New member, probably old question.

[AlexL]

Greetings all. This is my first post.

I am a guitar player by nature, but have dabbled in keyboards. I want to buy a synth to use with my band, primarily for playing pads, leads, and some arpeggiated patterns.

Soundwise, I'm looking for something in the Nine Inch Nails / Orgy vein, but would love a synth that could also pull off things like the synth solo to Magic Man by heart.

I am also into Queensryche and Dream theater, so something that could come close to those sounds would be a plus.

I am NOT looking for something that can do pianos, organs, clavs, dog barks, etc.

I was looking at the M3, but that I have a feeling that is overkill for what I am looking for. Plus, I am not looking to invest the money it would take to get an M3 with the EXB-RADIAS board.

Will the RADIAS do what I am looking for?

Also, I was a bit disappointed to read that the RADIAS' arepeggiator is somewhat limited in note direction. But I see it has step sequencers. I am familar with what sequencers do, but what is a step sequencer? Does that mean you input one note at a time, like step recording?

Thanks in advance for the help, and I look forward to learning more here.

P.S., I did try using the search function, and couldn't really find what I was looking for.


- Eric

[cymbaline]

I have the Radias (I am a guitar player by nature too) and I love it! Being a synth, the idea is that you can synthesize any sound you want. Granted some sounds are harder to synthesize than others. But if you're like me, your probably into weird noises (IE: NIN), and I have been able to come up with just about any sound I have wanted, with the exception of a good acoustic piano sound (very difficult to do)...though I did make a cool toy piano patch.

A step sequencer is like step recording. One note at a time, just like you can do in Pro-Tools/Logic/Cubase, etc.

I highly reccomend the Radias for people who arent afraid of knobs and learning. Once you get into synths, you get into learning, which is a major turn off for a lot of musicians. But I dont think it is very difficult to get the hang of (there are plenty of online synthesizing tutorials to get you up to speed on the concepts).

Hope this helps!

Best,