Seems like Sonicware is releasing another groovebox in their Liven line
In my humble opinion Sonicware has achieved what Elektron so far has failed.
The model series should have been just what Liven is, a series of affordable grooveboxes based on different synthesis concepts.
This looks interesting. I wonder if it can use the wavetables polyphonically even though it is obviously for bass and beats… Their 8 bit warps sounds great, I nearly bought one a couple of months ago before I realised they were out of stock everywhere.
Really like the thinking behind these things - integration of the looper especially
EDIT : looks like only the 8bit has the looper…
the 8bit version looks interesting.
Personally i think it sounds horrible. But no more so than a lot of gear demos.
It seems to fill a nieche for those wanting to make ye’ old timey Dubstep…
So naturally it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea
yeah, looks terrible… sounds worse. But you know, YMMV. hopefully people will love it & make cool music 
yeah… I’ll reserve my judgement on the sound because in the past I’ve been fooled by demos… but this thing looks like a Casio rapman that got dressed for a millenial synthwave party.
Christ that sounds terrible but I find most gear promos sound pretty bad.
The promo vid sounded terrible or fantastic if you like dated sounding edm ( which has dated very quickly )
And the video seemed 80’s style generic synth wave neon .
I prefer retro sounding 90’s electro / Roland gear.
Their gear is cheap and seems quite feature packed , despite my feelings above I do with them well / success.
Bit of a stretch to say they failed if that was never their goal. So you are just saying you wished Elektron would have introduced more Models with additional synthesis types?
Either way, always good to see other companies put out interesting products and at reasonable prices. Having options is great and at the price it may be worth the risk just to try it our.
From a business perspective it seems like a slam dunk to me. You have the hardware already secured, so it’s more a matter of coding new engines. Which of course is no small feat. But still…
Model:mono
Model:wave
Model:drum
Etc.
Damn. As an 8bits owner (who doesn’t love it and is maybe/probably going to put it on Reverb soon), I’m jealous of the drum machine. The layout of the 8bits made me wish it was more of this kind of groovebox/drum machine - I found the layout pleasing, just not for a polysynth.
This as a $200 drum machine, though? Despite the promo video, this seems like it could be a pretty great x0x-type substitute. Also seems like they are poising the Livens as beefier, not-too-much-more-expensive alternatives to Volcas.
Regardless of being non-plussed about my 8bits, I am a big fan of Sonicware. They were one of the many small companies caught in the earliest days of the COVID shipping/labor/chip shortage, and they were very consistently transparent about the process to get the backers their units. By the time my unit got to me, I had already moved on to other synths, but they really hooked me as a customer.
Definitely my favorite of the series! Will be keeping an eye out for this one.
This is the vintage gear we will all want in 30 years. For now, it’s just horrible !
Send more time with the Warps! Make some cool patches and get good at using the looper, it can do pretty wild things.
Can’t wait for the review from the “Bad Gear” guy.
Not forgetting model:model for physical modelling…
That would have been my favorite!
