Advice on 2nd hand midi synths on a budget

[FelixGubbins]

Hi Basschatters, I’m after some synth advice. Context is I’m building bass pedals using the Doepfer MBP25 module and need a cheap MIDI synth to plug it into for gigging. Looking at what’s available on eBay, I’m struggling to make figure out what to go for. Budget is under £200 so there’s plenty available, but too many for my lack of knowledge. Any advice on good models to look for would be appreciated. 

 

Many thanks,

 

Russ

[BigRedX]

What do you want the synth to do? Produce it's own sounds or just act as a controller for the Doepfer system?

 

If you need it to produce sounds, what sort?

 

What sort of music do you play?

[FelixGubbins]

Thanks for responding, should’ve been more specific so apologies for that. The Doepfer is just the midi controller module. I need a synth to provide the sounds, samples, etc. Good-to-have would be sequencer and arpeggiator. I prefer a synth keyboard as opposed to rack-mount plus keyboard controller as, to my mind, It’s simpler and less to go wrong on stage, though happy to be corrected. Happy with 80’s and 90’s sounds, it’s really as a first pass at getting into keyboards again (used to play a bit of piano and had a Juno 6 back in the day). The music I would be playing is classic and prog rock so skewing towards that would be good, but it’s all about creating from what’s available, so the particular sound palette is secondary. 

[BigRedX]

Your problem is your budget of under £200. What have you seen that fits into this?

 

Otherwise I'd be recommending the Behringer Deepmind 12.

[FelixGubbins]

44 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Your problem is your budget of under £200. What have you seen that fits into this?

 

Otherwise I'd be recommending the Behringer Deepmind 12.

I’ve seen the Yamaha SY series, Roland D series (10 & 20), Korg X2 and X3, all seem to be possible to get in the £100-200 range. I’ve read reviews on these but they’re very varied, seem to be somewhat subjective, and haven’t helped me narrow things down. I lost out on an X3 at £135.56 (my brother used to have one so I thought I’d give it a go) last week but this was the only one of that kind I’ve seen that looked viable. Others have had keys broken or not working, or are too far away to pick up. One other thing I should say is I’m after a synth with 61 keys or more. 

[BigRedX]

There are a couple of reasons why these synths are so cheap. One will be that with parameter access they will be difficult to program without a computer editor. The other is due to their age things will be starting to go wrong with them. The Roland keyboards from this era are notorious for glue failures on the key weights causing them to become detached, rendering the keyboard useless, and although fixable it takes a lot of time and effort. There are also likely to be problems with the battery backup of the user memories.

 

Unless you are happy with the factory presets or there is a readily available selection of free decent 3rd party sounds that are easily loaded in, I personally would steer clear of all the synths that you have suggested. Also from what I recall of these synths, the sounds will now be quite dated. Unfortunately any decent synth with MIDI with close to one control per parameter will be more than your £200 budget,

 

If you are determined to go with one of the synths you have suggested approach with caution and make sure everything is working as it should be before parting with your cash.

[bass_dinger]

On 29/03/2024 at 10:19, FelixGubbins said:

bass pedals using the Doepfer MBP25 module

I have been looking for something like this for a long while - thanks for sharing!

 

Organ bass pedals in kit form - rather than breaking down a home organ just the parts...

Edited April 2 by bass_dinger

[tauzero]

Soft synth perhaps - there's the Squishbox and with the Zynthian V5 coming out there may be a few second-hand V4s and earlier on the market from upgrades, or DIY with aid from https://sandsoftwaresound.net/qsynth-fluidsynth-raspberry-pi/ and a HiFiBerry DAC.

[FelixGubbins]

On 01/04/2024 at 10:29, BigRedX said:

There are a couple of reasons why these synths are so cheap. One will be that with parameter access they will be difficult to program without a computer editor. The other is due to their age things will be starting to go wrong with them. The Roland keyboards from this era are notorious for glue failures on the key weights causing them to become detached, rendering the keyboard useless, and although fixable it takes a lot of time and effort. There are also likely to be problems with the battery backup of the user memories.

 

Unless you are happy with the factory presets or there is a readily available selection of free decent 3rd party sounds that are easily loaded in, I personally would steer clear of all the synths that you have suggested. Also from what I recall of these synths, the sounds will now be quite dated. Unfortunately any decent synth with MIDI with close to one control per parameter will be more than your £200 budget,

 

If you are determined to go with one of the synths you have suggested approach with caution and make sure everything is working as it should be before parting with your cash.

Thanks BigRedX, appreciate your comments. To be fair I have been noticing a lot of these having dead keys, sticking buttons etc. Looks like I need to review my finances and my expectations. Thankfully I don’t have to panic about it just yet as there are no gigs in the calendar 🙁.