Anyway, it's not a synth that will fall into my current cattegory, so I'll take it pretty calm whatever it is... I'm not a Sequential user anymore, and I doubt I ever will be again for several reasons.
I'll give that about 1-2 months before we see another page on your thread with something Sequential.
Well, it would not be fair to blame anyone from thinking that, but I hardly doubt it
I take too long with designing sounds on these very deep engine synths, and there are not enough presets in my style that I could buy to complement my own sounds. Designing sounds while composing would be very unintuitive and lenghthy, so it is not really an option... This is the main reason I give up on the deep engine synths.
Another reason is that I have always worked best under limitations where I could really squeeze the lemon... I did this with my REV2 bank as well, but with so deep machines it takes a loong time... I tweak sounds for hours and ever... This is why the hands on limitation of semi modular synthd appeal to me... Trying to get the most of them.
Then there is the editor thing... Tired of making them, tired of the MIDI quirks that is allways present in some way or another, tired of bugs never getting fixed on these deep synths and the deafening silence to suggested feature requests, the joy of being able to shelve SoundDiver. On the semi modulars the editor is on the device in full, and I like that, and they work plus I do not need to worry about OS bugs, low profile/visibillity bugs never getting fixed etc. I am sick and tired of many companies OS maintenance policies, and that not only goes for Sequential, but other companies as well... The PX sample import is a prime example of what I am talking about.
And then of course the sound itself... Having heard the Grandmother, you just know that sound will not come from anything digitally controlled... That oldschool analog tone is what really resonates with me and the sound I am after... Sure, the modulation is a longshot away from what you can do with a REV2, but I learned that you can dp a lot with just the standard subtractive analogue synthesis and their basic waveforms with just a bit of modulation and some FM of a filter or oscillator... It is more than enough.
I just ordered a Neutron which I am enjoying at the moment, and a Microvolt 3900 is on its way as well. This also leads me to another advantage which is the price... Most semi modulars are in a more affordable pricerange... I am a little fed up with the seemingly constant rise in price of Sequential products, and also that they completely dropped making smaller affordable synths like they did with the Mopho, Tetra etc.
But if DSI would make a few cool desktop semi modular synths with all parameters on the interface, I would not hesitate buying Sequential gear again... I just do not see this happening... But I love to be surprised... The marked in semi modulars could really benefit from 100% hands on synths that has a digital front end or other inovative synthesis methods. Dave would no doubt be the man to pull these things off, he just has to try and forget about his beloved presets for once, and do a direct discrete synthesizer like this that actually invite you to experiment with sound synthesis directly where both composing and sound design becomes a joint venture... This means really thinking out the limited parameters well which is crucial as you cannot have hubdreds of parameters. A synth that really resonates with you now and there when you use it... If acoustic instruments had 300 controllers, i hardly think they would have their emediateness that they do, and I feel this is what many synthesizers lack when they get too complicated to use in the creative composive process... The Grandmother is a perfect example of just this approach... Yes it is limited, but boy does it sound good, and dialing in parameters is straightforward and very intuitive.