tough call, what would you use it for? Like pads, or leads or bass?

Genre stuff like “dark” usually is in the sound design and most synths will get you there. People like micro korgs a lot but I’d do some research on the kit of some artists you like and reverse engineer from there

edit: I personally have no experience with a microkorg

I actually don’t know how to answer this

I just know a synth is needed for the kind of music I want to make. Maybe I should just get my feet wet with software

microkorg is cool but it's kinda outdated in terms of capability although you can get them for a good price if you buy used. there's a microkorg 2 as well but i dont know much about it tbh

i think hydrasynth explorer and arturia minifreak are two good options for portable and versatile synths

software synths have the advantage that they can be as powerful as your computer is cus it all depends on your cpu/ram whereas with hardware synths you have limitations (but that can be a good thing depending how you look at it)

cool thing is that a lot of software synths these days have fully functional trials so you could try some, i think kilohearts phase plant is pretty amazing cus you actually get to learn a bit of synthesis. a lot of software synths are kinda the same thing tho just a different interface or workflow

Thanks for everyone’s wisdom 🙏🏿