Suggestions wanted for a basic, subtractive 'teaching' synth
I teach Music & Music Technology at a college. I'm looking to buy a cheap subtractive synthesizer to teach the basics of synthesis to my students. I currently teach it with VSTs in a DAW, but would like some hardware to get their hands on. I know synthesis well, but don't actively follow new synth releases, so I could do with some help and recommendations. If you were teaching the basics of synthesis to interested newcomers what new cheap synth would you want in front of you to demonstrate with?
I'm looking for something basic and 'typical'. Synth suggestions generally are often 'go for this as it has all these extras and it sounds great' but I sort of want the opposite. I don't care how it sounds as it mostly won't be used for music making - just demonstrating. Similarly, anything more advanced or 'quirky' would actually be a negative in this case, as I want the most generic bog-standard subtractive synth - something so that students can pick up other more interesting synths and have some understanding of the basics. Basically just oscillator(s), a filter, amp, an LFO and a couple of envelopes. I don't care if it is analogue or digital, but an analogue 'feel' would be better as I want to keep it fairly simple (no menu diving!) Mono or poly doesn't matter. Poly would be great, but isn't essential as a teaching tool. If it has some semi-modular flexibility with patching that would be great (ie to show what happens when our standard modules are patched a little more creatively) but it isn't a dealbreaker. A £200 -£350 budget seems to give me some options without breaking the bank (and for a desktop synth this budget would need to include a simple keyboard/sequencer to trigger it, as we only have USB midi controllers).
The Behringer copies all fit my budget, but there are so many I barely know where to start. The k2 looks great, seems to fit a lot of my priorities, and is obviously based on a classic synth. I like that it has a picture of the architecure of the synth above the patch bay, so it makes it really clear to students what connects to what, and how this can be altered and patched. I don't want anything too small and fiddly - I can't get a group of students around a volca! A microbrute or monologue could also work, but might be a bit too quirky? Any other suggestions?
Thanks in advance for your help!