We seem to have entered the "mondo" desktop synth era. I thought my old Microwave II/XT was massive at 5U, but that's nothing compared to the 7U Waldorf M and Super 6 desktop behemoths, or the "ultrawide" Sequential, Oberheim, and Groove Synthesis desktops that can't even be rack mounted.

Without trying to understand what is up with that (though feel free to discuss if you like,) I was trying to think of recent analog or analog/digital hybrid desktop synths that can be rack mounted in five rack spaces or fewer. Seven rack spaces are way too much, IMO. I think those types of synths are better mounted via a VESA arm and not in a rack (which is probably why the Waldorf and UDO synths can be mounted this way).

Here's what I came up with:

• Behringer Pro 800 (3U)
• Behringer UB-Xa D (5U?)
• DSI Prophet '08 desktop (3U)

That can't possibly be it right, can it? There have to be more than this.

Incidentally, there are plenty of 3U all-digital desktop synths (mostly from the 90s and 2000s) that fit the bill. But not a lot of analog or analog/digital hybrid synths.

Incidentally, I was trying to remember how many rack spaces the Novation Peak takes up. But then I remembered that it can't be rack mounted. Or at least I don't think it can without special rack ears. And even then I'm not sure it will fit in 5 rack spaces given that I believe the cables come straight out of the back.

Same thing with the Elektron Analog 4.

The world no longer makes sense to me.

Moog Slim Phatty

I had forgotten about the Slim Phatty, which is surprising because I used to own one. LOL.

I also forgot that there is a way to rack mount the Prophet 12 (although it is an odd size). And I guess you can even put the Moog Minitaur/Sirin in a rack, although I'm not sure if I would want to use up three rack spaces for it, at least not like this:



This is sort of cool, though:



But here, too, I was thinking of 19" racks, not a custom rack/stand like the one above for the Minitaur.

You can mount it flush. I just have it racked because I had 3u left, and I needed the desktop space. Not sure either Moog counts though, neither one are made anymore.

Although the Studio Electronics synths are not desktop units, several of them do feature knobby interfaces, which makes them sort of qualify:

• Omega/Core 8
• SE-1/2/3X
• MIDImini (no patch storage, though)

However, these units are really deep/heavy and would probably need to be racked in a solid rack case and not in a less sturdy tabletop stand.

The four Black Corporation synths (Deckard’s Dream, ISE-NIN, Xerxes, Kijimi) are each 4 rack spaces high and come with rack ears.

Both angled and flat are cool if you have the rack space, or if you need to free up desktop space, as in your situation.

Ah, cool. That's right. I probably overlooked them because they are so darn expensive and thus outside my experience.

Deckard's Dream is more of a rack synth, right? Whereas, the ISE-NIN is more of a desktop unit (that can be rack mounted). Is that right?

I can't remember the Xerxes and Kijimi form factors.

Huh, I thought Deckard's Dream was a deeper rack unit. I must have been thinking of either the original DIY kits or the mk1 version?

It looks like all of the current Black Corporation synths have the same form factor:





4U (with no additional rack space taken up by cabling) seems like the sweet spot. That's big enough to provide room for decent-size controls without becoming a boat anchor. It might have been nice (for the price) if the Black Corporation synths were angled for desktop use. But I'm quibbly now, especially since my question was about whether they can be rack mounted.

Moog Voyager RME was designed as a 5U rackmount, but is also used as a desktop synth.

I just bought a Minitaur and had toyed with the idea of putting it in a rack heh. Those "official" rack ears appear to be discontinued though. However, I've seen third-party compatible ears that mount the Minitaur to one side, off-center. (But I've abandoned the rack idea, the Minitaur's found a home to sit on.)

No special rack ears. Just regular rack ears that it comes with. I think it's a 5U, but you might want to check the specs. I never racked it.

Yep, their original MKI units were deeper rack units. All of the MK2 versions have the same physical form factor, I believe that they were able to shrink the depth by using double-sided voice cards.

I prefer my desktop units at an angle too, but easy enough to put them in a Synth-Rise or other desktop stand.

The DeepMind 12D is only 5U, isn't it? That's analogue with patch storage.

Interesting, did not know that. Thanks!

The Voyager looks like it would require a pretty sturdy rack, though.

Oh, yeah. I meant to list that. Thanks!

I know it's completely ridiculous. But the new color scheme on the DeepMind 12Dx is almost pushing me over the edge to one:



What can I say? I'm a sucker for aesthetics!

It would be cool if two Minitaurs could be racked side-by-side. But I guess they are too wide.

Can you rack anything else in one of these off-to-the-side Minitaur racks? If not, it doesn't seem very space-efficient to devote three rack spaces to the Minitaur, unless, as someone mentioned, they just had an extra three spaces and their desktop area was better used for something else (especially since the Minitaur almost requires the editor to access the "hidden" parameters).

I have used sturdier laptop stands (from Rain Design and others) in the past to hold/elevate flat desktop synths at an angle while I set another one (at its "natural" angle) in front of the laptop stand. The cables from the module on the desk unit go under the laptop stand for a fairly efficient use of space.



For instance, I had my Maschine mkII controller (on its own angled stand) in front of my Nord Rack 2 on the laptop stand. I had two such laptop stands (and two sets of desktop synths/devices) on each side of my Virus TI keyboard. By placing another 3U desktop synth (my Prophet '08 Rack) on the top right side of the Virus, I had five desktop units within arm's reach.

I have sold all that gear and am now using The Usual Suspects emulations of the Virus TI1, Nord Lead 2X, and XT (and am eagerly awaiting their emulation of the Nord Lead 3). I currently have two Michigan Synthworks Xena modules on my left and a Pulse 2 and Typhon on my right in the same "double-decker" laptop stand configuration.

But I am in the process of setting up a table off to my left with some Behringer modules in a rack and perhaps one or two rack mount desktop synths. Hence, my question about "smaller" (5U or less) analog and analog/digital hybrid synths.

I realize Behringer was going for a "Juno-inspired" design for the DeepMind 12. But if it had only been a 2-oscillator synth (with a sub,) it could have been a real contender. The 1-oscillator design is too limiting, IMO, even though the sub has that "tone" control.

If it is going to be a single oscillator with a sub, it has to sound as "magical" as the Juno 60, which the DeepMind does not to my ears. It can get really close, but so can a Juno 60 emulation. A lot (or most) of it is the chorus. The TAL Chorus-LX sounds more like the real deal to me.



I don't know. Maybe I'm one of those golden-eared snobs when it comes to the Juno 60 because I owned one for so long. Or maybe I'm just hearing what I want to hear.

Incidentally, does the DeepMind editor/librarian run natively on Apple Silicon Macs?

Agreed, though the "tone" control is almost more of a waveshaper and can get you an interesting metallic kind of sound from it.

The Deepmind is a budget reimagining of a budget synth, so keep that in mind. I personally found it sounded good, but not great. My biggest complaint was that the filter went from almost enough resonance to screaming, which is very unlike the Juno line. I also thought the PWM sounded a bit flat. I thought the core sound of Rolands 106 plugin to be better for that Juno sort of thing. The real winner of the Deepmind is the extensive effects processor that's built in, which is pretty good and very flexible. If you don't mind using software, TAL-U-NO-LX running as a CLAP plugin inside Bitwig with good effects plugins after it is a better solution.

Put Melbourne Instruments Nina down in your lists of modern rack mountable synthesizers.

https://www.melbourneinstruments.com/features

All korg modules and roland mc707 perhaps?

Hydrasynth desktop? 5U?

I was about to look that up. Is the Nina 5U or larger?

The Nina would be a killer synth to have in a rack within arm's reach. Of course, it would be even better right in front of me over my keyboard. But I don't have space for it.

Oh, yeah. Forgot all about it.

But the Hydrasynth is all digital. I am more interested in analog or analog/digital hybrid desktop synths that can be rack mounted.

But still, the Hydrasynth is a pretty interesting synth, even though I have a rule against buying any all-digital synths because there are so many good-sounding options available in software these days (but nothing that does quite Hydrasynth can do).

I was trying to compile a list of analog and analog/digital hybrid desktop synths that can be rack mounted in 5U or less.

I just checked and the Minilogue xD desktop doesn't look like it can be rack mounted. It's still a cool analog/digital desktop. But I don't think you can mount it in a rack.

It's a rack hack for sure. Yep, hax.

I think two could sit side by side with a teensy bit of space in the middle to spare (Minitaur's about 8 1/2 inches wide.)

Ideally it would be a Minitaur and Sirin sitting side by side like that. Too bad the Sirin was a limited item, I would have loved to have nabbed one of those too. But certainly not right now lol, the prices for Sirins on Reverb right now are utterly absurd.

I don't own an RME, but it has to. Too much packed in that box not to be a chunk.

I really liked the DeepMind's filter and the PWM square/saw sound - both the things I miss the most about it. I really like single-oscillator sounds and I think they're underrated, but the DeepMind doesn't have enough filter drive or other things to rough it up a bit, so I do agree that it's rather bland without the excellent FX section (MultiBandDist being one of my favourites). The unison mode can do multi-osc type sounds (with a separate filter per osc - enabling formant-type things too). It's a shame the Peak/Summit (the one hardware synth I have now) can't do a good saw/square without using two oscillators and phase locking them. I do have TAL U-No-LX now for those sorts of sounds, so I don't miss the DeepMind enough to reacquire.

The tone mod is good enough to add some more interesting harmonics to the sound, and combined with sync can be more versatile than it first appears, but always left me wanting a bit more capability in the osc department. I understand why, though - it was originally a sub-oscillator that had feature creep.

Interestingly I find the Summit's 4-pole low-pass filter (also a cascaded OTA) to sound surprisingly similar to TAL J-8's (if drive is kept low). When I first got the Summit I wasn't sure I liked the filter character until I realised that the resonance goes way higher than on the DeepMind 12 before self-oscillation - I just needed to tone it down a bit!

(Edit: sorry if this is going too off-topic.)