Yes or yes?
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Iām not so sureā¦. When I think back to the gear you could pick up for stupid low prices in the early 90s and still be able to make music that could be geo-located, naive to instant international trends, that was pretty sweet in hindsight and I wish Iād exploited it more.
But, kind of agree tooā¦
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I agree. I donāt know about you all though but the energy in the air right now among the whole industry is like āokayā¦so what next?ā Feels like we are all waiting for the next phase.
We got all the cool sequencers. you want a brand new Prophet 5? Go get it. There is an MPC for every desktop. Modular is easier to get into than ever with the Moog / Pittsburgh stuff to start you off. We have the āXDā versions of the modern classics like Minilogue, even FM is cool againā¦I could go on.
I feel like at this point if I want a particular sound there are multiple options already on the market.
Edit: none of this is bad, just interesting to see how the industry has grown. If only Roland would reissue the Junoās the way Sequential did the Prophet 5ā¦
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Actually, I am not sure Iād say yes. I mean, certainly when compared to the past, there are many more choices at widely varying price points, but I am pretty disappointed that there isnāt more available that is sonically more innovative based on modern technological advances. I mean, so many synth companies, especially in hardware, are doing so little that is new, and simply harkening back to old synth engines and modes, regurgitating things that are iteratively better or more complex, but certainly not in any way revolutionary, though based on updated technology. I mean, look at whatās happening in Modular. Cool, to be sure, and I canāt really say much about what might be really new there, but standalone synths are not making the kind of headway I would think possible given the incredible advances in hardware possibilities.
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No question. Think of how expensive everything use to be. Sure you hear stories about 303s and 808s being stupidly cheap, but look how expensive the average poly was. Compare that to today. Also just look at the plethora of synth options available, and the vast amounts technological advancements with both hardware and software. Weāre living in a time in which a kid with a laptop could make an album, and then immediately put it up for sale (yes, in many cases there is quality control issues, but the same was true back then, I have the shitty record comps to prove it).
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For those who already have a pair of the silver boxes, maybe. For those who donāt, itās a bit unfortunate, I think. 
(Iām in the latter category)
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In the past month, I have spent nearly $3,000 on two synths whose origins are 10 years old, and whose technology is not much different than what was widely available 15 years ago (the A4 MkII and OT MkII). I am willing to do this precisely because there isnāt really anything else on the market that really compares well with what these āsynthsā do in their respective roles. This speaks volumes about how Elektron was ahead of their time when they created these boxes, and also speaks volumes about the lack of real progress by anyone else over what is now a pretty long time.
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Iām gonna rain on this parade even though Iām guilty as hell of this as well: itās āgreatā that we can all afford machines that many of us would never have even been able to touch 30+ years ago, butā¦
How much more disposable, mass-produced plastic garbage is this putting into the world, and who is that great for? I mean, nobodyās gonna hold on to a Behringer 303āor even a mid-range Roland or Korgāthe way original Junos and Prophets etc. have been preserved. The production runs on those things were much smaller, there were many fewer options, and they were built at a time when people actually planned to maintain and repair gear rather than just dump it for the next shiny object. Synth ownership was more of a zero-sum game than an endless cornucopia.
Of course there are exceptions today, and of course everybody on this forum is a responsible consumer (right?). Democratizing music is great, too. But given the state of the world, maybe we should all just be playing VSTs that sound pretty much as good as most hardware, or else severely limiting our setups? I mean, my home studio looks like some prog synth godās from back in the day, and Iām just a hack hobbyistā¦
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Absolutely the best time, so far. Also the best time to be making music. Never had the variety and quality of tools at the price, plus the abundance of information.
I also think itās going to get better.
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Yes, absolutely and I love it!
I have the impression, that almost every day there is something new released.
Hardware, Software, Modular, Apps, DIY, ā¦ itās like several expanding universes or like an evolution, where there are branches of trees, which are getting more diverse and specialized.
Aaaaand I have the impression, that more musicians collaborate e.g. with Software programmers (for example Hainbach with Audiothing or Bram Bos) or in general it seems to be easier for a single person or a little group than some decades ago to develop a hardware and let it produce in a professional quality.
Also Kickstarter/Tindie helps innovators to start their hardware development through money collecting.
And Rasperry Pi / Axoloti and so on are also great platforms for developing own instruments.
My only complain would be, that I donāt have enough time for playing and trying all the things, that I already have (i know, a rather decadent āproblemā) 
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This!
I wasnāt into synths in the 90s and all my friends who were have INSANE collections accompanied by origin stories about finding ARPs in sheds for Ā£10 etc.
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What I miss are more new inspiring ideas and concepts for electronic music. How many groove boxes and synths are out there having quite similar concepts since decades?
Where are new concepts like the Modular Synths, when there was nothing else like it ā¦ concepts, which could generate new ideas for the next generations of electronic musicians? Or like the first groove boxes or the first MPCs, which supported to create new musical genres? May be I missed something 
This said, itās a great time to buy a lot of classical and modern builts, re-builts, modulars, non-modulars, and an overwhelming number of plug-ins for relatively low budget. Most of the gear is on pro quality level. And last but not least, it doesnāt take a contract with a lable to produce and publish our work. TBH there is nothing to complain about it 
Iād say the best time was late mid-to-late 90s, when pawn shops everywhere were filled with old analog gear for next to nothing. Not only synths but Reel to reel tape machines, 4-track tape machines, tape echo units, old pedals and so on. Now is a good time as far as new technology goes, but not the best for used gear.
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Guilty here for sure! Not sure if this makes me less or more guilty, but I tend not to throw anything away for the shiny new object. I get the shiny new object, but just heap it on top of the old dusty object. This morning I was thinking that my home office music and photography āstudioā (room) is beginning to make me feel like Gary Numan in his setup with synths in a circular design (mine is U-shaped). Totally unnecessary for what I do, but attainable due to the lower prices of technology today.
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Seriously, music technology, especially if itās made to last and to be used for years, even decades isnāt the thing you should feel guilty about buying. Maybe think twice whether you need a new phone every two years instead.
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When I get to an age at which I will no longer be interested or able to play my instruments, or I need to downsize my living space, I have little doubt that nearly everything I have purchased over the past 25 years will end up being gladly used by someone else for maybe another 25 years (hopefully).
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In terms of availability of affordable new instruments yes, best time so far.
In terms of vintage gear being affordable, worst time so far. Ebay kind of ruined the chance of finding even a modest bargain, a simple example being you could pick up an old Casio for a few pounds, now those same toys go for stupid money. I wonāt even mention low key vintage synths, and of course the classic gear is plain ridiculously priced, mostly, although there are still some bargains to be found.
In terms of easy access to information about gear, yes the best time so far.
In terms of hoping to stand out probably the worst time so far, the internet has been both a blessing and a curse in this regard I think. On the one hand reaching fans is easier, but finding them amongst the millions of other artists can be trickier.
In terms of being paid for your music, probably the worse time so far, streaming services donāt place fair value on music, but on the flip side there are still great alternative options like Bandcamp, or self release of physical.
In terms of build quality/longevity of gear/repairability it remains to be seen, there is a lot of stuff now cheaply built and destined for landfill I fear. I try to avoid stuff that cannot be repaired and is not built to last.
It is the best of times and the worst of times 
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I have nothing to add to this statement. I exactly think the same
It is the best of times and the worst of times
yes.
and into grooveboxes.
and performing with all that fancy stuff live.
Definitely yes. Unless you want to get vintage gear and are comparing to prices to where they were in the 90s/00s yeah the prices there are ridiculous and weāve been shut out. But there are now numerous (perhaps even too many) reissues of that stuff which people then complain arenāt innovative enough. Plus the newer stuff is way cheaper vs originals at the time when you account for inflation. In general the newer interfaces are better too.
Look you can go online and get subtractive, wavetable, fm, modular, romplers, standalone sequencers, samplers, workstations, really any type of historical synthesis is on the market now.
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