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01 the Moog Modular - lusted after this one after hearing Walter/Wendy Carlos do the Switched on Bach recordings.
02 The MiniMoog - of course! I had the privilege of checking one out in the mid-70's while shopping for my first keyboard. My father talked me into getting an organ because this synth was only monophonic.
03 The RMI Keyboard Computer - never played one, but had all the flyers from the company and thought it was the future of synthesis. Used punch cards to load in new data for sounds.
04 The Yamaha CS80 - When I was at Berklee in 1980, I checked one of these out at E.U. Wurlitzers and was totally mindblown, but my pockets weren't anywhere near that deep.
05 Korg Kronos - I lusted - I bought - I'm still amazed!

In all honesty, there has only been one synth that has made me go "wow" and I've owned or played quite a few awesome synths that have already been mentioned above. So:

Korg Wavestation EX or A/D.

I remember the day I first heard and played one. Nothing has ever come close to that feeling again.

Only five? There are too many to mention, but the first ones that come to mind are:

Roland Jupiter-8

The Fairlight (ok it's more of a sampler but still...)

Yamaha CS-80

NED Synclavier

Minimoog

And this unaffordable beast:

The one synth I wish I'd never sold was my Prophet-10. It was the most accessible synth I ever came across. It just begged to be played.

In samplers, it was my EIII.

Two I wish I had back.

..Joe

Of those I've owned, my favourite was my SQ80

The one I always wished I had was the Jupiter 8

CharlesFerraro wrote:
I'm really surprised to see so much Yamaha between the lists

I loathed the DX7 in my youth but I'm not totally sure whether it was the actual DX7 I disliked, or most of the people I met that owned them.

When I'm about to go on stage and the keyboardist from the previous band tells me I can use his DX7 instead of my synth, and implies how much greater his is to mine, well I met that sort of "my DX7 is the only real synth' attitude far too often.

But I now love the sound and FM8 is one of my favourite komplete synths.

I'll put in my top 5 wows, but in two fell swoops! A fiver just isn't enough!

1) M1
2) D-50
3) Kurzweil K2000
4) Wavestation
5) JD-800 / JD-990

And then, for two I just could dream of, and others that still wow me every time I turn them on...

1) CS-80
2) VL1
3) OASYS
4) V-Synth
5) Jupiter-8

My fab five:

Prophet Five
Wavestation
Oasys
Mini-Moog
VL1

don't have the first and last but wish I had.

1 Korg WaveStation ( still ahead of its time)
2 Korg M50 ( what i got for it's pricetag)
3 Korg X5 (did surprise me)
4 Korg Radias ( powerfull)
5 Korg EMX ( very versatile machine)

I could name some other synths i own, but for me Korg gives the best bang for the buck in my opinion. and the Korg microsampler is on its way as i write

What a GREAT topic Charles!!

A. Synths I wished I had owned a.k.a the list that more closely meets your criteria:

1. Jupiter 8: When I was an undergraduate, a friend of mine informed that someone was selling a Jupiter 8 because he needed money for moving expenses. The person was asking 350 USD!! The bad kicker? My friend who wasn't a musician thought the instrument looked like a toy and and didn't mention the Jupiter until AFTER the fact. He said, "yeah, this guy was selling this Jupiter 8 keyboard but it looked like a big toy to me with all of those colored buttons, so I did't think you'd be interested. When he told me the price, I was caught between having a heart attack or killing him.

2. Oberheim Matrix 12: I STILL wish I could snag one of these but they are so rare and finding someone to repair an Oberheim would be harder than finding Glenn Miller.

3. Kawai K5000 S or W: I have seen a lot of these on FleaBay and damn it's tempting. I have seen many posts just in this thread that praise this silver beauty to the very heavens. Thing is, additive synthesis freaks me out and I have only scratched the surface of what I have now.

4. Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 or 10: Just because!

5. Fairlight CMI: Alan Parsons and Eric Wolfsson did insane things with this mortals can't afford it monster.

B. Synths I have had or have that wow me:

1. Kronos: I SO wanted an OASYS but at the time, 8000 USD might as well have been 8,000,000 USD. All I can say is ... wow as far as Kronos goes.

2. Korg Wavestation (any model, but I had the EX: Yep the Kronos has a Wavestation built in, but, in a time of ROMplers, the wavestation was a true synth and ironically I found it was a great instrument to approximate Alan Parsons and Beatles music.

3. Korg Radias: It's ALIIIIVVEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4. Roland JP 8000: Before I moved to Europe, I needed to lighten the moving expenses, so I GAVE this away along with my Wavestation EX. I am STILL kicking myself for that.

5. Kurzweil K2000: STILL a GREAT synth with untapped power. Even though I love my PC3, I still miss the K2000.

Sorry, I have to cheat and add a sixth: Roland Jupiter 80: I underestimated this synth. I resisted it for a LONG time. I mean, it seemed to me a very expensive instrument for the select few who just wanted to say they had one. Man was I WRONG!! I purchased this a month ago and it is to my ears one of the most beautiful sounding and powerful synthesizers available today.

In chronological order:

Roland Juno 60

Roland D50

Roland JD800 & 990

Korg Karma

Korg OASYS & Kronos

Somewhere in the mix (no pun intended), I can honestly say that the V-synth XT with its added Vocal Designer and enhanced replication of the D50, certainly still has my attention. I added the GT subsequently, but, even with its AP synthesis, I think Roland missed the boat by leaving out the D50 found in the XT. I'm considering selling the GT.

Now, I have to say that the iPad (in my case iPad2 32), has totally blown me away with synth apps whose tonal quality and touch/motion features are just fantastic. In alpabetical order: Alchemy, Animoog, iMaschine, iMini, iMS20, iPolysix, Nave, Sunriser, and an assortment of other apps such as Yamaha's synth arp and drum etc. What amazes me is that synths such as the Fairlight and its 6 figure cost, or Moogs, Polysix, MS20 etc. can now be had for a fraction of the cost of the parent original. Just amazing.

JP-8000
SH-101
Virus
Radias
OB-8

I just grabbed a Wavestation A/D off of ebay. Wow, I'm never gonna get rid of this, so much fun.

Good to see the Wavestation still in vogue! I just recently replaced the battery in my SR and got the 3 RAM banks back after a lengthy absense. What a joy!

I can remember hearing the WS for the first time and being totally blown away. What Korg did with the original Prophet VS design, enabling up to 255 waves to be crossfaded was a great boon to all electronic music buffs.

Such distinctive sounds. So distinctive in fact, you may have people stating, "hey, that sounds like..." (insert famous keyboard artist with initials JH!

Vlad_77 wrote: 5. Fairlight CMI: Alan Parsons and Eric Wolfsson did insane things with this mortals can't afford it monster.

If anyone else like Vlad and me lusted over a Fairlight in the 80's, there's a way to get one now pretty easily: the Peter Vogel CMI App for the iPad. For those of you who don't know, Peter Vogel was one of the inventors of the Fairlight, and even though he's not allowed to call it the Fairlight any more, it's still a Fairlight, but I won't call it the Fairlight, so it's not the Fairlight...

It has all the sounds of the original Fairlight IIx and III, the same graphics of the IIx, and even has disk read issues sometimes, all like the original. (Even a cute startup whereby if you don't select the proper voltage for Australia, it catches fire and "burns up," like several of the originals did!) It's only 10 bucks, and if you want to upgrade to the full version, the Page R sequencer is fully functional, and can import original Fairlight files into it.

It was quite cool to finally get the sounds and functionally without having to sell a kidney to do so, even if I do miss the (then) so-cool hardware.

..Joe