Rev2 (Dave Smith)

[bpblog]

Here's a bit of REV2 footage from NAMM 2017:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hESTWE6 ... 5d2ayX3Ybj

[tuzemec]

Just when I was thinking about buying a module 06.
Wander if this will come as a module too.

[CharlyLN]

I must say, Dave Smith still knows to suprise. So much Analog tech for this price. Impressive

[tehlord]

16 voices or not, he's been milking this cow for a long time now. His stuff is too long in the tooth for me to put down 2k.

My favourite thing about synth fans is that they whine and whine when a manufacturer doesn't rehash their old stuff ad infinitum, until the same company a) does exactly that or b) keeps a really good classic synth alive.

Then they're berated for a lack of innovation.

[AnX]

I havent asked for his stuff at all. Dont like any of it.

[lfm]

Even now, the stuff that they're doing isn't on the scale of a Roland workstation, or even on the scale of something like the Andromeda really.

I think this is on the scale of Andromeda soundwise:
http://www.modalelectronics.com/modal-008/

But classic synth, and nothing you haven't heard before, kind of. But really nice.

DM12 at least had a large range of modulations and sounds that I never heard before. A lot of it too harsch to really use, but that comes with flexibility of modulation.

I yet to hear to modern DSI IRL...

[.jon]

They had me until Curtis filter

It's a funny thing, by itself they sound fantastic and interesting, in self resonation and just playing with the filter, but I also don't find it particularly good for most traditional synth uses. Granted, the chip in my old Evolver wasn't a 3320, but close enough in sound, but the filter isn't the real reason I sorely regret selling it.

[ghettosynth]

Even now, the stuff that they're doing isn't on the scale of a Roland workstation, or even on the scale of something like the Andromeda really.

I think this is on the scale of Andromeda soundwise:
http://www.modalelectronics.com/modal-008/

But classic synth, and nothing you haven't heard before, kind of. But really nice.

DM12 at least had a large range of modulations and sounds that I never heard before. A lot of it too harsch to really use, but that comes with flexibility of modulation.

I yet to hear to modern DSI IRL...

Yeah, the Modal stuff is beautiful. I don't know what they're doing under the hood. The andromeda had a custom VLSI chip designed for its basic analog synth engine. Definitely a notch up from the recycled CEM chip that Dave Smith brought to the table.

My comments are rather specific though with respect to where the various companies were at the time and where technology was. I'm sure that Dave could leverage more skill and resources now than he could, for example, when he was doing the P08. I've always thought that he's a brilliant product manager even if I don't personally like some of his products.

It was definitely different in the late 80s though. You had a decade of a particular style of technology that Dave helped to create and was a master of, namely, the multi-voice analog synth design based on off the shelf synth ICs. Then Yamaha starts to shake things up with the DX stuff, then later Roland ditches that model with the D series and U series, and Korg follows suit with the M1 and derivatives. These synths changed expectations and the things that we love about vintage hardware today, e.g., analog filters, were simply not important at the time. They were designed and built very differently and for whatever reason the smaller players of the time didn't quite survive that transition.

[ghettosynth]

They had me until Curtis filter

It's a funny thing, by itself they sound fantastic and interesting, in self resonation and just playing with the filter, but I also don't find it particularly good for most traditional synth uses. Granted, the chip in my old Evolver wasn't a 3320, but close enough in sound, but the filter isn't the real reason I sorely regret selling it.

It's the same filter as the P08 and, of course, the new REV2. Essentially a CEM3396 repackaged in surface mount and labeled the PA397.

One of the key differences is that the late model CEM chips, that the CEM3396 as used in the Matrix 6 and numerous other synths from the mid 80s as well as the CEM3387 as used in the ESQ-1 and also numerous other synths from the same period, does resonance compensation on the chip. It's the thing that people complain about in Repro-1, however, it also adds some harshness.

Even though I sold off most of my CEM based synths, I still have way too many with those chips as well as several with the CEM3372 and the CEM3394.

For me, this is why the DM12 is interesting and none of the DSI synths based on the PA397 are of any interest. Yes, they're modern, yes, they will get more out of that filter than my vintage synths, but, really, I have enough of that sound and I don't really want any more.

The Prophet 6 is a different beast. I'm not fiending for it, but I'd consider it in the right context. The DM12, however, is perfect for me. It's a small controller, a Juno-esqe filter model, which I'm a huge fan of and don't have any 12 voice vintage Roland synths with the right filters (there weren't any, only the JX10, which I have, and has the wrong Roland filter).

[Daags]

IMO he should never have discontinued the Evolver, if he wasn't going to supercede it with something else.

[tapper mike]

Evolver wasn't selling that great. You can't run a business making instruments no one is buying. Gibson stopped making Les Pauls for many years until interest peaked enough to bring it back.

I like the REV2. Part pricing and technology and quality run hand in hand to a certain degree in the electronics field. You have to make and sell enough parts for the R&D to happen. Robotics has meant that parts can be produced faster and better for less money.

[HanafiH]

It was my sense that what killed off the small (mostly analog) players in the 80s was that they didn't have the engineering experience or budgets to compete with the big players as everything went digital. Even now, the stuff that they're doing isn't on the scale of a Roland workstation, or even on the scale of something like the Andromeda really.

Not really. What killed off analog, and Sequential in particular, was the rise of cheap of FM in the form of the DX7. Before the DX7 an electric piano was basically a 4 foot rack of tuning forks that took two people to pick up and move. After the DX7 an electric piano was something you could carry under your arm. They sold 200,000 of them. And then the M1 came out from Korg and the world's all-time best selling synth took the world by storm.

At exactly this time Sequential was dedicated the Prophet VS (today reborn as the DSI Prophet 12). The single most expensive synth in mainstream production. You could buy a Ford, new, in the UK for the peice of a Prophet VS. That took Sequential out, who were bought by Yamaha, and they took the designs and personel from Sequential and built the AN1X, still a seriously underestimated synth.

There is no comparison between the Behringer 12 voice synth and the current DSI flagship range. That's like saying the Arturia Minibrute is a contender against the Moog Voyager. TheBehringer is a great cool synth, but it ain't a Prophet.

[ghettosynth]

It was my sense that what killed off the small (mostly analog) players in the 80s was that they didn't have the engineering experience or budgets to compete with the big players as everything went digital. Even now, the stuff that they're doing isn't on the scale of a Roland workstation, or even on the scale of something like the Andromeda really.

Not really. What killed off analog, and Sequential in particular, was the rise of cheap of FM in the form of the DX7. ...

Dude, this is just a really simplistic version of what I'm talking about. You basically just replaced my generalized premise about the small players with a single specific example of it, that, in fact, I've already referenced.

There is no comparison between the Behringer 12 voice synth and the current DSI flagship range. That's like saying the Arturia Minibrute is a contender against the Moog Voyager. TheBehringer is a great cool synth, but it ain't a Prophet.

Again, this is just a really shallow and myopic view of what I'm talking about. The DM12 is absolutely, and in fact almost directly, comparable with the Prophet 08, which, is also "not a prophet", in any sense of what that ridiculous phrase might actually mean.

[sqigls]

I think the comparisons should begin when people actually HAVE THE SYNTH TO COMPARE!!!!???

[ghettosynth]

I think the comparisons should begin when people actually HAVE THE SYNTH TO COMPARE!!!!???

Yep I think that it's a great idea that you refrain from saying anything about these until you have one. That way those of us who are a bit more comfortable talking about technology can do so without silly comments like yours.