Deal: get the PWM Mantis in the UK for £599 (47% OFF) and the Mayer EMI MD900 for 1987€ (38% OFF) in Germany.
Every year, many new hardware synthesizers are released. Among this vast number, there are very successful, well-running models, but also flops. One of the most common reasons is pricing, which, in some cases, was set too high at launch, dampening interest.
Examples, in my opinion, include the PWM Mantis and the Mayer EMI MD900, which can be found with a big deal in two shops.
Deal PWM Mantis
The PWM Mantis was the last Synthesizer legendary developer Chris Huggett worked on. It’s considered the spiritual successor to the OSCar synthesizer, with its digital oscillators, dual analog filters, and numerous modulation options.
It launched in the UK for £1349, which, in my opinion, was very high for a hybrid, non-polyphonic Synthesizer. The price has been gradually reduced over the last few months.
Around Christmas time, the Mantis was available in the UK at its lowest price of £769. In direct comparison, Thomann offers the PWM Mantis for 1290€ and Musicstore.de for 1149€. So, it was an excellent deal for the UK reader.
However, it seems to be difficult to sell because the price can go even lower. You know that every unsold item takes up storage space and costs money.
Andertons in the UK has once again reduced the Mantis to £599, a 56% discount off the original price (not affiliated). That’s a hefty discount, and maybe already a sign it’s not a best-seller or a successful synth.
Let’s see what the future holds for the PWM Mantis.
Deal Mayer EMI MD900
The same seems to be true for the Austrian synthesizer manufacturer EMI. We recall that Thomann offered the EMI MD950 Vibes with a 52% discount in the middle of summer 2025.
Now even the flagship model has been affected. The German Synthesizer shop Schneidersladen, run by Andreas Schneider aka Herr Superbooth, is offering the Mayer EMI MD900 with a 38% discount for 1987€ instead of 3220€.
As a reminder, the Mayer EMI MD900 is a desktop 4-part multi-timbral polyphonic stereo Synthesizer with 16 voices, built-in drum machine, clip launcher, and more.
The core offers wavetable or virtual-analog synthesis, dual filters, a large modulation engine, and an effect section per part.
I have no affiliation with either shop. However, I think both deals are very good and should be covered
PWM Mantis is available now for £599 at Andertons and Mayer Mayer EMI MD900 for 1987€ at Schneidersladen. If you buy one of these, please say thank you, Synth Anatomy. Andertons has a program, but doesn’t accept me. Strange.
More information here: Andertons / Schneidersladen
You expect price fluctuations in gear. But if I’d bought a Mantis at full price I’d be feeling a bit ill. Your potential resale value has crashed.
The Meyer EMI MD900 is an amazing sythesiser with deep capabilities and an impressive sound engine. It is a synth that has endless possibilities! I sincerely hope the company is not in trouble. And Horst Mayer, the founder is not only a brilliant engineer, he is genuinely one of the nicest people you will ever meet.
I almost jumped on the EMI MD900, but I have moved on. Joined their discord, and there was just no way they were able to convince me that the MD900 was worth it, compared to the more powerful MD850. All those knobs are cool, yes, but implementation of the resonator engine wasn’t a sure thing by then. And at that price point, yeah… A stereo signal path is cool, but two oscillators felt lacking.
It then dawned on me that maybe, a fully digital synth at this price, was not a great idea to begin with, and spend the money on two hybrids instead. No, these synths aren’t even close when it comes to sound, but if I want fully digital, I’d go VST and would find something that blows this one out of the water. Considering these don’t sell, I don’t think my opinion isn’t an outlier.
It’s a cool design. And I see the passion in the creation of the MD series, so I too hope they’re not in trouble. If anything, I hope this series has taught them some lessons and they’re able to move on to a more profitable design that people do want to throw their money at.
It’s perfectly reasonable to choose what fits your workflow yet let’s be clear about the premises.
Judging the MD900 against the MD850 purely on oscillator count or raw “power” misses the architectural intent. The instrument isn’t about stacking oscillators; it’s about the topology of its engine and the immediacy of control. Dismissing it because a resonator implementation wasn’t final at launch is fair but that’s not the same as a weak design. Still we seem to give major companies with enormous resources much more grace when they release a half baked product at launch (Arturia, Polyend, and Elektron come to mind just to name a few) yet a one man professional operation is so easily dismissed!
The “fully digital at this price should just be a VST” argument is a category error. Hardware isn’t competing with plug-ins on FLOPS per pound. It competes on latency determinism, dedicated signal path, physical modulation access, and creative constraint. If software alone defined value, companies like Elektron or Waldorf Music would have folded years ago.
As for sales volume being a proxy for merit, that’s a market metric, not an engineering one. Many instruments that later defined entire genres were initially considered niche or commercially risky.
And on the subject of “lessons learned”: Meyer has likely forgotten more about synthesiser architecture than you and I combined will ever know. This isn’t a committee-built product chasing trend lines, it’s a designer staking his own capital, reputation, and years of accumulated expertise on a very specific vision. That deserves respect, even if it isn’t your purchase.
Hybrids may suit you. That’s fine. But implying the MD900 exists because its creator needs educating feels misplaced. Some instruments are built from conviction, not consensus.
These things don’t sell. That’s all there’s to it. A company needs to stay afloat. Good design and good intentions mean nothing to a bank account. You need a demographic that buys your stuff, otherwise you sink.
If your entire argument reduces to “it doesn’t sell,” then you’re not evaluating instruments, you’re reading market tea leaves. That’s not analysis, that’s submission.
Sales reward familiarity, distribution, and marketing gravity. They do not automatically reward architectural originality or design conviction. Leaning on volume as proof of merit simply spares you the effort of forming an independent judgement.
Waiting for consensus before recognising value isn’t pragmatism, it’s dependence. Some people need the crowd to move first. Others don’t.
If you cannot operate without validation, so be it. Just don’t mistake conformity for discernment.
i am Always wondering, WHO buys this Synths? Most buyers are Hobbyusers Like us. and Hans Zimmer maybe already bought Them. 😂
I think there is a wider issue here that has been been discussed seriously.
Take a lot of the YouTube synth channels and really they are an advertisement for new gear. Gear lust if that’s a new piece of hardware or a VST.
Manufactures know they have to sell to the ‘’hobby’ market as most professional musicians may use one or two synths for many years and only a number of studio’s will buy lots of new synths.
Here is the problem – saturation!
In the end a person is going to stop buying, especially hardware as room dictates what they actually can physically store. Hence sales reduce leading to discounts.
Personally, I can see this model carrying on for ever.