dude, that's awesome.  i was hoping you'd get the ms2000. 

so, this is a trick i learned that's really cool/important.  there's a frequency setting where you set the low end and high end of the frequencies for a sound.  most of the sounds are set at ~300, which will make the bass sounds pushy on the mid-bass frequencies but not have the heavy low bass thump.  you should go in and set the bass frequencies to be at 80 or below and then have the drive up a little on them.  also, the high end amp is usually set with too much drive and lower than it should be.  i think they were trying to make the sounds for leads but since your gonna use this for other parts you def. need to adjust the freq first thing when you make a patch.  the digi basses are really awesome once you adjust the freq.  i'm excited for you!

Got the MS2000r yesterday! What great fun! Anyone looking for a cheap-ish synth should definitely consider it.

I have very minimal experience with it (a buddy let me borrow his for a few days). It is great fun to play around with, I didn't really get into programming patches though. I borrowed it before I tried understanding synthesis (both musical and Hegelian Dialectic), so I can't tell you how it is to program your own sounds, I just played with the preset patches.

I guess it all comes down to what is best for your personal work flow. I have soft synths and midi controllers, but my computer desk area is too small to keep them permanently plugged in (or even stored in the same room) so most of my programming is done via mouse and keyboard because it is what is right there all the time without having to go dig a midi controller up. This is why I wanted a synth with mostly on-board controls, so I could just power it up and go from there.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys/gals. I settled on a Korg MS2000r for around 350USD. After reading some reviews and seeing some demos on youtube I'm very, very excited for this synth. It seems to have exactly all the features I want and at exactly the price I was hoping to pay. Bonus points is that I dont even need my controller to demo patches, the sequencer keys can be played as a keyboard. And analog style sequencing will be so fucking great. I'm so excited, MPC1000 and synth all coming in the same month, I feel guilty!!!

Edit: When I say thanks for the suggestions I really mean it. I was looking at things like the GAIA and Blofeld which were really out of my price range, and without your guys/gals' knowledge I probably would have bought a "toy-like" synth like the Meeblip. (Not to say that it is bad, but it wasn't what I was looking for right now, "toy-like" synths can be amazing in the right hands) or worse, NOTHING at all. thanks again.

I'm not too keen about buying used electronics off ebay. If I was gonna spend that much for the ms2000 I'd might as well just get a MIDI controller and just use the Ableton Synth tools and that Moog Synth VST.

yes, the microkorg is the same internally as the korg ms2000.  it's much smaller and you change one parameter set at a time using the large knob.  the keyboard is toy-small.  it's really cool but is time consuming to program relative to the ms2000.

I've been eyeing the MicroKorg. It's a pretty decent price and has really good reviews. Anyone have any experience with it?

i got one of the mochika units when atomosynth was first around.  not bad product, very simple design though. compared to the others above, its not nearly as fully-featured.  although, it was easy to hack to get it to run off +/- 15V

How about something by these guys?  http://www.atomosynth.com/

If you'd like to also to have a butt load of drum machines packed in the Roland SH-32 is sweet.  I have one and recommend it.

http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/sh32.php

"Every parameter is available on the front panel via knobs and sliders. There are no hidden menus, although the mass clutter of controls and information printed on the face of the SH-32 is a bit overwhelming, but look closer and it does seem as logically laid out and organized as possible."

blofield?

Totally get the ms2000. It sounds great, very knob heavy, not to expensive. The rackmount is fairly compact. The keyboard version is xbox huge though. There is a version of the rack mount called ms2000b? Which has extra bells and whistles.

Edit sorry - rack mount version is ms2000br

Minibrute looks awesome! A little spendy for me right now though, maybe next years return. I've wanted the Shruthi for a while now, didn't know about the preenFM (looks cool). Don't really want a kit right now though. Korg MS2000 looks to be almost exactly what I'm looking for and at a good price. Any other suggestions?

the mopho is pretty easy to edit with, key feature is that the top row of knobs is assignable (and can be reassigned quickly on the fly)...
that minibrute looks like itll be damn good, now i want one

the gaia looks and sounds good.  the dsi mohpo sounds great but you'll need to record your parts separately.  i think the meeblip sounds junky (i didn't like it compared to the other two).  the arturia sounds really good.

i had a korg ms2000 for a long time.  it was great but i just looked on ebay and it's price is the same as a few years ago.  if you can get one of the rack versions of those for ~250 that would be a good deal.

Shurthi-1
http://mutable-instruments.net/

PreenFM
http://sites.google.com/site/preenfm/