Well this looks cool. The price of those refurb units were crazy, so hopefully this one is a little more reasonable.
Hereās my take. Dave Rossum will not sell this for cheap. He engineers ICs, designs and builds high quality boutique synths, and was responsible for one of the coolest, sought after and rare modular systems ever. He also seems to be a shrewd businessman. He also innovates, and seems very, genuinely interested and enthusiastic about his craft. Heās in that Bob Moog, Don Buchla, Dave Smith, Tom Oberheim, etc. crowd.
His gear will never be inexpensive. Especially with the direction his modern designs have taken.
At the same time, I feel his gear is worth, and maintains its value. If you buy it, even if you discover itās not for you, you wouldnāt be out much for the experience.
no matter what it cost it will help sell more sp-2400ās
Itās got to be funny to somebody like DR who has taken sampling so far beyond the SP yet people still clamour for the original units. Iām guessing this is going to cost upwards of a fistful of Assimil8orsā¦
If it were a stand alone device with the Assimil8or engine? SOLD SOLD SOLD!!!
Maybe this is a step in that direction. The Assimil8tor may as well not exist as far as Iām concerned because Iām just not at all interested in modular.
I suspect that youāre in the vast majority when it comes to beatmakers too, man. If Rossum did a standalone unit featuring an Assimil8or and sequencer (& hiding the CV connections round the back so it didnāt look too modular) I suspect they could win hip-hop heads over without having to reproduce 80s gear.
I can see that, but if you had a wide skiff with a homogeneous set of Rossum modules to support it, then got proper-length patch cables, tie them in place (like a fixed architecture synth basically) you might be surprised, and eventually want to move some of those cables around.
There are people that patch up their systems (see it a lot on Buchlas) then just use it that way as a synth of their making.
I think one could build basically a really fancy sampler this way, and it wouldnāt be any harder to use than a typical one, maybe even easier due to the nature of physical controls, abbreviated menus, etc.
Something like this, but a lot more concise, refined, all one brand, and sample oriented of course.
This concept is what has come closest to tipping me over into modular land. The idea of a Rossum unit (or a small Make Noise unit with Morphagene at the heart of it) as a standalone instrument is very appealing.
Iāve thought a lot about it too. More on the analog mono side, but same concept. Also most likely Rossum or maybe WMD.
The idea is so much different than the synths that I build, where every function is patched on a micro scale rather than fixed macro approval.
I also think this is a step in the right direction for Dave Rossum. Seems like he still has some good ideas, and the euro rack format was a good way for him to test the waters on some new hardware. Now come on Dave, itās time to resurrect E-mu and start pumping out the goods. And if E-mu is still copyrighted, just call it F-Mu, weāll know itās you.
Had one and used it for a while. Also for live stuff. Assimil8tor is great on paper, but no midi made me sell it.
Yes itās modular so why midi? Well imagine being able to parameter lock the phase mod? Or sample slot. And all this without being forced to keep 32 physical connections.
Add MIDI 
That Instagram post reads "Most exciting is the use of original old stock parts. Soon!" which probably means limited run and high price.
I did wonder about the āold stock partsā. I imagine the filters etc are SSI drop ins. No doubt there could easily be some NOS parts inside the machine though I could only speculate what.
But I did wonder about the drum buttons in particular. My understanding was that they arenāt manufactured anymore. Probably not a difficult thing to have a new batch made but I was still quite surprised to see them as I havenāt seen any on a new device in years.
I wasnāt into the ISLA S2400 because it uses an algorithm to imitate the 12-bit sound, and because of other design decisions. It sounds good, but not quite like the SP1200 I owned decades ago.
Iāll most likely be into this Rossum remake, but Iām really digging this guyās project too.
an Elektronised SP1200
I donāt think Elektron is the model to follow here⦠itās either outdated storage media (OT compact flash) or proprietary thing that you canāt access like a standard file system (Digitakt +drive with transfer app).
Outdated was probably not the right word. Obsolete, or abandoned. SDs definitely are not.
The price is just right too! 
Down for one. Regret selling my SP12.