Novation Peak

Hello,

Here’s my first review, in the spur of the moment after discovering it for an hour now

First of all, it’s beautiful and the finish is really great! Soundwise, well, what a killer! Everything works smoothly, with no unpleasant digital artefact, no step effect on the filter or anywhere else… The sound is wide, precise and crystal-clear, the distortion is warm and the filter sounds of magic (plus, the resonance setting doesn’t drag the volume down)! The effects are beautiful and musical (with a superb reverb and creative delay).

The LFOs are very fast (up to 1,600Hz!), plus you have three crazy and very elaborate oscillators with a surprising SHAPE setting which allows to change the waveshape drastically! All the parameters are very intuitive and can be called directly, the instrument is well-designed and reminds you of Novation’s extended know-how! Forget the Ultranova and Mininova (which I know well) – the PEAK is 10 light years ahead of them (in terms of sound/warmth, NCO/FPGA technology, filter… well, granted, the price is way ahead, too )!

The peaks actually reminds me much of the rack version of the Supernova, both for its sound and specs (architecture/design, effects and so on). It’s 2017’s SUPER-Supernova, and I love that!

I’ll edit this review when the discovery phase is over, but I can already tell you how great this is and I believe there will be a before and an after-PEAK!

It’s the most analog digital synth around!


EDIT
Here’s my latest version of this review after using it for a few days

Once the “discovery” phase is over, my opinion on it is a bit more contrasted. Here’s why.

The PEAK sounds great, and everything I’ve stated before in that regard remains true, yet… it sounds TOO GOOD, too clean to my taste, the sound is straight, square, it does what it’s asked to do and this is it. It seems to be lacking madness or something, the filter is way too clean to my taste – it sounds great for sure, straight, clear-sounding, but somehow unimaginative: no surprise to be expected. I can’t lead it where I want to… Perhaps because of the factory presets which are very average – sounds you’ve heard 1000s of times, almost mere clichés.
It provides very good classic analog sounds, nothing to say in that regard and it sounds powerful and fat… Still, it lacks originality. Is this because of the matrix? There’s a “little something” missing, which is difficult to explain. Even if it’s a great synth, it has a peculiar sound grain which is very straightforward, no frills, no touch of madness, like it or not.

The unison lacks stereo width to my taste, it pales when compared with my Virus Indigo… What a pity. My virus sounds rougher, more sparkling in a sense, crazier also, even though it features a digital filter.