Maximus
01-22-2007, 07:29 PM
It’s been a long time since we had a poll in the forum and this Subject is been on my mind for a couple of years, and I thought it would be a very fun subject for us Synth-geeks to do a poll
The Best Looking Modern Synth
Keep in mind it is a “Beauty Pageant” so I’m not going to go deep on their tech, still someone once said “ Nothing useless can truly beautiful “ or something like that, luckily Imho all of my candidates sound great too.
Also keep in mind “Modern” so no GX-1, moog modular or Arp 2500.
These are my candidates for the poll, i’m sure to make some oversights, Of Course anybody can propose theirs along with their reason why it should be in the poll, but I think I got a couple of basics ones, the poll will start next week so get your candidates in ASAP.
So in no particular order.
1. Roland Jupiter 8 not only an all around beauty but also a turning point for Roland, by deciding to take up the higher end Oberheims and Prophets of the time, and making people look to Japan for a fat, reliable, analog, portable, well priced, polysynth. The panel layout is simply GENIUS, the color buttons did not make it look cheap, The all metal Case and The Brushed aluminum Side ends, (instead of the then reglamentary wood case or accents) made it look Very Industrial and very High Tech, everything did what it said it did.
http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/images/jup8.jpg
2. Korg Trinity, this one is close to my heart because in the mid 90’s I was getting my first Synth, and it had just came out, so I visited the dealer, when I looked at it, it was so different from everything else, (out of an episode of star trek the next generation) so minimalist (remember this was before knobs & sliders on a digital), so silver, and then, they showed me the touchscreen (Remember back then a green/yellow/orange 2 X 16 char Lcd was to be expected, and a blue 320 X 240 dot matrix Lcd touchscreen was Magical, it was the biggest one available on anything). I was in love, but she was out of my league, story of my life.
http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/trinity.jpg
3. Kurzweil K2500, Keyboard magazine called it the “Steinway of Keyboards”, boy there were right, but also to me is the culmination of the “classical” digital Synth design, its Big, Rectangular, Flat, with a numerical keypad, a screen in the middle and Jet Black, the 8 sliders and 2 ribbons where bonuses, its unbelievable that until this years Namm the other manufacturers (Korg & Yamaha at least) feature the 8 sliders on their workstations. (the Oasys and I30 don’t count)
http://www.vintagesynth.com/kurzweil/k2500.jpg
4. Yamaha DX1 This one it’s a little more obscure, but again out of Star Trek (the 80’s movies era). It’s, large, flat, beautiful, and had enough red LEDs to be a skyscraper’s top Light. Everything about the DX1 spoke of quality: its physical size, its weight, its 73-note wooden keyboard, the coolest thing was the panel, graced by graphic representations of the 32 FM algorithms, and 13 LED windows that show the positions and relationships of the operators, there's another pair of LED windows to display the algorithm number and the amount of feedback, the next section has further LED windows that show the frequency ratio and the detune amount of the currently chosen operator, Then there's the biggie, the collection of eight numeric LEDs (00 to 99) and four 16-segment LEDs that depict the amplitude rates and levels the currently selected operator. (Watching FM its not simple)
http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/dx1.jpg
The Best Looking Modern Synth
Keep in mind it is a “Beauty Pageant” so I’m not going to go deep on their tech, still someone once said “ Nothing useless can truly beautiful “ or something like that, luckily Imho all of my candidates sound great too.
Also keep in mind “Modern” so no GX-1, moog modular or Arp 2500.
These are my candidates for the poll, i’m sure to make some oversights, Of Course anybody can propose theirs along with their reason why it should be in the poll, but I think I got a couple of basics ones, the poll will start next week so get your candidates in ASAP.
So in no particular order.
1. Roland Jupiter 8 not only an all around beauty but also a turning point for Roland, by deciding to take up the higher end Oberheims and Prophets of the time, and making people look to Japan for a fat, reliable, analog, portable, well priced, polysynth. The panel layout is simply GENIUS, the color buttons did not make it look cheap, The all metal Case and The Brushed aluminum Side ends, (instead of the then reglamentary wood case or accents) made it look Very Industrial and very High Tech, everything did what it said it did.
http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/images/jup8.jpg
2. Korg Trinity, this one is close to my heart because in the mid 90’s I was getting my first Synth, and it had just came out, so I visited the dealer, when I looked at it, it was so different from everything else, (out of an episode of star trek the next generation) so minimalist (remember this was before knobs & sliders on a digital), so silver, and then, they showed me the touchscreen (Remember back then a green/yellow/orange 2 X 16 char Lcd was to be expected, and a blue 320 X 240 dot matrix Lcd touchscreen was Magical, it was the biggest one available on anything). I was in love, but she was out of my league, story of my life.
http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/trinity.jpg
3. Kurzweil K2500, Keyboard magazine called it the “Steinway of Keyboards”, boy there were right, but also to me is the culmination of the “classical” digital Synth design, its Big, Rectangular, Flat, with a numerical keypad, a screen in the middle and Jet Black, the 8 sliders and 2 ribbons where bonuses, its unbelievable that until this years Namm the other manufacturers (Korg & Yamaha at least) feature the 8 sliders on their workstations. (the Oasys and I30 don’t count)
http://www.vintagesynth.com/kurzweil/k2500.jpg
4. Yamaha DX1 This one it’s a little more obscure, but again out of Star Trek (the 80’s movies era). It’s, large, flat, beautiful, and had enough red LEDs to be a skyscraper’s top Light. Everything about the DX1 spoke of quality: its physical size, its weight, its 73-note wooden keyboard, the coolest thing was the panel, graced by graphic representations of the 32 FM algorithms, and 13 LED windows that show the positions and relationships of the operators, there's another pair of LED windows to display the algorithm number and the amount of feedback, the next section has further LED windows that show the frequency ratio and the detune amount of the currently chosen operator, Then there's the biggie, the collection of eight numeric LEDs (00 to 99) and four 16-segment LEDs that depict the amplitude rates and levels the currently selected operator. (Watching FM its not simple)
http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/dx1.jpg