View Specs on Popular Electronic Musical Instruments

Analog Renaissance 

By Gino Robair

Although analog modular synthesizers are considered boutique items, often with prices to prove it, their influence on popular music belies their niche...

ROLAND SP-404 

By David Battino

The SP-404 improves significantly on the popular SP-303 while picking up strong features from elsewhere in the SP line. Like the SP-202, it has a built-in...

DAVE SMITH INSTRUMENTS Poly Evolver Keyboard 

By Gino Robair

One of the major attractions of a vintage synth, besides its sound, is the user interface, which typically gives you hands-on control over important parameters....

KORG OASYS 

By Geary Yelton

At last year's Winter NAMM show, after years of rumors and speculation, Korg unveiled the OASYS, its most ambitious synthesizer workstation ever. Touted...

ROLAND V-Synth XT 

By Geary Yelton

In 2003, Roland applied decades of synth-design chops to an all-new DSP-based keyboard instrument, the V-Synth ($2,499). Its highlights were a unique...

LINE 6 Variax Bass 700 

By Eli Crews

Line 6, a pioneer in digital modeling, has followed up its Variax guitars with a 4-string instrument that promises 24 classic and modern bass sounds at...

ALESIS Micron 

By Doug Eisengrein

Building on the technology in its other instruments, Alesis has released the Micron, a compact digital analog-modeling synthesizer with a simplified feature...

OPEN LABS OpenSynth neKo 64-220 

By Brian Smithers

The OpenSynth neKo 64 from Open Labs might just be too flexible for its own good. Put simply, it's a music keyboard built around a computer. It also functions...

Roland V-Pro 

By Brad Schlueter

ROLAND V-Pro TD-20S 

By Gino Robair

For nearly 20 years, Roland has been an innovator in the field of electronic percussion, diligently designing MIDI controllers that give drummers useful...

DAVE SMITH INSTRUMENTS 

By Geary Yelton

When Dave Smith Instruments introduced the Evolver, it was the first affordable synthesizer that successfully combined analog and digital oscillators...

CLAVIA Nord Modular G2 (Mac/Win) 

By Jim Aikin

Clavia's Nord Modular, introduced in 1997, was a revolutionary concept: a DSP-configurable modular synthesizer in a compact hardware box. A computer was...

ALESIS Ion 

By Jim Aikin

The strength of the Alesis Ion is in the depth of its voice programming. No other hardware synth in this price range that can boast three oscillators, dual multimode filters, and a fully functional modulation matrix. Plus, it just plain sounds great. Two compromises keep the price down: The Ion has only 8-note polyphony, and its effects section is very minimal....

CREAMWARE Noah 

By Jim Aikin

CreamWare’s first rackmount synthesizer, the Noah, emulates various synthesizer types depending on the software model you load into it....

ROLAND V-Synth 

By David Battino

For the past few years, most breakthroughs in synthesis have debuted in software synthesizers. Drawing on the best of both worlds, the V-Synth combines the informative graphics and powerful wave-warping abilities of software with some exceptional hardware design....

METASONIX TM-3 

By Gino Robair

No other synthesizer manufacturer exploits the limits of tube technology the way Metasonix does. The company's founder, Eric Barbour, revels in finding...

ROLAND VK-8M 

By Nick Peck

Electronic Musician’s review of the Roland VK-8M module, which features a variety of organ sounds, a number of effects, and real drawbars....

KORG MicroKorg 

By David Battino

David Battino reviews the Korg MicroKorg, a portable analog modeling synth with big sound and features that belie its small size....

MOOG MUSIC Minimoog Voyager 

By Geary Yelton

Geary Yelton reviews the Minimoog Voyager, a 21st-century update of the classic Minimoog Model D. Unlike its predecessor, the analog Voyager offers preset memory, MIDI control, and digital programmability....

NOVATION KS4 

By David Battino

David Battino reviews the Novation K-Station, a virtual analog synthesizer keyboard that is much more than a four-part multitimbral version of the K-Station....