yeah I really wish the speakers had there own volume knobs also… perhaps that would be a not too difficult mod. That way you could really dial in the feedback into the reverb with out having to jump between your mixer bringing up the volume.
obviously choices will have to be made… not sure if the Syntrx 2 is really out in the wild yet… great synths for experimenting and processing sounds. Not sure what genre you make but something like the prophet 6 is a pretty immediately useful while something like a syntrx/synthi design is more experimentally useful. As much as I love my Syntrx I am not sure if I could give up favorite poly synth for it as it is a workhorse. Syntrx is like the icing and cherry on top, a fun way to get things extra nice.
I’ve had long periods where synths and other fun toys were completely out of the question. Now I’m considering coming out of retirement to do one last job so that I can afford a bigger yacht.
In all seriousness though, compound interest is an amazing thing - both for your family finances and your fun toys. The SE-02 can do most of what Syntrx can do at a tenth of the price. Get one of those and maybe some small semi-modulars and continue to save/invest until you can buy toys comfortably.
USA specific financial advice
I-Bonds are paying 9.62% interest right now. These are consumer bonds that pay both a flat interest rate as well as an inflation-adjusted interest rate. The only catches are that the website is a little quirky (using your browser nav buttons will end your session, and the login procedure is rather idiosyncratic) and you are limited to $10k.
This is a better interest rate than any legit bank will pay, is backed by the US Federal Government, and far lower risk than trying to play the stock market.
It’s been two weeks and I already miss the Rev2 I sold. I hated aspects of it, but the sound… the sound…
So, like others have hinted: keep the prophet.
For me, the Syntrx spring and feedback are the major parts of its sound. A Strega is about 1/4th the price and maybe half the synth. Consider getting one of those for dirty, noisy, echo-y fun. Save up whilst you play the Strega. Then sell it and trade up to a Syntrx. (Look into the Swarm as well, for similar weirdness)…
Thanks!! Yes the prophet sound is very important to me. The swampy brassy dark sound it can do is my second favorite synth sound next to a music easel wavefolding pad sound. I do have a digitone keys poly and a microvolt and other mono synth’s so it is not liked I need either one of them, it is just which I would rather have… you guys are right though, keep the prophet, I would really miss it, I do love it very much.
It just kind of bothers me because my favorite synth I own is from a semi big company and has keys because I really like smaller more unknown stuff and don’t actually know how to play very well… Lol.
Silly I know… Erica is such a cool company though… I do have other synth’s that are pretty close to this like my artisan trentassette synth as far as capabilities. I need to stop the gas… it is really hard.
Fingers crossed it fits the MkI. Decksaver had told me a few months back they weren’t planning one. Nice surprise.
Edit - just looked at shipping costs back to the UK. All I can say is lol. Hopefully Decksaver will be willing to sell direct in the UK, or Juno able to order a few in.
That looks nice. A bit pricey though but certainly something I will consider.
I’ve been playing a lot with the Syntrx lately and I love it more every day.
There is just so much to discover and I’ve really begun to appreciate the way gain staging works on this synth. I mean having a level knob for everything is great and the way the different parts saturate is just lovely.
My favorite analog synth ever.
The cv mod really made a huge difference and after that, paired with the A4 it’s a dream combination.
Just dug mine out after a long time in its box. Some of the sounds are outstanding, aren’t they? Just enjoying sampling drones into my Digitakt, laying on some drums and then pushing everything back through the Syntrx again for processing (nicking an idea I saw on a YouTube video a while back). Such a fun thing.
Yeah and Erica’s website says it’s a “special order”. Have emailed Decksaver to ask. May also reach out to Juno and see if they can get one in with rather less of a postage premium
I contacted Erica synths when I first was going to order one if midi patch change was a possibility and they responded with if they had enough requests for an update. Then when MK2 was announced I asked if there would be a possible update for MK1 and then said “Unfortunately, there aren’t any updates planned for the original SYNTRX - production has been discontinued and matrix programming can only be done in the factory.” which is a bit annoying as they mislead me a bit when I initially asked about it, long before there was an MK2… wish they had planned a bit better with the ability to update such an expensive synth, I might write them again seeing if they would be willing to do the CV mod + update the matrix if I sent it back to them and paid for the service, would love to have some of those features.
Yeah, it would definitely be cool to see some of those new features implemented even if that would take sending it to them for programming. I would do it in a heartbeat.
In that case I would ask them to add a mod that would make the first oscs waveform a mod destination and use the “meter” input for that.
So just pulled the trigger on a decksaver (and new Syntrx bag they have in stock to match) swallowing hard on the €49 postage cost to the UK when Juno came back to me and said that they would after all be stocking them and had a few on order due to arrive soon
You know what, I’m at ease with the Syntrx MkI. It’s a different beast from the MkII. The nice little speakers enable me to jam with it on my lap on the sofa (even if without any reverb…). It’s a nicer colour. And its become a nice (if expensive) companion to my array of drone machines. And the retrotastic stylings make the notion of hardware patching seem kind of wrong.
Having said that keep me posted on how you get on with Erica on the return to base upgrade possibilities.
Yeah, I am a bit on the fence… I think partially because it has the built in speakers it makes me wish it had a sequencer built in and was even more standalone. I really need to spend some more time using it with the 0-ctrl, which seems to be a very fitting combo. My speakers tend to cause the frame of the synth to buzz at medium volumes and I was told by erica synths I probably need to open it up and tighten the nuts, which I haven’t done yet and I haven’t been getting much use out of the speakers lately because of that. I dunno, I partially wish I had gotten a buchla easel command at this point, especially now that the preset card is out.
Ha. Frame buzz sounds like even more retro vibes. Not sure if you should fix it as opposed to embrace it. Then again, I’ve been jamming pretty much everything through one of these recently https://thirdmanrecords.com/products/critter-guitari-terz-amplifier which means that any ambitions as to purity of sound have gone pretty much out of the window…
