I keep wanting to get one of these, and always convince myself against it.

Just listened to Paolo's demo and just love that rich pad tone in the first song at 0:15.

I do wonder with a good chorus unit, it could get close to JX string/pad territory.
Such a warm classy sound from a cheap forgotten synth.


I swear if this had a Roland logo on it, it would be a classic now.



Anyone still have any love for this bargain ugly duckling?

It's stupendous, amazing strings, you don't even need a chorus as the digital delay can be modulated to become a chorus, flanger or phaser

3 things you need to know.

1: Search one out.

2: Buy it

3: Play it and sound different

It's nice. As long as you go in expecting to use CTRL. It's got a terrible keybed as well. But it sounds great.

I have a dw6000 at the moment. I prefer it as it's a bit brighter sounding. The 8k is more flexible I guess.

They're bargains, you can't lose money on one unless you're unlucky so I say get one.

I remember Don Solaris saying it had plastic sounding oscillators, which put me off somewhat. All the demo's and the little time I played one ages ago sounded very warm and powerful.

I need to play one in person again. Will keep my eyes open for one local.

It's essentially an 8-voice vintage analog synth. And to all those purists on this forum that will jump in to correct me saying that's a hybrid, not an analog: oh really? Thanks for reminding us. I am a professional musician and to me and for my needs it's analog, simple as that. The sound matters, everything else is forum bollocks!

The filters are brilliant though. Ok they're not vcos but as a whole it sounds analog. But then it can sound super digital too.


True dat

I had one because they were considered a sleeper synth ($75 at the time) but sold it. It can do a few cool things, definitely, but it's a sound palette I can live without. YMMV

Over ten years have passed so maybe my tastes have changed, if a real cheap one showed up I'd give it another go, but at current prices I'm not real impressed.

not much to add other than jumping in the chorus saying: buy one. I got an EX8000 last year for $240, and I like the sound better than pretty much any sub $2000 80s poly analog with the possible exception of the Chroma Polaris.

(and if you don't want/need the keyboard the EX8000 is identical except it doesn't have the arpeggiator, I believe.)

I program my EX-8000 with Sounddiver and CTRLR and I am going to try to control it in realtime with the Nektar Panorama P1 (via CTRLR) as soon as it arrives at the studio. The filters are simply fantastic, as for the oscillators they sound really good to me as they are but extra subtle movement can be had using a combination of very slow and subtle auto bend and careful use of the modulation delay. Did I say that that thing sounds fantastic?

Edit: I will post a sample of a new Vangelis-type sound that I made last week and features those tweaks as soon as I find some time.

I've had mine since they first came out…many synths have come and gone from the harem but the DW8000 will remain. It's lush and big but it has this perfect EQ curve to the overall sound that makes it sit so well in every mix. And nothing else sounds like it ( except, at times, the DSS-1 )

Buy one!

Used to have one in the early 90s and was not impressed by it then. I find it very limited in what it can do. But, to each its own - definitely get one if you like it! Worth mentioning that some later KORG synths were using the same DWGS system that is in place on DW-8000, I.e. M2000, Radias. I, though, always liked my DS-8 much more than DW-8000. Another forgotten gem!

I owned one also im the 90's and got rid of it within a year because I never used it. For some reason I never liked the Korg sound until the M1 came out.

No real interesting interplay or modulation. You have two oscillators, a filter, and an LFO, but no cross mod/sync/ring mod, no filter FM ... its pretty bare bones. Depends that interests you. If you just want oscillators through an analog filter it'd be a hit, but I think the SQ80 offers similar synthesis architecture but much more to play with, for similar money.

I never found sync and ring mod sounds particularly interesting on a poly context so I guess it doesn't matter for me. YMMV of course. (Static) cross mod stuff like bell sounds can be achieved with the other waveforms, the non-melodic stuff wouldn't make much sense to play in chords. And of course it's not the one and only synth that one would need. But what it does, does it extremely good. And that is bread and butter poly analog sounds to be used in actual music and songs.

As I always fire up my computer, also when I design sounds, I sometimes use a software MIDI-synced LFO to modulate the pitch or the filter in addition to the internal one. (Of course that workflow may not suit everyone). Not to mention the fact that the modulation delay can mimic PWM.

The huge difference is that Korg analog filter in the DW8000. Have owned mine since mid-80's. Also use a Kiwitechnics Editor with it for more immediate programming. A gem of a synth. It's about the sound, not a zillion features.

It does have some rather interesting envelopes as well.

Brilliant instrument. Love to latch the arp and screw around. It does classic analog sounds just fine, plus a few useful digital waves.

Don't spend more than a couple hundred dollars for one. Also, a battery mod is suggested.

It was my 2nd keyboard back in the late 80's, and I've always dug it. Surprised no one made a Virtual instrument.

Don't think it is special sounding enough to own again though. And it is not analog.

It has some interesting digital waves in the tables. I liken it to the Prophet VS minus the vector stuff, but I'm not all that fond of either. Give me a good VA like a Virus or Radias any day.

For one I had a nearly new one back in 86. It was a great work horse for 2 years until I got bit by the ESQ-1. Two it is classic in my mind. Three it has great pads but does digital and has a decent DD. A chorus unit would be very cool for it.

Go for it! I got a used one last year and I love it. It got a dark sound to it which i like. The buttons on mine are a bit wonky though, so i use the unisynth editor to program it. really want that steroping controller but it cost more than the synth! The filter got loads of character and the synth sits well in a mix. Can't say enough good stuff about it.

I did manage to get interesting sounds out of mine when I had it, the filter does cool things at high res, some of the waveforms are very interesting and don't react to the filter like you think they will. I remember one really long envelope high red filter sweep that picked up loads of different sing song overtones in a unique way, exquisite.

The delay was responsible for half my cool sounds, because depending on how you set it it becomes delay/chorus/flange/phaser/granular processor which is very nice.

One annoyance included the noise source introduces a low pitched hum to proceeedings, I checked with other owners and it's a common fault, subtle but there, so any noise based patches may need external EQ.

I had mine stolen and it's the only synth I've ever missed.

I forgot to say one thing tonality wise, in my setup at the time (around 2012?) I had a DX11, very sharp and digital, an An1x, getting warmer but still quite polished, and a Korg Mono/Poly (fuzzy VCO fun). Quite a large spectrum of synthesizer tonality I think you'd agree?

Well, The DW8000 sat in between the An1x and the Mono/Poly, the DW had some digital sounds but they were a lot warmer and woolier than the An1x, just not quite as woolly as a VCO synth, though the filters weren't a million miles off the M/P's.

So with the DW do you get something that sounds woolly and early 80's, with a lovely low-mid presence. It'd even work for bass if you use a compresser to put back some drive and energy into the low end, as the DWGS waves down there lack a little energy, they're a bit loose and muted.

Oh it's the Seinfeld slap bass. That's the musical equivalent of the Seinfeld shirt.

Secret weapon IMHO, is tuning the VCFs to concert pitch for self-oscillation, as in the service manual.

Can you please explain this a little more? I just picked up a DW8000....learning what is possible.

I sold my DW-6000 probably 2 years ago.
However, what I did is tune the filters only in self-oscillation, so C plays a C, E and E etc, and I did this for all 6 VCFs.

As I said, it is all explained in the service manual....

I took a look at the service manual, I see that adjustment section at the end...A little afraid to mess with some of that stuff...so you're saying you loaded the test data and ran that procedure for adjusting the VCF's, then made sure they were all set to C? what does that do exactly? Were you just changing the centerpoint of the resonance? You said you felt that was the secret weapon of the instrument, how so?

Unison on it is a secret weapon.