Tips For Finding The Best Synth

Whether you’re a new musician looking to make your first foray into the world of creative expression, or you’re a seasoned keyboardist with a hankering for a nifty new tool to add to your repertoire, we’re here to help you find the best synth for your musical needs.

Now, since this is the home page for our website, I thought it would be fitting to go ahead and take this time to make sure that you know what to look for when looking through these synthesizer reviews.

I hope that sounds good – If you already know what you want, or what would make YOUR best synthesizer, then please feel free to just begin browsing through the rest of our site.

If not, then please continue reading below to learn the basics of reviewing synthesizers!

#1. How Many Sounds / Voices Come Pre-Loaded?

• Especially if you’re a beginning musician who won’t be recording your own samples, then having an expansive library of sounds and effects to choose from out of the box is extremely important, in fact, for many this will be the sole deciding factor when it comes to buying a synthesizer.
• However, while having a bunch of cool sounds is important, it’s also important what you can do with those sounds, as well as how realistic the sounds feel.
• For example, if your synthesizer offers velocity (measuring speed of key press), then you’ll be able to much more realistically manipulate sounds than an equal synth without that function.
• Here’s another example – One keyboard may have 2,000 voices pre-loaded, but if the sounds it creates aren’t realistic or easy to customize, then what does it matter? Which brings me to my second point…

#2. How Much Customization do You Have?

• When looking for the best synth, a general rule of thumb is that the more flexibility you have, the better.
• Ideally you want to be able to edit every single parameter of every single effect and voice that’s on your synth. Without that ability you will inevitably run into a creative wall as you use up all the sounds your synth can create.

#3. Weighted or Non-Weighted Keyboard Action

• For some people this is the last thing they’ll look at, for the serious pianist it’ll probably be the first. Keyboard synthesizers these days come with keys of every shape and level of realism.
• If you’re only concern is being able to play lots of sounds quickly and easily, then synth action keys with little weight will be ideal for you because you’ll be able to play faster.
• If, however, the best synth for you recreates an acoustic piano beneath your fingertips, then consider looking into semi-weighted, or even hammer-action keys. Hammer action keys are when there’s an actual hammer mechanism installed onto each key to perfectly replicate the piano feel; semi-weighted keys are a budget friendly compromise because they recreate acoustic feel by just adding more material to the keys.
• You’ll also want to look for velocity as well as aftereffect, because either of those is necessary to take full advantage of your instrument.
• This may seem like a small matter when you’re spending $1000s on a synthesizer workstation, but ideally this is going to be your creative tool for many years to come, so it pays to look for something comfortable and diverse to play on.

Finding The Best Synth For You…

Now, inside this brief buyers guide I’ve tried to give you an idea of how to identify the best synth for your needs… Ultimately though, you’re just going to have to get out there and try out some keyboards and read some synthesizer reviews to find the best synth for you. When searching reviews on this site, just navigate to whichever category you are interested in and you will see a “Top 5″ ranking for that particular category. This is the best way to find out our top picks and ultimately the best synth for you.