5 Bad Gear Synths That Aren’t Bad At All – Featuring Florian Pilz
At first glance this article is ticking all the boxes.
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We go toe to toe with the black T-shirt himself, Florian Pilz, to decide once and for all if these five Bad Gear synths really are all that bad.
5 Bad Gear Synths That Aren’t Bad At All
Bad Gear is one of the best YouTube channels around. Every week, Florian Pilz (who’s actually written for us before!) puts one of “the world’s most hated audio tools” on the chopping block to determine whether it is truly deserving of being called bad gear.
While I do love Florian’s meme-tornado artistry and unflinching honesty, I don’t always agree with his assessments. With that in mind, I thought I’d take a look at five so-called bad gear synths that I feel aren’t bad at all. For each entry, I’ll reprint the “verdict” section of the video and then offer my feelings on it. Lastly, since I’m shamelessly riding on his brand’s coat tails for clicks the least I could do was give him a chance to respond to my opinions.
Here then are five bad gear synths that aren’t bad at all.
Bad Gear Synths That Aren’t Bad At All: Novation Circuit Tracks
Verdict: “Novation Circuit Tracks is an instrument that hits a sweet spot between ease of use and depth of functionality. It’s great for people who have yet to enter the dark world of synthesizer addiction and even after prolonged periods of nonuse it is easy to get a beat started. However, all these things apply to its predecessor as well and most of the improvements pale in light of the ridiculously low prices you can get an original Circuit for.”
The 2021 Novation Circuit Tracks is a refresh of the 2015 Circuit, and while at first blush they appear to be pretty much the same instrument, the Tracks version offers enough upgrades to make it worth your while. True, it has the same two polyphonic synth engines and four drum tracks but it adds two MIDI lanes for sequencing external gear – always useful to have in a world going DAWless. Other new features include audio inputs (for processing that external gear through effects), a MicroSD slot for saving patches and importing samples, 32-step sequences beefed up from 16, plus USB power and a rechargeable battery.
Do these new elements “pale” in light of the low prices that you can get an original Circuit for? Not really. Yes, the original is cheaper but all that you get with the Tracks more than makes up for it in my opinion – and distinctively elevates it above the status of a bad gear synth.
Florian’s rebuttal: The Circuit concept is awesome and it deserves more than just a little makeover. According to “the internet,” people would love a more powerful take on the subject: elements of both Tracks and Rhythm, a much-anticipated upgrade for the internal synths, and bubble domes, shag carpeting and maybe tail fins.
Bad Gear Synths That Aren’t Bad At All: Korg KingKorg Neo
Verdict: “Korg KingKorg Neo is a fully functional, decent-sounding and practical musical instrument. However, as one of the leading brands that shaped the completely oversaturated music tech landscape of today, (Korg) should have been aware of the fact that a synth like this would be overshadowed by much more affordable, attractive and technically advanced instruments.”
Korg debuted the original KingKorg at NAMM in 2013. Expecting it to be a hit, the company was reportedly surprised when the MS-20 Mini garnered all the attention. Perhaps Korg thought it needed a second chance. Or maybe it just wanted a VA synth to round out its digital lineup of Opsix, Wavestate and Modwave.
Whatever the case, we now have the unusual situation of a synth being re-released without much changing (other than some internal waves). Is that a bad thing? Not when it sounds this good. KingKorg Neo has a smooth and extremely playable character with the kinds of functionality – 27 voices of polyphony, a variety of sound engines, 18 filter types – that only digital can offer. It also looks a lot better than the car dashboard stylings of the original, even if it did lose the saturation valve in the slimming down process. But a bad gear synth? Hardly.
Florian’s rebuttal: Nothing wrong with a little dusty ol’ VA magic – the MicroKorg is still going strong after 20 years and I’m eagerly awaiting its successor on the show. Neo, however, would have been a great $400 synth – if they had changed the tube stage of the original for Korg’s very own NuTube you might know from the Volca NuBass.
Bad Gear Synths That Aren’t Bad At All: Moog Spectravox
Verdict: “Moog Spectravox is an homage to a long history of conceptually related Moog instruments and although you won’t be too hard-pressed to find similar products – especially in the realm of Euro modules – its release can be considered a bold move by the manufacturer. It is not a very useful vocoder by today’s standards and although I appreciate its sound-processing capabilities, interesting modulation options and vocal-esque synth tones, it will unfold its full potential only in the presence of its siblings or a substantial modular setup.”
The Moog Spectravox is an unusual instrument for sure. Those of us used to digital and software vocoders may very well find its voice-processing talents lacking. However, I would argue that intelligibility is not the point. There are plenty of clean vocoders out there for pop music.
The Spectravox is, as Florian mentions, part of a continuum of Moog vocoders, one that started with a prototype unit made for Wendy Carlos to use in her soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange. Go back and listen to that and I think you’ll find that the voices are eerily blurry. That is the kind of experimental voice processing and vocoding that you can do with Spectravox – and that’s plenty.
Oh, and the filter bank is amazing.
Florian’s rebuttal: They should have painted it in psychedelic colors and sold it under the Moog Psytrance moniker.
Bad Gear Synths That Aren’t Bad At All: Roland Jupiter-Xm
Verdict: “Just like its noble ancestors, Roland Jupiter-Xm is a professional synth aimed at real musicians in a traditional sense of the word: it provides an inoffensive pallet of Roland sounds for band scenarios, large ensembles, studio sessions and other applications you actually get paid for. However, if you, like me, are missing essential skills to survive in such an environment and have to compensate for this with sound design tricks and elaborate sequencing techniques, the Xm indeed seems like Roland’s late and overpriced answer to the MicroKorg.”
Ahem. The Roland Jupiter-X and its little brother, the Jupiter-Xm, were based on then Roland CEO Junichi Miki’s “dream synthesizer studio,” one that could let players layer different Roland synths together in an instrument that could also act like a studio itself, with audio interface and onboard speakers. And in that it succeeds, I think.
As for whether it’s Roland’s version of the MicroKorg, I think that’s selling the Jupiter-Xm a little short. The fact that you can stack up to four synthesizer parts plus drums alone elevates it above MicroKorg status. It also has a full complement of hands-on controls for the various synthesis elements like oscillators, filter and envelopes, many more than what the MicroKorg offers. Sure, they’re both VA with some extra PCM sounds thrown in, but I would argue that the Jupiter-Xm is a much more capable synthesizer and certainly not a bad gear synth. And I can’t play piano either.
Florian’s rebuttal: For a true Roland fanboy like me the Xm is a delightful instrument: menu diving for days if you actually want to create a sound from scratch, tons of features no one had asked for like temperature-based detuning, and a sound engine offering about 20% of the sonic goodness of an Aira Compact S-1. Timeless!
Bad Gear Synths That Aren’t Bad At All: ASM Hydrasynth Explorer
Verdict: “There’s a reason why ASM Hydrasynths have become the gold standard for both deep sound exploration and shameless preset use. However, in between these two extremes it is easy to lose oneself in a dense web of strongly interdependent parameters. And although the synth engine is perfectly capable of producing conventional tones too there are plenty of more convenient alternatives for that – especially when it comes to bass sounds.”
ASM’s Hydrasynth instruments are not meant to be bread-and-butter synthesizers. Sure, you can use them for that, as Florian mentions, but with their complex synthesis architecture and sheer variety of sound mangling parameters, sticking to basic basses and vanilla leads seems like a real waste of a complex synth. You wouldn’t use your Ferrari just to run errands around town. You have to get out on the open road and let that engine open up. Same with the Hydrasynths: put that digital powerhouse to good use.
You wouldn’t fault synths like Native Instruments’ Absynth or the classic Roland JX-3P for being best for pads, nor should you give the Hydrasynth a hard time because it can’t do it all. The solution? Make it your second or third synth.
Florian’s rebuttal: You had me at “using a Ferrari just to run errands around town.”
Special thanks to Florian for agreeing to participate in this story.
More Information
- Bad Gear YouTube channel
- All about synthesizers
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