The Korg Minilogue is a really good beginner synth. It has a what you see is what you get interface, and even has an an oscilliscope which relly helps starting out. Here's a video plugging this as a great beginner's synth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE7EvKYTs4I
What do you use the oscilloscope for? I saw a video yesterday from the 60s where someone was using one and it occurred me that in 20 years of music production I've never used one myself. What am I missing?
When you’re not used to processing sound and figuring out what is happening, translating that into the more familiar visual domain can be useful. You see the sharp points on a sawtooth wave, and realize that’s why it’s buzzy. Then you close the filter and watch the sharp points get rounded out and hear the buzzyness fade. In my experience, after I got better at mentally processing sound I started to want spectrum analysis more than a scope, because my brain was able to do a lot of what the scope was doing for me earlier - but I was still missing the birds-eye view of a spectrum analyzer.
if you look at the recently sold on reverb, you see you can get one for ~$300 or ~$350. https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=Korg%20Minilogue&show_o...