I really wish I knew what it was that I wanted?

I wanted to learn to play the piano. Have no interest. Figured out by an online friend, on another forum.

Wanted a minimoog. Cost is too high!

Had a Digital sampler, and sold it.

Went through a slew of keyboards, that I never played with.

Have an Omni being used as a sculpture. Same with the Farfisa.

Controller keyboard, sitting in a closet.

Loved to manipulate the sounds in my DX7-IIFD, drove my father crazy. Sold the DX.

Loved making my own cassette tapes. Either my own voice, or collages of found sounds from video. Mainly, Monty Python or songs from the radio.

Took a class in Electronic Music in High School. Loved to mess around with a Minimoog.

Or record found sounds, to learn how to make tape loops and manipulate the sounds on a tape.

I keep eyeing synths online: The KORG MS-20 Mini, Microbrute, Pittsburgh Modular synths. Would love to have, but I am afraid, I would play with them for awhile and loose interest.

Nigel, Russ or anyone? Could someone help me?

Paul

look into the Novation launchpads. They offer filter modification in real time, and other fun, tweaks that you can do on the fly. If you have an ipad - you can try a basic version for free!

Paul that doesn't matter. Have fun for a while and then simply sell when you lose interest. Life is all about having fun. If you do get some pleasure that is all that matters.

Thank You Dave, and Nigel!

If I was you I would first sit down and ask myself what it is I really want to accomplish musically.

Obviously you are interested in sound production.....but on the other hand you have no interest in playing or learning piano.

The piano being "keys" and anything you learn on it is basically applicable to other keyed boards and keyed instruments.

I wouldn't be buying expensive boards on a whim....until I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them first.

I actually think Paul would have more fun trying out soft synths. Most he can download a free trial demo which maybe all he needs to play with them. And later if there is one that he feels really hits the mark for him he can look at buying it then. But that would let him try out a bunch of synths engines without paying a cent up front.

Thank You Krychek! Yea, I'm not going to dish out a couple grand on something, I would hardly use.

What I do know, is I love synths where I can grab a knob and twist it, to create a new sound.

Hmm! That is something to consider Nigle. Although, I would have to get rid of my KORG K61 because it has no knobs, and I like knobs.

I could part with the Farfisa organ, and maybe the Omni.

They do make hardware synths, that are under $1,000.00.

Paul you can twist knobs with a cheap controller and soft synths. If I were you I would pick a good controller that lets you assign knobs or sliders to soft synth parameters and then simply play with the huge amount of soft synths that are out there and available to use for trial periods without buying. Tons of fun. And if you decide on one that really works for you then think about buying it.

Thank You Nigel!

A good controller with knobs and sliders will be so much cheaper than a hardware synth. So you can keep it and use it over and over again with softsynths that are around now or are released in the future. You can forget having to keep buying and selling hardware synths and keep having fun trying different synth engines.

That is true. I see Arturia makes a small controller for around $99.00, and includes software synthesizers with it.

It's too bad Korg no longer makes the Legacy collectiom. Wich had a USB MS20 controller with it. They now have a mini version of the MS-20 for around $599.00.