Instruments, Product News

Novation’s flagship two-part 16-voice 61-key polyphonic synthesiser

Posted on by Ben Silver
10
May

Novation’s flagship two-part 16-voice 61-key polyphonic synthesiser

Summit’s digital New Oxford Oscillators offer subtractive, FM and wavetable synthesis, and feed into genuine analogue dual filters, distortion and VCAs. The multitimbral engine enables merging and combining of two complete and independent patches, while up to 16 simultaneous voices deliver enough harmonic depth for even the richest of pads.

The best sounding synthesiser Novation has ever made

Summit doubles the power of Peak’s digital New Oxford Oscillators up to 16 voices and two parts, and adds a wealth of new features and a premium-quality five-octave keyboard. A synth much greater than the sum of its parts, it gives the serious producer or performer everything they need to design and play stunning basses, leads, arps, pads, effects and beyond.

Totally tactile sound design

Summit takes Peak’s architecture and workflow to new heights, with a swathe of extra front panel controls for hands-on wrangling of FM, effects, LFOs and more; dual filters with six LP/HP/BP combinations; audio input for processing external sources with the onboard effects; and auxiliary audio outputs.

Analogue where it matters

The true stereo analogue signal path comprises dual analogue multimode filters, analogue VCAs and three stages of analogue distortion – pre- and post-filter, and post-VCA. With roots in the legendary OSCar, via Bass Station II, Summit’s analogue credentials are truly impressive.

Two Peaks in one synth – and then some

Two Peaks in one synth – and then some

The 16-voice, multitimbral engine combines two simultaneous patches. Split or stack them for keyboard-divided or layered sounds, or switch the entire synth between two separate and independently controlled setups, perhaps using one as an effects processor for an external input source.

Also, Summit can use all your Peak patches

Our best keyboard ever

Five-octave, semi-weighted, velocity-sensitive keyboard with aftertouch – the same premium-quality keybed as introduced with our SL MkIII controller keyboard.

New Oxford educated

Digital New Oxford Oscillators are capable of subtractive, FM and wavetable synthesis. Waveforms are generated directly on the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) chip, using 24MHz bitstream processing; and adjustable drift and divergence emulate the inherent and often desirable instability of analogue circuits.

True analogue filters and distortion

The New Oxford Oscillators output to true analogue filters, with origins in the classic OSCar synth, and three stages of analogue distortion give you ample saturation options.

Dual filters

Summit’s dual filter is switchable between six paired combinations of low-pass, high-pass and band-pass modes at 12dB/octave, or any single mode at 24dB/octave, for a broad range of sonic possibilities.

Hands-on sound design

Packed with modulation sources for deep sound design – LFOs, envelopes, Animate buttons and more. Extended controls see

FM parameters, envelope loop switches and LFOs 3/4 moved from Peak’s menu system to the front panel, for easy programming and tweaking.

Audio in and auxiliary audio out

Hook up external instruments for processing with Summit’s onboard effects, while using it as a synth at the same time.

Powerful effects

Onboard reverb, chorus and delay effects are hosted on the FPGA. They’re also controlled directly from the front panel, and available as modulation targets in the dedicated FX Mod Matrix.

Tech Specs

 Product Hardware Specifications

Synth Engine

  • 16 note polyphony (dependent on voices used per note)
  • 2-part-timbral
  • Layered, Split, Dual Bi-Timbral Modes
  • 5 Voice Modes – Mono, MonoLG, Mono2, Poly, Poly2

Per Voice

  • 3 oscillators
  • 1 noise generator with HP filter control
  • 1 ring modulator
  • 2 LFOs
  • 1 amp envelope and 2 mod envelopes (ADHSR + looping)
  • 1 filter

Waveforms Include

  • Sine, tri, sawtooth, square / pulse, plus 43 wavetables of 5 waveforms per row

Filter

  • 1 state variable OTA filter per voice
  • 12/24dB slope
  • Low-pass / band-pass / high-pass / dual filter (separation of each 12dB filters)
  • dual filter: LP > HP, LP > BP, HP > BP, LP + HP, LP + BP, HP + BP, LP + LP, BP + BP, and HP + HP
  • Pre-filter overdrive
  • Post-filter distortion

Modulation

  • 16 modulation slots per patch
  • 2 sources per destination per slot

Mod Sources

  • Direct (depth)
  • Modulation wheel
  • Aftertouch (polyphonic and channel AT)
  • Expression pedal 1
  • Expression pedal 2
  • Keyboard velocity
  • LFO1 positive
  • LFO1 bi-polar
  • LFO2 positive
  • LFO2 bi-polar
  • Amp envelope
  • Mod envelope 1
  • Mod envelope 2
  • Animate 1
  • Animate 2
  • CV mod input bi-polar
  • Bend Up
  • Bend Down

Mod Destinations

  • Oscillator 1-3 frequency, v-sync level, shape amount and level
  • Noise source level
  • Ring modulator output level
  • Overall synth output level
  • Filter drive, distortion, cut-off frequency and resonance
  • LFO 1 and 2 frequency
  • Amp env / mod env 1 / mod env 2 attack, decay and release
  • FM Osc 1 -> osc 2, osc 2 -> osc 3, osc 3 -> osc 1 and noise -> osc 1
  • Osc 3 -> filter cutoff frequency

Noise -> filter cutoff frequency

Effects

  • FX are per part
  • Analogue distortion
  • 3 chorus types
  • Delay with 16 types of delay sync, LP and HP damping, slew and stereo

FX Mod Matrix Source

  • Direct (depth)
  • Mod wheel
  • Aftertouch
  • Expression pedal 1
  • Expression/breath pedal 2
  • Velocity
  • Keyboard
  • LFO 1 +/-
  • LFO 2 +/-
  • LFO 3 +/-
  • LFO 4 +/-
  • Amp envelope
  • Mod envelope 1 & 2
  • Animate 1 & 2
  • CV +/-
  • Bendwheel +/-
  • Bend up
  • Bend down

FX Mod Matrix Destinations

  • Distortion level
  • Chorus level
  • Chorus rate
  • Chorus depth
  • Chorus feedback
  • Delay level
  • Delay time
  • Delay feedback
  • Reverb level
  • Reverb time
  • Reverb low pass
  • Reverb high pass

Misc.

  • FM controls on front panel
  • Global LFO 3 & 4
  • Arpeggiator with key latch – 33 patterns
  • Patch storage – up to 512 on hardware (ships with 256 factory patches)
  • All knobs (excl. volume), sliders and most buttons transmit and receive MIDI cc commands for external control and mapping
  • Microtuning with Scala table import and table tuning creation
  • Manual mode
  • Multi pot mode: Relative, Pot pick-up, Snap

Product Hardware Specifications

  • 50 control knobs

  • 8 45mm sliders
  • 1 volume knob
  • 1 data encoder knob
  • Rubberised knob caps with spun metal discs
  • 55 function buttons
  • 2 Animate buttons plus hold button
  • OLED display
  • Kensington Lock
  • Power switch
  • IEC power supply connector
  • USB socket for system (MIDI comms only, no bus power)
  • MIDI In / Out / Thru
  • 2 1/4″ jack sockets for continuous or switched pedals
  • 1 3.5mm jack socket for CV in
  • 2 1/4″ jack sockets for left and right outputs
  • 2 1/4″ jack sockets for left and right auxiliary outputs
  • 2 1/4″ jack sockets for left and right inputs
  • 1/4″ jack socket for headphone output
  • Metal chassis with American walnut wooden end cheeks

Metal magnetic inset end pieces

 Software Compatibility

  • Ableton Live Lite is included
  • Summit is a USB-MIDI class compliant device

 Power Requirements

  • Maximum power consumption 1A