Novation Summit - keyboard version of Peak

[Blairio]

Sound On Sound magazine recently reviewed the Summit and were highly impressed, both by the sound, but also the user interface, The review model didn't come with a manual, but at no stage did the reviewer feel the need to chase one up.

The Summit follows in the footsteps of the Prophet 10 and the Roland JX10. Both of these included 2 instances of earlier machines, plus a whole lot more. With Prophet it was the Prophet 5, and with Roland the JX8P.

Ultimately (I hope) nobody buys a $2000 keyboard without auditioning it themselves. Yes, the demos showcase the Summit's FX, but that has been the way since Roland released the D50 - the first keyboard offer onboard FX beyond a simple delay line or spring reverb. It is a good time for onboard FX, just look at the Klark Technic and other FX onboard the Deepmind, a much cheaper keyboard than the Summit.

The Summit looks and sounds great. The SoS reviewer was also highly impressed with the build quality and keyboard action. When it reaches my local store I will definitely try one out. It is a hybrid, hence the lovely glassy digital timbres. I would like to see what its more 'analog' side is like.

[dubonaire]

I have a Prophet 6 desktop and I’d kinda swerved Peak when it came out, then I kept finding myself super vibing off the things folk were getting out of it (rbeny on fire again!) which forced me sit up and take notice. Then Summit hit me out of nowhere and the thought of hooking up my P6 module to one proved too strong for me.

I have a REV2 and a Peak and I find they really complement each other.

It is a hybrid, hence the lovely glassy digital timbres. I would like to see what its more 'analog' side is like.

Not sure if you have read this:

https://novationmusic.com/peak-explained

At the output of the Peak it sounds no less analogue than any analogue synth to me, and I find the distortion circuit very useable.

[BogartDestructo]

Ultimately (I hope) nobody buys a $2000 keyboard without auditioning it themselves.

Yeah I get this but i think you'd be surprised!

Obviously I haven't had a chance to play one yet myself but I have already resigned myself to pulling the trigger based on what Ive already seen/heard. Also in this instance I have an opportunity to score one with a huge discount making it nigh on impossible for me to not get on board.

[dubonaire]

Ultimately (I hope) nobody buys a $2000 keyboard without auditioning it themselves.

Yeah I get this but i think you'd be surprised!

Obviously I haven't had a chance to play one yet myself but I have already resigned myself to pulling the trigger based on what Ive already seen/heard. Also in this instance I have an opportunity to score one with a huge discount making it nigh on impossible for me to not get on board.

I don't think you will be disappointed.

[iSapien1956672]

I told myself that if this came in at $1999 it's gonna be really hard to pass up. Told myself the same thing about the Matriarch. They both came in at $1999. Kill me now. (death by gas)

I hear you on that.

[onthebandwagon]

Does anyone know if after the Peak was released if their was a long wait to get one after the pre-orders were filled?

[dubonaire]

Does anyone know if after the Peak was released if their was a long wait to get one after the pre-orders were filled?

I got mine 4 months after it was released and don't remember it being out of stock anywhere. If you do a search on Novation products it seems to me they keep stock levels high.

[___tomk]

Here's a video demo/preview of my Peak/Summit patchbank, released today:

[video][/video]

[Xtheunknown]

I don't get the people asking for multitimbral analog polysynths. That would bring the cost up to the 5 digit figures I imagine.

No, it really wouldn't. Engineering-wise it's a matter of sending different information to the associated voice DACs for each multitimberal part, instead of sending the same information to all the voices.* It would require some development time and some interface changes, but not much extra hardware. (and perhaps extra DSP, if you want Supernova-style separate effects for each part). Some manufacturers have done it recently in analog. The Ambika, the DSI Tetra, and the Analog Four all did, and none of those are particularly expensive.

Manufacturers aren't doing it, not because of cost, but for lack of demand. Audio tracks are much cheaper than they used to be. In olden days the midi driven tracks would be added at mixdown, so the ability to get several parts out of a given synth was much more important.

Thing is, it's still really useful for live use, or layering, or percussion parts, or for hocketing. Or for weirdos like me who like to record everything in one go instead of piecing stuff together in a DAW. People need to start asking for it, if they want it to happen.

* [edit] I'm talking here about polys with presets of course (i.e. digital control), but that's the majority of them).

There’s one more huge advantage to having individually programmable voices, and that’s programming each voice to have a slightly different timbre/setup. Think of the Oberheim four voice or eight voice and the huge and organic nature of that kind of sound. That’s the big advantage for me. We have the technology to do it cost effectively now. I say bring it on!

[RickKleffel]

..In addition to the reasons above for multiple-timbral {analog} synths, there's the glitch factor... Which is when different patches affect one another in unpredictable ways. I've noticed or at least, hallucinated, this on Elektron and Access synths. If you start writing in a lot of specific timbre changes in one patch, they seem to "bleed" into others. To me, this makes the whole thing MUCH more worthwhile. This might be a personal observation [YT is bonkers], but it feels like it can increase the Happy accident percentile. A manufacturer may promise the multitimbral world with the idea that very few use or require it. Those who do, or have the nervous habit of fussing, can find the results rewarding or annoying, depending on your mood or inclinations.

[Carrousel]

Finally got hold of one of these. Really impressed so far, the sound is unbelievable. Here's the first thing I've made with it. There's three synth lines in this track - the fast synth plucks and the big bassy lead are both the summit, recorded in one pass via separate outputs in dual mode. The simple high note repeat refrain over the top is a Boog. No post-processing on the summit parts, the reverb and delay is onboard.



Just a few small glitches so far: the synth doesn't send / receive bank change messages appropriately when local control is off. There seems to be some issue with the LFO lights - sometimes they represent the LFO frequency properly, other times they don't. It also doesn't seem to output the midi notes from the arpeggiator if I have local control off (regardless of the arpeg>midi setting), but i can work around this - If I want to use the arpeggiator, I just send in a recorded chord from my cirklon and leave the arpeggiator switched on - works well.

Overall I think I'm gonna be very happy with this machine....

[nangu]

New firmware for Summit and Peak was just announced- maybe that’ll fix your glitches?

It adds user wavetables plus a really nice editor for them. The editor can work just in the computer, or it can update the wavetable inside the synth in real-time, running the wavetable as part of the active patch..

https://novationmusic.com/en/news/wavet ... eak-summit

[mmp]

In addition to the waveform drawing and sample to wave table capabilities, it also has the ability for additive synthesis with fixed frequency harmonics(as far as I can tell), but level and phase for each partial. A very cool update, all in all.

[Carrousel]

One month in, I’m thoroughly chuffed with my new poly. No complaints at all - realised I don’t need to use it with local control off so the few glitches I had are no longer a problem (also came to realise you should probably never really need to use local control off in any circumstance so it’s cool).

Here’s a 4 track EP I recorded with the Summit all over it. In all but one of the tracks I’m using the Summit bi-timbrally and recording both parts in one live take.

[BLX]

I also love the Summit, but I have one grumble, well its not really a grumble just something I keep wishing for - envelope control of the FX modulation. I keep hoping this might be an option they implement in a firmware update, but perhaps its such an obvious thing, that they would have already done it if they could.

LFO 3/4 do an OK job sometimes but even if they had a key reset I could fake some of the things I want to do with an envelope.

still a really great synth...

[mmp]

I hope they do a MkII version with poly aftertouch.

[kdjupdal]

I received a Novation Summit a couple of weeks ago. Great synth!

Design: I think it looks good, except that I don't understand the fake wood end caps. Why try to make it look like a vintage synth.

Intuitive layout of knobs - most things accessible on the panel

Keyboard: Nice quality sturdy keyboard. The aftertouch is kind of tough and you need muscles to use it. It is really too hard to control with individual fingers, but for instance if you hold one bass note with the left hand you've got good control pressing down with the hand.

Modulation possibilities: you can modulate almost everything, but being used to work with a modular one gets spoiled. Some minor things that are lacking: You can't decide key tracking of the oscillator, you can't modulate panning. But with two layered synths you've got immense possibilities of evolving pads.

Sounds: Beautiful sound, the filter is smooth and elegant, and I like that it has all the LP, BP, HP and notch. The distortion is cool.

FM: Very nice effect to have, allthough the modulation routings are fixed. 3>1, 1>2, 2>3.

leds: I was just wondering, since some of the leds can change colour, would it be theoretically possible to implement user-defined colours in the firmware?

[SynapseCollapse]

I bought one of these early last month.

It's probably the nicest single piece of gear I've ever owned (before this I would have said it was the V-Synth I owned from 2006 - 2010). It sounds just as dreamy or as angsty as you program it to sound, and it can be fun to use both sides of that in a layered or split patch.

The menu is really easy to navigate and it feels very intuitive to program the mod matrix. There are a few more modulation destinations that would be appreciated, but nothing thats a deal breaker for me. The dual filters sound great, but so do the filters in general.

There are a lot of functions that made owning the Summit seem like a better idea than the Peak, especially having access to LFO 3 and 4 on the front panel.

The INT function being on the top level is handy, but Novation and I don't seem to agree on what a "zeroed out" patch looks like. Ended up saving a 1 oscillator 0 effect sound and saving it into a new slot when I start a new patch, which is a pretty easy workaround.

[chvad]

funny about INT patches ain't it? seems like it'd be an easy thing but I dodnt agree with the Summit's INT as well lol.

[Mr.Kus]

Is it possible to key sync individual oscillator and let other two run free? According to the manual the actual key sync parameter is common for all oscillators. I was thinking if maybe the v-sync can be used to key sync individual oscillators? I guess what I' m asking is if the master oscillators to which the actual voice oscilators are synced are key synced or free running? Not sure if that even makes sense.

I find it quite handy to be able to key sync one oscilllator for consistent attack part of the voice and let other oscillators run free to create more variation.

[felix le chat]

Hello
I am looking for a Novation Summit demo that I heard sometime ago but cannot find it again. It was an example of "vocal"/"formant" sound probably using dual bandpass or lowpass filters, either a low frequency drone or a moving rhythmic pattern (don't remember), and it sounded quite textured, say a bit granular or similar to a contrabassoon if you see what I mean. Not sure if it was an audio or video demo, and also it was probably just a short part of the demo. Anybody remember it?
Thanks!

[felix le chat]

I am looking for a Novation Summit demo that I heard sometime ago but cannot find it again. It was an example of "vocal"/"formant" sound probably using dual bandpass or lowpass filters, either a low frequency drone or a moving rhythmic pattern (don't remember), and it sounded quite textured, say a bit granular or similar to a contrabassoon if you see what I mean. Not sure if it was an audio or video demo, and also it was probably just a short part of the demo. Anybody remember it?

^ I finally found it! It is tracks #6 and #21 here:
https://greatsynthesizers.com/en/review ... 16-voices/
(the Makenoise DPO can sound a bit like this too)

This synthesizer looks good for me, both for live use with any kinds of bands, and for film soundtrack composition. Too bad I cannot try it at the moment. Sound and features are fine, but I need to check the keyboard.

I don't want to have 17 synths, and for my work I need something to complement my compact analog modular synth (I also use a computer, a Nord Micro Modular and instruments like acoustic piano, electric piano, drums and percussion). Patching polyphonic synths on my modular is limited to 4 voices, it sounds very good (especially because the voices are different), but it takes lots of time. I hesitated with the Sequential OB-6 (sounds great), the UDO Super 6 (would need to try it but demos were promising) and the Xerxes (cannot afford it anyway, but it has no continuous pedal input)

[Carrousel]

This synthesizer looks good for me, both for live use with any kinds of bands, and for film soundtrack composition. Too bad I cannot try it at the moment. Sound and features are fine, but I need to check the keyboard.

The keybed itself is nothing to write home about to be honest, feels a tad springy to me. The actual controls of the synth have a really nice smooth buttery feel to them tho. Very sturdy too with no knob-wobble.

[felix le chat]

The keybed itself is nothing to write home about to be honest, feels a tad springy to me.

Thanks for sharing your experience.
I guess it is safer to try it before buying. I have the first version of the Novation Remote (not the SL or SL mk2) and really like the keys. While the key travel is a bit short, it is still my favorite 61-key controller (I also like the DX7 keyboard but never owned one). But I did not like the Remote SL mk2 keyboard so much.

It seems people complain a lot about key noise (lol they don't imagine how noisy an acoustic piano without strings or an unplugged Rhodes are), and because of these hipsters many manufacturers use harder springs and softer key stopping rails, both of which turn what used to be a percussive instrument into a sluggish instrument only good for pads or cheesy pop. Moreover the fact it takes more energy to keep a key depressed than to depress it gives more fatigue. The Akai MPK61 would be a good example of this trend.
I played a lot with a Korg Kross 61 in live because it weights 4.3kg, but actually I think its keyboard is barely playable (not even mentioning accurate velocity control). The audience never noticed anything wrong, but it takes some mental effort to play it and I am never satisfied with the result.
I hope the Summit is better than these!

The actual controls of the synth have a really nice smooth buttery feel to them tho. Very sturdy too with no knob-wobble.

[chvad]

I'm pretty sure I posted this in some other thread but the Summit keybed was wildly uneven on my first Summit, and the replacement for that Summit. After the hassle of two returns I gave up on the synths. Sounded cool though.