Waldorf Quantum will not be out until the end of the year, so that makes ONE hybrid synth this spring
The Peak looks interesting for sure, especially that it's oscillators are run at this incredible speed which reminds me of custom chips in the old days... big step forward in my opinion, so that something can be done about all that aliasing normally associated with digital oscillators.... they say it is litterally like analog oscillators in quality... neat.
I agree though, that it's good to see more and more companies figure out, that we want hybrids, as to get best of both worlds, instead of all these analog mono and polys one after the other... it's becoming quite boring really.
Wonder what DSI will conjure up next to compete with all these new things.... except the Waldorf Quantum of course, it won't be out until much later... if at all... we know Waldorf and release dates... it may be two or three years, unless they have improved since the Pulse 2.
I hope DSI is paying close attention. This FPGA/NCO architecture is a huge step forward in the evolution of synthesizers. The sounds of the Raw oscillators sound great, you can beautiful classic rich sounds just from two slightly detuned saws for example, and a touch of wave shaping takes you plenty of places. Its a very impressive instrument and its like having aa porta le mini modular. Blind test you will think its VCO its that good. I would love to see DSI explore this for future instruments.
I got a PEAK about a week ago, and yes it is currently, hands down, the best digital front end sound of any synth out there in my opinion... I do hear a difference between PEAK and REV2 though... The REV2 has a bit darker tone with a bit more analog'ish tone to it... It's a bit more fuzzy and not as "controlled" in it's tone... Maybe a tad bit more "dirty fat" than PEAK, which seems more controlled... But still fat in its own way. It is like if REV2 is a bit more "blurry" in its tone... Good for some things, bad for others, but I contribute this to the analog DCOs.
When I try to decide between them, I'd probably choose PEAK, but I would rather have both... PEAK do have five major drawbacks in comparison;
Only eight voices
Lacks an ekstra per voice LFO
Lacks a modulation sequencer
Has no voice panning (that surprised me! Really disappointing)
Lacks dual timbrality
... But instead it has so much else that make up for it, and if synths did not have differencies, there would not be much need for so many of them anyway.