Best synth under 3000 euros (new or vintage)

[Uncle E]

Thank you. I got more out of your review than from watching almost an hour worth of demos.

[BertKoor]

Weighs 62 pounds... and it's HUGE

Roughly 28 kg ... The Fender Rhodes 73-key model weighs around 130 pounds (59 kg) and had just one sound (e-piano) so count yourself lucky

[Uncle E]

Tell me about it. It cost me $800 to ship one a few months ago.

[bmanic]

And tons of people still gig with the Kurzweil K2500X.. that one weighs 72 pounds (32.7kg).

[Jim Roseberry]

Been spoiled by Nord Stage 3 and Stage 4 (88)
~42 pounds... and not too bulky

[egbert101]

Imagine trying to carry a CS-80 around (82kilos).

[stoopicus]

Imagine being Vangelis' roadie.

[vurt]

i remember as a parent of a 10 year old, when the school wanted them to take music lessons, which parents were choosing, cello, tuba or harp for their kids to learn??
tin whistle or mouth organ, in case i end up carrying it home!

[zerocrossing]

Nina is on sale right now for a little over 3000 euros

Never really looked into that one, but the short demos I heard I always feel its too high priced. You have it? If so what does it have that other synths don't?

I don't have it. It does have 1 unique feature (motorized knobs) and an appealing feature set that is uncommon.

12 voices
2 VCO's and a wavetable Osc per voice
4 part multi-timbral
Patch morphing
Very deep modulation capabilities

The motorized knobs means when you switch presets or switch between the sounds in the 4 parts, the knobs move to reflect the sound so you always see the knobs in the correct position for the sound. Very nice!

The modulation is deep. You can select say LFO 2 and then move any parameter(s) to modulate it.

From all accounts, very solid build.

I have it. I think it's pretty amazing. Not because of its general feature set, but because of it's tonal character. It just has this sort of vibe that nothing else I know of has. It's both kind of vintage sounding and modern sounding. It's like V'ger from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Started out as some old analog derelict space probe, but then got refitted by some advanced alien race, and it now has all these modern bits, but underneath it all, is an old fashion analog VCO synth engine. The wavetables are not the kind of PPG gritty style, but more a very high resolution variety.

https://youtu.be/jnJeAOLcAAs?feature=shared

[zerocrossing]

Last night, I bought a Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave desktop open box for $3,150. Sweetwater has one more left:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... dwaveModd1

I have no direct experience with it yet, but all the demos sound lovely to me. Can sound modern VA or vintage hybrid, or both at the same time.

Other excellent instruments that I do own include...

Waldorf M. (sold it to buy the Nina) Really solid sound, some excellent features like looping MSEGs. Tends to sound vintage hybrid.

PolyBrute. Not as fat sounding as the Prophet 6 (which I own) but still sounds excellent and has more ways to craft your sounds than any other analog I can think of. Maybe the Moog One is more.

Prophet 12. They're discontinued, but you can still find some decent deals on them, especially the desktop model, which is actually great to program. This is my go-to for dreamy, spaced out sounds, as well as aggressive industrial types of sounds.

[Uncle E]

Prophet 12. They're discontinued, but you can still find some decent deals on them, especially the desktop model, which is actually great to program. This is my go-to for dreamy, spaced out sounds, as well as aggressive industrial types of sounds.

Please report back if the 3rd Wave replaces the Prophet 12 for you. It seems like it would, given the recent update.

[ghettosynth]

I would carefully check and evaluate anything sold as demo, even from Sweetwater.

What demo means to us is that we've had it out of the box, or maybe it was in a customer's hands for a few days and isn't "factory fresh" as a result. Every demo item we sell has Sweetwater's

This has not been my experience. I mistakenly purchased one demo item from them and it had clearly been rack mounted for a long time because the power switch was weakened to the point of being unreliable. Just touching it would momentarily turn the unit off. I sent it back and got one new in the box which was markedly better. This has been about three years now and the power switch on my replacement is not perceptibly different than when it was new. So clearly the demo that they sent me had seen a lot of action on that power switch.

I should probably add that I like Sweetwater, I am a regular customer and "my guy" has taken care of any issues that I've had every single time, including the funky demo piece which was replaced at no shipping cost to me.

[CoolColJ]

Well the 3rd Wave desktop is only a few weeks old at most, so it should be good

[zerocrossing]

Prophet 12. They're discontinued, but you can still find some decent deals on them, especially the desktop model, which is actually great to program. This is my go-to for dreamy, spaced out sounds, as well as aggressive industrial types of sounds.

Please report back if the 3rd Wave replaces the Prophet 12 for you. It seems like it would, given the recent update.

I doubt that it will. The 12 has a very specific character that I have not heard in the 3rd Wave, or really anything else. Closest things would be the Evolvers or the Tempest. Not everyone loves it, but I do.

[zerocrossing]

I would carefully check and evaluate anything sold as demo, even from Sweetwater.

What demo means to us is that we've had it out of the box, or maybe it was in a customer's hands for a few days and isn't "factory fresh" as a result. Every demo item we sell has Sweetwater's

This has not been my experience. I mistakenly purchased one demo item from them and it had clearly been rack mounted for a long time because the power switch was weakened to the point of being unreliable. Just touching it would momentarily turn the unit off. I sent it back and got one new in the box which was markedly better. This has been about three years now and the power switch on my replacement is not perceptibly different than when it was new. So clearly the demo that they sent me had seen a lot of action on that power switch.

I should probably add that I like Sweetwater, I am a regular customer and "my guy" has taken care of any issues that I've had every single time, including the funky demo piece which was replaced at no shipping cost to me.

I’ve got no worries about buying open box from Sweetwater. I’ve had issues with factory fresh gear from them, and they instantly leapt into action and made it right. The PolyBrute I got from them had a bad voice card, and even though units were in short supply, they worked directly with Arturia to get me a replacement. Plus, one of my good friends is a manager there, which makes me respect them. They hire real musicians who know their stuff, as well as being good people.