On to this year’s best synthesizers.

The arrival of a new polysynth from Moog is always an exciting event. The previous outing was the extravagant Moog One, descended from the Memorymoog and attempted to simply be the most amazing analog polyphonic synth in existence for those who could afford it. The Muse has come from a different path with different intentions and, for me, that makes it a far more attractive proposition.

The Muse is built around vintage Moog technology and concepts. It has oscillators from the Voyager, filters, VCAs, and mixers from the Moog Modular, elements inspired by Moogerfooger pedals, and a front panel that references the Rogue, Liberation, and Opus III. It looks superbly old-fashioned, and you know, even before you play it, that it’s going to sound fantastic. Moog does this better than anyone else.

It’s an 8-voice bi-timbral analog synthesizer with two VCOs, a third modulation VCO, two voltage-controlled ladder filters and a stereo VCA. It has two general-use LFOs and an LFO dedicated to pitch wobbling. It has assignable, shapeable, loopable envelopes and a 16-sot modulation matrix for each of the two timbres. With the “timbres”, you can create two independent sounds, layered or split across the keyboard, and save them as a single patch. At the end of the chain is a stereo Diffusion Delay effect inspired by vintage digital rack delays.

Pretty much everything is out on the front panel for your fingers to explore. You can record movements into the 64-step sequencer, add probability, chain your sequences, and use the arpeggiator or chord memories to get music moving in the right direction. You can humanise and radicalise, toss a coin and shift from one sequence to another determined on every step. There’s some great and unexpected complexity here.

Overall it’s a tidy package of vintage Moog sounds in a very playable and engaging form. While it’s half the price of the Moog One, it’s still a premium synthesizer and expensive compared to many others on this list. But Moog has come up with something really special that ticks nearly all the boxes for your next favourite synth.

Street Price: $3,499
MoogMusic.com

Of course what we all really want is a Prophet 5, the quintessential Sequential synthesizer. However, the unimpressively named Take 5 is the most affordable way into the world of Dave Smith designed synthesizers and it takes on much more of Dave’s hybrid character than the Prophet 5 ever did.

The Take 5 is nicely compact, light and portable. It may only have 44 keys but they feel great and is much more likely to fit into your playing space than the big, chunky synths. The front panel is covered in knobs but with an ordered and logical layout using grey against black to draw you to the most useful controls. Each voice uses a pair of analog VCOs and nice fat analog four-pole resonant low pass filter pulled straight from the Prophet 5 and given a fabulously oversized knob. Everything else is digital which on the one hand keeps the costs down and on the other leans into Dave’s more playful, digital side, something you could argue that Moog has emulated with the Muse.

The digital modulation engine features two LFOs and two envelopes. One LFO is global, the other is set per voice. The envelopes are mapped to the usual VCA and VCF duties but you can release one for other things and use the other to run the VCA and VCF at the same time. One feature I really like is the ability to delay the modulator so it starts a little later to have an interesting effect on sustained sounds. There’s a simple 64-step sequencer and arpeggiator, a unison mode and a one-finger chord mode. All the ingredients of a decent synthesizer.

For effects you get a whole multi-effects engine with delays, modulations, filtering and ring modulation plus a good sounding reverb section with detailed options. There’s also an overdrive circuit that’s always available.

The Take 5 sounds great and is very instant to play and tweak as you go. Its compact form isn’t for everyone but many of us simply don’t have the room for a huge synthesizer. It doesn’t concern itself with deep menus or esoteric features, it puts it all out there on the front panel and invites you to play.

Street Price: $1,499
Sequential.com

When UDO Audio introduced the Super 6 a few years ago, it felt like someone had captured the essence of the great Roland synths in a new and exciting way. It was clever, incorporating a hybrid workflow of analog signal path and digital processing. The Super 6 deserves a place on this list itself, but we must talk about what came next: the Super Gemini.

The Super Gemini boosts the polyphony to a stunning 20 voices in mono or 10 voices in its uber-stereo binaural mode. It follows the same architecture with digitally modelled oscillators kicking out classic waveshapes down a well-worn analog signal path to the filter and VCA. Each voice has four oscillators with a supersaw and super-wavetable mode to push the tonal possibilities with 64 interchangeable waveforms. You can morph between waves, detune and cross-modulate. The oscillators get split through a pair of filters, both high and lowpass and end up mixed through chorus and delay effects.

It’s bi-timbral, which makes it feel like you’ve got two Super 6 synths stacked on top of each other, and the front panel definitely reflects that. You can split or layer, arpeggiate or sequence either timbre and then have complete fingertip control. The modulation offers two large envelopes but only one LFO, but you have a lot of power through the matrix to patch things where they need to go.

Super Gemini is also super-expressive. The keybed features polyphonic aftertouch, and the synth supports full MPE control with the right controller. An assignable ribbon controller gives you some very hands-on expressive control, which the arp and sequencer take care of the usual business.

The Super Gemini is a player’s synth where you can drown yourself in its dual-layered nature of emotionally charged and detailed sounds. The binaural engine gives it a unique amount of play in the stereo field for fully immersive synthesis.

Street Price: $4,495
UDO-Audio.com

The original Polybrute was hard to beat and is still one of the best synths out there, but like the Super 6 and Super Gemini, we have to talk about the one that came after: the Polybrute 12.

It’s big, expensive and somewhat funny-looking with its odd colouring and big vents. But straight down the line, this is a powerhouse of a synthesizer. It offers 12-voice polyphony with two analog oscillators per voice, a sub-oscillator and noise. The oscillators let you blend between classic waveforms and add a bit of pulse width modulation, hard sync, FM, wavefolding, and Arturia’s own Metalizer to add some edge to the analog tones. From there, it’s off through a choice of ladder lowpass or variable Steiner filter with drive and brute controls in series or parallel.

The Polybrute 12 has an abundance of modulation. It has three envelopes and three LFOs per voice. It has a custom-made 61-note keybed with numerous channel and polyphonic aftertouch options for extremely dynamic playing. There’s a wooden ribbon controller and a wobbly Morphee XYZ controller for some amazingly nuanced expressive playing, including the ability to morph between sounds. All of this can be routed through the 64-slot modulation matrix for breath-taking movement and animation.

As seems to be the fashion at the moment, the Polybrute 12 is bi-timbral and can layer or split sounds on the keyboard. It has a 64-step polyphonic sequencer and arpeggiator with a complex hybrid option for 16-step arpeggiating frameworks. The sequencer also has three lanes of automation to keep things moving.

The extent of expressive control is really impressive and difficult to replicate on any other synth. While it’s a heavy beast the sound possibilities more than make up for how much room it takes up. There’s an included software version to help manage your patches and give solid integration to your studio. The Polybrute 12 is quite a machine.

Street Price: $3,999
Arturia.com

When it comes to Oberheim, we should perhaps be talking about the outstanding OB-X8, which is like the natural successor to Oberheim’s legacy, or even perhaps the Behringer UB-Xa, which is a homage to the classic OB-Xa synthesizer. However, like the Sequential Take 5, the TEO-5 brings the classic original sound into a compact and powerful form that’s going to serve a modern studio with more than nostalgia.

First of all, despite the compact size and similar form to the Take 5, you can see Oberheim all over it in the striking blue pinstripe. Each of the five voices has two VCOs with the simplicity of saw, pulse and triangle waveforms. You can select any waveform for either oscillator, and it has independent pulse width modulation and a delicious detuning knob for fat chorusing sounds. Oscillator 1 also has a square wave sub-oscillator one octave below. You can cross-modulate the oscillators into each other for some edgy FM dissonance and use sync to pull out some really interesting tones.

The oscillators can be individually routed through the filter and the sound will be of that familiar 12dB/Octave SEM multimode filter. You’ll also find the mixer here with noise options. From here we dive into the digital signal path and modulation options.

There is one LFO for global modulation and another one per voice. The two envelopes can cycle for more oscillations or be more normally directed to contour the filter cutoff and amplifier. There’s the obligatory 64-step sequencer and arpeggiator with several simple modes. It has a 19-slot modulation matrix with 64 destinations, meaning that you can get really funky with the sound design. The TEO-5 is remarkably versatile and can get brilliantly complex while remaining super-straightforward on the front panel.

The TEO-5 sounds ridiculously good, especially when pushed into mono and unison modes or when leaning into the “Vintage” knob of emulated deterioration. It’s fun to play, easy to program, and isn’t going to dominate your space.

Street Price: $1,499
Oberheim.com

The Minifreak is a continuation of an idea that was first found in modular synthesis. The Mutable Instruments Braids and Plaits trailblazed the idea of an oscillator based on multiple, algorithmic sound engines. Arturia fleshed this idea out with the quirky MicroFreak synthesizer which has now evolved into a much more mature and inspiring MiniFreak.

The MiniFreak is playful, immediate, and full of rich and enchanting oscillations. It can turn on a dime and flip into a completely different character. The huge sound engine is kept under control by the easiest of interfaces. It responds, it modulates, and it bulges with sound and possibility as it folds out into a whole synthesizer experience.

The 22 unconventional sound sources and modulations cascade into an analog filter with multiple modes and self-oscillation. The envelopes and modulators twist and turn via a comprehensive matrix to connect up in unexpected ways. It then falls into a stereo effects section that expands the textures and throws out a wide environment of sound.

And through it all, you can poke and play at every aspect with the keyboard, the sequencer, arpeggiator and create triggerable concepts that bounce and jiggle in many different directions.

Minifreak is almost too much fun, in a compact package that won’t break the bank and has a software version to run alongside.

Street Price: $599
Arturia.com

The only monosynth amongst these polyphonic monsters is the quirky Taiga synthesizer from Pittsburgh Modular. In some ways, it’s their homage to the Minimoog, but there’s some much more going on here that makes the Minimoog seem like a distant cousin.

Taiga comes with three huge oscillators. They start with basic shapes and then morph, twist and fold into something quite different. Your regular waveforms fall through a cascade of waveshapers that push and squeeze harmonic content out of every angle. They morph between waves, finding tones between tones, and then are folded through a 6-stage wavefolder to find sounds and combinations of sounds you would never have thought of. The diversity is extraordinary, and it can change with every new keypress.

After a bit of mixing, some noise and the possibility of overdrive the sound pours into the Pittsburgh Filter. The filter is amazing. It somehow manages to have sweet spots at every turn. There’s no drop off with resonance, just sweet, gooey, warmth through the whole arc of the cutoff.

From there, we hit the strange and wonderfully weird Dynamics Controller. It works like a West Coast lowpass gate while retaining aspects of envelope-driven VCAs and finding organic and natural tones to play with. It can be confusing, but it can also render out some stunningly dynamic sounds.

For modulation, you have a pair of LFOs, a pair of envelopes and an entire modular patchbay to route whatever you want to wherever next. Each section of the synth has a completely modular gateway meaning that you don’t have to play Pittsburgh’s game – you can design your own. In addition to its modular nature, there’s a 24-HP bay for additional Eurorack modules to expand your possibilities. Extra modulation is also available via the sequencer and arpeggiator tied up in the MIDI and digital control that runs in the background, giving you more avenues to explore.

The result is a unique-sounding synth with huge 3-oscillator sounds or intricate interplays between multiple sound sources and modulation bendings. It’s very modular in thinking and practice and probably more interesting to explore than pretty much any other synth you’ve owned.

Street Price: $1,299
PittsburghModular.com

The Mantis is something a bit different, a synthesizer that oozes character to a fault and might just be a little bit too much for people who like their synths soft. Mantis comes from the line of synths like the Wasp and OSCar and was designed with Chris Huggett of EDP and the Oxford Synthesizer Company.

The Mantis is a duophonic hybrid synthesizer with the occasional ability to run 4 notes paraphonically. It utilizes mathematically generated waveforms poured through an analog signal path into cascaded filters and digital effects. There are two oscillators and a sub-oscillator for both voices in a handful of wave types. The waveforms can be shaped and modulated and you can dial in some drift to keep the detuning in glorious motion.

Two state variable multi-mode filters operate in series or parallel for mono or stereo processing to produce all sorts of cuts and contours, including wide band and wide notch. You can push around bandpass filters to get those formant sounds while key tracking and modulating the cutoff and filter width. You can also get busy with a pair of LFOs and a pair of cycling envelopes, ring modulation, and glide.

For more fun synth action, you’ve got a multi-type arpeggiator with swing, sync and a bit of joystick control. At the end, you have some reverb and chorus effects to give it depth and lushness.

Overall, Mantis is angry, unruly and prone to finding unique tones. It has a different edge from most other synths out there both sonically and in terms of looks, and while it’s relatively simple, it certainly stands out from a very crowded market.

Street Price: $1,349
1PWM.com

Want to explore more synths? Check out our previous articles on the best cheap synthesizers under $100, awesome synths under $500, best modular synths, best polysynths, and top eurorack synths.