Unboxing The Novation Summit (First Impressions + Demo)

[@adamz3090]

So basicalliy the big Frequency knob is the Cutoff, right?

[@OMNS777]

Looking forward to getting mine today!! Thank you Carlos for this amazing Intro + Demo!

[@ingolf7411]

Highly underrated ... the Summit is an excellent instrument. Wonderful sound, clear and intuitive user interface, first class quality and a joy to play and to create sounds with.

[@MysticFrequencies]

Purchased my Summit nearly 2 years ago, literally as a result of my Novation Peak and its abilities / sounds. Its a truly one of the great/better modern synths! Being a true keys player its awesome to Midi the Peak with the Summit basically giving me 3 Peak's together. Nice Demo Carlos!

[@marcnelson8986]

Sounds awesome! Always had a spot for novation synths in my collection ever since I purchased their A-Station.

[@istvantoth7431]

You guys just sold one here, thanks. Amazing synth.

[@mndtlav]

This looks and sounds fantastic! Great review as always.

[@klaassiersma4892]

Great stuff, i love Novation synth's. I own the bass station1 and 2 and the ultra nova and would love to own one of these.

[@Drew_from_Shrug]

Started on a Mini-Nova and due to my bias from it being my first synth you can really get under the hood with (even through the insane amount of menu diving it requires), this would honestly be my most sought after synth(winning out over hydrasynth and a fantom 6-though that’s a work station). Praying I can get my hands on one of these just to experience all the nice tweaks you can do and give it a whirl. Great video!

[@nebstaism]

Nice synth ,I want one😍😍😍

[@wreckington945]

The Summit is a pretty incredible synth. I keep finding new things with it and can get most any sound. You can get some roland-esq sounds with the dual filters to bring out that high end sizzle. You can get some oberheim by modulating the mod envelope with a mod envelope to create a concave type envelope. I love it very much. It does more the more time you spend with it.

[@entropybentwhistle]

The Sequential Pro 3 has the duo analog with the third wavetable oscillator.

[@Maxxarcade]

4:15 Sounds like you were thinking of the Korg Minilogue XD oscillator setup?

[@pcuimac]

I think I will sell most of my other synths (Korg & Roland) and buy this one. Analog filter with digital osc is the best architecture in my book. It also has nearly one dedicated button for every function.

[@TaklaMakanMusic]

It's a great sounding synth for sure, but there are, sadly, some serious bugs with the midi implementation. A firmware update to fix some of these problems has been promised but it's been a long time coming.

[@fuenstock]

What are the midi issues? I’m considering a summit or peak and would use the summit as my main midi keyboard controller as well. Will be used mostly with usb midi within Ableton.

[@TaklaMakanMusic]

@@fuenstock The Summit has sixteen voices arranged in two sets of eight to allow bi-timbrality (dual mode) if required. However, in 16 voice mode (single mode) midi CCs are not received correctly on voices 9 through 16. So if you want to record aftertouch, mod wheel, and I think pitch bend too, it will only respond to these on playback on voices 1 to 8, with essentially half the synth not playing back your midi recording correctly. The workaround is to use the Summit in dual mode with second part (voices 9 through 16) muted. There are other issues too. The decay function in the ADSR envelopes do not fall gracefully to the sustain level but rapidly drop at the end resulting in odd behaviour. The effects when in series mode are added to a second version of the dry signal resulting in unwanted comb filtering sounds (like a static phaser). It is possible to run the effects to the Summit's aux outputs when in series mode to prevent this. However, since this is a global setting, you then need to re-route the effects to the main output if you want the effects in parallel. The filter keyboard tracking doesn't follow the keyboard/midi note fast enough resulting in slight blips to the start of new notes. You can modulate the effects via the mod matrix but modulating the delay time results in glitches. Aftertouch is still horribly stiff and there is no menu option to control the sensitivity. Supposedly a firmware update is imminent.

[@fuenstock]

@@TaklaMakanMusic Thanks for the reply! Good to know. Maybe I’ll wait to make sure the bugs are sorted out before I purchase.

[@jno8039]

@@fuenstock Yes there is few bugs, it will affect if you are into midi stuff. Less for live performance.

[@HonorV2ultimate1tb]

Is there smooth transition of the sound when you select another preset?...or does the previous preset get cut off abruptly?

[@qlyde]

The Korg Prologue 16 has the 2 Analog Osc / 1 Digital Wavetable or User Designed Osc. Super Cool Synth and much more affordable than the Summit is in Canada.

[@jno8039]

The Summit is far beyond of a the Prologue for sound design, so different beast. Btw Korg stop the production of the Prologue.

[@qlyde]

@@jno8039 when did that happen? We can still buy and order them new at the moment in Canada

[@raidtarik1]

The Summit is a piece of cake and it is on my "Must Buy List". However, I just can not decide whether to buy it or not because I do not know if it does what I need. So, I am more of an oriental keyboard player. Does Summit can adjust any key tone by a 1/4 scale? Also, can I generate any sounds that I want? I watched many videos and it seems to me it is all about Bass, Strings, and Synth sounds and they all play on this device like it is for very limited purposes such as Movies (Introduction, End, or during the movie) background music. Nothing about on-stage songs. Nothing about the other sounds like Flute, Saxophone, or some Middle Eastern instrument sounds. Can Summit do that? or there are other instruments I have to look at?

[@solomonramsa]

In a way Novation managed to place this synthesizer as the best taking the ultranova off the market

[@xntricity6446]

Anyone know if midi can be routed via usb, i assume it can. Thanks

[@maydaygoingdown5602]

Yes.

[@xntricity6446]

@@maydaygoingdown5602 cheers, I bought it in the meantime

[@maydaygoingdown5602]

@@xntricity6446 Ah yes bro, sorry I just stumbled across your question and thought I'd reply just in case. How are you getting on with the Synth mate?

[@xntricity6446]

​@@maydaygoingdown5602that's cool, it's a well capable Synth and certainly a keeper ❤I had sequential Rev2 prior however the menu diving was not for me. The Summit is practically knob per function so suits my work flow. Hope you're summit is fealing the love still. The Ubxa is almost about to drop so will be a perfect partner to the summit.

[@maydaygoingdown5602]

@@xntricity6446 Great to hear your loving it. Its indeed a very good synth. I even run the other synths in my studio through it to pass them through the Summits effects. Without doubt the best reverbs and delays I've heard on any hardware synth. I don't know if you use any VST in Daws but if you connect your Summit upto Omnisphere you can control Omnisphere natively using the Summits knobs and sliders. No mapping involved it's already done in Omnisphere. Its great as a combination.

[@MuzixMaker]

So, Summit or Hydrasynth DX?

[@shaft9000]

different virtues - HS is aimed specifically at the adventurous key-player, and has no design intention to sound like any classic analog synth. - Summit has a hybrid osc to expand beyond the usual standard waveforms, but it's design is essentially common subtractive synth to 'cover all your bread with butter' :)

[@entropybentwhistle]

@@shaft9000 That is a very good assessment. I agree.

[@liberty3dkatmeow911]

Hydrasynth.

[@HowardSmithSounds]

If you're using in a studio setup check the midi problems with the Summit. Novation haven't fixed the issues for a long long time now.

[@vilaintrolltrollinsky8007]

It's a wavy powerfull pad.

[@Xandalfo]

unfortunately out of reach for me. But one day I will get a Peak!

[@CrisBlyth]

OOOOHHHHHHHH !!!!

[@9Risky]

“Congrats to Everyone who is early and found this comment”

[@fjfrancois]

I'm more into the Prologue 8 sorry Carlos

[@entropybentwhistle]

I have the 16 voice Prologue, but I definitely see sound palette gaps that can be more easily filled by the Summit. Definitely a “¿Por que no los dos?” situation for me.

[@fjfrancois]

@@entropybentwhistle yes I can see your point, but I’m not to much into digital OSC

[@dodgingrain3695]

What's with the thing people have with watching others open a box? It's silly.

[@RadekPilich]

Yeah, similarly to the incomplete recitations of specs / functions that can be seen on a product homepage.