@yoof reminded me of my 80’s Xmas present when my parents got me and my brothers a Casio SK-1. totally forgot about that. we basically just used it to sample each other saying curses, or making fart sounds. the novelty! ha!
My first attempted keyboard was some Casio ROMpler, which had several dead keys right from the store.
My second keyboard (one day later) was some Yamaha. Don’t remember the model. Don’t even remember whether it had velocity or a recorder. It was a ROMpler, not a synth.
My third keyboard, several years later, was Yamaha PSR-280. I owned it for almost a decade. I cannot pinpoint something particularly bad about it, but the overall package was very uninspiring. While I fiddled wit it quite a lot, I only recorded a couple of tracks that were even remotely “music”. In a decade. And I wasn’t getting much better.
My first real keyboard was Juno Gi. I was shopping for a modeling amp for my guitar, and wandered into the synth zone of the store. Got curious. Watched some review videos of people playing Korg X50 and the like. I don’t remember exactly how I ended up with Gi in particular, but it was the best sounding piece of gear in that price range at that store. Still have it, still use it a lot.
People often say that it’s the musician who matters, not the instrument. I think that is a fallacy. The instrument should inspire you to play better. Gi definitely did that for me. It’s still a ROMpler, but a proper ROMpler with many good sounds, extensive capabilities for sound-shaping via effects and a decent recorder. If Roland didn’t limit it in some dumb ways and didn’t abandon it shorty after the release, it would probably be a pretty popular keyboard right now. Heh, really, if Gi had proper looping either through samples or through MIDI recording, I might not have ended up with most of the other gear I have right now. I could probably write an entire article on its pros and cons, and how it’s an essentially good keyboard screwed up by bad design tradeoffs.
My first hardware synth it’s been the Leploop analog groovebox. I miss it…
Novation Bass Station Keyboard way back in the day, used my first paycheque and went to London after a night shift with my mate and purchased it.
Kind of a revelation that all the Techno build ups I’d heard were just a bit of filter!
Still have it and in a twist of irony the first bit of kit I used to test my latest purchase of the Korg SQ-1…
Mmmmmm
I borrowed an SR-16 drum machine (which is still in the shops over 20 years later) and a CZ-101 -
lots of fun,no comp needed. First software OctaMED on Amiga A1200.Bass Station first synth bought.
But my first buy was a Yamaha FX550 to delay my SL-1200s (- DJ stuff).
my very very first was a korg microkontrol and a pirated copy of reason.
my first real hardware mpc 2000xl.
i don’t have the korg anymore, but they will bury me w/ that mpc
i mailed somebody a large money order for it thru mpcforums.com
juno 106 was my first synth purchase, but it lasted a total of like 30 glorious minutes before the voice chips wonked out on me.
the next synth i bought & really learned on was a roland jx3p. dope board right there.
I’ve only been screwing around with this electronic music making stuff for the last few years. Just as a hobby and because I love tinkering with sounds. I like that I don’t have to depend on a band to make a full composition.
The OP-1 was my first bit of gear. In the couple years I’ve owned one a lot of other gear has came and went as I fell deeper down the rabbit hole. The OP-1 is the only one that’s completely untouchable. That and maybe the Octatrack.
I always try to recommend the OP-1 as an intro to the world of electronic music making. It’s just such a joy to use and you can do so much with it that it will allow one to figure out what it is they’re after before they start acquiring rooms full of analog synths.
After a few years of fingering a Roland E-10 keyboard’s drum kit preset, in 1996 I sold my bike to buy a Yamaha RX-5 drum machine. I was 15, the same age when I had my first girl as well. I’m selling it now, by the way (the drum machine).
I couldn’t find any cartridges for it, which appealed very much to me because of the bass sounds. I therefore began experimenting with pitch automations on ride cymbals programmed in 64th at very high BPMs so that the attack would disappear and the result would be melodic. Obsessed by the idea I could sequence not only drums but also melodies I took a summer job a couple of years later to buy a Roland MC-505 (I’m selling that one too now).
Tough learning curve: no internet, no one around who could tell me what the hell MIDI was…
Great thread! 1988 Yamaha VSS200 sampler and Amstrad Studio100 (you’re fired!) followed by a Sh-101, DR-110, then a 303 and 606 a few weeks later.
@Artsutanov - heh Colin Dale used to play my tunes on that show, still got the tapes somewhere, I used to love that show and Colin Faver’s show too.
What tracks were they, Daren?
…same here.@virtualflannel Microkorg first Synth + month later a Korg Rhythm 55 in a super condition…not knowing what kind of drumgear it was…
later on… i have seen horrifying high prices for that Analog punchin Drummachine. 
Month before i’ve only had my cheap wood organ and some Guitar effects like the big muff! Heavy used this Combo and years later i’ve seen the Band the Screamers active in the late 70’s and hard sounding L.A. Punk! love this shit.
It was like a replica of my own sound. Especially that kind of Synthesized Music i liked at these moments.
Handmade and Rough.
First synth: Jen SX2000
First guitar I bought myself (was given a Squier): Roland GR707/700
Favourite analogue synth: Moog Voyager
Favourite digital synth: JD800
Worst synth: GEM Equinox 88
First DAW: Arguably a Mac 512K with a programme I’ve forgotten, but first I used properly was an Atari Falcon.
Oddest bit of kit: AHB Inpulse One Drumcomputer, though I’ve also had a prototype electric cello and a few other randoms.
Celebrity connections to kit (always amusing - musicians own music kit! OMG!)
Supernova II - Hawick band Q.F.X, charted in '90s.
JD800 - The Time Frequency! I regret parting with this one, I bought every expansion card and sold the whole lot together for less than you can buy a beaten up JD800 now 
Trinity Pro X V3 - Franny Griffiths from Space (lovely chap, nattered about repairing old beasts and he was off to a John Foxx gig when I got it)
AHB Inpulse One - Robert Henrit, drummer from Unit 4+2, Argent and The Kinks (in the '80s).
Behringer MX8000 - Fish; a big deal, as I got to chat to him for ages and I’m a huge Marillion fan.
Godin Multiac SA - the one verifiable one is the one I can’t remember - it has a certificate somewhere from the eBay auction, it belonged to the bloke out of the Beautiful South. Paul Heaton?
The one that got away: I helped a friend with an estate sale of kit - I bought a fair bit myself at good prices (for her, fair for me); she then offered me a synth she’d held back as a thankyou. It was worth more than everything else, but she’d assumed it was just a toy one… so I helped her list it on eBay and it went to Germany for even more than I expected! An EDP Wasp in amazing condition.
The one that didn’t: In the local paper, a small ad “Polyphonic synthesizer £100”. I called the number and they said to pop over. I got there, they brought out a box. “Moog Rogue”.
blink
"Oh. I don’t have an amp for you to test it, sorry. I bought it in '77 for a pub band and used it for two weeks, then put it away. You can have it for £85?"
I swear I have never moved so fast to grab my wallet in my life. Maybe after the announcement of the POs, but then, I actually got that Moog 
I 100% approve fuzzing up synths (or organs) (y)
@JohnnyEgo In fact I’ve always tried to make my guitar sound like a synth, making my own octave fuzz boxes etc… Then whilst recording my band I realised rock productions like acoustic drums to sound so processed, almost like drum machines. But wait, drum machines wanted to sound like acoustic drums since day one…
It’s confusing as much as putting a mic in front of a speaker to record electric guitars! haha
The first non-piano keyboard I ever owned was a Casio MT-100. From there I purchased a Casio SK1. I still have them both and they still work just fine. The MT-100 needs a thorough cleaning because changing the volume makes it sound like a thunderstorm is happening.
My first “real” synth would have been a Casio CZ 101 which gave up the ghost about 15 years ago. I really loved that keyboard, partly because the ring modulator could produce some incredibly interesting sounds for the day.
I guess technically a Boss DR-550 mkII Dr. Rhythm. But I used it for writing guitar stuff.
Electronica it was the Yamaha DX-200.
I bought my E-MU Esi 32 in 1995, few weeks later the Atari ST and a cheap minikeyboard without velocity. I only had the english manual for the E-MU, so it ook me really years to understand it, I had no ideas about lfo*s and those things, and most effects like the compressor didn’t work in realtime. Today things are much easier thx god!