Haven’t tried it! Looks pretty good, and free is free 
I kind of like it’s UI better than Modular V, which I do own, but if I were to want to use a modular I would probably use ARP 2600 V3 to start with just because I have it and love the ARP 2600’s sound and the fact that it is just semi-modular.
I am finally home from family new years festivities. I will share my thoughts on hardware synths from the position of someone who has tried every possible SW synth in the last 10 years, yet, I end up with a “studio” like this with quite a few more synths in “order pipeline”.
The main differences between these two types of instruments are:
Price - Atm. the very basic HW synth starts at around 150 bucks (Korg Volca line) and these little boxes are most of the time really limited in their abilities and user interface.
On the other hand, you can buy Arturia Pigments at a discount, for 100 bucks. This one SW synth will enable you to create every possible sound there’s.
Space - The main reason why I am not buying any more synths atm. is that I simply don’t have space for them. You will say that with one synth you will need no extreme amount of space. But even one synth, if you want to actually use it, has to be in a good place and ready to be played at all times. Trust me, you will not want to pull out the machine, connect it, place it well, etc. . It absolutely breaks the flow.
Additional costs - Because I (As most other people who work with HW synths) want all the synths to be playable at all times, I have to have free inputs for every single one of them. Atm. I have Focusrite 8 input sound card hooked through ADAT optical link to Octopre. But still, I have only 2 free stereo lines available now.
So, if you have for example 2-input soundcard and you will get yourself a synth with stereo output, you have no more inputs for Bass, microphone, etc… It can be solved with a Mixer, but still, more money.
Also, most of the monophonic synths (the kind of a synth in the 200 - 400 bucks range) come with no internal effects, so if you want a sound to be useful, you have to a) get a DAW with included effects. b) buy effects on your own or c) buy external gear like pedals etc.
On the other hand, SW synths are always ready and you simply buy them and you are ready to go.
Sound - This isn’t a factor anymore. Since SW has crossed the threshold of 16 bits you can emulate “analog sound” in PC with virtual preamps and thorough simulations of vintage gear and I guarantee you, nobody will be able to say what’s analog and what’s digital. (Software synths like Diva or Omnisphere have an insane sound engine and right from the box they sound HUUUUUUGE)
But! It’s also true that getting a huge 3 OSC analog sound is much easier with hardware. The sound I am able to dial at any of my synths after a few minutes of fiddling around would take my 3, 4 times more on an SW synth with pre, eq, comp simulations.
Versatility - Some of the top-notch software synths offer you every possible way of synthesis and modulation there’s, in one box. On the other hand, even the most versatile HW synths are quite limited.
BUT! It’s doesn’t happen so often, I will have to disagree a bit on this point with Howard.
Personally find it much more inspiring to work in a limited framework. When you have every possibility at your disposal it removes the effect of “inspiration by limitation” and also doesn’t push you to learn as much cuz the box you have to know inside out, because there’re for example no presets.
Fun aspect - I have quite a few control templates for software synths. So every control is mapped to knobs and faders on a midi controller and I can control such synth like a real thing. It’s not the same in the slightest. I personally love to “produce” not sitting down, running around my room, fiddling around with knobs, etc. . In comparison, while I am working with a VSTi, it’s most of the time just sitting in my chair.
These are my 2 cents on the topic. I personally don’t think that getting an HW synth is a bad idea, however, it’s really slippery slope and you have to know if the money you will invest is actually usefully spent.
I would personally start with some decent analog simulation software synth and little MIDI keyboard and find out if you actually like fiddling around with synthesizers. And what’s the thing you like the most. With that knowledge, you will know what kind of synth you want and you will be able to decide what should be the machine you will buy.
Hope this will help. Cheers!
Wow, thanks for the detailed insight. Much appreciated!
Well after watching a bunch of content if I were to buy a reasonably priced Synth for Synth Bass then I think value wise the Novation Bass Station II is the one. It’s been out for a while, has a 3 yr warranty, they provide product support, it’s even used by the Synth bass instructor in an SBL course. Plus it’s made numerous top 3 lists all over the place for years.
Plus it sounds pretty good. In the meantime I’m going to start on my piano course 
Yeah, Bass station sounds “Rawr”! I would with this, Korg Monologue or Behringer Poly D as my very first “learning synth”.
Yeah, Novation makes top notch stuff. Those are good callouts for learning synths as well, or wait for the Behringer 16-voice Prophet clone coming out soon, which would be absolutely perfect to learn on. Or their ARP now I guess, as it was initially a teaching synth.
I’d still stick with software but can understand all the points @wellbi made about the fun tactile nature of hardware synths. I have owned and used them a lot in the past myself, I totally get it. Just don’t underestimate the hassles
Anyway, I highly recommend looking in to synths as they are a lot of fun. It’s easy to sequence killer synth basslines fairly quickly. Here’s some quick messing around with software versions of a Prophet-5 and MiniMoog (and for fun, a Mellotron 
):
At least 90% of the time spent on that was knob twiddling to get the sounds close to the original, and they still aren’t quite right - both the fun and the bane of analog synths
Wow. That brings back some memories.
Definitely a classic when it comes to synth basslines
I like my MiniBrute 2S on bass duties quite a lot, and it has its own internal sequencer. A fun thing you can do with that sequencer is control it via MIDI, so with a modest/simple foot controller you can tell it to change sequences, or even just transpose sequences which gets a lot of mileage out of one sequence even if it’s just 16 steps (but it can do more steps). Assuming you ever want to play bass guitar and the synth at the same time, that is.
Software is great, and I use it (Keylab 49mk2, Maschine owner, many plugins…), and it is certainly cheaper (even down to free and great these days). I guess the big things to consider about any synthesizer sound-wise, hardware or software, are these three things: raw oscillators, the filter (a big one), and the envelopes. Some oscillators are thinner than others, some are super thicc, and filters come in all kinds of flavors/varieties. Some envelopes are snappier than others, or have longer overall run times, etc.
I should stop before I start overwhelming with options and data 
Nothing says “rat’s nest of wires” like a synthesizer setup 
Howwwww does it feel 
So, I spent few last days learning Opsix/FM synthesis. This thing is absolutely bonkers. FM was always so mysterious for me, however, Korg did an astounding job reimagining the whole concept and user interface.
In firmware update 2.0 Korg introduced “effect” operator which enables you apply quite a few different effects on a carrier or modulator and with the ability to EASILY create user algorithms the array of sound this machine is able to produce is quite staggering.
It’s not an FM synth, it’s a synth which can do also FM. 
It’s the most intriguing synth I have handled in a long time and … I highly recommend it.
Btw. Bass sounds this thing can create with up to 6 “oscillators” that feed each other is something you wouldn’t expect from an FM synth.
And now … I have to get me Wavestate, because well, Korg is doing something really cool here with their new digital synths.
Can’t any FM synth do this? Even the DX7 has six osc/operator combos that routed to modulate each other (or themselves), to make the algorithms, right? i.e. typical algorithm with the six operators:
with each operator being an oscillator, filter, and envelope.
Or am I misunderstanding?
FM is certainly complicated.
The best kind
Well, you can use any synth you want, there’s no good or bad synthesizer on market. From my personal perspective, I would recomend you Korg Monologue (you can check the review here), I use this synth mainly for bass lines (well, it was before i met bass guitar), for melodies I use Moog Mother-32 and Korg Volca Modular (it’s also a good one for bass arpeggios), if you’re interested.
The whole Volca line is pretty neat for cheap, entry level synths. You get a whole lot of value there for not a lot of money.
Ooh look at what Arturia made, and gave the absolutely perfect name.
Ok I’m upgrading V Collection this Black Friday. It will probably be even better than Roland’s 303 plugin.
Awesome! This is where my love for synths started 
Yep. There’s synthbass I prefer to the TB-303, but there is nothing that can replace the 303 for what it is.
I deeply love Behringer’s ad for their clone 
(which sounds awesome and very close to a real 303)
I am looking forward to Arturia’s plugin.
This is weirdly cool….
https://youtu.be/GieYIritHSE?si=adCqJKdDdb_dARO5
Have no use for it but seems fun
