Kicking us off is the remarkable JT-4000M from mass-producing synth-masters Behringer. It’s based upon the synth-engine of the classic Roland JP-8000 virtual analog synthesizer from 1996, and pours that idea into a tiny, portable and playable little synth.

You have four voices to play with, each built with 2 virtual analog oscillators for some really thick sounds. The waveforms are routed through a thoroughly analog multi-mode filter for all the lush sounds, acid vibes and smoothness that we love from analog gear. There’s an LFO for modulation and an arpeggiator that you can use in conjunction with the mini touch-sensitive keyboard.

The sounds are brilliant and you get 32 built in presets based on the original Roland synthesizer and a screen with a scope to visualise what’s going on. Controls are a little bit scarce but for fifty dollars you get some really great supersaw sounds and some fabulous filter action. The latest 4000M version now has a MIDI port so you can attach a larger keyboard, or you can use it with USB direct to your computer.

The JT-4000M is a great sounding synth you can take anywhere.

Other Micro and Mini synths are on their way from Behringer which should all be under $100.

Street Price: $49
Behringer.com

Slightly larger and with a lot more control and “synthesis” going on we have the Pro VS Mini. It’s based upon the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS from 1986 and is remarkable because of the way it can mix waveforms. It’s called Vector Synthesis where you have four waveforms mixed together through the XY axis of a joystick giving you a massive range of possible sounds.

The Pro VS offers four voices playing a mix of four waveforms taken from a wavetable of 128. The mix is routed through an analog 24dB lowpass filter and into the possible swirl of some chorus. The front panel gives you direct control over the envelope, filter, chorus, dual LFOs and oscillator waveforms. The expanded keyboard works with the arpeggiator but also gives access to advanced sequencer control. You’ll also find a MIDI port right on the front panel so you can add a much larger keyboard if you want.

Behringer has packed a lot into the Pro VS Mini and has managed to capture the those classic late-80s sounds that underpinned so much of the pop music of the time.

Street Price: $99
Behringer.com

The Pocket Operator series of palm-sized groove boxes have been around a while but are a lot of fun while containing some serious music making abilities. There are several to choose from, each with a particular set of skills, but it’s the PO-16 that takes on the job of synthesizer the best.

Inside you have multiple synthesizer engines including FM, subtractive synthesis, wavetables and physical modelling. These are folded into 15 melodic sounds and one percussive kit. The grid of buttons gives you 16 steps of 16 patterns, with 16 different effects and 16 ways of modulating. It’s designed as a lead synthesizer, with a chord mode, rhythms and a wonderfully fun time.

The screen is great and filled with animation to represent your progress. Each sound can be manipulated to be more than you’d imagine and it very quickly comes together into cascades of patterns and adventures in melody. It can be fiddly, but once you get the hang of the buttons the grooves and possibilities are endless.

Street Price: $99
TeenageEngineering.com

Behringer has a few classic synths built into the same sort of format. This includes takes on the legendary Minimoog, classic Korg MS-20 and French made Kobol synth, but for me it’s the Wasp that’s the most fun.

The Crave is a reflection of a modern day classic, the Moog Mother-32. Behringer took the architecture of Mother-32 and boiled it down to a straightforward and great sounding shadow of itself. While it has none of the class or aesthetic beauty of the origianl it does capture the sound and playability giving you a great synth at a third of the cost.

Crave is semi-modular meaning that out of the box it will make regular synthesizer sounds just by turning the knobs. However, if you wanted to think a bit more outside the box then it has an 18 x 14 patch matrix so you can cable up your own ideas.

It has a single analog oscillator with a pair of waveshapes and a noise generator. The resonant 24dB filter delivers exactly what a filter should and with a little bit of modulation it really elevates. Modulation is easy and deliberate with a single LFO and simple envelope.

The arpeggiator and 32-step sequencer make it easy to fine tunes and possibilities as you explore patching and enjoy the sense of classic synthesis that this little machine generates. Like the Mother-32 the Crave is a relaxed and groovy place to enter the world of the synthesizer.

Street Price: $199
Behringer.com

Behringer has a few classic synths built into the same sort of format. This includes takes on the legendary Minimoog, classic Korg MS-20 and French made Kobol synth, but for me it’s the Wasp that’s the most fun.

The Behringer Wasp is based on the quintessential British synth, the EDM Wasp Deluxe from 1979. They’ve taken the synth, the look and the logo really quite shamelessly. The Wasp was all about character, from the rasp of the filters, to the grit of the digitally controlled oscillators. So it’s not as clean or as well behaved as some other synths; but that, of course, is why we like it.

The Wasp has two digitally controlled oscillators switchable between ramp, pulse and square. Oscillator 1 can enjoy pulse width modulation and oscillator 2 has a bit of detuning. The analog filter is multimode with low, high, bandpass and notch options and a lovely sweepable resonance. There’s a loopable envelope for the VCA and another for modulation purposes. It has a well-endowed LFO with six waveshapes.

So, there’s a lot of good synthesis going on but it’s well laid out, clear and gorgeous in the yellow and brown. Perhaps what it lacks is any arpeggiator or sequencer so you’ll going to have to connect it up to something, but once you do it’s a whole load of fun.

Street Price: $149
Behringer.com

The Korg Volca FM2 is a perfectly formed 6-voice FM digital synthesizer. It perfectly encapsulates the sound of the classic Yamaha DX7 with its 6 Operators and 32 FM Algorithms. The crazy thing is that this little box can load original DX7 sounds via a webpage interface.

But let’s not get too excited, the Volca FM2 is not trying to be an old Yamaha synthesizer, it has ideas of its own. The Volca series are all about the 16-step sequencer. It puts a forever evolving machine of movement in your hands that’s enormous fun to use. You can throw in notes, move steps around, warp and randomise. But the greatest thing is the Motion Sequence that captures knob movements, changes and parameters onto every step.

The result is a synth that’s alive and energised. While it only has a few controls they are perfectly curated to move all the right stuff under the hood to give you an enjoyable FM experience without the headache of deep programming. It feels good, sounds good, has some great effects built in and can run brilliantly over MIDI for a much bigger synth experience.

Korg has several other Volca boxes around this price point that cover bass lines, drums, percussion and other synth styles but for me the FM2 is the best yet. Check out my review in the video above.

Street Price: $169
Korg.com

This is from an unexpectedly brilliant range of compact synths from Roland. The S-1 starts off by trying to emulate the classic SH-101 but then somehow subverts, expands and runs off down a completely different road.

The S-1 is based on the software ACB (Analog Circuit Behaviour) emulation of the SH-101 synthesizer. It has the tone and character of that classic playful monosynth. But because this isn’t restricted by the physicality of analog oscillators Roland has fleshed it out into four voices. So it play like a polysynth using the same waveforms, mixing and filter that we love from the SH-101. The filter sounds amazing and all the controls are right there on the front panel in miniature form.

However, then it starts to deviate. The S-1 has a function which lets you draw your own waveforms, blowing the lid off the sonic capabilities. You can introduce harmonics and overtones that take it in very different directions. Couple to that is a decent effects engine which adds chorus, delay and reverb giving it a much more cinematic sound. The expanded 64-step sequencer can acquire information from all the knobs to inject motion into the movements. Talking of which, you can pick up the S-1 and use physical movement to alter parameters.

The S-1 is far too much synthesizer and far too much fun in a little box that sounds better than anything many times its price.

Street Price: $199
Roland.com

Roland.com

Bastl Instruments do things differently. Their synths are often about the collision between creativity, art and electronics. It’s more about experimentation than predefined and sensible synthesizer architecture.

The Kastle ARP brings a unique modular melody generator to the palm of your hand. It gather noble sine waves and destroys them with gleeful abandon. It quantizes, it reverse through digital waveshapers, it finds notes and chords and finds variation where none should exist.

It will make noise by itself but with a handful of artfully placed patch wires it will alter time, speed up the harvest and teleport you off this rock. It’s perfect for beauty, awesome for distress, instinctively chip tune and never completely under your control.

You don’t worry about the specs or technical details, you simply give in to the mood of the Kastle ARP and enjoy the ride.

Street Price: $107
Baslt-Instruments.com