Korg, right?

There are tons of them but they're almost all from small manufacturers. I actually don't pay too much attention because I don't really have the money for them, but I got one of these because it's cheap, small, sounds good and can double as a simple midi to CV/gate converter to sequence my MG-1.

The downside is that Arturia has terrible customer support and inconsistent quality control, so order from someplace with a good return/exchange policy in case you get a defective one (I did - sequencer was dead altogether and the pitch wheel didn't work right, which was apparently a really common issue with the Minibrute when it came out, too - on the one got when you tried to bend the pitch up it would just jump to the maximum value instantly).

Oh, and the keyboard itself is about on the level of an 80s Casio (actually it might be a little worse) but that's to be expected and doesn't actually bother me.

The actual synth itself sounds great as long as you're OK with the possibility of having to exchange it (or can try it in a store before you buy to make sure yours is OK).

Mine seems to be okay so far, but I've been meaning to really exhaustively test each part just in case. It's a hell of a fun synth to play with, crappy keyboard or not. Anything serious on it would probably just be from an external source anyway.

Transposable, free-running sequencer with a rotary switch is what did it for me. I've got an old Soundmaster SR-66 drum machine that has the same basic sequencer arrangement and it's one of the most fun drum machines I've ever used, even though it barely does anything. The amount of variety you can get by clicking between even three or four sequences is really impressive.

SR-88 I mean.

For sure, but they cost more or do less. This thing's nice if you want something very portable with a transposable step sequencer, good connectivity and a solid filter, which is what I got it for. It's about on par with a Moog Rogue or a well restored MG-1 plus a midi to CV converter and the easy-mode step sequencer from the MidiPal, except less than half the price of all that in a smaller package. Not the same sound of course, but comparable functionality.

I guess what I'm saying is it's not all that but it's the best NEW analog synth I've seen in its price range; the Kork Mono-whatever series sound cool but the ones I've messed with aren't nearly as useful as this thing.

yeah I guess, I would just save up and get a real vintage analog keyboard but that's just me, although I have been wooed to the dark side of softsynths more and more lately....

PS: here's a link to me taking apart and cleaning my favorite synth

http://tinyurl.com/lr5cv5f

I mean, you should do both. I didn't say everyone shoul,d own one of these and no other synths, that would be crazy talk.

That thing looks fantastic. I hardly have any analog stuff left, sadly. Don't have the space.

Next big gear purchase I make will be a Sherman Filterbank 2, no question about it.

The first 30 seconds of that sold me more than this entire 2:16 turd

That video is what convinced me.

Same