I think I’m a bit younger than a lot of people here. My first synth back in the late 2000s was technically toxic biohazard, which was included in the cracked copy of studio 7 I installed on a barely functional gateway laptop. I loved that vst, it’s very “of the era.” Eventually I purchased FL studio legitimately, but for a long time that was all I could afford.
First piece of hardware was a Volca keys five years ago. it did better bass sounds than the VSTs I was using and it was basically my gateway drug into hardware.
SH-101 and Sequential Circuits Pro 1. Fond memories.
Actually before that, oddly, Korg M1 then an 01/W and then many samplers but my favourites were Kurzweil K2000/K2500. I would still love a K2000R - the architecture was so ahead of it’s time. Incredible machine.
I spent a whole summer in high school saving up to get a Korg Kaoss Pad because Brian Eno was such a big fan of them in the 2000s. Then I actually got one, played with it for a few weeks, and got bored because I refused to read the manual and YouTube still hadn’t grown into the big tutorial/demo powerhouse that it is today.
Then in 2020, I spent my first post-Peace Corps check on a Minilogue XD. This time, the habit stuck, though I did finally sell the Minilogue because I got sick of the menus and never read the manual.
Going back teisco and kawai are mostly the same brand, it was acquired by kawai in 1967. A lot of guitars branded teisco also have kawai branded counterparts. There was a lot of overlap between import brands and overseas remarketers of japanese gear back then.
Can I push that date back a bit? The last time I tried pot was shortly after the Juno-6 was released, but by the middle of the '90’s, I had a suburban house and two kids.
I don’t know, I was playing a lot of guitar back then, so when I discovered the simple functionality and mechanical precision (such as it is for vintage analog gear at least) it was like the ultimate form of cheating. I was already rather used to playing shows zonked out of my mind at that point, so the articulation wasn’t an issue, but feeding into the lazy euphoria of doing less and achieving more was just like some kind of revelation.
My first hardware synth was a Korg MS2000 which I bought around 2004 or so. I had used soft synths and such on my computer. I sold it to buy my first drum set, so no regrets there, but it was a great synth.
Oh, I agree completely: after practicing all those arpeggios for different keys and modes, the arpeggiator in any electronic device is like magic, and lets me concentrate on the chord progressions. I should figure out when the first device appeared that I might actually have been willing to purchase, given my ever-changing internal spending limits, if I had not been distracted by classical acoustic (and some rudimentary jazz).
DX-27, probably because every band on MTV used a DX-7 in their videos. my first lesson in FM synthesis (4-ops generally doesn’t get you into 6-op territory)
My first synt was a korg micro X which is amazing and still have. And an alesis sr18. Years later went to hardware and bought Digitone which still is one of the best and most imaginative synths that I’ve tried. And sounds amazing. Never get rid of a digitone!!
