As producers, remixers or mashup masters, a lot of us would love to complete the production of a banging number, one which all clubbers go crazy for. But once you take the plunge into the world of production you find you listen to tracks in much more detail, picking up on every little sound right down to the hi hats. You find yourself trying to solo the lead in your head and what notes were used, or more importantly the sound of the bassline against the kick or the length of the pads and strings and in what key. Then we ask ourself – How the hell do we get that sound??

We all know about soft synths and virtual instruments. The mega sounds of Rob Papen’s Albino or Predator, Native Instruments Massive or even Spectrasonic Atmosphere are of the highest quality and used in many dance productions nowadays. But nevertheless there are always hardware synths at the heart of most of the top dance tracks, you can’t surpass the quality of the hardware synth in comparison to a soft synth no matter how good they sound.

I will introduce you to a selection of four most popular hardware synth’s on the market now from the most expensive and concise to the more affordable and best for value.

Access Virus TI Desktop – £1,299.99 [Buy Here]

Probably the most popular and essential synth that any professional producer would want in their arsenal of sounds and studio equipment. If you check into or manage to view some of the latest and biggest names in production right now, you will probably find one of these at the heart of their studio setup.

Used by – ‘BT, Deep Dish, Dr Dre, Neptunes, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Sasha, Chemical Brothers, Faithless, Fatboy Slim, Leftfield, Orbital, Oakenfold, The Prodigy, Timbaland, Underworld, DJ Sammy, Paul Van Dyk, Scooter, Snap, Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto,’
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Moog Voyager Rackmount Edition – £1,399.99 [Buy Here]

Another monster sounding synth that many dance producers turn to, more noticably Daft Punk who use a selection of these live. For that electronic sounding bassline, or raw edged phat sounding lead check out Moog’s voyager.

Used by – ‘Daft Punk, Michael Gray, Timbaland, and more..’
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Virus TI Snow – £799.99 [Buy Here]

This synth is a more diluted version of the bigger Virus TI. The Snow simply has its polyphony voices limited and multi-timbral parts cut down in comparison to the Virus TI. It is still a phat sounding synth with some amazing basses, leads and pads. It even features a Moog filter emulation and if you can’t afford the big daddy of a Virus, then try this one out.

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Waldorf Blofeld – £299 [Buy Here]

The Blofeld (now available in a keyboard version too),  was tested in store here and we found it was most suited to producing basslines and low frequency parts.  The pads and leads were fantastically sounding and is an excellent more affordable option to a Virus TI Snow.

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Coming from a DJ point of view crossing over into the world of production, you budding producers and remixers are best off starting with virtual instruments and soft synths. But one day you will feel the thirst for a hardware synth such as the Virus by Access. But the Virus Snow and the Blofeld currently hold their own as fantastic budget synths for starters. Then once your competent in your productions and start playing them out, you can then  plan for your live performances.

As Deadmau5 has stated (something which i disagree with), the line between DJ and Producer is continually being blurred. Most of the DJ’s around now get that lucky break from producing a master track or being signed to a highly respectable label or even running a label of their own.
I personally think a DJ is a DJ and a Producer is a Producer – DJ’s play tracks and Producers write and perform their own tracks.