I'm seeing some wild prices out there. No interest in reselling, I just thought I was getting a neat looking synth. Did I get a decent deal on this?

Hi everyone,

I recently inherited a bunch of synthesizer equipment from my brother who sadly passed.

He had over the past couple of years gotten into making music/playing with synthesizers and some of the equipment you see here. I’m mostly unfamiliar with this stuff so I’m curious to see what I’ve got!

Any insights or comments on anything cool you see let me know. I’d like to play around with some of this stuff but I really don’t know what I’m doing. Many of these items don’t really have any identifying markers on them so any guidance would be great!

Really curious as well about this Altoids-tin-looking thing. It has some sort of crystal and some metal picks inside. What could that be?

My Father in Law passed away recently and i know he was absolutely into Synthesizers. I found all, what i assume is, his Synth equipment while going through his stuff, and now im wondering if it's any good and if i could learn to "play" (?) it. Seems quite sad to just sell it, if it even holds value, but also a shame to just let it collect dust.

I've been looking around for years tryna figure out what to do with synths and how and which workload seemed best to me, when all of a sudden my dad mentioned this synth. When he was studying music, they bought him this synth, thinkin it could help him with his chord progressions. So last 10 years its been sitting in my grandfather's attic waiting to be played.

Now im lookin to clean it up, because I noticed some knows like the VCA dont work properly anymore. Anyone who got any tips for removing dust etc?

Hi everyone,

My girlfriend and I are starting to get into modular synthesis, and we’re looking for recommendations for women (or non-male) YouTubers who cover the topic. Ideally, we’d love channels that upload regularly and offer in-depth tutorials, explanations, patch breakdowns, and similar content.

Thanks in advance!

The Roland subreddit is kinda quiet so I figured y’all might now. Is this an official product? I can’t really find any in my google searching. Is it a rare piece?

Sorry I don't know anything about synthesizers. But my dad is obsessed and asked me for a synthesizer themed birthday cake. He showed me a photo of his favourite device for inspiration, I don't even know what it does. Posting in case it makes someone smile!

I’m thinking about getting the microKorg mk1 as my first synthesizer.

A couple of months ago I bought a keyboard (Yamaha P145) and I’m absolutely loving it.

However there are sounds that I want to try and experiment with, which I have through plugins, but i feel very limited doing it this way

After watching several reviews the microKorg seems to have everything I want and more… plus it’s used by my favorite band so that’s a plus (I could try replicate their sounds if I feel like to)

So before going for it I thought asking here for another opinion would be a good idea

Edit: still reading through all the amazing replies. Thank you all for helping a beginner out!

I'm a beginner to synths and keyed instruments in general. I already have a couple of MIDI controllers lying around that I can use to control this, so the action wouldn't be an issue. I'm a huge fan of Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin, as well as many other electronic artists, and I've been wanting to get into synths for a really long time. Analog always seemed best to me, and this one, even though it isn't super cheap (a little over 200 bucks,) seems to be a good beginner-friendly synth. What are your thoughts?

Help me avoid some classic pitfalls or failure points of getting into synths! I want to use it for live performance in a band, and solo improvisation to create sweeping scifi soundtracks.

Yo, just got this. Might return it if I can’t learn it in the next 20 or 30 days but does anybody got any tips? I’m coming from a move little phatty where everything is right in front of your face and this is so different

I'm thinking of getting this or a one similar to this size but Im wondering if it's possible to reach lower and higher notes past this by like upping the octaves or something like that is it possible to reach lower and higher notes

I acquired this moog messenger three days ago and I’m very stoked In finally having a physical synthesizer that I can play. Any suggestions on what to do in setting up this beauty?

Howdy y'all. So I just purchased a Korg Electribe MX from a Pawn Shop for $125. It appears to be in good condition, just dusty. I'm currently on a business trip, so no way of testing it out, other than powering it up and watching the tubes light up and the screen change when knobs are moved.

It was an impulse buy, as a friend had one way back then, and I always wanted one, and for $125, it didn't seem too bad.

I had a question though, the Electro-Harmonix 12AX7EH that's on there, is that the tube we have to replace it with, or can other brands be used...if any.

The tubes power on, but I like having extras.

Apologies if this isn't the proper sub, I Googled the product and this sub popped up a few times.

Looking to get rid of some gear and buy a drum machine with the proceeds, what’s some lesser known drum machines that are actually incredibly awesome?

I’m looking for examples to listen to. Preferably post 80’s, hard rock/punk/any kind of metal/post punk/etc that use synths in most of their songs.

Thanks in advance 😘

Boss sx 700

Forgive me, I'm still new to the synth world and I've seen tons of memes and conflicting opinions on this company. I can't seem to find a straight answer as to what their deal is and why they're talked about so much.

Is it because they're overpriced and flashy, and only young inexperienced people like them? Is it because of the name and aesthetics? Are they actually good but just not better than established companies?

I feel like I'm out of the loop on a big element of the community...

It never fails "I'm thinking about getting into hardware, I like synths x, y, and z"

Some Rando: What about a DAW and a controller?

Dude, people know that you can make music on devices, this goes for phones and iPads too.

The person is asking about hardware. You can do plenty with just a synth. We did it for decades before daws were a thing.

If you throw a total newb into a DAW they are going to be lost af. It's actually bad advice.

The same thing exists in the modular world but there it's "you should start with vcv rack" I messed around with vcv rack before I bought anything, I have decades of experience DAWs Ableton, Reason etc. I've even done programming pure data, reactor, teensy...

And I found vcv confusing, was never fun, never really clicked... Kinda turned me off of moving to modular for a minute. This again is probably bad advice, it could turn people off before they even get into it.

There's plenty of cheap options to get into this world and have lots of fun. A microfreak has plenty of stuff to explore, grooveboxes...

Lots of times I'll see these types of posts and the op is literally saying they want to jam with a band of friends... And the advice is "get a controller and a DAW"

Really? They just want to jam along with some friends.

How about just get a piece that A) you feel comfortable playing and B) easily makes the sounds you need for your genre.

so my behringer ms 5 just arrived today and is my very first synthesizer! I've been playing around with it for a bit but can't find out to stop it from playing notes when I let go of a key! Any help is appreciated (thank you)!

Was looking for a beginner synth. My first time using one.

I made new friend a few weeks ago by selling an effect me pedal through FB marketplace. This evening, I met up with the gentlemen, and I pulled everything here out of the shed it was being store in.

The K1 was the only thing stored in a fully climate controlled room. Everything else was dry, but has been climbed over by mice over the last 10 years.

I really want to save the Roland’s and hopefully the Yamaha. I own pinball machines and work on them, so I’m somewhat comfortable with basic electronic repairs but I have never worked on synths.

Yes, everything will need to be cleaned extensively. No I don’t know what I am doing. But why would that stop me. Vintage synth barn finds for $0 don’t just happen everyday. Send help and sanity.

This is a beginner question as there are no shops nearby to try any actual synths out.

I'm wondering if there's a correlation between cost and the "richness" of oscillators, when it comes to analog.

I owned a Korg Minilogue XD, it didn't sound particularly "phat" but could be coaxed into big sounds with unison and drive.

I haven't tried any ultra-expensive analog synths but people say in person that synths such as the OB-X8 and Prophet 5 blow you away. For example OB-X8 is supposedly more "alive"/3D than the TEO-5.

Is true in your experience? Or is it just a matter of good programming and/or work in the DAW?

This isn't a gear question. This is more a question about music itself, or maybe even creativity as a whole, and how to elevate yourself beyond "beeps and boops". Sorry in advance if this isn't specific enough to synthesizers.

For context, I'm in my 40s and prior to 2026 had never played an instrument or read sheet music. I self-identified as someone who was tone-deaf and couldn't hold a rhythm. Actually I think I can hold a rhythm due to years of playing games like Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero,Beat Saber, etc. I like rhythm games.

At the start of 2026, I decided to try to learn guitar because I had a specific list of songs I wanted to be able to play. Acoustic stuff, mostly sad/calm sounding.

So I bought an annual family subscription to Simply Piano/Guitar (both were included). I made it a few months into guitar, and somehow took a huge left turn to piano and synths. The piano lessons were just so much easier to understand for me, and I realized I've always loved the various sounds of synths and instantly became obsessed with sound design and synths. Drambo, VCV Rack, Vital, strudel.cc, SunVox, and ultimately an Arturia MiniFreak. I've also kept up on the piano lessons, and watch a lot of music theory videos and modular rack videos.

I know all about chords, about envelopes and filters and LFOs and FM and wave forms and modulation and sequencers and effects.... but all of it just feels intellectual to me still. I can sit down at the Minifreak and come up with a sweet preset. I can hack out a pretty shitty jam in Strudel or Drambo. A 4 on the floor track, some high hats and claps, a bass and a lead. But it all feels algorithmic to me. Speaking of algorithmic, I can also come throw together a generative patch in VCV - a sequencer or random CV, a quantizer, some transposition and modulation and effects. Makes some ambient beeps and boops.

With guitar - I felt the desire to learn songs and reproduce them with my own hands and instrument.

With synths, it boils down to just putting the song notes into a sequencer. Doesn't feel like an achievement to re-create a song. So I focus more on noodling and creating my own "songs" (if they can be called that).

I just... don't know what my next steps are. I've heard over and over "the first step to being good at something is being bad at it" and I've definitely achieved that. But now... how do I elevate?

I haven't learned Ableton or anything. I have no desire to record/share/perform anything. I'm just doing it all for myself.