analogue synths

failing that, are there any decent free/trial analogue synth emulators available on the web that i can play with for now?

Avoid Grooveboxes (although there is modern gear that mimics analog, which i'll get to later).don;t know about the first two bands but Add N to X,gary numan and eno have all relied on moogs, You probably won;t be able to afford the new moog (under the name big briar it's called the voyager), a memory moog, or a vintage minimoog, but there are later moogs such as the source or the prodigy, that can get you the moog sound, Nuamn relied on a polymoog which you can find cheap sometimes but is very unstable. For recent material Coil has been using VA's, mainly the Nord Lead, A VA might be your best bet as they have a "analog" sound (although some people claim that there is a difference) and have less of a tendency to not work (that's why a lot of bands user them instead of real analogs to tour). But it all depends on your budget (you can get a better analog for $2000 than $500)

This was actually very early on my list of things to do - I got one for Christmas when I was, like, 12. I still don't know how to "play" it, but it's come in handy whenever I've tried making music. It's a Roland Juno 106 and it suits me. I think about all famous synth playas have one.

Here are some other synth stabs

also here as well:

one

two

if you go to the hefner website at www.hefnet.com and click on the links section there is or at least there used to be all sorts of links to synth sites.

Search for Roland SH09 or SH101, or Moog Prodigy, both of which are great for working out the basics on, but also featured enough to want to keep if U get really into it (My first synth = SH09, bought in 1982, & still working - mostly - now. I still use it)

For recent material Coil has been using VA's, mainly the Nord Lead, A VA might be your best bet as they have a "analog" sound (although some people claim that there is a difference) and have less of a tendency to not work (that's why a lot of bands user them instead of real analogs to tour) This = poss true, but they are using "real" analogue on gigs - Thighpaulsandra has IIRC 2 x synton fenix, & 3 x Serge panels @ gigs, so there.

coil 1

coil 2

coil rule, BTW.

can anyone point me in the direction of cheapy-but-good analogues, where to buy what to look for etc?

cheap?! ha! hahahahaha!!! seriously, if it has more than one fucking knob on it, prepare to be raped. fucking techno and stereolab fans created the market and made them unattainable around these parts.

that's not good. especially as my equation for evaluating synth 'aceness' is most number of knobs = best.

you can get cheap-ish 80s/early 90s 1U rack synths on Ebay and then connect them via MIDI to a box with knobs on to get the benefits of the interface. i forget who make these control panels but can find out for you.

also if you're handy with a soldering iron PAIA have an analogue synth kit which has plenty of knobs

My personal fave is the (Sequential Circuits) Pro One - twin independent oscillators / sequencer. You can do almost anything on it - for the record, apart from the drum machine, it was the only instrument used on Yazoo's Only You. It's a mono, but what the heck...I've never heard a polyphonic used to any great effect!

didn't basic channel (and vainqueur, wherever he went) use the sequential circuits equipment?