BEST VINTAGE SYNTHS 2024: 40+ Vintage Synths Under $2k (8 Under $400!!) 💸

Excellent rundown of vintage synths. While prices will fluctuate over the years, the details that you add to each synth makes this rundown more enduring. We can tell that this is a labour of love. Thank you. :_scumFire::_scumFire::_scumFire:

I just turned 52, and after a whole life of fantasizing about vintage synths I’m over them. I’ve come to realize that most good synths can do almost anything with some precise programming. So now I won’t buy a synth without midi or patch-memories. Because I love sound design and I want to save my work. I actually prefer modern synths now, because recreations have gotten so good that I don’t feel that the tiny differences matter to me. And I’ve never cared about the value of my synths. They’re tools. But it’s fun to watch videos for nostalgia.😁👍

As a very satisfied former owner of K4, I am very happy to see someone sharing my opinion about that synth. I am mainly dissapointed by underrating treatment of some people not knowing how to use it, its power is just like you described it, in its warm, fat layer sounds, pads and tasteful noises that can compete with flagships of big three synth manufacturers Korg, Roland and Yamaha. Even SY 77 I proudly have still today can't achieve such audacity.

"There is nothing more eigthies than the early nineties" Ain't that the truth!!

A labor of love. An ode to vintage synths.

Fantastic video Alex! What a gift. Thanks so much for putting this together! :trophy-yellow-smiling:

GREAT video, thanks for sharing! Many amazing synths. Glad prices are starting to come down on many of these.

Love the video man, except for the part where now I'm really considering dropping a paycheck or two on some vintage synths soon LOL! Keep making great stuff!

Wonderful work, Alex! Thank you for investing so much time in this! I'm a little older than you and I have owned quite a few of these too. Thanks for the shout out to Kawai synths. The K1, K3, and K4 are truly under appreciated. I was surprised that you didn't highlight a couple of instruments. You touched upon the Proteus line and there were many variations in those rack mount units, but one that truly is unique and more of synth than a ROMpler is the Morpheus. It's Z-Plane filters really make it a standout and it's quite the pad monster. The other that really threw me for a loop was the lack of highlighting the Kurzweil K2000. I know that it is often grouped with samplers, but it's V.A.S.T. architecture make it so much more than a sampler. That combined with the fact that it comes with it's own waveforms built in that don't need to rely on sampling make it a real standout. The fact that you can also use your own samples as the starting waveforms for the insane synthesis engine just puts this instrument and its offspring (K2500, K2600, etc.) in a league of their own. Still, wonderful work! You can't put everything in there. The video would have been hundreds of hours long! As for your choices, I couldn't agree with you more about the D-50. I still have my D-550. Best digital filter Roland ever made. I'm also delighted with my pair of poly-chained Matrix-1000's! I updated both a few years ago with the 1.20 Tauntek firmware. I also agree about the Wavestation. I have a Wavestation EX and a Wavestation SR. I also have the iPad Wavestation app which is significantly easier to program. I was truly disappointed that you cannot use that or the Wavestation Legacy soft synth to create patches to upload to the hardware synths themselves. I think that was a huge oversight on Korg's part. And I still have my M1 that I bought new in 1989. I don't think of it as a true synth, but it covers the staples really well. If I need a selection of organs, a good Wurli, some decent electric pianos, and a really bright acoustic piano to cut through a mix, the M1 covers the bases pretty darn well. Not bad for a keyboard I've had for 35 years. Peace.

I see you used my Moog Prodigy video, cool! By the way, great video you made, keep up the good work! Mofunic!!

Wavestation - yes - alternatively, pick up a WS SR (around 250-300 USD) - all the classic Wavestation sounds in 1U - no LCD panel noise, and no keys to get sticky (and you can just use a MIDI patch editor/librarian). JD800.. for the panel.. what a cool looking synth - all that hands on control. The only issue with used digital synths from 80s/90s is they are probably less serviceable than older analog synths.

Awesome video and great getting the word out on the SCUM synths! I used to go for the white whales of synths: Jupiter, Fizmo, or the like until I started watching your videos. I've since come to love the more dark horse synths like the DW-8000 and Polivoks. I think your videos have at least made me, if not the vintage synth community, find more satisfaction in finding these somewhat hidden gems.

Oh my god, that patch from the Kawai K4 was drop dead beautiful. And the Revenant M1 sample, gorgeous. Huge effort man, and a lot of food for thought. Given the amount of experience you have with vintage synths, I think your advice carries a lot of weight. I do want to get a vintage synth, and I might pull the trigger this fall. The SQ-80 is definitely tempting, but so is the JD-800. I’ll be looking at the Chroma Polaris too. And that Kawai K4 sound, I gotta check that out again. I need to go back and watch some of your comparison stream videos. Btw, I saw a Benn Jordan stream recently where he played with a Korg Radias, and it sounded pretty good. There’s a lot of very cool older synths.

Amazing video brother! Congrats and thank you! 🙏

Kawai K1 exists as a VST emulation. It uses original waves, not resampled. Sounds very authentic. One of those synthesizers where you can save on space in the studio, so as not to buy a keyboard or rack version. I think we should also mention K11, something between K1 and K4. The K11 also has resonant filters. I'm interested in your opinion compared to K4.

This is one ☝️ of your best videos!! 🎉🎉🎉

Regarding the comparison of SH2 and Minimoog. PWM is a cheaper replacement for two detuned oscillators in one. Therefore, if you have two oscillators in your synthesizer (for example, on a minimoog), then you can get the same sound character as the PMW - to do this, you just need to detune the two oscillators. The waveform does not look the same, but the character of the sound is almost indistinguishable. DonSolaris even described on his website how you can emulate PWM on JD type romplers, where there is no PWM but there are two untuned saws. From this point of view, SH2 does not have many advantages) After all, the Moog has not two, but three oscillators)... The same applies when people compare the JX and Juno series.

great video ! The prophet 600 is one of my favorite. The pro 800 vcos (the v3340 from cool audio) have an awful higher frequency buzz thats nearly impossible to filter out without the synth sounding muddy. I have removed all my Behringer content as I stated in my follow up no one will want to fix them in the future and they will just come landfill waste. That and the Oberheim thing was just too beyond reprehensible to support. The only video kept up is how the fix the garbage dm12 noise issue. Back to the video the alpha junos are great, I had a juno 6 and a alpha 2 and preferred the alpha 2 to the 6. It's not that bad to program either, I mean its not great but a dx7 it isn't. Korg wave station is amazing, the string choir sounds it does are amazing. I think I would take the Ensoniq or akai s series over the korg personally but I know you said no rack units, but man the s series sound great and are cheap. I had a s950 and loved it decades back and the s900 are dropping. Soon I assume the 950s will drop in price. I would get a d50 over an alternative given what it can do or look for the boutique. Proteus is awesome ! Chroma is really great sounding but man that is a complex synth to keep running.

Excellent work man, proper enjoyed this 👍🏾

Great Synths, Great Demos, Great Video! ❤