Novation Peak

[Sacred Synthesis]

For discussion and comments about the Novation Peak synthesizer.

[DavidDever]

I love the ADSR sliders; the UI is very pleasant to use in the flesh.

That said–the NCOs sound as if they could use a bit of extra top-end harmonics; once you turn off the effects, the sound collapses a little. But there's a lot of potential there, and I suspect that, in the right environment (and with the right signal chain), it might be quite interesting!

[musicmaker]

One thing that put me off was the weird MIDI implementation in the Peak. An unlogical mix of of single CC, paired CC and NRPN's.  IMHO the person who designed this must have been drunk + there is no sysex support (or at least no documentation of it) for loading/saving patches. Suggested Novation to make a mode just supporting NRPN and open up the Sysex spec. Did not happen yet. Deal-breaker.

[LoboLives]

I'd be more interested if they brought out a keyboard version. Sounds nice though. Would love to see more digital synths with analog filters especially with sounds more geared toward FM, VS and PPG Wavetable sounds

Also...ugh I hate the name.

[Sacred Synthesis]

I'd be more interested if they brought out a keyboard version. Sounds nice though. Would love to see more digital synths with analog filters especially with sounds more geared toward FM, VS and PPG Wavetable sounds.

Yes, that would make it all the more interesting.

[Razmo]

I'd be more interested if they brought out a keyboard version. Sounds nice though. Would love to see more digital synths with analog filters especially with sounds more geared toward FM, VS and PPG Wavetable sounds

Also...ugh I hate the name.

As far as I know, the PEAK will do both wavetables and FM...

[megamarkd]

I'd be more interested if they brought out a keyboard version. Sounds nice though. Would love to see more digital synths with analog filters especially with sounds more geared toward FM, VS and PPG Wavetable sounds

Also...ugh I hate the name.

As far as I know, the PEAK will do both wavetables

Not PPG style wavetable synthesis though.  17 tables of 5 waves per table.  They are sweepable and do have some form of interpolation (the manual says the the waves will "morph" when the table is swept), though I don't think Waldorf or Wolfgang Palm have anything to worry about on that count.  Thinking about it, you could do sort of vector synthesis using a joystick set up to send whatever MIDI message required to control the wavetable sweep, with the corners being 1, 2, 3 and 4, and center being 5 (or something like that).

[Alphacode909]

Firstly it's a DIGITAL synth, not an analogue one.
It has no keys at all!
It offers only 2 LFOs
It has no sub oscillator, you'd have to use one of it's 3 digital oscillators as a sub making it just a two oscillator digital synth.
Despite being a digital synth it is only 8 note polyphonic.
It is monotimbral

I love when people have no idea what they are talking about just had to jump in.

Peak only has Digital oscillators, it has 8 VCF and VCA just to set the record straight , in the menu i have a calibration feature like the rev2 , it goes to calibrate each filter and vca , please stop saying bullshit.

Also your rev2 has DCO and trust me that's not far from a digital oscillator. Did you know Juno 106 had a digital oscillator ? (yes GOLT ! on YT is explaining it's a 100% digital osc) everyone still loves it...

Your Rev 2 has digital efx like the peak.
Yes you can absolutely compare the 2 (8voice).

You seem to be a 100% only DSI fan it seems but you have to be objective.

i sent back my Rev2 and got a peak instead, The Rev2 (8voice) is much inferior after 2 weeks of use of my peak.

PEAK has 3 Full oscillators !!!! POLY UNISON MODE , Peak has 3 Simultaneous EFX etc... No Poly sequencer ?? let me connect my peak to Ableton... Solved!

But i am objective and will say Rev2 filter did sound slightly better to me .

[Sleep of Reason]

Not only are you replying to a post that's well over two weeks old, you also only seem to come here to gripe about the exact same thing over & over while ignoring objective facts about features that people already disputed you on.

https://forum.davesmithinstruments.com/index.php/topic,1866.0.html

This is where your argument was designated, yet you failed to retort through the proper channel.

[Sacred Synthesis]

Do you think Novation will release a Peak Keyboard?  It seems as if it would make a perfect compliment to an otherwise analog set up.

[megamarkd]

Do you think Novation will release a Peak Keyboard?  It seems as if it would make a perfect compliment to an otherwise analog set up.

Novation are weird with their synths.  Remember the orginal Bass Station had a 'board but then the Supernova didn't until it got a mk2.  Maybe Novation like to make their flagships sans keyboard to keep the price down at first, making it easier to get them out into the hands of everyone.  Another Novation trait, it would seem, is to get good sounding instruments into the hands of every synth musician.

Another thought on the keyless module is some people are very fussy about their keyboards.  I'm not so tied to regular sized keybeds that I can't play a synth with minikeys, but it's prompted revolt in some player's minds (calls of boycotting a company by their arranger users because synths they would never use even if they came with full-sized keys are going to ruin the future generations of players).  Owning many different controllers and 'boarded synths, I have become used to using certain ones for certain duties, like the Keystep never gets used for melodies really, but I'm not a stranger to thumping-out melodies on the BSP rubber-pads though I prefer my Remote25 still for that.  I can't really feel too much difference between Novation's controller keybeds and that of my XTk, but I know there are people who won't settle for anything less than a [insert expensive keybed maker here] bed and that is a deal breaker for them if a synth comes without it.

Perhaps in a year's time Novation will release the Apex or Acme or Vertex or Zenith or some other synonym for Peak and it will have 61 key keyboard on it as well as an increased voice count (more room to hide the circuits).  I prefer their old space themed naming conventions and think a Peak II should be called the Apogee.
Or maybe it will just be called the Peak II (how'd I get from keyboards to synth names?)

[LoboLives]

Do you think Novation will release a Peak Keyboard?  It seems as if it would make a perfect compliment to an otherwise analog set up.

Novation are weird with their synths.  Remember the orginal Bass Station had a 'board but then the Supernova didn't until it got a mk2.  Maybe Novation like to make their flagships sans keyboard to keep the price down at first, making it easier to get them out into the hands of everyone.  Another Novation trait, it would seem, is to get good sounding instruments into the hands of every synth musician.

Another thought on the keyless module is some people are very fussy about their keyboards.  I'm not so tied to regular sized keybeds that I can't play a synth with minikeys, but it's prompted revolt in some player's minds (calls of boycotting a company by their arranger users because synths they would never use even if they came with full-sized keys are going to ruin the future generations of players).  Owning many different controllers and 'boarded synths, I have become used to using certain ones for certain duties, like the Keystep never gets used for melodies really, but I'm not a stranger to thumping-out melodies on the BSP rubber-pads though I prefer my Remote25 still for that.  I can't really feel too much difference between Novation's controller keybeds and that of my XTk, but I know there are people who won't settle for anything less than a [insert expensive keybed maker here] bed and that is a deal breaker for them if a synth comes without it.

Perhaps in a year's time Novation will release the Apex or Acme or Vertex or Zenith or some other synonym for Peak and it will have 61 key keyboard on it as well as an increased voice count (more room to hide the circuits).  I prefer their old space themed naming conventions and think a Peak II should be called the Apogee.
Or maybe it will just be called the Peak II (how'd I get from keyboards to synth names?)

I honestly thought they could have come up with a better name than Peak.

[megamarkd]

I honestly thought they could have come up with a better name than Peak.

I have to agree.  "Peak" is great name for a surf board company.  At least it's a word and not a string of letters and numbers, which I'm surprised hasn't made a come-back.  We'd possibly be discussing the P34K if it did.  I guess the space-inspired naming has had it's day.  Roland milked it for what is was worth during the 80's and most synth companies have had a space themed name for a product or two.

Perhaps it's time for 50's - 70's scifi/horror movie themed naming?  I'd The DSI "Swamp Thing" (a grungy sloppy analogue poly with 4bit samples for osc's)?  Korg made the Kronos (from ancient Greek mythology, as is Arp's Odyssey), should their next product (which is on the radar currently as a rather large blip) be christened the "Manos"?  Considering Chris Huggett is responsible for a good amount of the Peak and EDP's naming revolved around insects, movie monsters would be a logical progression and "Gorgo" would be an appropriate moniker.

But seriously, it could have reflected a little more of it's heritage.  "OXNCO"....actually that's lamer than "Peak"!

I'm surprised that nobody ever called a synth the "Hydrochloric" or "Formic" post 1989....

[chysn]

Perhaps it's time for 50's - 70's scifi/horror movie themed naming?  I'd The DSI "Swamp Thing" (a grungy sloppy analogue poly with 4bit samples for osc's)?

I want that! But I'm still waiting for the Moog MotherFooger.

[LoboLives]

I honestly thought they could have come up with a better name than Peak.

I have to agree.  "Peak" is great name for a surf board company.  At least it's a word and not a string of letters and numbers, which I'm surprised hasn't made a come-back.  We'd possibly be discussing the P34K if it did.  I guess the space-inspired naming has had it's day.  Roland milked it for what is was worth during the 80's and most synth companies have had a space themed name for a product or two.

Perhaps it's time for 50's - 70's scifi/horror movie themed naming?  I'd The DSI "Swamp Thing" (a grungy sloppy analogue poly with 4bit samples for osc's)?  Korg made the Kronos (from ancient Greek mythology, as is Arp's Odyssey), should their next product (which is on the radar currently as a rather large blip) be christened the "Manos"?  Considering Chris Huggett is responsible for a good amount of the Peak and EDP's naming revolved around insects, movie monsters would be a logical progression and "Gorgo" would be an appropriate moniker.

But seriously, it could have reflected a little more of it's heritage.  "OXNCO"....actually that's lamer than "Peak"!

I'm surprised that nobody ever called a synth the "Hydrochloric" or "Formic" post 1989....

Only if that Manos Keyboard has The Master and Torgo on it lol


I was thinking an Novation could have simply called it Nova A.D.

With a/d being a reference to analog/digital.

[LoboLives]

Perhaps it's time for 50's - 70's scifi/horror movie themed naming?  I'd The DSI "Swamp Thing" (a grungy sloppy analogue poly with 4bit samples for osc's)?

I want that! But I'm still waiting for the Moog MotherFooger.

I’m just waiting for Moog to do something new PERIOD.

[megamarkd]

Perhaps it's time for 50's - 70's scifi/horror movie themed naming?  I'd The DSI "Swamp Thing" (a grungy sloppy analogue poly with 4bit samples for osc's)?

I want that! But I'm still waiting for the Moog MotherFooger.

I'm trying not to go buy a Mother32 today and there is a good chance it will happen as I need something from Moog to finally put the transistor ladder sound in place finally.  Maybe after that I can start to think about what I'd like from Moog next, which may not be anything, considering how true this is:

I’m just waiting for Moog to do something new PERIOD.

I figure that once I have one Moog synth, I'll be happy to stick at one.

Only if that Manos Keyboard has The Master and Torgo on it lol


I was thinking an Novation could have simply called it Nova A.D.

With a/d being a reference to analog/digital.

The Master's cloak design on the synth case would rule, as well as a sample of the insane music that was Torgo's theme (in 4bit) as one of the waves available as an osc.  The movie should have been called Torgo, as this thread is slowly becoming the "What should it have been named?" thread, LOL.

I agree that Nova A.D. would be the obvious name really.

I mentioned above the Mother32 being something I am very close to committing to, but it's things like the Peak that put it on hold; I get all ready to go to the shop then think "but if I just hold off and restrain myself, I can have the far more diverse machine next month", then promptly do something like crash my car again (Sydney traffic are the worst drivers in the world, I swear to dog).
I know the store that I usually go to have a Peak on their demo shelves, just need to put my game face on and go test it out.  All depends on which staff are on, there are two dudes there I just don't want to deal with at all, to the point I once did an about-face one Saturday afternoon when the ex-dj with superiority issues was the only person in the store.  I'd complain to the owner, but he is the other person I don't want deal with there: "here's a copy of our catalogue, you can look through it and dream".  If it wasn't for them having so much in stock, I'd go to the store in the snobby suburb who have been treating me right since I was buying trombone-slide cream* from them in highschool.

*Not a euphemism, even if I used to play it like a wanker at time, swinging the slide in the air as I played like they do in marching bands.

In the end, the thought of the Micromonsta is holding me back from a Peak, as well as the fact that 2nd hand Microwave 1's are now under a grand (but do I need either of them?).

[LoboLives]

I was down at Moog Audio here in Toronto and I tested out a three tier Mother 32 rack. I enjoyed it a lot...then I started thinking....what if I hooked six of these together and used the Sub 37 in conjunction with such a system? Thats a lot of sequencing. Lots of patching. That’s a lot of Moog.

I’m actually considering it. Lol call it the  Custom Moog Mothership.

I was thinking where I’d put my Sub 37 with my new set up. Perhaps on top of the V Piano with the Moog Mothership to the side in a rack. Then I’ll really be able to do the entire Halloween score lol.

[megamarkd]

With the prices of the Mother32 and the Sub37, it's actually an achievable proposition.  But can you make it play polyphonically?

Okay, here's a decent non-Sonic State demo of the Peak that has some decent sound for YouTube:

I'm a few minutes into it and am already liking what I hear.  There is a very M1 feeling at times, I'm guess due to the NCO's, albeit with a very distinctive analogue feel of course.

The guy won the Peak he is demo-ing so he may be a little more amazed by it than someone who forked out for one, still he knows what he needs to do to showcase the synth.

[LoboLives]

With the prices of the Mother32 and the Sub37, it's actually an achievable proposition.  But can you make it play polyphonically?

Okay, here's a decent non-Sonic State demo of the Peak that has some decent sound for YouTube:

I'm a few minutes into it and am already liking what I hear.  There is a very M1 feeling at times, I'm guess due to the NCO's, albeit with a very distinctive analogue feel of course.

The guy won the Peak he is demo-ing so he may be a little more amazed by it than someone who forked out for one, still he knows what he needs to do to showcase the synth.

Very simple is you use the midi out of the Sub 37. Set the midi out channel on that to ALL and then get a midi solutions splitter box 1 in 6 out. Use the 6 midi outs out of the splitter box and plug them all in each of the mother’s midi inputs and set each one to a different channel. I don’t think it’ll work perfectly but it’ll be interesting to see what the results are.