best looking synth

[ExtraGarlic]

Ive always dug the SX210 looks, sounds dope as well!

[Alek]

My vote is for the Xpander, if you don´t have it you never know how beatiful is this synth, the touch of the (USA model) skin and those green leds....

[Carey M]

Best looking synths? Moog Source, Prophet-5, Jupiter-8... There's something about JP-6 as well, maybe it's the lights.



To me, almost all synths look cool though. And photos never do any synth justice.

- CM

[skyshooter]

I always loved my Akai AX-80 it was a good looking board for sure, wish I had not sold it.

Favorite looks are technically not synths but have synthesis in them;

E-MU EIII Keyboard and Fairlight II or III models

[MusicFan]

[kilon]

Originally Posted by NAWAX

Me likes Buchla

Picture reported for too much awesomeness and I hope you get a ban. Its like giving drug to a rehab patient , you should be ashamed of yourself.

[MusicFan]

[DesolationBlvd]

I hate to say it, but the original Access Virus with the wood sides looked really good.

[BM0]

Originally Posted by Ausgeno

WTF! I wonder if I can get Moog to do that to my white wash lunar voyager. That white face looks sweet.

[well2thebone]

I just received a Waldorf Q (dark blue w/ yellow writing) and I must say, it is one handsome synth. Jupiter 8 is still probably the most jaw dropping synth out there, at least of what i'v seen. Moog Source looks great. Buchla. And although not a synth, and I'v never actually seen one in person, but I always thought the sequential studio 440 looked amazing. Monomachine Keyboard looks pretty cool as well. OSCar

[Boddhisattva007]

Poly Evolver keyboard!!!!

[Pro5]

Originally Posted by TheBrightSide

I like how your gearlist includes stuff that you had. Gone but not forgotten.
You had a Korg M1, don't you think that it looked nicer than the D50? Much sleeker.

God no. It was an anonymous looking box and sounded horrible (ok not horrible, just really drab and dated with nowhere to go sonically in 2009 when I had it) am sure in 1988 it looked great. D-50 is just so much better built than M1, internally and externally. Fit and finish is top notch on D-50, M1 looks like every other synth, sorry, rompler/box of sounds, Korg pumped out around that time (the wavestation actually looked better looking imo - but again was no D-50 or JD-800!).

I only owned it as I got it cheap, £60 inc synth PCM add on card, and case. I sold the case/cards for what I paid for the M1, then parted the M1 out for over £300 - bought *2* poorly polysixes with that £300 (£150 each) and fixed them up in no time, so that's my best memory of the M1 - funding 2 bargain polysix - a proper korg synthesizer!!

M1s only redeeming design feature was the curved rear, nice and smooth. Really doesn't look 'beautiful'. You have to see a D-50 in the flesh to really appreciate it, photos just don't do it justice. Actually the same applies to the JD-800 - a synth I've knocked design wise once or twice around here (tongue in cheek). The brushed alluminium and colouring on the JD is really impressive, regardless of all the sliders etc.

M1's LCD was also no comparision to D-50. The D-50 had a really crisp look to it's characters and the lighting was better. Roland win many design categories for a few of their synths over the years, of the big 3 it's obvious they were the design leaders.

Seems not many photos do more subtle synths justice, you need to see them for real to take in the proportions and the way light hits them. The xmas tree light modulars are easy to admire in photos cos of all those blinkenlights, a D-50 often looks lost unless you get the right angle. In reality it looks amazing on an angled 2nd tier.

As for why I keep the gone synths in my sig, when I started that it only had 2 synths in it - I had no idea i'd be getting rid of so many of them (and buy more to try out) it then became easier when replying to threads for people to see If i'd had one of the synths I was raving/ranting about, it's also for my own record as I do forget sometimes what I've had when posting on forums late at night! Luckily my gear list is not as long as many.

Instead of just waffling on as I tend to, have attached some photos of 'decent angles' of my D-50 and my JD-800. Sorry about the ISO noise in the JD shots (was actually very dark) and the orange glow in the D-50 shots (my lamps)... anyway, the M1 I had never looked like these beauties! (I think I took one photo of it once, that was enough )

One thing I'll warn prospective JD-800 owners of, once you've had one in your setup, pretty much every other (cheap) synth looks so un-impressive or uninspiring you may actually cry a little :P I used to have major lusting for the looks of the Jupiter 6 but after the JD-800 the Jupiter really doesn't look that great anymore (6 nor 8). The JD is very tidily built and finished, the brushed metal control surface and the subtle 'tame plum' colouring they used on that panel (doesn't show up in photos) makes other stuff seem... unfinished. Reminds me of the finish in a good quality car vs some generic run-a-bout. Even the side plastic parts are well formed and coloured (if you get one in decent condition). I often wonder with D-50 and JD-800 how it must have felt back when they were released to have one delivered new in it's box, all shiny and perfect and with great sounds too... must have been an awesome feeling (Sadly I was only a kid at the time making do with my Casio HT-3000)

[zzzxtreme]

I like rear pics of synth

[Pro5]

Originally Posted by zzzxtreme

I like rear pics of synth

Me too. Was thinking the other day how much I prefered the rears when they had the name of the synth on too (SY77, D-50, DX7 etc) - another throwback to my childhood watching these machines on TV - I was addicted to looking at synths even as a 10 year old

My SY77 is quite 'impressive' looking due to it's size, and the logo on the back (and the 3 wheels).. but not beautiful

[zzzxtreme]

sy77 was my first real high end synth, was so proud of looking at it in my room. thought it was beautiful

i'm addicted to looking at synths too. oh ! the curse. that's why I'm still unwilling to sell my Korgs

[Pro5]

Originally Posted by zzzxtreme

sy77 was my first real high end synth, was so proud of looking at it in my room. thought it was beautiful

i'm addicted to looking at synths too. oh ! the curse. that's why I'm still unwilling to sell my Korgs

I take it you sold it then? Even nicer with the bright blue LED screen fitted - makes mine look 10x better just with that clear/bright display.

Another of my JD-800 while I'm here... (colours are off of course - all lights and screen are the same beautiful uniform orange - not yellow/red as seen here). That brushed metal control panel and even the plastic parts make up a very classy colour scheme for such a monstrous synth!

[Teknobeam]

Originally Posted by Pro5

I take it you sold it then? Even nicer with the bright blue LED screen fitted - makes mine look 10x better just with that clear/bright display.

Another of my JD-800 while I'm here...

The JD is a thing o beauty. It inspires you to use it...seductive in that regard.

[Psychlist1972]

Originally Posted by Alek

My vote is for the Xpander, if you don´t have it you never know how beatiful is this synth, the touch of the (USA model) skin and those green leds....

Those are vacuum fluorescent displays (VFD). Very expensive to buy new, but they have an amazing look to them. I love the neon-like glow they give. The Xpander is on my wish list, but I don't expect to ever own one.

If you crack the glass and release the vacuum, the whole thing goes kaput. Here's the one on my Matrix 6R
VFD and buttons on the Matrix 6R | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Pete

[Psychlist1972]

I like the 37 key virus synthesizers. I don't like the bigger ones because they kept the same controller footprint (to reuse the PCBs, presumably) and left all that space to the right just empty. If the virus wasn't so crammed full of knobs, it'd be ok, but I really wish they'd have spread them out a bit, maybe added a few more etc. The full board is *not* a cheap synth.

[neuromantik]

[Pro5]

Originally Posted by Teknobeam

The JD is a thing o beauty. It inspires you to use it...seductive in that regard.

Yeah agreed on THAT one

It's now my favourite synth. Suits my music perfectly. And looks amazing which just like a sexy electric guitar in itself makes you want to use it more.

I think pictures make it look a bit OTT/Garish, or depending on lighting - smaller and more toy like than it actually is. This is one synth that has to be seen in the warm ambient glow of a studio / music room to be truly appreciated. It's proportions don't photograph well, it looks more impressive/deeper/wider in reality than any photo I've ever seen shows it to be. Colouring is also much better in reality. Very classy.

reminds me of a super-car, photos look pretty enough but when you see one in reality it's only then you can really understand how low-slung, wide tracked, and eye-popping they look. Always surprising vs pictures of them. Same for JD-800, esp with those swoopy end cheeks extending up to the control panel.

[projectwoofer]

Originally Posted by Pro5

Yeah agreed on THAT one

It's now my favourite synth. Suits my music perfectly. And looks amazing which just like a sexy electric guitar in itself makes you want to use it more.

I think pictures make it look a bit OTT/Garish, or depending on lighting - smaller and more toy like than it actually is. This is one synth that has to be seen in the warm ambient glow of a studio / music room to be truly appreciated. It's proportions don't photograph well, it looks more impressive/deeper/wider in reality than any photo I've ever seen shows it to be. Colouring is also much better in reality. Very classy.

reminds me of a super-car, photos look pretty enough but when you see one in reality it's only then you can really understand how low-slung, wide tracked, and eye-popping they look. Always surprising vs pictures of them. Same for JD-800, esp with those swoopy end cheeks extending up to the control panel.

I'm glad that your firm opinion on "canned wave ROMplers" has changed so radically in such a short time...
Now if the JD-800 could take expansion cards...you couldn't believe your ears with the sounds of the vintage synth card!

[Psychlist1972]

Originally Posted by Pro5

Yeah agreed on THAT one
It's now my favourite synth. Suits my music perfectly. And looks amazing which just like a sexy electric guitar in itself makes you want to use it more.

Have you seen the custom-painted white one?
Dave's Roland JD-800

I like the original JD, but the white one was just jaw-dropping beautiful to me. My only dislike is they should have made the LEDs blue or something.
jp8000 jd800 - a set on Flickr

(See the white JP8000 too, which is nice, but I love the blue of the 8000/8080)

Pete

[skarekroh]

it might be a tone wheel organ but i LOVE the look of the korg cx3. i would kill for an analog synth with a look like this...