after a new synth

[Steve B]

back in the day i bought a Yamaha DX27 (cost me about 8 weeks wages at the time!)
over the years it got used less and less (poor thing)
when me and the selfish bitch queen from hell ... sorry ... 'the missus' split up, it looks like it has stayed with her. (can't find it anywhere)
i am after replacing it now as my computer room is going to be moved from the 3rd bedroom to the 2nd bedroom ... more space for things (though she wont let me buy a Hard Drivin' sit down cab )
my question to the mass of knowlage known as the C64 remix community is:
what is the best £500ish (i aint spending 8 weeks wages again!) synth out there ?
i loved the sound of the DX27 (and DX7 .. seen a few on Ebay for about 200 quid) but the Roland synths had a better 'real' sound.
have looked at the Yamaha NPV60, the Roland Juno Di and the Korg X50.
they all get mixed reviews on the interweb, so thats no help.
they arn't the be all and end all though, just what i have read up on.
i would like to create SID'y sounds on it (of course) and would like a large ish keyboard (the Korg is 'only' 61 keys)

any thoughts ?

cheers

[Razmo]

If you buy used, you'll get at lot more bang for the buck, that is for sure... if you want something that sounds like SID you're probably going to get a hard time finding this, especialy if it's those sounds with wavetable that you want... in that case I'd look for an old Waldorf Microwave perhaps, eith version 1 (which has analog filters), or the version 2 that has digital filters and more features.

The best bang for the buck these days, if you want to buy new would have to be the Waldorf Blofeld... I've not seen anything in hardware that get even close to it's deep synhesis specs compared to it's price. It can do both sample-playback, Virtual Analog and Wavetabel synthesis, and has a good selection of internal FX... and it's multitimbral so that you can play up to 16 tracks simultaneously... has USB connection og MIDI connection to a sequencer, and you can have it in both keyboard version and tabletop version. Maybe you should have a look at the keyboard version:

[tomsk]

Steve

I was contemplating selling my Yamaha SY77 if you were interested, and I'm just down the road from you
http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/sy77.php

Regards

Tomsk

[Steve B]

Actually Tomsk, that looks like just the thing !

[Razmo]

SY77... a very fine machine indeed... it's also FM synthesis like your odler keyboard Steve, exept it's one of the most advanced FM synths ever produced in hardware (only Yamaha SY99 & FS1R superceed it in my opinion). I've got the rackmount version myself and would not part with it (TG77)