Novation Peak

hey me too

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Nice, donā€™t forget to write your initial impressions!

Iā€™m thinking about buying one as my first synth.

Have had my Peak for two weeks and TOO BUSY TO BE AT THE STUDIO - sucks.

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Iā€™m thinking of getting the Roli Seaboard Block with polyphonic aftertouch as a keybed controller for this module.

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Ive been looking for a new synth lately.
And the two Iā€™ve settled on are Novation Peak, and Deepmind12
But only obviously gonna get one.

To my ears, the DM demos all sound infinitely more pleasing. +1 DM
But the look/feel/knobs of the Peak is definitely better. +1 Peak
Price wise / Analog wise +1 DM
Wicked filter +1 Peak

Im torn.
Anybody own either of these and can think of immediate drawbacks they didnā€™t like.
Iā€™m leaning towards the DM, but damn the Peak is beautiful lol

I feel the opposite, Iā€™ve preferred almost all the Peak demos Iā€™ve heard!

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Ill agree with you on the demo patch videos.
But videos where someone has created patches, the DM always sounds way more lush to me. I dunno.
Peak sounds ā€˜tinnyā€™ and more like a VST to me. But it could also just be the quality of the videos Im watching.

You have any good example ones that won you over for the Peak?

Well now Im even more torn. Blofeld is multi-timbral and half the price.
Ugh!

Anyone here own a blofeld? Any negaitves besides menu diving?

If you are going to get hardware get something with lots of controls on the front, it is easier to edit and invites experimentation more.

The DM12 sounds good but its more limited in its timbre range compared to the peak which has wavetables, 3 oscillators and FM between oscillators and filters.

The DM12 has a much more simple 1 and a half oscillators, and while it has more modulation options what is the point if you can only modulate 1 and a half oscillators with the classic analog waveforms?

So to me the Peak is really the best of both in terms of features and possibilities. And probably the best polyphonic synth with analog filters around.

The blofeld is a very fine synth but it is tedious to program it.

Yeah, the Mylar Melodies one that I posted further up the topic:

I remember hearing one good DM12 demo on YT but I canā€™t find it nowā€¦

I agree. I really do love the Peak.
And if it came down to instant gratification and tweakability, it would be a no brainer.

But the Blofelds multi-timbre capability is winning me over I think.
Up to 25 voices on all 16 channels!? Man, why dont all modern synths do this!?? Its 2017!

If the peak did even just 8 multi-timbral, then it would also be a no brainer for the Peak.

Blofeld gets a lot of praise but it looks completely uninspiring to meā€¦ I probably couldnā€™t work with it.

I am also considering the Peak because I really like itā€™s form factor and interface, now that looks like an inspiring instrument! However, I havenā€™t heard anything interesting come out of it in the videos I watched. Itā€™s kinda expensive too.

Iā€™ll probably get a DM12 now that they are below 1000 Euros. Not a fan of Behringer, but I think itā€™s the best bang for buck out there right now.

I agree with all 3 things you saidā€¦pretty much exactly.

Peak looks awesome, feels amazing and is intuitive. Soundā€¦generally ok, but nothing too special, and mostly ā€˜tinnyā€™ to my ears.
Behringer, best bang for buck, plus fully analog. Alright interfaceā€¦Sounds lush.
Blofeld, shitty interface, Looks like a lab scale for weighing drugsā€¦but sounds amazing, and 25 voice, multi-tibre!!!

In the end, it really should all come down to sound, since weā€™re making music here.
So the blofeld should be the no-brainer, at half the price, and triple the polyphony. (not to mention it can now load samples too)

But something about itā€¦I dunno. Its fugly as sin.

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I struggled with the Blofeld. Nothing wrong with how it sounds, and it has a huge range, but I didnā€™t like the interface.

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That is the main point. If you have an awesome synth which you just cannot tolerate working with - then itā€™s not worth it in my opinion. I have an FS1R andā€¦ Iā€™m using it only for the presets because the UI is from the nineties - itā€™s just horrible.

I got the Peak partly because Novation clearly did their homework with the UI - itā€™s awesome to work with!

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Couldnā€™t agree more, my first thoughts were ā€œwhat a well-designed synthesizerā€.

Iā€™ve had a little play with a DM12 in a shop and my first impression wasnā€™t great, to be honest. I think I was hoping that it would be a bit more like a modern Juno than it is. It didnā€™t seem to have the character or warmth or the simplicity, the interface seemed fussy, the presets were drenched in mediocre-sounding effects and it looked cheap and kind of ugly to me. I know people can get some nice sounds out of it but that first encounter really killed my GAS for it.

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For what i knowā€¦it eats any Analog Keys for Breakfast.

has anyone else with Peak notice any clipping eg pads with low pass filter and high resonance causing a clipping/distortion effect that improves if you reduce the master volume?

Yes this was a known issue with the first OS.
OS 1.1 they introduced a master level setting within the menu. Options are 0,-3,-6db.
I had the issue but rectified by lowering the master db in the settings.
See if that helps

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Thanks Cyclone - however in my case it was due to my stupidity. My peak sounds great - I was just running it at too-high gain into the analog heat without compensating the input level. (I actually forgot it was patched into it)

Damnit I am a write off today. Awesome synth - sigh

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