Do you think Summer NAMM 2019 will give us a surprise .... ???

[LoboLives]

Having followed the forum discussions for years (like yourself, Paul), it just seems like too many people have expectations or demands that require Sequential to jump through the innovative hoop with each new instrument.  The new one always has to be an unforeseen masterpiece.  That's unrealistic and it sensationalizes the field.

Yes, I totally agree. Plus: it's not like innovations didn't take place during the past few years. A lot of Sequential's instruments have been streamlined in terms of commands (how to assign mod sources and destinations, for example) and the overall workflow. It's just that those were rather 'quiet' improvements.

I wish that Sequential would use its consolidated brains to create synthesizers for the long haul, those that would not pass in eight years like a fashion or expression.  I'm thinking of the Prophet 12 as I type this.  Will it even be replaced, or will it be forgotten and its place taken merely by another innovation, as happened with the Poly Evolver Keyboard?  And I would say the same about the Pro 2.

Like I said above: There's also always a business side to all that. I don't know how well the Prophet 12, the Poly Evolver, or the Pro 2 sold in comparison to the Prophet '08/Rev2, the Prophet-6, and OB-6. When it comes to the one I'm most familiar with of all these, namely the Pro 2, I think that it was largely underappreciated for what it is actually capable of, as I still can't think of a more powerful mono synth (many Pro 2 owners seem to be in agreement about that). Maybe it was the craze about all things analog only at its time of release that didn't put it on more people's radars. Maybe it was because most people rather wanted a Pro-One reissue. It certainly didn't get any bad reviews as far as I know. It has only been over the past 12 months that I saw people becoming interested in it again or users writing about it. There's certainly a parallel to how the Poly Evolver was received.

Eight years, however, are a long time in the industry and many instruments don't ever make it that long as far as their production lifecycle goes. There are some notable exceptions, but they are few.

Whether the Prophet 12 or the Pro 2 will be officially replaced by related successors is an open question. I'd say it's possible, but the competition is much stiffer now than it was around the time those were released. The Summit/Peak, the Quantum, the Prologue, and the Super 6 are amongst the synths any possible successor would have to compete with immediately. That alone doesn't make it more or less unlikely, though, as all of the named products are based on very different approaches.

Agreed, I think Sequential is on the right path of just doing their own thing and making whatever synth interests them rather than what’s popular. I just feel a mono synth would be a leap backwards for them at this point. Even Moog has branched out into polyphonic and paraphonic synths after years of mono synth after mono synth.

As much as I hate to say it, FM and Wavetables are quite common now so a Prophet VS/Prophet 12 successor is going to have to bring something else to the table for people to really turn their heads.

What can Sequential bring to the synth game that would be different? MPE? Multitimbrality (perhaps something simply like with each oscillator having its own filter, amp, effect etc)

I mean I really don’t know what else their is to do. Analog VCO and DCOs are both covered, drum machine has been done, sampler just came out...the only thing missing from their poly synth lineup is a wavetables/fm based synth...but Novation and others already have that market covered...so now what?

[LoboLives]

Wait....what if....Sequential isn’t bringing out a new synth....but Oberheim is.

What if Dave is having Sequential take a break to help Tom get his SonOf4Voice and Two Voice Pro synths into production with more consistent distribution under the original “Oberheim” banner? I know Sequential is a smaller operation but could they conceivably alternate productions each year from brand to brand? Perhaps their DSI Modules would be replaced with Tom’s SEM-X Eurorack Modules? Perhaps SonOf4Voice release this year, Tempest-X released next year? Etc

[OceanMachine]

What if ... what if. I suppose if you throw enough things against the wall something will stick. Like throwing a common X at the end of a popular name. Also, no one has done a knobby 6 or 8 op FM synth that I'm aware of. 

I saw someone mention a P12 rev 2 with SEM filters, which is exactly what I'd be in the market for. Would preorder immediately.

[LoboLives]

What if ... what if. I suppose if you throw enough things against the wall something will stick. Like throwing a common X at the end of a popular name. Also, no one has done a knobby 6 or 8 op FM synth that I'm aware of. 

I saw someone mention a P12 rev 2 with SEM filters, which is exactly what I'd be in the market for. Would preorder immediately.

The reason why I used Tempest X is because Dave said it would be great to see what the Prophet X type technology can do in a drum machine.

[Razmo]

Having followed the forum discussions for years (like yourself, Paul), it just seems like too many people have expectations or demands that require Sequential to jump through the innovative hoop with each new instrument.  The new one always has to be an unforeseen masterpiece.  That's unrealistic and it sensationalizes the field.

Yes, I totally agree. Plus: it's not like innovations didn't take place during the past few years. A lot of Sequential's instruments have been streamlined in terms of commands (how to assign mod sources and destinations, for example) and the overall workflow. It's just that those were rather 'quiet' improvements.

I wish that Sequential would use its consolidated brains to create synthesizers for the long haul, those that would not pass in eight years like a fashion or expression.  I'm thinking of the Prophet 12 as I type this.  Will it even be replaced, or will it be forgotten and its place taken merely by another innovation, as happened with the Poly Evolver Keyboard?  And I would say the same about the Pro 2.

Like I said above: There's also always a business side to all that. I don't know how well the Prophet 12, the Poly Evolver, or the Pro 2 sold in comparison to the Prophet '08/Rev2, the Prophet-6, and OB-6. When it comes to the one I'm most familiar with of all these, namely the Pro 2, I think that it was largely underappreciated for what it is actually capable of, as I still can't think of a more powerful mono synth (many Pro 2 owners seem to be in agreement about that). Maybe it was the craze about all things analog only at its time of release that didn't put it on more people's radars. Maybe it was because most people rather wanted a Pro-One reissue. It certainly didn't get any bad reviews as far as I know. It has only been over the past 12 months that I saw people becoming interested in it again or users writing about it. There's certainly a parallel to how the Poly Evolver was received.

Eight years, however, are a long time in the industry and many instruments don't ever make it that long as far as their production lifecycle goes. There are some notable exceptions, but they are few.

Whether the Prophet 12 or the Pro 2 will be officially replaced by related successors is an open question. I'd say it's possible, but the competition is much stiffer now than it was around the time those were released. The Summit/Peak, the Quantum, the Prologue, and the Super 6 are amongst the synths any possible successor would have to compete with immediately. That alone doesn't make it more or less unlikely, though, as all of the named products are based on very different approaches.

Agreed, I think Sequential is on the right path of just doing their own thing and making whatever synth interests them rather than what’s popular. I just feel a mono synth would be a leap backwards for them at this point. Even Moog has branched out into polyphonic and paraphonic synths after years of mono synth after mono synth.

As much as I hate to say it, FM and Wavetables are quite common now so a Prophet VS/Prophet 12 successor is going to have to bring something else to the table for people to really turn their heads.

What can Sequential bring to the synth game that would be different? MPE? Multitimbrality (perhaps something simply like with each oscillator having its own filter, amp, effect etc)

I mean I really don’t know what else their is to do. Analog VCO and DCOs are both covered, drum machine has been done, sampler just came out...the only thing missing from their poly synth lineup is a wavetables/fm based synth...but Novation and others already have that market covered...so now what?

I do not see a problem in Sequential doing a VS or Wavetable synth... they have to compete too, not just create something new... doing new stuff is becoming harder and harder, so many "innovations" is more advanced versions of older ideas too. If they did a VS or Wavetabel synth they would just have to add enough bells and whistles for it to compete... and bells and whistles seem to be Dave's strength 

I mean... what do people want right now, if it's to be "innovative"? ... many say that they have to do something inovative, but I do not see that many innovative suggestions at what that would be... also, how many ways can you be innovative, when you constantly have to do the Oscillator->Filter->Amplifier->Effects thing!? --- all the "innovativeness" we see these days are just different constellations of this same and overused way of creating synthesizers... the only thing they can really do is put extra "modules" between these, and swap the routings about and increase the modulation engine flexibility.

In the end, I do not think that Dave is thinking much about what's already on the market... he gets an idea in his "underground cave", and then he creates what he feels for... that's the best way to be innovative... if you always try to be like all the rest, you'll probably fail, and the end result will lack your soul in it... just let him do what he likes and do best, I'm sure it'll be something interresting, even if it won't be anything any of you want right now.

That's what I like here... he's trying to satisfy his own ideas, NOT the users... he may be inspired by what users want, but I'm perfectly sure, that even if that's the case, it will come out with twists of his own that is nothing like what you thought anyway.

That's why I've really stopped hoping for this and that... I'm just waiting and then I'll see what comes

[Mr.Dezent]

FM Synth with 2 VCO`s sitting at its core accompanied by some modulators and a duo or polyphonic Sequencer, no Effects, no matrix aside from the oscillator assignment. A simple yet effective sonic tool with a reduced Form Factor.

To me it feels like Sequential is only realeasing Flagships.

[Nokki]

Just give us the Tempest X or call it Drumtaks MkII or whatever...
A digital Tempest with the Prophet X sample engine would be huge !!

[Sacred Synthesis]

I do not see a problem in Sequential doing a VS or Wavetable synth... they have to compete too, not just create something new... doing new stuff is becoming harder and harder, so many "innovations" is more advanced versions of older ideas too. If they did a VS or Wavetabel synth they would just have to add enough bells and whistles for it to compete... and bells and whistles seem to be Dave's strength 

I mean... what do people want right now, if it's to be "innovative"? ... many say that they have to do something inovative, but I do not see that many innovative suggestions at what that would be... also, how many ways can you be innovative, when you constantly have to do the Oscillator->Filter->Amplifier->Effects thing!? --- all the "innovativeness" we see these days are just different constellations of this same and overused way of creating synthesizers... the only thing they can really do is put extra "modules" between these, and swap the routings about and increase the modulation engine flexibility.

In the end, I do not think that Dave is thinking much about what's already on the market... he gets an idea in his "underground cave", and then he creates what he feels for... that's the best way to be innovative... if you always try to be like all the rest, you'll probably fail, and the end result will lack your soul in it... just let him do what he likes and do best, I'm sure it'll be something interresting, even if it won't be anything any of you want right now.

That's what I like here... he's trying to satisfy his own ideas, NOT the users... he may be inspired by what users want, but I'm perfectly sure, that even if that's the case, it will come out with twists of his own that is nothing like what you thought anyway.

That's why I've really stopped hoping for this and that... I'm just waiting and then I'll see what comes :

I actually agree with what you've said.  "Innovation" in this case seems to come down to doing things differently from the competitors, so as to be distinctive from them.  It doesn't necessarily mean "better than" the others. 

I get the business aspect; that's just too obvious to mention.  But from my perspective, a good instrument will always remain a good instrument, even as other more "innovative" instruments come to market.  So, I can't get too excited about the big question: What new instrument will Sequential produce next?  I'm more interested in the question, How long will the old instruments be in production?  Rather than excitement, give me stability.

I'm still wondering if Sequential will ever produce that behemoth of a synthesizer that I've dreamed of for a decade - not innovative, but typically DSI-esque and massive.  The Poly Evolver Keyboard came to closest, but it's not the sort of instrument you can easily build up, as you can a Prophet '08/Rev2 with their module versions.  The Prophet 12 was second to the PEK on this scale, but it really wasn't around for long.  This is the difficulty with such an approach - it takes years to accumulate keyboard and module versions, and then the instrument is suddenly discontinued before the project is finished. 

[LoboLives]

It would be cool to take the idea of the dozen oscillator types in the John Bowen Solaris (digital emulations of Moog, Prophet, Oberheim saw, triangle, square waves, all the Prophet VS waves and over 100 wavetables licensed from Waldorf) but with the dual SEM and SSM analog filters from the Pro2 and dual effects.

That might be a bit too similar to the Prophet X with multiple screens but still...id love to see Dave Smith and John Bowen do something together again.

[DaveP6guy]

Having followed the forum discussions for years (like yourself, Paul), it just seems like too many people have expectations or demands that require Sequential to jump through the innovative hoop with each new instrument.  The new one always has to be an unforeseen masterpiece.  That's unrealistic and it sensationalizes the field.

Yes, I totally agree. Plus: it's not like innovations didn't take place during the past few years. A lot of Sequential's instruments have been streamlined in terms of commands (how to assign mod sources and destinations, for example) and the overall workflow. It's just that those were rather 'quiet' improvements.

I wish that Sequential would use its consolidated brains to create synthesizers for the long haul, those that would not pass in eight years like a fashion or expression.  I'm thinking of the Prophet 12 as I type this.  Will it even be replaced, or will it be forgotten and its place taken merely by another innovation, as happened with the Poly Evolver Keyboard?  And I would say the same about the Pro 2.

Like I said above: There's also always a business side to all that. I don't know how well the Prophet 12, the Poly Evolver, or the Pro 2 sold in comparison to the Prophet '08/Rev2, the Prophet-6, and OB-6. When it comes to the one I'm most familiar with of all these, namely the Pro 2, I think that it was largely underappreciated for what it is actually capable of, as I still can't think of a more powerful mono synth (many Pro 2 owners seem to be in agreement about that). Maybe it was the craze about all things analog only at its time of release that didn't put it on more people's radars. Maybe it was because most people rather wanted a Pro-One reissue. It certainly didn't get any bad reviews as far as I know. It has only been over the past 12 months that I saw people becoming interested in it again or users writing about it. There's certainly a parallel to how the Poly Evolver was received.

Eight years, however, are a long time in the industry and many instruments don't ever make it that long as far as their production lifecycle goes. There are some notable exceptions, but they are few.

Whether the Prophet 12 or the Pro 2 will be officially replaced by related successors is an open question. I'd say it's possible, but the competition is much stiffer now than it was around the time those were released. The Summit/Peak, the Quantum, the Prologue, and the Super 6 are amongst the synths any possible successor would have to compete with immediately. That alone doesn't make it more or less unlikely, though, as all of the named products are based on very different approaches.

A Pro-One-X maybe. One voice out of Prophet-6. Or a Pro-Three? Who knows? 
I wonder if the technical challenges of VCO synths are worth it for a small company.
Dave seems to have gone to town on the new Prophet-X and I'm kind of surprised thre Prophet-12 and especially the Pro-2 have been discontined (apart from the last few of the special white Prophet-12s with SEQUENTIAL on the front - an Taylor Swift on the back?).

[LoboLives]

Having followed the forum discussions for years (like yourself, Paul), it just seems like too many people have expectations or demands that require Sequential to jump through the innovative hoop with each new instrument.  The new one always has to be an unforeseen masterpiece.  That's unrealistic and it sensationalizes the field.

Yes, I totally agree. Plus: it's not like innovations didn't take place during the past few years. A lot of Sequential's instruments have been streamlined in terms of commands (how to assign mod sources and destinations, for example) and the overall workflow. It's just that those were rather 'quiet' improvements.

I wish that Sequential would use its consolidated brains to create synthesizers for the long haul, those that would not pass in eight years like a fashion or expression.  I'm thinking of the Prophet 12 as I type this.  Will it even be replaced, or will it be forgotten and its place taken merely by another innovation, as happened with the Poly Evolver Keyboard?  And I would say the same about the Pro 2.

Like I said above: There's also always a business side to all that. I don't know how well the Prophet 12, the Poly Evolver, or the Pro 2 sold in comparison to the Prophet '08/Rev2, the Prophet-6, and OB-6. When it comes to the one I'm most familiar with of all these, namely the Pro 2, I think that it was largely underappreciated for what it is actually capable of, as I still can't think of a more powerful mono synth (many Pro 2 owners seem to be in agreement about that). Maybe it was the craze about all things analog only at its time of release that didn't put it on more people's radars. Maybe it was because most people rather wanted a Pro-One reissue. It certainly didn't get any bad reviews as far as I know. It has only been over the past 12 months that I saw people becoming interested in it again or users writing about it. There's certainly a parallel to how the Poly Evolver was received.

Eight years, however, are a long time in the industry and many instruments don't ever make it that long as far as their production lifecycle goes. There are some notable exceptions, but they are few.

Whether the Prophet 12 or the Pro 2 will be officially replaced by related successors is an open question. I'd say it's possible, but the competition is much stiffer now than it was around the time those were released. The Summit/Peak, the Quantum, the Prologue, and the Super 6 are amongst the synths any possible successor would have to compete with immediately. That alone doesn't make it more or less unlikely, though, as all of the named products are based on very different approaches.

A Pro-One-X maybe. One voice out of Prophet-6. Or a Pro-Three? Who knows? 
I wonder if the technical challenges of VCO synths are worth it for a small company.
Dave seems to have gone to town on the new Prophet-X and I'm kind of surprised thre Prophet-12 and especially the Pro-2 have been discontined (apart from the last few of the special white Prophet-12s with SEQUENTIAL on the front - an Taylor Swift on the back?).

I don’t know about the VCO thing. Dave spent a lot of research and time developing more VCO stability for the P6. It was a big deal for him to do it after years of saying he never would. I still think a VCO based synth in style of a Prophet T8 or Prophet 10 would be welcomed. Even if it doesn’t have the insane amounts of memory the Moog One does, if its even half of the Moog One’s price, I still think people would have a lot of interest in it. I know I would. I still like the idea of an optional lower tier much like how Hammond offer the lower manual keyboard as a separate add on option for their digital organs....it would be cool to do the same but for a VCO based synth where you could play “LayerB” from a second keyboard that sits on a base underneath your main synth. Prophet 20...allowing two completely independent 10 voice VCO poly synths that you can play together. I’d buy that in a heartbeat. 

The Prophet 12 was missing a few things that are sort of commonplace now on Sequential synths(digital effects, sequencer, etc) so I could see why Dave felt it was “old news”.

[Razmo]

I do not see a problem in Sequential doing a VS or Wavetable synth... they have to compete too, not just create something new... doing new stuff is becoming harder and harder, so many "innovations" is more advanced versions of older ideas too. If they did a VS or Wavetabel synth they would just have to add enough bells and whistles for it to compete... and bells and whistles seem to be Dave's strength 

I mean... what do people want right now, if it's to be "innovative"? ... many say that they have to do something inovative, but I do not see that many innovative suggestions at what that would be... also, how many ways can you be innovative, when you constantly have to do the Oscillator->Filter->Amplifier->Effects thing!? --- all the "innovativeness" we see these days are just different constellations of this same and overused way of creating synthesizers... the only thing they can really do is put extra "modules" between these, and swap the routings about and increase the modulation engine flexibility.

In the end, I do not think that Dave is thinking much about what's already on the market... he gets an idea in his "underground cave", and then he creates what he feels for... that's the best way to be innovative... if you always try to be like all the rest, you'll probably fail, and the end result will lack your soul in it... just let him do what he likes and do best, I'm sure it'll be something interresting, even if it won't be anything any of you want right now.

That's what I like here... he's trying to satisfy his own ideas, NOT the users... he may be inspired by what users want, but I'm perfectly sure, that even if that's the case, it will come out with twists of his own that is nothing like what you thought anyway.

That's why I've really stopped hoping for this and that... I'm just waiting and then I'll see what comes :

I actually agree with what you've said.  "Innovation" in this case seems to come down to doing things differently from the competitors, so as to be distinctive from them.  It doesn't necessarily mean "better than" the others. 

I get the business aspect; that's just too obvious to mention.  But from my perspective, a good instrument will always remain a good instrument, even as other more "innovative" instruments come to market.  So, I can't get too excited about the big question: What new instrument will Sequential produce next?  I'm more interested in the question, How long will the old instruments be in production?  Rather than excitement, give me stability.

I'm still wondering if Sequential will ever produce that behemoth of a synthesizer that I've dreamed of for a decade - not innovative, but typically DSI-esque and massive.  The Poly Evolver Keyboard came to closest, but it's not the sort of instrument you can easily build up, as you can a Prophet '08/Rev2 with their module versions.  The Prophet 12 was second to the PEK on this scale, but it really wasn't around for long.  This is the difficulty with such an approach - it takes years to accumulate keyboard and module versions, and then the instrument is suddenly discontinued before the project is finished.

Pretty much, yes... I'm still wondering, if I'll ever see a fix of all the bugs that have been accumulating on the REV2... seems like an eon since any updates was made for the Prophet REV2, and it's still one if their latest devices... What probably irritates me just as much is the deaf ears I sense, when people take their time and write what they would like to see in all the "feature request" threads... I understand they cannot satisfy all of the requests, but at least I hoped to see some additions of some of the most frequently asked features, like for example the LFO Slew rate.

It seems as if producing new stuff is way more important than polishing their already finished "gems"... I've never understood this approach, and I probably never will...

[Quatschmacher]

I do not see a problem in Sequential doing a VS or Wavetable synth... they have to compete too, not just create something new... doing new stuff is becoming harder and harder, so many "innovations" is more advanced versions of older ideas too. If they did a VS or Wavetabel synth they would just have to add enough bells and whistles for it to compete... and bells and whistles seem to be Dave's strength 

I mean... what do people want right now, if it's to be "innovative"? ... many say that they have to do something inovative, but I do not see that many innovative suggestions at what that would be... also, how many ways can you be innovative, when you constantly have to do the Oscillator->Filter->Amplifier->Effects thing!? --- all the "innovativeness" we see these days are just different constellations of this same and overused way of creating synthesizers... the only thing they can really do is put extra "modules" between these, and swap the routings about and increase the modulation engine flexibility.

In the end, I do not think that Dave is thinking much about what's already on the market... he gets an idea in his "underground cave", and then he creates what he feels for... that's the best way to be innovative... if you always try to be like all the rest, you'll probably fail, and the end result will lack your soul in it... just let him do what he likes and do best, I'm sure it'll be something interresting, even if it won't be anything any of you want right now.

That's what I like here... he's trying to satisfy his own ideas, NOT the users... he may be inspired by what users want, but I'm perfectly sure, that even if that's the case, it will come out with twists of his own that is nothing like what you thought anyway.

That's why I've really stopped hoping for this and that... I'm just waiting and then I'll see what comes :

I actually agree with what you've said.  "Innovation" in this case seems to come down to doing things differently from the competitors, so as to be distinctive from them.  It doesn't necessarily mean "better than" the others. 

I get the business aspect; that's just too obvious to mention.  But from my perspective, a good instrument will always remain a good instrument, even as other more "innovative" instruments come to market.  So, I can't get too excited about the big question: What new instrument will Sequential produce next?  I'm more interested in the question, How long will the old instruments be in production?  Rather than excitement, give me stability.

I'm still wondering if Sequential will ever produce that behemoth of a synthesizer that I've dreamed of for a decade - not innovative, but typically DSI-esque and massive.  The Poly Evolver Keyboard came to closest, but it's not the sort of instrument you can easily build up, as you can a Prophet '08/Rev2 with their module versions.  The Prophet 12 was second to the PEK on this scale, but it really wasn't around for long.  This is the difficulty with such an approach - it takes years to accumulate keyboard and module versions, and then the instrument is suddenly discontinued before the project is finished.

Pretty much, yes... I'm still wondering, if I'll ever see a fix of all the bugs that have been accumulating on the REV2... seems like an eon since any updates was made for the Prophet REV2, and it's still one if their latest devices... What probably irritates me just as much is the deaf ears I sense, when people take their time and write what they would like to see in all the "feature request" threads... I understand they cannot satisfy all of the requests, but at least I hoped to see some additions of some of the most frequently asked features, like for example the LFO Slew rate.

It seems as if producing new stuff is way more important than polishing their already finished "gems"... I've never understood this approach, and I probably never will...

I don’t know how much these threads get read by Sequential staff. I submitted my feature requests via support tickets and got responses. Not sure how much will be implemented though. 

[Razmo]

I do not see a problem in Sequential doing a VS or Wavetable synth... they have to compete too, not just create something new... doing new stuff is becoming harder and harder, so many "innovations" is more advanced versions of older ideas too. If they did a VS or Wavetabel synth they would just have to add enough bells and whistles for it to compete... and bells and whistles seem to be Dave's strength 

I mean... what do people want right now, if it's to be "innovative"? ... many say that they have to do something inovative, but I do not see that many innovative suggestions at what that would be... also, how many ways can you be innovative, when you constantly have to do the Oscillator->Filter->Amplifier->Effects thing!? --- all the "innovativeness" we see these days are just different constellations of this same and overused way of creating synthesizers... the only thing they can really do is put extra "modules" between these, and swap the routings about and increase the modulation engine flexibility.

In the end, I do not think that Dave is thinking much about what's already on the market... he gets an idea in his "underground cave", and then he creates what he feels for... that's the best way to be innovative... if you always try to be like all the rest, you'll probably fail, and the end result will lack your soul in it... just let him do what he likes and do best, I'm sure it'll be something interresting, even if it won't be anything any of you want right now.

That's what I like here... he's trying to satisfy his own ideas, NOT the users... he may be inspired by what users want, but I'm perfectly sure, that even if that's the case, it will come out with twists of his own that is nothing like what you thought anyway.

That's why I've really stopped hoping for this and that... I'm just waiting and then I'll see what comes :

I actually agree with what you've said.  "Innovation" in this case seems to come down to doing things differently from the competitors, so as to be distinctive from them.  It doesn't necessarily mean "better than" the others. 

I get the business aspect; that's just too obvious to mention.  But from my perspective, a good instrument will always remain a good instrument, even as other more "innovative" instruments come to market.  So, I can't get too excited about the big question: What new instrument will Sequential produce next?  I'm more interested in the question, How long will the old instruments be in production?  Rather than excitement, give me stability.

I'm still wondering if Sequential will ever produce that behemoth of a synthesizer that I've dreamed of for a decade - not innovative, but typically DSI-esque and massive.  The Poly Evolver Keyboard came to closest, but it's not the sort of instrument you can easily build up, as you can a Prophet '08/Rev2 with their module versions.  The Prophet 12 was second to the PEK on this scale, but it really wasn't around for long.  This is the difficulty with such an approach - it takes years to accumulate keyboard and module versions, and then the instrument is suddenly discontinued before the project is finished.

Pretty much, yes... I'm still wondering, if I'll ever see a fix of all the bugs that have been accumulating on the REV2... seems like an eon since any updates was made for the Prophet REV2, and it's still one if their latest devices... What probably irritates me just as much is the deaf ears I sense, when people take their time and write what they would like to see in all the "feature request" threads... I understand they cannot satisfy all of the requests, but at least I hoped to see some additions of some of the most frequently asked features, like for example the LFO Slew rate.

It seems as if producing new stuff is way more important than polishing their already finished "gems"... I've never understood this approach, and I probably never will...

I don’t know how much these threads get read by Sequential staff. I submitted my feature requests via support tickets and got responses. Not sure how much will be implemented though.

They read them.. .otherwise they would logically not be writing in them ... but regarding REV2, I do not think there has been any kind of features added at any point since it's release (that I recall)... it has been mainly bug fixes.