I admire everyone’s dedication in ignoring the glaring joke about the ARQ-96 being the best “all round” synth, because ironically, when compared to other all-round synth like Orba 2, it is.
aside from the joke-gap, it seems like everything worth mentioning has already been said. Nice work people.
Thanks so much everyone for helping find the best synth for my humble needs. I’m pretty amazed at the amount of knowledge and experience on this forum!
I have so far watched a few reviews from the hardware synth according to the criteria I posted earlier and so far the minilogue XD and micro freak top the bill.
Not so interested in VSTs and midi keyboard or mpc one + vst or modules + midi keyboard. Also want a user friendly interface so prob something more recent. The triton, Roland JV2080 or nordlead 2x would be amazing but I don’t have room to set it all up. Need something small and “couch portable”. Syntakt is small but I need keys 
I’ll keep going down the list and check reviews.
Thanks again for your help!!
Best “All Round” ever:
It’s expensive to “Try things until something clicks”, so research is best, but also pay attention to things like resale value. You aren’t guaranteed to find a good fit just because it worked for someone else, and you don’t want to lose half your money selling it 30 days later.
Using Reverb’s sales history tool is a valuable asset in determining value over the last year. Some items it might be better to wait until after Christmas when there are returns available or the price drops due to new releases and shops need to eliminate old inventory. In the position of not knowing exactly what you want, it’s just another thing to keep in mind,
looks like a watermelon hula hoop.
this guy takes his hula hoop very seriously. show up to a gig with that thing fella, I dare you.
Best I can come up with if you think the Korg Minilogue XD isn’t portable enough at 2.8 kg would be the Modal Cobalt 5s weighing in at 2.36 kg.
Anything lighter and smaller than that and it won’t meet your requirement of more than a couple of octaves of keys.
Both sound great to my ears at least, but the Korg is analog and digital with four voices of polyphony, whereas the Modal is digital only with five voices (but made by a company that is now insolvent).
If it were me, I’d probably pick the Korg between those two though.
Deepmind if you want the classic analog thing but in a modern package
I’d say an MPC too, if I was only going to have one piece of hardware… I’m mainly thinking trip hop here, but having a sampler is a no-brainer (you’ve got to slow down and repitch drums)… and the electric pianos, Solina, Mellotron and the fx plugins, all lean in that direction really well… (basically you want the tools to fk sounds up).
Otherwise, a Moog… Sub Phatty, Grandmother, Sub 37, etc, are well worth having (but you’ll still want/need fx).
Analog Keys too, if you can find one, are a great way to cover a lot of sounds (drums, basses, pads, leads) and they can have a really gnarly side to them.
Hi guys, after very careful consideration I decided on the micro freak and super excited to add layers synthesis awesomeness to my humble beats thanks again to everyone for their suggestions!!!
I suggest you try the keyboard first, as it’s not great for everyone.
I managed to get an Amazon warehouse deal, so easy to return. Cheers
Great choice!
this is a good answer.
Such a monster of a synth.
I had a Blofeld and it is also great, but the effects really let it down. Got a Snow. It’s brilliant.
maybe not enough knobs though I guess.
The microfreak sounds fun, but if you want chords, onboard fx, and a more playable keyboard, the minifreak might make a better all rounder.
True. I really enjoyed the Micro, but I had an external sequencer and external fx.
I sold my Microfreak a few months ago, it never clicked with me for some reason. Cool little synth if you really get into it.
Try A4/AK it covers pretty much any 
