by Brian Parker
Whether it’s warmth, nostalgia, or simply tactile pleasure that’s spurring your hunt for a new piece of gear, there are plenty of new options on the market for the obsessive lover of raw analog sounds. This year saw an influx of new and reissued analog devices, each with their own distinctive sounds and control interfaces. While the laptop’s ubiquity represents an obvious domination of digital production and engineering, few software synths can accurately replicate the full-waveform sonics of an analog synthesizer. So here are our year-end picks for analog synths, including monophonic and polyphonic keyboards and drum machines from Elektron, Korg, Dave Smith, Arturia, and Moog.
Elektron Analog Keys
The newly released Analog Keys follows in the footsteps of Elektron’s powerful and distinguished Machinedrum, with hypermodern design cues from their current range of gear. The Analog Keys supports full MIDI controller capability, and sports an assignable joystick, step sequencer, filter control, and CV/Gate outputs.
Korg Volca Beats
Affordable analog drum programming from the one of the world’s most reputable brands, the Korg Volca Beats is one device in a series of new hardware targeted to producers of electronic music, including the Volca Keys and the Volca Bass. While the word “EDM” in the description may turn off some discerning gearheads, the impressive demonstration video for the Volca Beats actually shows off the synth’s ability to create some very deep, locked-in techno grooves.
Dave Smith Prophet 12
Few makers in the current market can match Dave Smith’s accolades in the world of synthesis and engineering, and the new 12-voice update on his famous Prophet series continues the legacy some 25 years from whence it began. The Prophet 12 is a powerhouse with 12-voices each sporting 4 oscillators and 12 sub oscillators, a “Character” section for wave shaping and sculpting, an array of modulation options and effects, as well as a 4-tap stereo delay and arpeggiator. Analog doesn’t get much better than this.
Korg MS-20 Mini
Back by apparently popular demand, Korg’s scaled-down version of the famous monophonic synthesizer places the company on our list twice. Featuring the original circuitry from 1978 and overseen by the original developers of the MS-20, the Mini is an exact replica but at 86% of the size (plus MIDI and USB connection). With the same VCO,VCA, VCF, and LFO patches, the MS-20 Mini can channel the iconic sounds of Depeche Mode, William Orbit, Aphex Twin, and Goldfrapp, to name a slight few.
Moog Sub Phatty
Moog’s newest synth in the Phatty line continues the brand’s flexible, iconic, and perfected analog devices.The Moog Sub Phatty is a 25-key monophonic synthesizer, packing a punch specifically for gritty, low-end sounds. A “Multidrive” control can be cranked for subtle and extreme distortion on the dual-oscillator synth. The Sub Phatty is fairly straight forward as far as analog synthesizers go: you get the basic oscillator waveforms, filters and envelope control, as well as modulation for highly customizable sonic textures. And a pitch/mod wheel if you’re feeling risky in the double digit frequencies.
Arturia MicroBrute
The French experts who continually crank out incredible software replicas of retro synthesizers have released a compact version of their Brute range of hardware keyboards. The MicroBrute packs a ton of features on a tiny piece of gear, including a powerful oscillator, syncing LFO, step sequencer (303-style bass lines anyone?), and a modulation matrix patch bay. As with all new releases MIDI and USB compatibility are a given, as well as the CV/Gate IO.
That’s our season’s edit on the analog market! Feel free to send in your suggestions and tips for new gear!
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