Yeah, I’m on a synth kick with my rants and this time I’m going to talk about the cheap ones. Now, software synths that you can use on your computer are a dime a dozen. Those sorts of things can be a bit too predictable, though. Sometimes It’s a lot of fun pressing buttons and twisting knobs on a real piece of hardware but that can be really expensive. It doesn’t have to be.
Sure, it’d be great to have a stack of Moog synths in my studio. I’d love to have one of the new Voyagers or a Little Phatty but I can’t justify that sort of cost. Well, there are plenty of synthesizers out there that some would consider nothing but toys. I’m one of those people, though, that believe you can make music with any bit of electronics that make sound. There’s a ton of cheap gizmos out there that do just that.
Three of the things I have in my studio are a Stylophone, a Casio VL-1 and a Casio HT-700. While I purchased the Stylophone not very long ago from Thinkgeek.com, I’ve had the HT-700 for many years and the VL-1 is from Kate’s childhood. They all make unique sounds that don’t always sound pretty but you can do some fun things with them.
There are a ton of sources out there if you’re interested in cheap noise makers. Thinkgeek.com has a number of other things including the new Stylophone Beatbox. For some vintage stuff, all you need to do is check out Ebay and Craigslist. If you’re handy with a solder iron, there are also a bunch of websites that give you instructions on how to hack these toys so that they do some bizarre and extraordinary things. If you do a search on Youtube, you can find a ton of videos of people having fun with toys like a Speak n Spell and freaky Pokemon.
