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The DX7 keyboards always have some noticeable characteristic noise in the background.

Buyer's remorse but remedied: Yamaha A3000, Roland JV1010, Korg Poly 800, Roland JD800, Korg R3, and Korg T3. I bought these units and found out that either they lacked the hardware upgrade support that was more economical at the time(A3K HDD was scsi, NOT IDE!), Had random OS/Sound/control panel ghosting glitches(Roland JD800,JV1010,Korg R3),just did not have the sounds and power I once salivated over(Korg T3), or did NOT save custom patches internally with some kind of coin battery backup as expected(Korg Poly 800). The worse case of buyer's remorse though is when I bought a Roland MC101, and found out the unit will either brick or act like it has bricked when you power it from USB and shut it off and back on again. It will not turn back on! You have to wait 60 seconds from the time you shut it off to turn it back on again! Now it does work normal with the batteries installed though, USB or no. I still have it cause it is too powerful and pocket sized to let it go but I am looking to sell it as soon as a better similar option gets released.

Only thing is missing is wavetables and multiple filter models. Zenology is the next level to the XV series. If you have the Zenology, you are not missing out on anything as it does everything the XV can do and more.

You are exposing some well-kept secrets! I guess it had to happen some day. :) Great job in explaining it all. All of this is applicable to the XV-5080. I've seen the prices of the 990 go through the roof while the 3080 and 5080 just coast along at reasonable prices. I've been working on a midi controller customized for a lot of these components. These Roland units really cover the ground to analog and I've scoped analog vs digital signals and they are so close it's nearly impossible to 100% pick which is which. I fix classic synth gear all of the time and have dove deep into how these units work and they were ahead of their time and still stand up today. Thanks for the video.. I learned some stuff I didn't know!

Many Thanks 🙏 AWSOME

If you ever learn to pronounce arpeggiator correctly …

The same would apply to the Roland Integra 7. Nice feature but I use it pretty much as a rompler. I’ll use a Kurzweil PC4-7 for VA duties.

Another one I had! I recorded my second album with it and my Korg Triton. Great keyboard and I was sorry to let it go.

The culprit is that holy grail synthesizers such as the Jupiter 8 are so highly coveted. I have commented before that my 2 80s era Roland models, the JX-8p and the MKS-70, might be the closest I’ll ever get to having a Jupiter 8 - and I don’t want to get any closer anyway. Then, as of 2024, I just purchased a Hydrasynth Explorer. It’s analog emulation and only has 37 keys. However, I often forget when playing some of the analog-inspired patches I’ve written that it’s analog emulation.

The XV-88 has one bug that Roland just refuses to acknowledge because it's really just a limitation of their sampling engine. Take a monophonic patch with a ton of portamento. Hit the lowest note on the keyboard and then hold down the highest note. The note will rise, but it will never get to the correct pitch. I have not owned an XV in a very long time, but I know at least one monophonic factory patch exhibits this issue without any editing. But apart from that, I found it a very robust and useful board.

XV-88 is essentially an 88-key version of the XP-30, my gigging workhorse for years (that replaced another workhorse, the JV-90). First three soundbanks are identical. It has pretty much the same JV sound engine from the early 90s, all bread-and-butter sounds for club gigging. A few welcome improvements like dedicated bank select buttons (no need to press SHIFT+number to select the bank), dedicated effects on/off buttons and more soundbanks. It also has sort of scene memory in form of favorites bank. Not the same as full scene/setlist memory in other synths but better than none. Has the same drawbacks as XP-30: most of sounds are presets, and, unlike on KORG, you can't edit and save them at the same numbers, have to save the edits as a new patch in the user bank, which is small, only 128 patches. 128-voice polyphony vs. 64-voice isn't a big deal, you don't really use it as multi-timbral sound source, never had cut notes on XP-30 (it did happen on 28-voice JV-90). Its biggest drawback is the keyboard quality: hammers under the keys are plastic with lead weights and steel pivots embedded. They break really easy at that point, then key falls down and becomes useless. My friend dumped his XV-88 (literally, put in the dumpster) because these breaking hammers drove him nuts! On later 700-series pianos hammers are one piece of metal, you can't break these. Not that heavy to carry, about the same as RD-700. Not really a full-blown synthesizer, due to limited editing options and small user memory, I called it a stage piano. FYI, keys on piano-action keyboards consist of two parts: plastic key that you see, pretty much the same as on synth-action boards, and a hammer mechanism below that creates piano-action. The myth about "wooden keys" isn't true, it's the same design with plastic key and hammer below in all of them. Even my absolute key action favorite, the Yamaha KX-88 (not the KX-8, that one is POS), has the same two-part keys.

So it is a xv3080 right or more 1080 or 5080?

Am I right to feel like this is very similar to the XP-80?

My XV-88 was a great synth until the keys started breaking.

This synth reminds me VERY MUCH of my Roland FA06, 3 oscillators, TVR, very deep and I definitely fooled people with sounds for playing Genesis and ELP. Very capable as well, and can do all the modern type sounds as well. I replaced it with the MODX7+.

Great Video I think Juno G has same possibilities (and also same for sampled sounds) even without using sofrware .

Thank you. I have an XV-3080 with the SRX 07 Ultimate Keys expansion board.

Great video, nice tutorial, but I think the title must change..

Great demo, I never knew about this keyboard. That software editor is great!!

What I know (I have also been using synthesizers since the late eighties) is that all Rolands are actually close together. I don't use any Roland anymore, I don't like it. Personally, Korg had the most individuality, although the newer ones such as Monologue and Minilogue are hipster things so not my thing.

THANK YOU! All your videos are great and useful for manny sound designers and voicing members. Subscribed !

Roland are notorious for hiding amazing synthesis engines behind lacking front panel controls, the JD-Xi is a case in point. If you can be bothered to use the editors it is amazing what you can get out of these things. Thanks for the great tip!

Bet you a pint the Waldorf Blofeld does more and costs less;-). Apart from the keybed. And encoders. And outputs. And glitches.

Good list! I believe synth nerds like us ;-) overrate the uniqueness of those analog monsters we've grown up with. 99% of music consumers really don't care if that gorgeous pad came from a Juno-60 or from a free plugin that came with your DAW. Same goes for all the hardware fx in your list. My 2 cents ;-)

About osmose expressive e, as an owner of Korg Kronos x88, hydrasynth 49, I bought osmose as a second instrument on Kronos, I assure you that it is not a banal instrument at all, what it offers to the musician is extraordinary. In terms of expressiveness it is unique, I use it in a folk group and it gives me great satisfaction, I don't regret having bought it at all, Apart from osmose I agree with you on the other instruments you mentioned

Yes. The dreaded DX9 - what a mistake that was. If only I’d known, but I was young and stupid. Ended up in a dumpster around 2001 😞

Lots of common sense. One thing I disagree with is using Behringer for comparisons in price. I've been playing keys for 57 years and buying synths, lots of them, for the last 39 years. Been using Behringer products for over 20 years. My record of dependable high-quality products from Behringer is so bad, that I refuse to buy any more. When you make it cheap, and it is cheap and stops functioning in just 2 years, that is not a price/value you can use in any comparison. Instead of comparing the Moog Mini to a Behringer ModelD, it would be more honest to use the Roland Boutique version of the Mini, the SE-02. One reason I research and watch all video reviews of high dollar synths is to see if I can recreate the same sound these high dollar ones do with a combination of the 18 synths in my studio today. Most the time the answer is yes plus more, two synths can normally do much more than any single synthesizer when layered together. Your effects statement is good for all synths, not just the 3rd Wave. I have discovered, with the great effects we have today, that sound design has become 50/50 design + effects...FOR RECORDING ONLY. Effects are less important with a stage synth. Old technology, and reproduction of it can only be for nostalgia, I don't understand this huge (seemingly) demand for old analogs. Just because you have the money today and can buy what you could not 35 years ago? Nearly every choice in 2024 synths today is better than 35 years ago. I want the features and parameters to design great new sounds today, it would be extremely difficult to design something new on a Juno 106 today. I never buy used synths, electronics have a limited life, and I want all I can get. To buy a 35 year old synth that today's synths can do the same or better doesn't make any sense to me...or you. We agree on about everything.

Love the t-shirt. Buckaroo Banzai fans need to organize Seems to me the t-shirt is perhaps the most polarizing of modern culture lithography.

No Mellotron? - I know, technically not a synth, but the first ever “sampler”. Quite influential IMHO

WASP, Oscar, and so many great Novation Synths (especially the Peak and Summit with their Oxford Oscillators) came from the late great Chris Hugget

I’ve been gigging on an off with my QS6 since 1996, and will only give it up for a Minty fresh QS6.1

Ending esq-1; thia was the first monster keyboard I owned. Ir was a bit temramental, which probably why I originally sold it. I still daydream about that keyboard.

Why are you doing the 666 sign in the thumbnail

I have a D-50, and I want a D-20 and a D-70, the 70 is the oddest of the ducks and that’s a lot coming from Roland, and I have no issue getting a cheap faulty one and working on it (I can do electronics), its just its own thing, the JV/XP series is alive and well, the D 50 has its own recreation, and I feel the 70 will never be shown love, that’s why I want one

Frequency Response: 30 Hz to 20 KHz Harmonic Distortion: Less than 1% Intermodulation Distortion: Less than 1% Output Noise: Better than -90dB Input Impedance: 600 ohms Input Sensitivity: 0dBV Maximum Output Level: +24 dBm Output Impedance: 10K ohms Crosstalk: Under 60 dB Weight: 10 pounds 👈😆only non-misleading spec

Does the Jeffy have 12000 Watt PMPO?

I agree 100% with everything you said. In fact, if somebody follows your advice, they should never buy Roland gear ever again. Or Yamaha gear. Or Korg. Or..

This is gold

listening to the description makes me think they took the idea of the D-70, stripped out a bunch of features and slapped them into the Rhodes 760. Same keybed, same 6 sound multi-timbral setup. Less affects a heck of a lot less user patch spaces. My guess is the ribbon cables that curl around either end of the keybed got damaged. Once the carbon contacts under the clear plastic bars that clamp the two carbon contact sets together usually crack and once they are broken it's likely you'll never get them back together. Let me know if you want some help looking for the actual issue.

I still have my SM-58 (with on-off switch) that I purchased some 45-50 yrs ago from a music store in Sioux City, IA. ! The music store is gone but my SM-58 lives on!

Ah, the VL1 - here's a strange little detail.....because you can input your own sounds (to a limited extent) I used to put people's phone numbers in, and as bizarre as it seems, the sound produced quite often reminded me of the personality of the person who's phone number was inputed.....a dear friend of mine had a WASP, another had a SOURCE, I had a Poly800.....and the real bonus?....because you could run it on batteries, I could bring it in my car. My wife would drive and I'd play a soundtrack.....

As the proud owner of a Yamaha AN1x, indeed a beautifully sounding and powerful instrument: yeah, it looks like a dog. As I said before, I like colour in a synth. There are too many black keyboards and modules. So I like the colour of the Nords. But the controls, yes, those suck. But this is a cost-saving measure - even though Nords aren't exactly cheap to begin with. They can put everything on one PCB, and if the mod wheel and pitch... whatever that wooden thing is, are on the same PCB, it'll have to stay on the left. One thing, though, about that PC. I have its bigger brother, the 16-core 3950X, with a mere 32 GB of memory, and it's just such a beast. And yours is getting slow?! OK, I haven't done hundreds of tracks in my DAW, so I can't speak from experience. Maybe it's because I'm from a time where 64 kilobyte of memory was a lot. 🙂

It's funny how so many of these were intro synths for me. I probably had almost half of the ones on this list. My first proper synth was the SH-101, and my first poly was the CZ-101. Later I got a DX100 as an intro to FM synthesis but just couldn't get into programming it. Granted I wasn't even 20 when I had all three of them, and since the DX7 was practically putting companies (Moog,, SCI, Oberheim) out of business, I was able to get a used Prophet 5 for $600 and the addiction really began. The best thing about all these (with the possible exception of #11) is they are all quite capable synths in their own right. Short of some crazy used prices and some reliability issues (I had an Octave CAT but even after a tech calibrated it multiple times it couldn't hold tuning/scaling,) they can all make usable, if not fantastic sounds and are all worth a listen.

The Casio CZ-3000 was my very first synthesizer even though you clarified it was the 101 that's trippy to me to think that we had the same first synthesizer I had no clue what I was doing with it but once in a while I could make some really cool electronic fireworks sounds with it 🎹🎚️🎧👌

Your anti-monosynth prejudice must be awful strong. My list would differ from yours about 70%. To include the Korg Poly 800 and exclude the Yamaha CS01? That’s like putting Tommy Lee Jones on a cutest actors list and leaving Ana De Armas off.

I have a Prophet 2000 and you are not wrong on that one. It's a preset machine, because programming it feels worse than a DX7 somehow. You are wrong about the System 1/1m/8 though, when you see that green glow on stage, you know what you're looking at. My #1 is the JD-800 hands down. Nothing is uglier to me

Started sceptical on this video, but man, you nailed it! 😂 Especially on the nords. I haven’t used a DI box in 10 years, but Nord is still on unbalanced out 😂 Even my old Virus has balanced out.

The Junos & Jupiter 8 are overrated, I agree. On the contrary, the Jupiter 4 is underrated. It's easier to program, sounds more raw, and is super versatile. The only downside is the limit of 4 voices. But there is a fix to that problem. I don't have $5k to $9k to spend on a 45-year-old synth. Most people don't, so theyre going to be using software instead. Arturia only makes a Jupiter 8 VST. So if u want a Jup4 you're best option is Roland Cloud. The VSTs all sound fantastic, they just eat up a lot of RAM. The Roland Cloud Jupiter 4 allows you to change the number of voices from 4 all the way up to at least 16, enabling wider range of polyphony. Sound is all subjective, but the Jup 4 is easily the best of the Roland VSTs. The option to add extra voices just seals the deal. There's also a really cool setting that allows you to simulate an old, worn synth so it sounds a little more warm and gritty. Amazing. The D50, SH101 & 808, 909, 707 drum machines are also really great. The best combo is the Jupiter 4 and the 808 or 707. Instant Synthwave goodness. TLDR: Jupiter 4 is better than Junos or Jupiter 6 or 8. Only downside is less voices. The best (and only) Jupiter 4 VST is on Roland Cloud & allows u to add up to 16 voices for wider range polyphony. Change it to 8 voices and BOOM you've got a Jupiter8 / Juno killer.

It's a pity you've omitted DX11 which was a real diamond in the DX line. A small package like DX21, velocity sensitive keyboard with channel aftertouch, stereo output , multiple waveform oscillators, amd keyboard zoning - in 1988! There's one in Canada for just $175.

I keep forgetting that you Americans don't include tax in the display price. That just doesn't happen in Europe. What you see is what you pay. Regarding the Crumar Spirit: what makes it special is that it costs only just over $4000, when the originals fetch much more. There's currently one for sale on eBay from Italy for €8500, and another one, also from Italy, on Reverb for €6000 (down from €12,000). If you start looking at value for money: well, that's a different kettle of fish. But hey! It was designed by Bob Moog. Forgetting the Yamaha AN1x and EX5S that I bought at the end of the 1990s, I never paid more than €1000 for a synth (module), and usually a lot less. For what I paid for 18 or so 19 inch modules, you couldn't purchase two keyboards from this list. In my opinion, it can be justified to purchase one, maybe two, keyboards of over €1000. And there would have to be a very good reason for that price tag. But over €2000? Very doubtful, precisely because of the arguments made in this video. And it's not a matter of not being to afford them. I'm at a point in my life where I could purchase one of these, if I saved up for maybe a year. But they're not worth it. It'll look good on Facebook or Instagram, but like most other things on social media, it's just an illusion. Your friends are going to forget about your expensive keyboard the moment they move to the next photo or video, of somebody on a tropical beach, or a pet doing funny things.