DSI Tetra + Vermona DRM or Prophet 8 or Deopfer A100 ?

[tintin2085]

Hi all,

I want to buy some analog stuff but I hesitate.
I really like the Prophet 8 because it's a beautiful synth, and all the controls have a knob. The Prophet 8 sound really fat, you can reproduce almost the same fat sound than the Minimoog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvt5VycR1Aw
The problem the Prophet is expensive 1800Euros appro but for a 8 voices poly synth it's the best quality-price ratio comparing to a Omega 8.

They say that the Tetra is half a Prophet8 but with a subosc. I'm not sure if you can produce a fat sound like the Prophet 8 and is unison mode even with the subosc but the Tetra cost just 700Euros so I would be able to buy in the near future the Vermona DRM1 MK3 for 600Euros.

Or I can buy the Doepfer A100 system and go into the modular adventure. I can mke nice drums with it and be very creative in sound design. But i think with a more classical synth like the DSI stuffs I have more immediately the sound that I have in my head.

Please help me to choose between all this products.
The best would be having a lot of money for buying: the Prophet 8 + Vermona + Doepfer

Thanks in advance for your advices

[Daemonix]

i had the same problem and I got DRM1 + Tetra!! I like them!

[tone-def]

your got some very different synths there.

the prophet and the tetra are the easiest to compare. if you want more than 4 voices and hands on control get the P08, if it's fuller bass and money is an issue go for the tetra.

if you want a modular you should do some research and make your own system. it's much more fun and will be a lot more interesting than just a plain doepfer system. this option will give you the best sound quality and also a wider range of sounds.

if you want drums get the vermona

[Rookas]

i want a car and it needs to be red , any suggestions?

[Stomper]

i want a car and it needs to be red , any suggestions?

this one

[steevio]

i have a prohet 08 and a modular,

i havent switched the prophet on for 3 months now.

it doesnt sound anything like a minimoog btw.


i would advise anyone who has even had the slightest thought about modular to drop everything a go there, but be sure you can afford it !!!!

and you wont need the vermona if you go modular.

i dont see the point in a small modular as an addition to a small hardware set-up, you are better off concemtrating on the modular and putting most of your resources into that.

[Phase Ghost]

I have a modular and a prophet 08 as well. Granted, my modular kit isn't up to the level of Steevio's yet.

I use both of them together and think they compliment each other nicely. The prophet I use pretty exclusively for chords and drawn out pads, while the modular is for percussive sounds and bass lines.

If I had to choose between them, I would go for the modular without blinking. Seriously. You gotta get at a 9U worth to really get going though. Starting with a 6u and working up is cool though.

[oblioblioblio]

i think the vermona could be an interesting machine to use depending on what else you have. There's defeinitely something musically interesting in having a drum machine and minimal set up with it.

But that's kinda in the past. I would probably agree with Steevio that you can get a similarly interesting 'techno' focussed set up, that's minimal to make you work to get results, and with the right features to make it inspriing and effective, from having a modular set up. But that's a seperate question to this one... modular is gonna require a lo of pre-thought about how to make it work for you, as well as needing you to make some big changes to your previous work flow.

I haven't heard a Dave Smith instrument apart from some demos, but I am a bit sceptical about them. Unison is a cheap trick imo.... if you have proper analogue oscillators you can't put them anywhere near each other in pitch as they just swallow each other up. If you have thin and lifeless DCO based synths or fully digital synths, then sure, unison can be an easy way to get some thickness. But if you have a good oscillator design to start with it will just sound good already. But obviously high quality oscillators don't come cheap.

I think there is probably something interesting in the Dave Smith stuff polyphonically... even if you have kinda boring oscillators when you have a filter per voice, like a Roland Jupiter I think you can get some unique sounds.

But for me I think I would much rather have less voices, but better quality in those voices. For example for chords and pad kinda sounds, I've been using 1 VCO fming another, in the tradition of Don Buchla, and from that I can can the most interesting and rich sounds, similar to pads or other chords. It's not 'polyphony' in the traditional sense, but honestly I think it goes beyond that.