet.
Doesn’t look as nice as a P5 or P6 but I guess it gets you in the ballpark (only have a repro 5 to compare unfortunately).
Form factor is great. There is no menu diving needed when designing sounds. Pretty much knob per function
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