Innovative companies to watch

Hoping this won’t be a negative thread but over the past few years it seems like Elektron is going in the opposite direction as me. I’m into innovative, deep instruments (both hardware and software) that have a lot of juice to be squeezed. Not mad at them about making money but, instead, am hoping to get some suggestions. I have a few companies on my radar but, in general, who do you think is pushing boundaries in the music production product world? Who should I keep an eye on?

Thanks in advance.

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Gotherman

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Waldorf

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Oh yeah. Have had my eye on the Kyra since it was the Valkarie.

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I can’t remember the name of the developers, but the Deluge is probably among the most impressive new hardware I’ve seen in the last years - not only it’s concept, but also their update/expansion rate… they’ve added radical features with each update, wich is something that I really respect…
I don’t own one, but I’ve read and seen quite a bit - if they one day make a MK2 with a few extra features (updated screen, more outputs, a few more knobs - I don’t know if you can use external controllers?) then I think it will be more appealing, at least for me (I know that would make it more expensive, but I think it’s reasonably priced for the features it currently offers)

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tekernol

one to watch

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:thinking: hope this means what I hope this mean

This one will be polarizing but … Behringer.

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Are they making original stuff, though? I’m not excited at all about rehashing old gear for cheap.

dreadbox is relatively new and all their analog synths seem to be very well regarded in terms of sound quality. maybe not pushing boundaries, but they’re different

if u want to push boundaries u need eurorack. not because of the patching or anything, but there is simply a lot of creative people making interesting modules that do many weird things.

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Yeah, that’s what I’ve sort of concluded. At this point I just have an Octatrack and an analog monosynth. Everything else is software. Eurorack seems to be the place for really interesting hardware.

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Soma, Gotharman and Dreadbox are my favorites these days

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Polarizing for sure but they’ve done what should have been so obvious, that is, they listened to customers and potential customers’ specific requests. We’ve read articles and forums for decades where synth heads have asked for actual analog reissues. Aside from the many great niche companies issuing clones, the requests have gone largely ignored by the majors.

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That’s fair. I guess I’m looking more for innovative product rather than business practices. That’s an interesting take, though.

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Yes, by most accounts the neutron is pretty awesome.

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synthstrom the guys behind the deluge …

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They are also taking what they learn from doing these reissues and making their own gear now. And the $ is a plus

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This…

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Novation, Modal, Teenage Engineering, koma electronic, Mutable Instruments, Make Noise, Bastl, Intellijel

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All the other manufacturers including Elektron, better keep a close eye on Behringer… They’re playing for keeps and are being innovative by simply trying to give people what they want…

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