The Best Pocket Synths: 5 Ways to Get Creative on the Go
Bite-sized portable synths.
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The Best Pocket Synths: 5 Ways to Get Creative on the Go · Source: Teenage Engineering
Ever have a creative itch to scratch while traveling, or just looking to geek out affordably after work? We’ve selected some of the best pocket synths that are not only light and compact, but also won’t hurt your pocket too much either.
In recent years, products like the Teenage Engineering OP-1, the Korg Volca series, and the Roland Boutique series have changed the way we think about portable instruments.
In this Article
Which are the Best Pocket Synths?
The line between what is a toy and a tool has become increasingly blurry, as new and innovative pocket synth designs are constantly being released with seemingly endless features.
The Best Pocket Synths: Behringer Pro-VS Mini
The Pro-VS Mini provides a recreation of the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS vector synth engine in a very compact and portable desktop format.
All four oscillators can be morphed from the joystick and you have an analogue low-pass filter and 16-step pattern sequencer with which to create sounds.
What’s more, the Pro-VS Mini has a chorus effect to wide your sounds. It’s also perfect for mobile use, as the USB-C connection allows it to run off a USB power bank.
And if vector synthesis isn’t your thing and you’re more of an analog type, then check out the Behringer JT Mini and Phara-O Mini in the same pocket-sized format.
- Product page
- More from Behringer
The Best Pocket Synths: Teenage Engineering PO-14 sub
The PO-14 sub is another pocket beast from the dreamers at Teenage Engineering and Cheap Monday. Although it may be limited in its synthesis capabilities, it more than makes up for it by making rude noises and being loads of fun to use.
It’s battery-operated and very bassline-orientated, so you can easily get the most noxious synth patterns going no matter where you are. It generates instant acid nightmares and electroclash hooks with an intuitive sequencer and impressive effects.
- Product page
- More from Teenage Engineering
The Best Pocket Synths: Korg NTS-1 MKII
If you’ve been toying with the idea of building your own synths, the Korg Nu:Tekt NTS-1 MKII ships as a DIY kit to assemble. The raw “Lego Technic” aesthetic might not be for everyone, but the upgraded second-generation NTS-1 does have some great features if you have the patience, most notably the ability to load various oscillator models from the vast LogueSDK library. The NTS-1 MKII is easy to assemble – no soldering required!
There is certainly no shortage of parameters you can access, and once you get used to the interface, it’s easy to use with other gear. You can even use it as an effects unit. The NTS-1 MKII is USB-C-powered and also offers MIDI connectivity, but these cables are sold separately.
The Best Pocket Synths: Dübreq Stylophone Gen X-2
On the more vintage side of things, the recently updated Dübreq Stylophone Gen X-2 brings nostalgia both with its sound and interface design. If you’ve never used a Stylophone, it’s definitely a fun party trick to try out and requires far less skill to play than a theremin (although Dübreq makes one of those, too).
The sequel to the Stylophone Gen X-1 (which was already one of the best pocket synths), the X-2 offers exciting new features such as a multi-function expression strip and even CV/gate connectivity, so you can hook it up to your Eurorack system and use it as an expressive controller. The on-board sound engine consists of an analog oscillator, a lowpass filter, an AD envelope, an LFO and an analog delay. Fun stuff!
- Product page
- More from Dübreq
The Best Pocket Synths: Roland J-6
The Roland J-6 is part of the AIRA compact range, Roland’s rather belated answer to the Volca series. The J-6 might be equipped with the very nice sounding ACB engine, but it’s the sequencer that steals the show here.
It allows you to create and sequence polyphonic patterns in a very intuitive way, and you can easily connect it to other polysynths in your studio. Overall, some amazing capabilities, especially from a songwriting point of view. Together with its siblings T-8, E-4, and P-6, the J-6 makes a great pocket-sized groove studio.
- More from Roland
More about the Best Pocket Synths:
- Everything portable
- More compact instruments
- Thomann’s Online Guide to Synthesizers
Videos:
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12 responses to “The Best Pocket Synths: 5 Ways to Get Creative on the Go”
What about the 1010music Fireball and Lemondrop? Very, very powerful synths in tiny form factor.
Yep. it is also my personal choice. another one powerhouse not mentioned here is Roland MC-101.
How are the Dirtywave M8 and Nanoloop not on this list?
LSDJ > Nanoloop all day long..
You’re right though, Gameboys remain the best pocket size musical scratch pad I’ve ever used by far (iPhone isn’t even close 😂).
Never had an M8 – looks sick though
Does every synth have to have a sequencer? As an original musiqe concrete and tape manipulation type this obsession with what I consider regimented music is quite disturbing. And limiting. It’s always more over texture.
Somehow the iPhone, the most powerful and comprehensive music tool of its size, was left off the list. You can literally make an entire album on your iPhone, unlike the almost-toy-like products listed in this op-ed.
Rather than suggesting the iPhone, you should suggest the synthesizer apps one could download and breed creativity on. That said, that might not exactly fit this post since we’re talking hardware pocket synths. The iPhone by itself, with its powerful processing, is not the creative musical tool.
That would be a pretty big list in its own right.
But these should be included here all the same…
Drambo
Ableton Note
Sunvox
There is also a solar powered theremin synth called SolarSounds. And it is abot the credit card size so probably the smallest one.
The Korg NTS-1 mk II is missing from this list. A worthy upgrade from the mk I.
What about the Woovebox? This is a true pocket device which hits way above its size
Astonished the Woovebox doesn’t feature! Tiny and incredibly powerful. Workflow is highly intuitive despite the seemingly limited UI.
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