It permeates Nine Inch Nails' landmark album The Fragile, and it was a secret weapon for mid-'90s artists like The Prodigy. The Lead series is a go-to synth for harder textures. If you're looking to explore territory far from the classic rock path, consider the Nord Lead 2. The Stage also offers an array of useful effects, including tremolos, wahs, flangers, delays, as well as Leslie cabinet, and a few classic amp models. And when you compose the perfect intro for that ballad you've been working on, the Stage offers sublime acoustic grand and upright piano sounds that will light up every mobile phone in the audience. When you want to move into more electronic territory, there's a 16-voice polyphonic analog synth section ideal for pads and texture, or cutting leads that can relieve your guitarist from taking all the solos. Lastly, if you're unfamiliar with basic synthesis, and the differences between monophonic and polyphonic synths, please check out these articles to get yourself up to speed: For now, get something with a standard keyboard and signal path. There will be plenty of time later for mad scientist experiments in the lab. And not to mention almost entirely monophonic-that is, they can only play one note at a time. They're incredible, yes, but also complex. Unless you regularly use the word 'experimental' when describing your band's sound, a modular system might not be the best way to get started with synthesizers. All those sexy wires, all those possibilities. You can always add to your studio later.Īlso, you may have recently had your head turned by modular gear. Save yourself the headache and buy new first. The rigors of the road require reliability, and while vintage gear has a lot of pluses, reliability isn't one of them. Established bands that tour with vintage gear tend to travel with backup units in tow in case of technical issues. Vintage gear looks and sounds great, but given the age, it can be unreliable. Let's get this out of the way right now: No matter how enamored you are of vintage gear (we know, it's gorgeous), we can't recommend enough that you start out with a newer synth. In this piece we'll look at what kinds of synths sound the best for different genres and subgenres and offer some advice on how best to integrate it into your current lineup. Perhaps you even have a keyboard player of some kind but have yet to take the synthesizer plunge.

But with so many options on the market now, where do you even begin?įor the purposes of this piece we're going to assume that your band is the basic guitar/bass/drums type. Whatever the reason, a synthesizer could be an incredible addition to your band's sound. Or maybe you've caught the synth bug like the rest of us and just can't resist the siren's call. Maybe you're flush with cash from recent success. Maybe you're looking to expand your sound. So the time has come to take the plunge and buy a synth for your band.

Best synth for bass