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The marvel of PatchVault brings you more classic synth patches for 20c a pop! Hurrah for the Korg PolySix: an affordable, portable analogue polysynth with nice simple controls and a surprising amount of sonic potential. On the surface it’s a one-oscillator machine, but there’s a very useful sub oscillator for beefing up your patches, plus excellent Bucket-Brigade style effects for thickening the sound (the standout here is the Ensemble effect, which is wonderfully sweet and sweeping)… plus the awesome Unison, which stacks all six voices for massive leads and basses.

As you’ll know if you’ve taken a glance at our PatchVault DX5 sounds or our DX Keys Deluxe EPs, the Yamaha DX5 is one of those instruments that’s a good deal more than the sum of its parts. Nominally, of course, it’s two DX7s in one big box – which would make it on a par with Yamaha’s later DX7IID, for example. In practice, though, the DX5 and the 7IID sound distinctly different: the 7IID is cleaner, crisper and shinier, while the 5 is thicker, richer and somehow “more brown”. This is the result, largely, of the hand-picked 12-bit DACs used in the 5, which bring what we feel is a welcome dose of warmth to the FM synthesis on board.

We’re big fans of Ensoniq: the ESQ-1 and SQ-80 combine a lovely early-digital tone with a simplicity of programming that leaves most other 80s digisynths in the shade. Add in that big vacuum-fluorescent display and a ton of context-sensitive soft buttons, and you’ve got something that’s fun to play, fun to program and sounds fantastic.

A warm, mellow analogue drum machine Super-mellow analogue drum machine Thick, warm sounds with individual kit piece control

Regal Rhythm is a very simple drum box with a typical vintage analogue sound. The six on-board preset rhythms cover the kind of staples you'd expect from more of a home-orientated (rather than studio grade) piece of kit, and there's a slightly fuzzy, soft-edged tone to the whole thing that can work very nicely for chillout, downtempo tracks. It also comes in a neat royal red colour scheme that should cheer up anyone's morning – and check out that real wood veneer ????

All-analogue bass from the super-cool Hohner Bass 3 A closet classic – the wonderful little Hohner Bass III Three combinable preset sounds

Something that was weirdly great about the 80s was the emergence of “things that are also other things”. For example: pencil erasers that also smell of candy. Or toy cars that are also toy robots. Or school calculators that are also tiny synthesisers.

When it comes to drum machines, Roland have been in on the action right from the start. With the TR-808, they helped define EDM and hip-hop, while the 909 swiftly became a staple of the techno / house movement. But by 1986, old analogue beatboxes were making way (sometimes by being slung in skips) for the crispy 'realism' of digitally sampled drums. Everyone and their drummer cousin wanted a set of Simmons pads and a brain, and of course Roland were only too happy to provide. Cue the TR-505, a smaller and more plasticky drum machine than its big brothers, but sporting 12-bit sampled sounds that brought a whole new mood to the mix at an attainable price-point – and immediately found itself a niche with the emergent acid scene.

The Wersi Drum Composer CX5 is an early digital drum machine with a punchy, aggressive sound that was clearly intended to poach on Simmons's territory. Physically, it's a monolithic slab of grey metal and plastic livened up by dozens of LEDs and a cool, Ensoniq-style vacuum fluorescent display; sonically, its low-bit-depth samples make for gritty, compressed loops that can add a really hefty foundation to a track. (It's no relation to the Yamaha CX5 music computer, by the way; that's a totally different monolithic slab of grey mid-80s metal and plastic!)

Alternative-universe steampunk Victorian musical box! Hundreds of samples for natural variation and character Sound design courtesy of synthesised FM tones, sample reverse and forced-pitching controls Note-off samples for clunks, clicks, whirrs and chiffs

R-O-B-O-T V-O-I-C-E-S! Need we say more? We can’t leave our Sinclair ZX Spectrum alone. Not only can it do awesome drums (see SpecDrum 2000) and print rude messages about your mates on shiny thermal paper, it can also do RO-BOT VOI-CES!

Hard puts the NanoMod architecture to work on hard-hitting, metallized, aggressive waveforms to give you a wide variety of powerful leads and angry basslines. It’s ideally suited to sounds that need to cut through a mix assertively.

NanoMod Hats rounds out the components of our ‘NanoMod Drumkit’ with some high-frequency fizz and clank. The eight source waves here range from typical analogue white-noise hisses through various more complex, metallic tones to a couple of low-bit-depth digital sounds – for when you want a more realistic hats track which still retains a bit of vintage flavour. Tweaking the Tone control can really add some sparkle, while the Grit Filter at its higher cutoff settings dials in attitude without killing the edge.

We’ve sampled amazing, expensive, state-of-the-art machines like the Emulator II and the Roland Jupiter 6, but sometimes what a track calls for is something a little more basic, a little more humble in its origins. Think soundtrack to Napoleon Dynamite. Think home keyboard. Think cheese. Think Casiotone.

SYNTHS DX is a collection of inspiring sounds for creating subtle cinematic atmospheres, deep, wide sci-fi pads for film, videogame,ambient and synthwave music production. With its 60+ instrument presets you get a palette of colors for your next track.