Congratulations. Your ears are doing fine. I had bought an extra Peak to see if noise would be lower. It was exactly the same. Brought the second one back to the store and accepted that some noise is there. Use filter drive to reduce noise. More oscillators in use results in less noise also. The firmware update didn't bring much (if any) benefit. My conclusion is: the noise limits somewhat the range of use of an otherwise very good sounding synth.

Thank you guys!

BTW it is a cool synth. But: (Novation are you listening?)
-I wish more waveform
-more mod destination like fx parameters and pan settings and more... (are there even any panning option?)
-tap tempo option, my ultranova also lacks of that, weird... they could include in an update with some software tweak
-And in arp settings the tempo sync settings (4th, 8th etc) is pretty far it should be in the first page or even could have a dedicated knob for that.
-I don't understand why it doesn't remember the last used patch to turn on to, like the UN also does this so not cool!

Anyway it is very powerful and the reverb is great!

If you save settings, Peak will also save the current patch as the start up patch.

Wow thanks!!!

My head has been spinning lately with all the new synth releases but I've held on to my interest in the Peak because I've heard/read/seen that it's really first and foremost a sound designer's dream. I have a DM12 and an S8, both of which I enjoy because I love getting as warm, ethereal, and floaty as possible with my polys. Would the Peak be redundant with those two already in my rig? I've been eyeing everything from a Subsequent 37 to a Mopho 4x to a Yamaha Modx6 to (currently neck and neck with the Peak) a Sledge 2.0 looking for a poly (or para) that would be deeply ambient and droney but with warmth that would stand apart from the DM12 and S8. Is the Peak fit? I'd love something that shined for dense sound design rather than brass or leads and such.

Maybe a Prophet 12?

I can't comment on the System 8, but sound-wise the Peak has made my DM12 a bit redundant. I haven't tried replicating DM sounds, but I'm sure the Peak can cover everything that doesn't involve the effects. The DM is interesting, but only covers a fraction of what the Peak can do. The Peak has much more depth and heft to it.

I can understand the draw of the MODX. Looks fantastic for the price. Sell the DM, get a Peak and MODX!

The DM12 filter goes into self oscillation and can do nice sweeps, the Peak filter sounds different and cannot self oscillate. The effects on the DM12 can do much more, Reverb is more natural. Unisono can do more, due to 12 oscillators. For 2-times unisono, you get a 6-voice poly versus a 4-voice poly, big difference. I have both and would never consider to sell the DM12. And, wait a second, the DM12 has a keyboard. There is a lowpass and highpass filter.

The filter is different, of course, but where'd you hear it doesn't self-oscillate? It does. Also, low pass, high pass and band pass.

Ok I check that with the self oscillation on mine. Is it broken? I'll see. Yes lp, bp, hp, but not the Roland architecture with lowpass and highpass at the same time. Its a static HP filter with a variable lowpass.

? While yes the DM's unison features are quite advanced, Peak has 3 full-blown oscillators, with super-ish saws on offer, so it does not need unison as much as the DM does.

I don't think I could part with my DM12. Not yet, anyway. Nor the S8. I just enjoy playing them too much. Same with my Grandmother. I had a feeling that between the S8 and DM that there'd be some overlap with the Peak. I'm not sure that it brings enough of a difference to the table but I haven't played with the filter in person so it's hard to tell. But the input is much appreciated! I wish I lived near a synth dealer so I could try it for myself, I'm so curious about the Peak.

Peak-Ky:

5-oct keyboard (from SL series), 16-voice version of Peak with dual/split capability. More sliders for each of the 3 envelopes (no need to switch).

+ preset morphing (between two programs)

... and then I woke up; it was all a dream

Something good will come for the Peak, just wait

is this just wishful thinking? or do you know something we don't?

a bi-timbral 16 voice peak with 61 semi-weighted fatar keys and additional envelope sliders would be awesome.

It’s certainly not a keyboard Peak

Ok, it does also on mine, puts the Peak in a much higher ranking for me.

the long promised OS-update would be something...

I picked up a Peak last week and I'm really digging it. It was a sleeper for me - I wasn't too interested on paper, but after spending hours in a store with the other polys in a similar price range, I ended up leaving with a Peak.

What has been promised?

more wavetables has been talked about (talked about does not mean promised) at the beginning of the year. It's taking quite long. do they have problems with this? are they coming with a bigger update?

yeah...sorry, promised was wrong. but I remember lots of talks and rumours about a big update with more wavetables etc. So...I hope for something that br8ngs the peak to the next level.

Novation have been very good at providing nice updates those years....i hope the same for the flagship even if it’s already a very good synth

User wavetables would make the synth 500% more desirable.

I agree. The current wavetables are a bit.. meh.. i barely use them.

How about using FM and Ringmod with what is already there?

Agree. They’re pretty bland when scanned. Or rather, one-dimensional I guess would be more accurate.

I really like my Peak and more so the more I use it. thanks for making it, Novation.

just finished a 'name your price' record where it's the core of the sound, everything except the mangled radio samples:

Hyperimagery Invisible Knowledge | Duff Egan

it's not a synth demo and I do a bunch of Ableton foo after the fact and add reverb and stuff, be warned. Tracking signal path was Peak > Zulu > Spl vitalizer mk2T

the peculiarities of my workflow and recording process is probably not a typical use case but posting because the two synths I know the best, Pro12 and TI, the Peak has the immediacy and connection of the pro12 that I really like but I can leave the filter open without problems and I also don't have to use up mod slots to reduce the character of the pro12 that I don't always want. The Peak certainly doesn't have the flexibility of the TI but has actual osc/filter FM and sounds great and it's fast to get a sound that I find compelling. I don't use TI so it's nice to have a powerful synth that sounds great with a more inviting physical interface.

I've been staring at my DAW for the past few weeks and really excited to track some more this weekend with the Peak, super fun synth.

hoping more wavetables are in the future but other than that very happy with it. really good value for price, imo.

Imagine if it had the Waldorf Microwave tables....

Clicked on that link and realized that I'm already a fan and follower on BC. Great work, Duff, and this is EXACTLY what I've been wanting to hear the Peak do as it's very similar to what I do and what I was hoping the Peak could do from all reports. Thanks for posting, sounds superb.