Make Noise Rene
Sequential Pro 3
Malekko Varigate and Quad series
Moog Subharmonicon Mother 32
WMD basically everything 
Pretty innovative stuff there my friend. Granted nothing on the SOMA level but nothing is.
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Guess it depends on how you define innovative. I have, and love an OB6 and a P12, and neither will leave me anytime soon, but I wouldn’t consider sticking an SEM filter on a P6 backbone (nor the P6 itself) innovative. But it is a really nicely made, and lovely sounding synth, which is merit enough as far as I’m concerned.
This is the most innovative thing I’ve seen as of late and I have preordered it. Everything else just seems like the same thing over and over and over. Oscallators and filters = yawn.
There have been complaints that the unit sounds digitally harsh. Well, it is digital, but they also have firmware coming to implement multi-timbrality, which is a plus and it possesses a unique ARP/Sequencer implementation. It’s refreshing to see something new come out. If it turns out to be a dud, at least I can start at the orbiter.
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I like what Moog is doing with their semimodulars. At least Dfam and subharmonicon are quite unique.
I find most stuff I regard as innovative in eurorack and especially Ios apps (brambos stuff, borderlands, patterning etc)
Still have most GAS for the old stuff I never got my hands on (looking at you Roland system 100m)
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I thought the Prophet X seemed very innovative… How often do you see hardware synths with the ability to use samples as an FM mod source? I feel like this is something we’ll see more of in the future
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Anyone who isn’t still humping the basic analog synth craze. There are so many now who cares? I don’t know if I’d call them innovative, but Modal’s Wavetable synths have me interested currently.
I think Roland does a lot. The System 8 is amazing when you think about it, 3 unobtainium classic synths, easily upgradable to some other type of synth. The Jupiter Xm with its generative beats based on the intensity of playing, its not my thing but its cool from a tech pov.
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Agree.
Not much has changed even in 20 years.
In fact I think gear is getting worse in terms of reliability, build quality, sound quality (there are exceptions).
Every single time I buy something new I regret buying it after 2 minutes of use. I gave up buying new or “modern” gear.
The only keeper was the digitakt. Old Nord’s, Viruses, Akai’s, Yamaha’s I feel will outlive all of the modern stuff that I’ve used.
It’s a little bit different on the siftware side of thing (computer applications). But not much.
How old is Reaktor again? And Nord Modulars? 1998? It’s all there. Every single euro module is redundant if you have one of these.
Yamaha sequencers from the 90’s: still best to some.
Perhaps my definition of “innovation” is a bit different
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Out of curiosity, Thoughts on old Nord Leads vs new Nord Leads?
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Animoog for iPad is similar to Vector.
Now that I think of it, most innovation I’ve seen is done with the iPad. Things like Samplr
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New Waldorf gear has generally looked pretty interesting over the past few years.
Despite what on the surface looks like an attempt to constantly rehash old product lines, it’s actually kinda cool the way Roland has been working with various modelling technologies and integrating it with hardware over the past several years.
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Seconding this comment about Norand. Only one synth out so far, the Mono, but if is unique and awesome. I very much look froward to what they will do next.
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As I expect Osmose to be a milestone in the history of music instruments, I’d say Expressive e might be the most innovative company.
Otherwise, in the past, it used to be Clavia. The Nord Modulars were si ahead of their time, and still are, surprisingly.
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Sequential’s plenty innovative. They release a redux of a decades old product and people go ”Exactly what I need” and pay hipster prices for it (myself included). From a busines point of view, that’s fairly inventive.
But perhaps not what this thread is about.
It’s clever, not innovative.
I think there’s a bit of a void there at the moment. Sure, there’s some stuff that’s pretty out there, but right now I don’t see anything that has the potential to define it’s own category and be economically successful at the same time. Of course, I’m hugely biased, but to me, Elektron is still closest, even though in my opinion they could do with another major leap forward instead of more incremental updates.
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I do not have enough experience to talk about music technology, companies, etc. So take this as a newbie’s opinion, for what it’s worth.
I don’t care about innovative products. I care about excellent build quality, great sound, great design, fantastic customer support, ethical business practices, well-written manuals.
I think there has been enough innovation already. Just my taste, of course.
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Hard to be truly innovative.
In the desktop hardware domain surely Soma it is.
In the eurorack world Qu-Bit try to do something different.
I used to have quite a bunch of Ensoniq gear back in the day (2xASR-10 and a VFX) and I loved them all especially the VFX.
This is the only piece of Ensoniq hardware left in my possession. It truly is innovative. Nobody else in the whole wide world has come up with the idea of making a rubber spider/ant-monster which has eyes that blink when it receives midi-signal. If only it had midithru to make it even a slightly usable piece of kit.
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Actually they are way cheaper than when they were first released. A bargain.