I appreciate all of those feedbacks but from what I know my local store only offers synths from the big three (Korg ,Roland and Yamaha ) and there aren't many websites which sell synths that also ship to Canada where I life .

I do know that the band And One I also like used the following equipment on their 1997 album : Akai 950 , Roland D110 , Kawai K1 (or2)

As for not using software synths I don't want to be stuck to my PC at all times when it comes to making music which is why I wouldn't go for a softsynths . I'm aware that some tasks will have to be done on the PC or at least should be but I prefer not to do everything there which is why I will only buy a synth with a built in sequencer .



[This message has been edited by Darksounds (edited 04-01-2005).]

I've heard some samples of the Korg Triton and I also know a band which uses them . While I like that band I don't really like the sound of the synth , it sounds too bright and artifical for my taste .

Maybe I'll end up going with the Motif ES after all , it maybe a little harder to use but I like fiddling around with stuff .

Read my thread http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/010446.html it has some useful info and opinions about the fantom.

Phil

I've already that post but thank you . Which Fantom were you talking about exactly ? I'm interested in the Fantom X.

I also noticed these new synthesizers coming out from Alesis and Korg , the Fusion and Oasys respectively . From what I can tell they use more than one synth engine to provide a much more varied sound experience and they also have nifty features such as harddrives and lots of cool production tools .

Do you think those synths would be good for my purposes ?

In my thread the review was of the Fantom-S, however most of the stuff I said applies to the X as well. The Oasys is most likely out of your range, at 8000. The Fusion is very interesting, and priced very nicely sitting around 1700 (i think, please correct me if im wrong) 20gb harddrive, nice large screen. I dont like the looks of it though, it looks like toy. But thats only through pictures.

Phil

"Do you think those synths would be good for my purposes ? "

Well, given you have shot down the basic building blocks of what you supposedly want with contradictions...

" biggest passion is music such as Depeche Mode with Alan Wilder .

I really once and for all want something that can match the sounds of what my musical idols use .

Well I don't really want to sound too vintage so I prefer not to use analog synthesizers , I just happen to like what was done with them in the past."

lol then...

"I've heard some samples of the Korg Triton and I also know a band which uses them . While I like that band I don't really like the sound of the synth , it sounds too bright and artifical for my taste. "

Your honestly all over the place...just go play some keyboards, even if you have to drive for hours to get to them just go play some keyboards. Hahaha cause right now your having half baked realizations about things that were already spelled out in earlier posts.

So it's true that the Korg Oasys will retail for $8000 US , I heard that but I thought that info must be wrong . Yes the specs look impressive but come on one could almost buy a Triton Extreme , Fantom X and Motif ES for that price . I don't understand why the Korg Oasys would cost four times as much as the Alesis Fusion .

Actually I'm not really all over the place with what I want . When I say I don't want to sound too vintage then I mean I don't want to sound like DM with Vince Clarke or what Erasure sounds like . If you know the latter DM with Alan Wilder then you know that those synths are strong and powerful in their sound . I would also like some good sounding accoustic instruments in there .

Some people may not understand why I am against soft synths period but as I already explained I don't wish to be tied to a computer at all times when I create music .

I like the Korg Triton Extreme because it simply has so many preset voices but I don't like it's somewhat harsch sound .

The Fantom X looks very good and seems to have no obvious definecies which would greatly bug me though I can't say anything about it's sound quality , supposedly it ain't as harsch as the Triton Extreme .

The Yamaha Motif ES is renowned for it's great sound but what bugs me about it is one is practically forced to buy extras with this one . It has no sampling memory so one is forced to buy some to sample and while the memory it uses is relatively cheap it's still an extra expense . Add to that the fact that it seems unnecessarily complicated to move samples from and to a PC on the Motif ES.

[This message has been edited by Darksounds (edited 04-03-2005).]

I recently purchased Fantom Xa, the Rom on Xa sucks, it is worse then an AWE SoundBlaster Live with SF2 technology. I would not wish XA crap on my worst enemy, so I returned it 2 days later to guitar center. I also owned a Motif6 Classic which has nice Arps and decent sounds but 60 voice Polyphony,.... I wanted more, so I went back to guitar center & tried TRITON EXTREME and MOTIF ES, I liked motif ES because it has lost of sounds that sound realistic and useable along with crazy amount of Arps( I LOVE AREPS) and EQ on all 16 Channels!in a musical sequence that is very important, KORG Extreme sounded good in combi mode had digital outwith and A big touch screen and name "KORG" on it BUT! in multi mode sound did not sound as good and had less polyphony so I purchased a Motif ES sold my original motif on Ebay and called it a day. I say for $900 more get an ES it’s well worth the price, I did buy RAM for it and a SM card but that was only $115 of Ebay… 256 MB RAM PC100 and 128 MB SM CARD....

[This message has been edited by Pcode (edited 04-13-2005).]

One suggestion with the SM Card. Back up everything you do, because I had two of 'em go bad on me in my ES, and I know from reading pots on other forums that I'm far from being the only one..

I'd had enough after the second time. fortunately, I did back everything up. I switched to a USB thumb drive ( 128 mb ) and haven't had any such problems since. I still back everything up though...


The thumb drives are also great for quick transfer of files from my laptop to my PC and vice-versa.

That's probably the only real complaint I can up with for my ES. I guess I'd like more internal control of my two plug in boards, but once I'd made my edits I can say that they perform well.

AJ

I think I'll probably end up going with the Roland Fantom X6 because the Motif ES intimidates me , I'm sure that all the talk of a difficult OS is not just empty smoke . Everyone mentions that there is a steep learning curve with the Motif ES .