A very versatile sound engine, which covers lots of territory – from warm analogue to cold industrial. Another great British synth!
Korg Wavestate £699
Full Review: FM353
The price might be pushing what we’d usually call ‘affordable’ but with 64 stereo voices and a multi-timbral sound engine you get a lot for your money here. And it sounds great too!
Novation Circuit £250
Review: FM299 A broad range of sounds with a fluid and intuitive workflow all adds up to make Circuit a winner.
Its sequencer is absolutely killer too.
Korg Minilogue XD £565
Review: FM341 The four biggest Prologue features (Multi-Engine, user oscillator/effect import, filter-drive and stereo-effects) in an affordable form. Instabuy!
Arturia MicroFreak £279
Review: FM345 If you’re looking to go beyond regular analogue synths and expand your sonic palette with an affordable creative tool,
MicroFreak should be top of your ‘must try’ list. Teenage Engineering OP-Z £529
Review: FM339 Unique, inspirational and a lot of fun – the OP-Z looks set to be something of a future cult classic, despite a few design quirks and limitations. Roland JU-06A $399
Review: FM349 The JU-06 was already up with the best Boutiques, and this update is a winner all-round. A must-try source of classic sounds. Korg Nu:Tekt NTS-1 £99
Review: FM351 Easy to build and fun to program, the NTS-1’s flexibility and expandability make it a mini synth to be reckoned with. Arturia MiniBrute 2S £575
Review: FM328 The second coming of ’Brute sees it take on an expanded synth engine and semi-modular architecture. The sequencerfocused 2S is our favourite.
Korg Volca FM £129
Review: FM305 A great-sounding box of classic
FM sounds. It might lack the polyphony of the
DX7 but, apart from that, the sound is bang on.
Its motion sequencing is seriously powerful too.