Analog and semi-analog synths in the database

The hardware synth revival is the loudest corner of the keyboard market, and the least documented: manufacturers publish voice counts and keybeds in different places, prices move constantly, and the difference between "analog" and "analog-modelled" is rarely spelled out in listings. We hold 37 instruments across 10 makers - Moog, Sequential, Oberheim, Behringer, Waldorf, UDO Audio, ASM, Expressive E, Teenage Engineering, Rhodes - with the specifications their builders document.

How to read a synth spec sheet

Polyphony is not a keyboard spec here. On a piano, 192 voices means the pedal will not cut off. On a synth it means "how many notes sound at once", so 1 is a mono synth, 5 is a five-voice poly and 8 is a modest poly - a completely different instrument category in each case. The tables below carry that number for every model we hold, which is the fastest filter on the whole market.

Analog, modelled or hybrid. Our engine field records what the maker says is inside: an analogue voice architecture, a digital model of one, or a hybrid of both. Where a manufacturer does not document it, the model page says so rather than guessing.

The line between mono and poly

Documented single-voice (mono/paraphonic) instruments in the database: Little Phatty, Sub Phatty, Matriarch, Pro 3, Minimoog Model D, Messenger. One note at a time is a playing style, not a limitation to fix - but it decides what music you can make with it, so it belongs in the first paragraph of any listing.

Everything else in the tables above is polyphonic, from five-voice classics to 32-voice instruments. The voice count is the price ladder in this market more reliably than the brand name.

New or used

33 of the 37 instruments above are still listed as current by their makers; the rest are withdrawn and appear with a used-market score where we hold one, in the discontinued picks ranking. Synths hold value differently from pianos: a discontinued analogue classic often sells above its launch price, so a used score here is a statement about the instrument, not a discount.

For the difference between these instruments and the digital piano market, see the P-series ladder; for hybrid stage instruments that combine both worlds, the Nord and Sequential brand pages list what we hold.

Every maker at a glance - the full map of lines, rungs and price bands - is on the model ladders overview.