am planning on saving up for either a bass guitar or a synth of some description (up to £5-600 at a push).

i have no real knowledge of them tbh,but wanted something that i could mess about on and maybe try and do some trance type stuff/ambient/vangelis/gary newman e.t.c to go with my guitar.

something that is easy to understand but good/versatile and have decent anologue sounds too.

what might you recommend me?

ta 🙂

i did see this on youtube and thought it looks/sounds good [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6D09y8RcVc[/video]

Steve Miller talks about his synthesizer @ about 2:30

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auDvx3Xu4JY&feature=player_detailpage[/video]

Beep…beep…beep… 😯

Get the Human League in to advise you

Second hand Elektron Monomachine. Very easy to use standalone, not a digital analogue synth so quite a futuristic sound palette. I recommend one because elektron’s in general can be played rather than programmed, so a good workflow if you like tactile control rather than via software sequencer.

All you need is GarageBand and iRig Keys.

£70 tops.

Arturia Minibrute looks cool. I’ve got an Alesis Ion which is great for learning programming but only a virtual analogue synth. If you post on STW I think you have to go real analogue. 🙂

If you want to make complete tunes you’ll need a DAW to sequence everything even if the synth you’re using has a sequencer, personally I’d say to start with VSTIs, learn the basics and make sure it is something you want to progress with. You can download a trial of Ableton Live or there are “websites”. There are some nice free virtual synths and effects you’ll need such as delay, reverb, compressors, chorus etc.

Most of my gear is analogue although I think a good digital synth would be best for ambient stuff, I think an Access Virus C would be hard to beat.

Also agree on the Minibrute, I’ve got a Microbrute and it’s an great little synth, some of my favourite synths are the Mutable Instruments ones I’ve made myself.

If you get yourself a copy of “Computer Music” magazine it comes with a coverdisk with loads of free software that isn’t trialware.

You may want to get a MIDI keyboard and the use your PC/Mac to generate the sound.

This

and this

and these