The Waldorf M deserves more love, so thanks Zach for putting it first place! Also the MiniFreak really seems amazing! If I were to recommend a new synth other than the most recent releases it would be the Behringer 2600 for anyone who is on the fence for a modular system with all the cost and effort. It may not sound 100% accurate like an Arp 2600 but can even do more than the OG and it sounds absolutely incredible!

I just ordered a Waldorf M. I can't wait for it to arrive!

No love for the Roland JD-08? Honestly, that was a very exciting release for me. The JD 800 is one of those iconic synths from that era, and for it to be released, although in a boutique format, was very exciting.

Nice work

My pick for 2022 will be the Hydrasynth Explorer. So much in such a tiny package. I also think the Roland JD-08 will be my first purchase in 2023! The Minifreak looks good too!

Kudos to you Zach for attempting to play those volca touch “keys” 😂 Also, that Oberheim has a really nice sine wave!

Good video! I plan to take the Korg Volca FM2 into space when I get my ticket on SpaceX

I would love to have a Waldorf M...it sounds so good.

Great video! It may be your personal list but your sample of gear you own is immense and your experience is unparalleled.

The Minifreak wins for me..

I like your list Zach. I have a Juno-X and it’s a lot of fun. I also have the original volca FM… the new one came out like two weeks later! That’s okay though, I’m still keeping it.

Great choices, I'd have put the Iridium first, but overall great choices. THANK YOU FOR NOT INCLUDING THE 0P-1 FIELD, which is the WORST synth release of the year. (Cash grab, failure to include obvious features, trading on brand image rather than quality, absurd price, etc, etc.)

@5:40 that is an amazing 303 sound from a digital synth.

My 2 cents. The last couple years have been really bad. I felt like 2014 - 2018 was an onslaught of amazing synths. Financially terrifying, really. Now it seems to be a combination of no new ideas and parts shortages. How many times is Roland going to put the Juno and Jupiter into another box? Boutiques, Jupiter X, System 8, Juno X, etc. They want nothing to do with analog but also don't seem to have any new ideas either. Then you have this sea of tiny toy synths that I imagine is the larger brand names trying to compete with Behringer. Whatever the reason, the tiny toy trend is really lame to me. I absolutely love my Quantum. I sure hope my screen doesn't fall off into the machine which seems to be happening to a lot of them. I'm not sure if they used the same bad glue in the Iridium or not. That's a real shame because it is a really beautiful machine. Yeah, after owning an OB8 for awhile I have to say I don't really need that Oberheim sound either. At least I found the vintage OBs very attractive. I find that OBX8 just.... ugly. Ha. I haven't even looked at that Waldorf M. I guess I just figured the Quantum and XTK were enough. It sounds great. But yeah, I'm not really counting on anything mind blowing coming out but we'll see. Moog was doing great with the Sub 37, One, Matriarch and then it went to overpriced toy synths and now a 5k mono cash-in. Sequential seems to have about 10 synths that are way too similar to each other and in my opinion they have not done anything interesting since the days of DSI. Oh well. There's more than enough great synths from the last 50 years out there.

The M is a beautiful beast. I'm enamoured and terrified by it in equal measures

The Waldorf M is the only synth I bought this year

The Iridium Keyboard is indeed a winner in my book. It's a mini CS-80, really! I own one, it's essentially a synth to end all synths. Polyphonic aftertouch is incredible, the keybed's semi-weighted nature feels great, the controls make sense. See my channel for some examples.

No mention of the Kurzweil K2700 anywhere in your best-of list? The K2700 is exquisite. Bar none the best synth released in 2022.

Why is the Roland JD-08 box there? I like it, but don't think you mentioned it.

Juno 106 still my favourite looking synth!

My list would be - OB X8 - Perkons - 3rd Wave - Trigon - M Waldorf

I don't need a ton of synths. My top 5 (not in just '22) might look something like: Korg Wavestate Prophet 10 OB-6 ARP 2600 M Hydrasynth Deluxe or Take 5

Thanks, Zach. I'm embarrassed. It's curious enough, that M is a synth, which partially sculpted itself. Sometimes he was strongly against adding something to it and sometimes it was a really pretty fast and flawless way to add new features, requested by users. So der Blauer Engel hat sich selber entwicklet. Greetings from Remagen Vladi

I don’t know the exact specifications but I would imagine the iridium can do everything the m can do, no?

I'm in the market to buy a premium synth. I'm between buying a flagship synth like one of the Moog One's or maybe the OB-X8 or Pro 10. I've also thought about getting a couple upper tier synths like the Trigon-6 and Iridium instead. It's kind of stressful to think of paying 4-6k+ for a synth. I kind of like the idea of having a few premium synths, that can make almost any sound, rather than having a bunch of cheaper synths, cluttering up my desk space. It's cool to have a bunch of stuff, but it gets cluttered fast. I wish I had someone that I could work everything out with. I pretty much want to revamp my entire production space. I'm lucky enough to have a little room to get some decent gear, but I'm not rich, so buying premium gear makes it hard to decide. I may just end up calling one of these companies, and see if they can help, and maybe give a good deal, due to the cost of premium gear.

The Waldorf M is definitely the winner.

I hope that jet landed ok😁

I guess small Oberheim kinda went unnoticed huh?:P

The M is not bad, but it lacks the brachial sound quality, analogue saturation, fast envelopes and directness of the original microwave. On the other hand it’s difficult sometimes to integrate the Microwave into a mix because it blows away all other instruments and voices.

M for me because I don't have one but I want❤

I know plenty of people (including myself) who had already received the MiniFreak in November of this year so it’s definitely relevant-it may not be in all stores but you can certainly find them if you look!

Wow … only 1 out of 5 are on display. 😂. But glad JD-08 made it on display 🎉.

Oh !! What are your own personal feelings about the OB-X8 ?! Please share!! I want to love it, but I just can’t … I don’t think it captures the sound of the classic OBs, anywhere near as well as, say, the Prophet 5/10 does … and from what I can tell, that is mot least due to whatever oscillators they have used in the OB-XA, which they have been very tight-lipped about … …

Bah, I wanted to hear about the piece of Roland gear sitting RIGHT THERE, come on. It was on the table!

Waldorf M

no Hydrasynth Explorer?...or was that last year

I’ll give you $1,000 if you can tell me what the oscillators in the OB-X8 are … ?!

Nope. Waldorf continues to un-inspire. Juno X maybe. Take 5 definitely, OB-X8 for sure. But thank you for not including any of Uli's garbage. Cheers!

I quit watching these Alamo videos months ago because I can’t handle the amount of arm movement. Put some weighted wristbands on man

Kinda more of a virtual list….

Funnest isn’t a word

You don’t like Oberheim? Come on Man!

Some of these are awful, are just awful choices. First off, unlike on a real DX7, you cannot program patches on the FM 2. It thus has a single job to do well: to load and play DX7 patches. And it cannot even do that job properly because its DX7 sysex parsing is broken. If you want a good DX7 recreation, why not just use Dexed, which is free? But that's not the worst. The JD-08 is my nominee for worst synth of the year. It's supposed to be a recreation of the JD-800, except that it incredibly has no sysex AT ALL. You cannot load JD-800 patches into it, nor edit it remotely. And its interface (and screen) is so inferior to the whole *point* of the JD-800 it beggars belief. Finally the Juno-X perfectly exemplifies Roland's brain damage. Customers are clamoring, absolutely *begging*, for an analog clone of the Juno (and Jupiter) series. So let's give them a bad digital copy which is little more than two VSTs in a box, and is literally the same digital copy that we've offered many times in the past. Only now with sliders! Behringer is going to eat their lunch. On the other hand, the The M and Iridium are great choices. The M is a faithful, indeed fanatical, copy of the Microwave I with the XT interface and some XT features thrown in, by a developer who has since become legendary on GearSpace for his dedication to the project. The Iridium is a wonderful machine with a very large number of capabilities.