Peak by Novation

[JoeCat]

Novation in general seem to price their instruments favorably, and all their (relatively) recent products - Bass Station 2, Circuit - have been generally well-regarded. Unless they've changed their culture, I suspect there's value in this thing. Will have to wait and see. It's certainly knobby enough, which increases cost-of-sale. But we love knobs!

[Ingonator]

Based on what was already found in some Online shops the price of Novation Peak here in Germany seems to be around 1400€ (incl. 19% VAT) where it could be slightly more or less.

[stonestreet]

I thought this too at first then remembered that my KS4 has an audio input.

I am not an expert, the Peak has a different structure to the KS however it appears to be similarly organised. EG Some of the parameters have different names for similar effects on the audio and choice between use as mono pacthes and poly ones.

It would be nice to have audio input but that would not stop me from buying this.

Why no audio input for procesing external gear? Bs2 has it.

BS2 is monophonic, so it's easy to do audio input there. With polyphony it's quite a bit more complicated.

[xiphiuz]

Great to see a hybrid poly from novation. Apart from the OSCar comparison it also looks a bit like the old hybrid ensoniq synths like ESQ-1 and SQ80. So far I think I have to play it myself before I jump to conclusions. One thing is sure, the oscs sound very clean and not like other DCO's (j6/60/106/ax60/80/poly61/etc). These other and older DCO's have another approach clocking wise and are less clean sounding - ie in my ears more musical because of the tuning imperfections. It sounds OSC-wise more like Modal. But hey, maybe with some programming on the peak....

[MrWildBunnycat]

I'm going to be of the unpopular opinion - I don't see how the Peak offers much advantage over Novation's existing Ultra/Mininova products.
In terms of hands-on approach - the knobbiness comes at a premium, that's understandable.
Looking at the architecture though, it seems like a step back in terms of features. It's very similar to the Ultra/Mininova, but it's got:
- Less polyphony
- Less LFOs (2 vs 3)
- Less wavetables
- 1 Filter vs 2
- Less filter types
- Less envelopes (3 vs 6)
- No vocoder
- Less animation buttons ( 2 vs 8 )
- Less simultaneous effects? (Not sure about this one)

What it does offer is:
- Knob per function (very useful, drives the price up, can't argue)
- High resolution oscillators (Is it quantifiable? Can you hear that in normal use vs the DSP in nova's? All knob controls still have 128 level resolution, doesn't it defeat the point of high resolution oscillators?)

I think Novation missed the target and over-engineered the oscillators without offering any functional advantage over their existing synths.
Using an FPGA is not cost-effective, although allows more control over the hardware (firmware updates can add and rehaul functionality completely), but pointless if it's not going to be utilized to the fullest potential.

It's a cool box if you want a hands-on approach, but not much point if you already have a 'nova. I think at 800EUR it would be an attractive machine, but the current cost will drive some people away.

[Ingonator]

In terms of hands-on approach - the knobbiness comes at a premium, that's understandable.
Looking at the architecture though, it seems like a step back in terms of features. It's very similar to the Ultra/Mininova, but it's got:
- Less polyphony
- Less LFOs (2 vs 3)
- Less wavetables
- 1 Filter vs 2
- Less filter types
- Less envelopes (3 vs 6)
- No vocoder
- Less animation buttons ( 2 vs 8 )
- Less simultaneous effects? (Not sure about this one)

Actually concerning a feature comparison this is mostly true and i would not get a Peak as a replacement for my Ultranova as Peak could simple not do all sounds of the Ultranova.

Biggest plus of Peak is the real analog multimode filter and lots of knobs for easy programming.

On the other hand Ultranova has a nice VST editor and it is also quite simple to program from the hardware. IMO the filters in Ultranova are nice sounding too for being fully digital.

At the end it really depends on which sound and features you need and how much money you are willing and/or able to spend on a new synth.

[rod_zero]

I would also like to see an ultranova v2 with:

1.- More knobs, as many as the Peak has
2.- Multi timbrality.
3.- 4-5 octaves

I had one and liked the sound but If I am going to use hardware it has to be very hands on, or I end using plug ins instead.

[Numanoid]

Sweetwater is taking pre-orders at $1300

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PeakMod

So again our US friends are getting the best deal.

[shroom81]

Sos just tore the Wavetables in Peak a new one.

Why?

But seriously whats up with'em,limited cycles,glitchy?

Don't want to give spoilers from the review...

But in all honesty when is something that is being promoted as much as this thing any good?...

Guess we will find out soon enough and don't get me wrong I love this idea, internal distortion, analog filters, lot's of hands on control, sound's like a lot of fun in a box

[rod_zero]

Sweetwater is taking pre-orders at $1300

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PeakMod

So again our US friends are getting the best deal.

US prices doesn't include VAT, because it differs between states and they don't charge it for international orders.

In Europe normally prices include VAT and it normally is around 20%. If you of at Thomann.de and change your country to something outside Europe you will see prices change.

[Sequent]

I'm excited about this one and like what I've heard so far.

[ford442]

I would count the "Oxford Oscilators" as a big plus. They will make this Novation better than buying an old Nova/Supernova. I owned one for some years and I began to see how it was retro and older sounding to start with. Like the 'string' emulator Amber from Synth Squad - it does rich pads/chords and other multi-osc analog stuff really well.
I see this as like
Nord = lead va
Virus = bass/rhythm va
Nova = string va

[bungle]

Novation in general seem to price their instruments favorably, and all their (relatively) recent products - Bass Station 2, Circuit - have been generally well-regarded. Unless they've changed their culture, I suspect there's value in this thing. Will have to wait and see. It's certainly knobby enough, which increases cost-of-sale. But we love knobs!

Unless they have changed their process entirely, the K stations and SL controllers were some of the worst build quality stuff i ever had in my studio, the faders in particular were horrid little plastic crap that i had to replace with much higher quality components once they broke (very quickly)
From what im told the BS2 is not that great either, and the Launchpads are flimsy toy garbage (considering the usage design, they should be ruggedised)
Novation are anything but priced well, they cut corners to make a buck.

[Ingonator]

Based on what was already found in some Online shops the price of Novation Peak here in Germany seems to be around 1400€ (incl. 19% VAT) where it could be slightly more or less.

Thomann also has Peak added to the shop:
https://www.thomann.de/gb/novation_peak.htm
The price is 1399 € (incl. VAT) and the currently planned date or having it in stock is 16th of June 2017 there.

Music Store has a similar price of 1399 €:
https://www.musicstore.de/en_DE/EUR/Nov ... 005938-000
Delivery date there is 1st of July 2017.

[NEOREV]

Sonic LAB preview up with full review coming soon. If you have any questions for Nick about the Peak, make sure to comment them on the YouTube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7XEdg88bJg