You are going to hate this answer (I say you when I mean everyone) but an MPC One or an original MPC Live can be acquired in the $300-400 range and even the included synth engines in them are vastly superior to a lot of stuff mentioned in here, even if you focus only on synth engines or additional synths you can buy and install and forget about the sampler and effects etc.
If there is no stipulation of “budget analog” or whatever, then a lot of the synths mentioned are really just the hardware interpretation of plugins housed inside of some kind of dedicated midi controller.
MPC doesn’t have a ton of appeal in a facetime chat but for $350 you can get a lot out of the MPC synths, and while it’s not a $50 behringer baby synth, I still think that it falls under what you could consider “budget” in today’s economy.
Although I’m getting so tired of hearing myself say MPC that I almost didn’t write this.
Maybe i missed it but if not, I’m surprised the mk1 digitone hasn’t made this list yet. I see them go for $400 regularly, sometimes less.
My pick would probably be the korg er1 simply due to the mileage I’ve gotten out of it. Marketed as a drum machine but easy to use as a synth groovebox.
Volca FM is an insane value too. Most of a dx7 for less than a big trip to the grocery store.
Pretty hard to beat the behringer ms20 clone on the analog side. More robust that the mini korg version for less money and it doesn’t have those terrible keys. The pro800 is absolutely killer too, strangely it wasn’t all that long ago that the prophet 600 of which its a clone could have been on this list but alas, no more.
Oh, and the reface cs! Excellent synth that’s been a go-to for me for the better part of a decade now. It does a lot more than is immediately apparent, sounds great, and has the best mini keys I’ve played. This is actually one of my most used synths.
I got a weak spot for my Volca Bass. Three oscillators, a sequencer, motion recording…
Big basses, but can also do great leads and modular-like sounds.
Micromonsta 2 comes in second Such a great allround polysynth, considering the footprint and the price I paid for it. Great reverb too.
My dark horse is the Roland E4. They call it a voice tweaker, but it is also a great mangle/fx box when feeding it synth sounds. The voice part is also very interesting. Was a big hit when bringing it to jams with other people, because you can add a layer that mostly is not available (singing in key, lines of gibberish with fx, hell: even beatboxing or throat singing).
my last pick in the cheap department was a korg minilogue xd : 4 voices analog , + 1 digital osc , sequencer , 3 effects ( + custom ones as the digital oscillator), analog filter and microtonallity support. all for 370€ used . Afx made some killer tracks with the og minilogue if all of this is not enough as a proof of concept!
Bass Station original rack unit (haven’t used / don’t know anything about the BS2). It was my first synth. I still love using it and it gives me something different than any other synth I have.
Going to put in a good word for the volca keys hah. The parameter choices are so well thought out it’s still one of the only budget synths I can turn on and get lost for ages bending the sounds. I love its gritty sound and no menu diving
Get a lot out of a Microfreak. Liked it so much I bought a mini freak thinking it would be the next step up, nope! There was something about the simplicity, the touchpad, maybe even the gain staging, I swear the mini freak sounded worse. And I think it still can’t do samples? Back to the less than half the cost micro.
Edit - oh yeah the cv outs. Way more useful than you think.
Especially if you’re a keyboard player and want a poly AT keyboard around. They are some of the best mini keys I’ve used, and some of the best poly AT keys I’ve used. Even for general AT, it’s nicer than my Sequential stuff.
Such a great allround polysynth, considering the footprint and the price I paid for it. Great reverb too.
