Novation Peak - Osc and Filter - SonicLAB Review (Part 1)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2024
- The first part of our look at the new Novation Peak - hybrid 8 voice poly synth. We look at the New Oxford Oscillators and the analog filter.
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Lmao. The auto subtitles kept saying "wow" when you were doing the filter sweeps
Well, synths can talk too. That's nothing new xD
The combination of 3 fully capable Hybrid Oscillators. 24Mhz DAC's. and a great sounding analog filter that produces gorgeous harmonics, provides a robust sounding synth. With 60 wave table setups, now 4 LFO's in addition to other sound shaping features on the Peak make this synth a major league player at a really fair price, considering what you get for your money. We don't have to spend 3, 4 or 5 thousand on a synth with a KB anymore. Even for us old people that are not rolling in the money, this synth is not out of reach.
This is the first new synth that has impressed me in years. Good work Novation.
15:27 Nick predicts the Summit! Well he said maybe a "Twin Peak" will come later, but he was on the right track.
That ending patch was great as always. I was even more glad to see (the first part of) your review up than normal, because this synth is amazing. Novation has done an absolutely fantastic job
"The menu system, which does feel a bit menu-ey at times". XD still cracking up over that one.
Kenny Bressler menus suck.
Not when there's a dedicated button for each menu. Novation have done that on all of their Nova synths, the KS, and here. It makes it SO much easier to find deeper options that it barely feels like "menu diving".
It has pages in some cases.
So there is menu diving in it.
However, at least compared to the Deepmind patches can be built without ever entering a menu. But that would only offer a fraction of what the synth is capable of.
Thanks for the extremely literal replies. I just thought Nick's phrasing was great.
I love your videos and all your catchy descriptions of things! Singsong harmonics!
really like multi part reviews.. allows more time to go into depth on these complex instruments
Of all demo's I heard, being the Prophet A, B, C or Z, I love the Peak the most of all new beasts! Wonderful!
It seems to me that this synth goes from zero to crazy very quickly. Thanks for zooming in on the menu while you tweak it!
I call mine "The Jack of all Trade" the most versetile poly synth ever made, very user friendly. easy to learn basic synth tweaking with loads underneath when it comes to modulation. One of those synths you keep because it's just so good at so many things
Great part 1 and would be good to see multiple videos on reviews like Mr Doty does...and congrats on the 100K subs Nick
I must admit, it does sound good.
My first analog synth was a BassStation. I traded it for a sampler, 20 years ago. Four years ago, I bought a BassStation II, and last year another BassStation. I need this thing.
Get a SuperBassStation, too! I have and they sound great. Mix it with a BSII for extra beef! :D
I've been thinking about that, actually.
Great review! Can't wait for part 2. Peak looks like a cheaper Prophet 12 but with knobs?
"...but then...let's just bring up the other oscillators!"
Competition keeps putting out synths but I feel this sounds as good as the best of them.
This synth reminds me heavily of their engine for the nova. Their new webservice for the Circuit that allows you to create patches online has a lot of similar waveshaping ability. Most of the same oscillator parameters: Vsync, Density, Detune, etc. Filter's sound alike with 12 and 24db slopes. Only two oscillators on the Circuit/Nova, so having that third is nice. I'd sure like to get my hands on one of these. Novation hardware and service is tough to beat.
Ever since I bought my Poly 800 back in the mid 80's, I've been dismayed at the lack of synthesisers that allow different VCA envelopes per oscillator. It's good to see more synths being made now that are incorporating this into the architecture as it adds an extra layer of complexity than can only be achieved otherwise with stacked / multi-mode sounds.
Nick - I notice you've stopped using your CME of late. That nektar controller also looks nice. It would be really interesting to see a quick video on your direct experiences with midi controllers (not a review or anything - just the stuff you've used)
mark williamson alot of people were complaining about the noisy keys on the CME. I dont know if thats the reason but i kept reading that in the comments.
yeah that was one of them, plus this is a poly, so better to have more keys, which the Nektar does.
But no aftertouch? Or only channel aftertouch?
jmacatx poly aftertouch.
Looks like a very capable synth and hours of fun !! Thanks for demo , look forward to part 2 .
"I'm not going to go through all the wavetables. I know you want me to."
Well yeah seeing as that's the main reason a lot of us are interested in this.
one of them sounds like this: BZZZTRRRZZ [repeat]
Another one sounds like this: WOOOOHHAWOWO [repeat]
And I'm guessing another one sounds "chime-y"
I think you have to do your best to convince Mark Doty to do a review if you want that.
In my opinion this offers a lot more than just wavetables, and at this stage they seem to be very scaled down versions of wavetables.
So it you are looking for a real wavetable synth, this is not the one.
If you are looking for a good sounding hardware polyphonic subtractive synth, with a lot of hands on control, this might be the one.
+Jon Holstein, it's not that I'm looking for a wavetable synth. It's that the wavetable oscillators in a subtractive synth setting interest me more than the standard Sine\Pulse\Sawtooth analog affair. In that sense I would've liked to have heard all the wavetable sounds currently on offer.
@@Zinfidel1 lmao
100K! Hurrah!
Korg are bringing out the Prologue it uses two VCOs ! No word on a module version though so Peak is still at the top of the list.
Ooooh really liking how this sounds. It's got that something that sets it apart.
Excellent interview, thanks a lot! The maschine itself sounds deep and versatile
Nice pedigree...I'm totally ok with hybrids as long as there are heaps of knobs to twiddle :-) No point being an analogue or Digital snob when you are missing out on great sounds !
"Chris Hugget is... a fairly smart bloke" LMAO :-)
This synth does nothing for me to this point but the complaints about the price are laughable. It's a quality hardware synth. The Supernova II base model that I still have and love was $2995 (16 years ago - $4100 in today's money!), the JP-8080 I still have was $1295 (19 years ago! - $1930 today). These are all digital and surface mount technology. Just because some companies make disposable crap for $500 doesn't mean everything has to be $500 and trashed within 12 months.
I live in extreme poverty, a true starving artist, all my synths are under $500.00 including Casio, none are disposable, all dependable and very useful. Been using synths for 30 years, organ and piano for 50 years. All my synths are digital, hence maybe the dependability and longevity.
@@WildernessMusic_GentleSerene no content channel
@@jan-martinulvag1953 Jan: Don't know what you mean or asking???
Eric Archman
Ha! The Prophet 5 retailed for $4595 in 1979 and would be $15000 in today's dollars.
I bought a Prophet Rev 3.2 in 1981 and paid $3200 dollars plus 6 percent Sales Tax. I got a bank loan to buy it! Paid on it for years. The good new is I still have it, it still works fine and still sounds great. Its simple compared to the capabilities of today's synths, but what a sound!
I'd like to add a question for the sensei Nick because I don't seem to find anything on it, will this have any kind of DAW integration? I think every company should do something similar to Elektron's Overbridge to stay in sync with modern times and ways of making music.
I know you love PCM,,,,i love LFO especially Synced to Midi Clock..Does this have a Sync function in the LFO area? i didn't see that...That's a must for me..
What a filter!
It really is the peak. The question is, what do we do now that we've reached the peak? Do we need someone to raise the bar, so there's a new peak to be reached?
Gadan, the FM section + wavetable is what does it for me. Uff, very tempting...
Great review, comme toujours, Nick!
Really nice sounding. I dig it.
Novation is making progress, it is clear to see. Already Mini/Ultranova was great synth and Peak is a big step forward into the right direction. Then we have Summit which is more than 2 Peak built in a single unit. Damn Novation I have to win the lottery asap! :D
Good synth, sounds a little bit like the dw 8000, but more punchy and massive
i want one.. think this has to be bought. It sounds like the most exciting synthesizer ( in my budget) since the older Waldorf Microwaves. Lovely reverb, distortion and a lush analog filter too. . Well done Nick. Thanks for the 1080p im keeping an eye on those hairs on your head :) :)
Wow you can get some funky sounding bells and clangorous sounds out of this. Impressive. Sounds great on my Genelec 8341 monitors :)
I just checked Sweetwater.com website and they have the PEAK as a TOP SELLER. THAT is impressive. Sweetwater is NOT the low price company to deal with, but they DO have impressive Value Added benefits for what you pay. An additional 2 year warranty over and above the mfg warranty. They have knowledgeable sales people and their tech people are top notch. Sweetwater is a reliable company, they stand behind what they sell. The Peak does sound massive. My next synth will be the Peak. I like having 3 full feature Osc, instead of two, that can be wimpy.
Hey Nick, could you do me a favour? Can you play an init patch, just a sawtooth, from high notes to the lower ones? I suspect this synth suffers a common digital oscillator syndrome, that is that it sounds darker as you lower the notes... thnx! great review!
would like to hear the drift on saw and square for how it fares as analog emulation
sounds ace
Love that ending tune/patch, very inspiring!
Another lovely review, thanks Nick
"Maybe a Twin Peak".
It's called the Summit ;-)
@@MrLawrence0071 Twin Peaks is better :P
Hey Nick,
how would you compare the Peak to the Virus TI2? Can the Peak´s FM get as gritty and powerful as the one from the Virus? Otherwise they´re both quite similar in terms of modulation possibilities, format and price range as far as I can judge. I´d like to buy one of those 2 as soon as I have the money :D
Cheers
Kilian Kayser I love my Virus.
Virus is out of that range, not comparable with anything else. Is Mercedes of all synth.
Thanks for demoing Diverge and Drift, just wonderful
The dual modulation on the filter reminds me of the Wasp a bit.
That patch at the end was wonderful, is it available somewhere?
that filter is beautiful
Actually the main sine is a wavetable too.
Nick "Wobbly Knobs" Batt giving another amazing review.
On the final patch at 17:34 Nick says he has a separate VCA envelope for each of the three oscillators. Looking at the controls and modulation matrix as well as the Peak user guide, it isn't clear how he achieved that. The way it is described in the manual it appears that a common amplifier envelope is used post mixer for all of the oscillators. Is he just saying the gain value for each oscillator in the mixer is different and he effectively scaling the same envelope to perform differently on each oscillator?
Thanks!
Normal Env Depth on zero (=OSC1), both OSC2 and OSC3 level at 0 in the mixer. Mod matrix: ModENV1 > Osc2 LEV (63 for max. level) and ModENV2 > Osc3 LEV (63 for max. level). Now change the MOD ENVELOPES at your convenience :-) Took me some time, but I did like to know howto too.
Would still love to grab that closing patch. Gorgeous!
Awesome video from an awesome synth! Thank you!
Musicians can buy this synth for less than a Sequential Rev2, which is the low end of their line. The peak has a better build quality and most everyone has some kind of controller. So, you are not spending money on something you already have to play. So its not multi timbrel. Big deal. The sounds you can get out of this synth are massive. Novation just added two more LFO's to Peak with their latest firmware update. Great sounding synth at a fair price.
@anthony patterson
Reviews that I read on the Rev 2. Face it, the Rev 2 is an entry level synth and the components are a bit cheesy and the Reverb sounds cheesy too. You are not going to get a high quality synth for $1299. Do the math.
I watch and listen to the Reviews by Nick Batt of Sonice State. He has a number of reviews on the Peak on youtube. According to Nick, the Peak is as solid as a rock. Rich sound and quality FX. Anyone with a KB controller or other synth can buy a Peak for a really fair price, considering what you get for the money.
@@johnadams5489 The Rev2 components are cheesy? News to me. Have you actually used one? I wasn't a fan of the filter, but it's a pretty fantastic synth.
@@ShadowPilot
No, I read reviews by other musicians that bought the Rev2. One thing to consider, the Rev 2 is an inexpensive synth. You can't buy a Mercedes for the price of a KIA.
17:00
"Lost in Synthesis"
-by N. Batt
It sounds amazing! In particular that last sound you played. If I wasn't getting the DSI Rev2 I'd have been tempted!
What makes you not tempted? Rev2 doesn't seem to be a better instrument. Just different. And from what I can tell, this one might be more versatile. I have both on order and will decide soon which one to cancel.
I really like how both the Rev 2 and peak sound but for me it's a no brainer only because I don't have a large midi keyboard and the rev 2 has a 5 octave keybed. I also like the fact I can always retrospectively upgrade to the 16 voice without the need to resell the current unit I have. Peak sounds great but I am looking for a more self contained instrument is all!
Very powerful. I like hardware VAs and digital synths. It doesn't sound like analogs, but to me they sound better than software VAs and digital, to me. The two last can sound like no other. So everything is an option. As a player the hardware ones allow more expressiveness, so I think I make they sound better when playing immersed by the music. But, as a in the box tweeker the software ones wins. Despite that, I prefer being crazy with knobs.
It´s not a VA, it´s a real digital osc / analog filter - hybrid.
Thomas Paulsen Right. But you understand the whole picture.
U-he Diva will sound more analog that most Virtual analog hardware out there.
Digital is digital, no matter if it runs on a DSP chip, or CPU. So it is all about the code. And in general software VAs by the bigger brands are just as well coded compared to hardware VAs (in a lot of cases better, in terms of higer parameter resolutions). If you prefer VA hardware over VA softwre, you have either experienced some bad softwares, or your brain is fooling you because the hardware can actually be touched and the software has a limited screen resolution and lives inside the same box that you can use to check your emails.
This does have analog filters, and a new type of digital oscillators, so it can't really be described as an virtual analog in comparisson to most virtual analog hardware out there.
I would not say that this sounds better than all softsynths out there, but it comes in a nice box with a lot of dedicated controls, and the same can not be said for every hardware synths to come out in recent years.
I think you are right. But I like hardware synths, digital or VA over software because to me the PC CPU influences the sound and makes, to me, all Sound similar. Maybe I need a car priced interface on a car priced Mac (I live in Brazil, bananas are cheap). I always had a high frequency that disappeared once I started using the QY700 and latter the MPC5000 as a sequencer. There are very good Software synths and I like them very much. But to me it's all about expression and I think I sound better on the machine. I never finish programing a midi controller so never master it. When I play I don't want to think, just flow.
you forget something very important, a hardware VA is built specifically from ground up right to the output stage out jacks , therefore it's optimized with its own character, run the same code
on a computer where the developper doesn't know wich soundcard you will use and interference of the system as a whole ,and the outcome will differ, for instance
a waldorf q/micro q in software/vst's doesn't sound anything like the hardware version of the same unit although both full in digital domain, you can argue as much you like but even in pure digital soundgeneration the differences
are noticeable
This appears to be an interesting and cheaper alternative to Prophet 12, which can pull off some similarly complex timbres. I think there's some advantages of the P12 over this, and they are hardly the same thing, but have some similarties.
I really like the sound of what I'm hearing so far :)
A "Twin Peak", eh? Prophetic!
Hey sonicstate you said you can KeySync the oscillators (6:13). Can you also change the phase of the waveform? (startingpoint of the waveform)
Great video! :)
Not that I can see no
Nice Video but what is the Name of the Keyboard ? Troy
Would have liked to see it multi timbral....The original Supernovas were 8 part and they had more polyphony too, 20 expanded up to 32 if i remember correctly....for the Supernova 2.
Sounds lush though.
Seems like the complexity of sound available in this machine makes using multiple sounds per patch redundant.
halcyondaystunes 48
profile name is a killer song..... still.
Quick question Nick, how do you get the waveform up on the screen?
Sounds very nice , does the filter control have 14 bit or just the 127 steps?
127 steps? that would be ridiculous
Control for the filter is 8bit.
I have a Ultranova... can anyone come in and compare it with the Peak? I've been thinking about selling it and my minibrute for Peak
4:50 Interpretive poly-synth hand dance...
So it's kind of like a way more advanced Korg DW8000?
That’s what I was thinking
What I want to know is, when will it ship? Please, Sweetwater, charge my credit card already!
Does seem nice. What makes it different from the competition in this price bracket - the Wavetable oscillators?
Three full function oscillators
Yep. Nice. Maybe you could even even load your own wavetables. No noise anywhere?
Routable filters with fx modulations !
Peel the sticker off that LED screen, you monster!
Interesting to see 'synthesiser' on the bottom right of the machine in stead of 'synthesizer'.
It's good to spell things correctly...
wow the waves and lack of aliasing is really impressive.
Hello, Nick! No, the osc-s doesn't sound almost like analog (as you're stating here as I've got). The sound is pretty much like any good VST synth from 00-s. I've got this quality in SynthEdit (where you can "program" your own VST and make a dll). There is no aliasing as well (thanks to PolyBLEPs).
I've used Neutron and Model D for few months already and hear a huge difference. PWM-ing on Neutron and here is like Sky and ground. Peak's pulse osc. sounds way too sterile. I'm surprized that you've didn't noticed it, Nick.
I own a Odyssey and a Peak the OSc in the peak sound like analogue DCOs but when the drift is added a mono bass preset sounds like one I made on the Odyssey.
how do you make the sound at the end? love that, sounds blade runner
This Synth is a very good piece of hardware
built like an tank
Sounds fantastic
That reverb is epic
13:14 And then, Nick stared into your naked soul...
very nice sound coming from digital oscillators!
it reminds me a lot on my old Novation K-Station. Kind of like an updated version with more modern sounds and added wavetables, but very similar in architecture and circuit design.
Hey, Nick, how did you connected Impact to Peak? Does Peak have a USB MIDI input?
No, just a MIDI cable. Impact LX88 has a MIDI out
8:46 classical dnb music face ! :D
Is there no osc panning alter by each note?
Good review, as usual! 👍
We are taking the AutomaticGainsay approach to this I can see :)
Not quite =(
And I doubt he will touch it as it isn't an fully analog synth =(
The analog zombies are out again, like if their opinions prevented people from working and releasing music made with digital means
Unfortunately I think there are some people out there that read opinions and think that it's pointless to do music on VSTs and digital synths.
Some become analog zombies, and those are probably not producing that many tracks anyhow (many of them can't affoard to get the instruments they praise).
But I think there is a number of people that think it is just not worth it, without "proper gear", and hold of trying to make something untill they can affoard "proper gear", and many of them will never be able to affoard "proper gear".
Most analog zombies would probably fail every blind-test where they don't know either the softsynth or the hardware synth, well enough to point out its characteristics. At least unless they can any of those tricks that they know will expose some digital synths, but those tricks, are not commonly heard in music, so it all becomes rather pointles.
Jon Holstein As you hopefully now, there is much more to buying an analog synth than just the sound.
@Blob B
People that want to put all us Analog buyers in a general "lets insult them" box are wrong. Its about the music. I own analog and digital as well as hybrid equipment. The bottom line is how does it sound? The Peak is my next investment. An innovative synth for a lot less money than what we use to pay.
Once again, I thought the peak was a pretty boring synth, until i watch Nick's review!!
The lack of high end is bothering me on this synth. Even on a spectrum analyzer, the sawtooth is clearly lacking upper harmonics compared to most other sawtooths (analog or digital). I even compared it to other TH-cam osc demos. Could it be the filter isn't opening all the way up, or are the oscillators just that dark sounding? Either way, I hope Novation changes this. As it is, that lack of sparkle is a deal breaker for me. (before people start beating me up for not listening and instead looking, I only looked because something about the sound was frustrating me in a way that other synth demos were not. In terms of NCOs, I don't hear the same issue from Modal).
The sawtooth is missing high end content. Needs more sizzle.
5:30 lovely. worth the price of admission
0:45 is this confirmation that Roland ACB is FPGA based, then?
Roland ACB is DSP based.
The synth seem very promising to create sounds, but I would like to hear also a demo of the presets, because to me what does it counts is to have (and try to make) beautiful sounds. I'm not a wizard at programming sounds, so a decent presets bank is important to me.
Tween Peaks Synth coming soon..
looks great...
I did the exact same bass face at 8:54 while watching