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Spose you can use any decent synth for dubstep but any that people can especially recommend?

I know Ikonika uses the Alesis Micron, as does Dorian Concept. Thats first on my list as its affordable. Any others under the £500 mark that are worth a look at? I've see the Moog Little Phatty but dont know if thats exactly what I'm after plus its a good deal more expensive.

I know a lot of people revere Microkorg but for me, the keys are just too small which I find pretty inhibiting.

cheers mucho

Is this for live performance or studio use? this matters. in the studio you can use one synth to layer multiple bass parts.
live however, you would need to be able to split performance patches to be able to do that otherwise you just have one synth and one sound at a time (monophonic).
also what sounds are you looking for? do you want to do a lot of programming and tweaking of your own sounds?
for live performance and if you want bass? try and find a used Novation or Waldorf in your price range. they are best analog emulations out there and the MOOG filter emulations are pretty good. just remember though that a Sub-Osc frequency may be out of reach at that price range. if you can spend a little extra the Dave Smith Mopho or the Waldorf Blofeld are ridiculous sounding monophonic (one note at a time) synths for basslines and crazy sounds.
for other sounds like atmospheric stuff, anything goes...anything you can afford...there's the Kawai K1 that is super cheap $75.00 USDM that is very atmospheric and is similar to a Yamaha DX7.
the alesis Ion is one of my favorites and under 500 bucks. it's also an all around good sytnh for traditional sounds, percussion, and very programmable for electronic stuff. you'll need something to give it some volume like a tube enhancer or tube preamp to get it to sound loud and harsh. the outputs on the synth are weak in my opinion.
then there's always a sampler like a Kurzweil K2000. you can sample basic tones like a sine waves or a similar or use the preset synth waves to create your own sounds from scratch or combine synth and sampled tones to create very unique sounds. that's what samplers do. people think samplers are supposed to have all these pre existing sounds but really it's up to the user to create sounds. if you want to hear some of the synth sounds that a K2000 can make listen to this track. http://soundcloud.com/fosforo/guerra
it's essentially an organ sound sampled from a record that loops and then we ran it through a delay. also, the bassline is from a Waldorf A Plus.
all the drums are also triggered from the K2000. Amen break chopped up but played by a live drummer using MIDI triggers on a drum set.

Used Virus. Ebay, bitch!

Yeah Virus TI Snow over here. :Love:

Pete MacLeod wrote: I know a lot of people revere Microkorg but for me, the keys are just too small which I find pretty inhibiting.

cheers mucho

Korg R3 is a pretty dope step up from the microkorg. its got full size keys, its sooo much easier to program, its got usb. i get some pretty badass bass out of it. cant go wrong for the price. and dont form your opinion by listening to presets because theyre really generic and tranc-y. im in the process of reprogramming the whole thing to be a dubstep powerhouse

boot wrote:Yeah Virus TI Snow over here. :Love:

loving my polar

I'd reccomend a novation Xiosynth or an Xstation

great synths for the price

I got a second hand Redsound DarkStar the other week for a ton

i like my micron

thanks for all the replies.

I had totally forgotten about the Blofeld! Will check out the others mentioned...

I use Massive for my dubstep bass with Sugar Bytes' WOW valve filter plugin for analog-ness mainly, then just layer it two or three times. I also use Unique from Sugar Bytes, also some nice warm analogue sound, almost too much at times though.

For hardware though, I have been thinking about the Roland SH-201, seems like it has a good price and have heard it puts out some nice sawtooths. just waiting until I can afford it.

I have a D-50 but haven't gotten a power cord for it... it's known for making nice pad sounds, but Im curious to see how a wobble on it sounds.

Moogerfooger.

Subside wrote:Moogerfooger.

Standard, throw a vsti or sampled osc wave through a 101 and 102 and it's instant fatness and grit. the 101 is the lowpass filter from the minimoog. I picked one up for 150 new off ebay.

Hmmm...

Why do you particularly want hardware?

There's good reasons to buy it (including "I have money to burn and I like pretty boxes") but it's hard to suggest anything without knowing what you're after. Eg the Waldorf Blofeld is cheap and seems to make nice sounds but afaict is basically a VST with a funny looking dongle. While other stuff is more about having a load of knobs to tweak but doesn't neccessarily sound better than Massive...