Regarding the timing of Moog, MFB and Waldorf announcing synths with paraphonic capabilities, I do not see that any of them really "stole" the idea from another (product development takes some time), or if some of them did, it is only a good thing. We users are the ones who benefit! Among all of these, maybe the Waldorf Pulse 2 is the most advanced with the paraphonic feature set. In any case, it is good to see that manufacturers include this feature in new products.

I have owned several MFB products (still got a Nanozwerg and some eurorack modules) and I've never had any issues with any of them. My emails have always been answered too, by Mr Fricke himself, albeit a little slow at times (but not unreasonably slow considering how small the company is).

Looks very interesting. Hope the build-quality will be upped-for this one.

Just a niggle - the sliders are oddly positioned - you need to dip over those knobs in front.

Exactly my problem too, I hope it's going to be well build, I bought the Tanzbar when it came out and sent it back because the built qualty was so poor....

wow! love that sound at 2:10 in the sonicstate vid, kinda chewy plastic, beautiful!

Whoops, didn't watch the video with the paraphonic demonstrations. This thing is looking soo good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNBDh5EPAnI&t=10

screw it. I know I won't even be able to touch this thing for a while, but I know real infatuation when I feel it. 1 slim phatty and 1 boomstar sem are going up in the classifieds.

re build quality, i bought THE cheapest synth MFB ever made, the Nanozwerg and yeh it's a cheap box and small knobs (bigger than korg volcas though) but it's NEVER let me down and works just as well as
when i first got it when it first came out.

it's reliable.

I'm sure build quality would be totally fine.

This thing sounds great very dirty and filthy rough goodness.

€1390 isn't very cheap though... but this is one synth I'd really like to try out.

price is high but synth sounds great, amazing to me. i have no mfb products am tempted to buy this or tanzbar but of course i am hesitant because of build quality people have been talking about. opinions are split but its not changing the fact people got sh|ty units.

the sound of this though is great. i like it a lot

Looks definitely seem to play a stronger role than sound around here. At least from the consensus of this thread. Don't get me wrong, I love what the Dominion 1 is bringing. But the Dominion X SED has been out for a while and does basically everything the Dominion 1 does, yet no one talks about it…. Differences being 6 extra modes for the filter, paraphony, and the added Arp. The Dominion X SED sounds just as great as this. All those features everyone is ogling at have already been available in the X SED.

Being that the Dominion 1 has a keyboard, having aftertouch on it makes it immediately more desirable than the Sub 37 for me. Plus it seems you can do much more with the paraphony of the Dominion 1. Given people have the money, this is going to be a killer synth their owners. Otherwise the X SED will be the way to go.

the last two examples werent exactly snappy/cutting, like you can get a sh101 or something, and careful glance at the settings shows he was driving both envelopes with attack set to zero at that moment (the high bpm sequences/arpeggios section). this is of concern to me. i hope its not slow,as so much effort went into this machine and its designed so well,,, that would be a serious setback and such a waste.

ive seen so many potentially nice modern monosynths fall flat on their face in the past, because they couldnt punch and snap. this is CRUCIAL.

anyone else got this impression from the last two videos, or am i hearing things ?


i didn't get that impression at all. there's no such concesus or at least i haven't seen one.



do you feel the sound is sub par? in what way? serious question..

(i do have some thoughts on that too, but am waiting for a few more demos. )

From a review of the dominion x on greatsynthesizers.com:


Wish List:

....The option for envelopes “with” and “without” snappiness. Because the Dominion X just comes with the “with”. It affords very strict portato if you want to achieve a soft lead sound (with long attack times) “without” that snappiness. True legato playing results in crackles at the beginning of each soundNote:Those crackles are now eliminated with software version 1.5, as MFB just told us. And there’s a possibility to switch both LFOs and ADSRs to slow mode now (to achieve beautiful, long attack times)

So hopefully the dominion 1 would have the capacity to snap and not snap as well

Good point. I do think the added features on the Dominion 1 (you left out the step sequencer which seems pretty complex and capable) are very attractive, especially those beautiful three note lines. However, I have to admit that I probably would have drooled over the X if it had gotten more publicity, and pretty much ignored it because the company seemed cheapy and wasn't very hyped.

To my understanding, the Dominion 1 also has a third envelope, which the X model lacks. This is an important feature to me. They also say "3 LFOs". The Dominion X that I had had two LFOs, plus a third "vibrato" LFO which was hardwired to the mod wheel controller. Unfortunately, it was unusable, because its MIDI response was scaled in a way so that the slightest wheel movement would trigger insane amounts of vibrato. I don't know if the third LFO on the Dominion 1 is the same kind.

About the envelopes, the attacks on my Dominion X were *very* fast. Probably the fastest that I ever heard on a 'modern' analog. But it suffered form the bad clicks mentioned above when the attacks were set to some slower rate, especially with fast playing. It remains to see how they have implemented the envelopes on the 1.

Btw this synth sounds great to my ears, and it has a quite complete set of features. The only things I would change are the ribbons - I'm a wheel guy. I'd prefer to have both wheels and ribbons, or a choice, rather than *just* ribbons. But it's not a dealbreaker.

About the price, the site says 1380 Euros. Sigh.

Edit: For the wish list, I would love to have onboard delay lines, like on the Evolvers. I think MFB announced something at one point... maybe on the Dominion 5?

MFB should send a Dominion 1 for Nick Batt of Sonicstate for a video review to get publicity, after all bugs have been fixed. I like to watch his reviews, always so inspiring! Regarding the price point. I think it is still fair, considering the features that the synth offers: patch memory!, sequencer, analog i/o's, 3 osc + noise + extensive modulation capabilities. The korg ms20 kit has the same price, but lacks patch memory and a sequencer. Also Analogue Solutions Telemark costs more, and does not have patch memories. For me, the patch memories are very important. I often program very complex sounds that sound ok with just some specific parameters, and is pretty much lost if you edit the sound to be something else.

Indeed. I'm still kicking myself for not having checked out this synth at Musikmesse. It just wasn't on my radar.

I quite like the color scheme and knobs, though. I could imagine getting one for that reason alone!

Regarding build quality in general, I only have two pieces of MFB gear -- the little 522 drum machine and their dual LFO module. They feel "inexpensive" but not "cheap". No complaints, really.

Played around with the DominionX, and liked it, but it was a tiny bit "classic" and not quite mad enough for me at the time (had an acute wave-folding fetish at the time).

Dom1 adds some fun new toys besides the sequencer/arp/keyboard. Stuff like an additional envelope, bigger oscillator range (2 Octaves more then the DomX, useful for FM/RM) and an option to modulate FM depth and resonance. Also there are actually 10 new filter modes, since all filters are from the SED module now and the DomX SED had only 12/24 db LP from this circuit (they had some problems to get the other modes to work at the time). Especially the 6db LP sounds rather tasty. I´m still missing the original DomX 18dB LP. The new 18 dB LP seems to be rather tame.

Also: The DomX was probably not that visible outside of germany, since international distribution of MFB stuff was rather limited (especially no international marketing/reviews, etc.).

That's what I thought...it sounds very phat and it's full of features. I would love to know more about the build quality...

i never had a problem with my MFB Tanzbar either in shipping or usage.

had less than 24 hour response time for all emails from MFB (but i didn't waste time asking questions about the hardware, just confirming the pricing and where to order it).

was under the impression MFB is a boutique operation with only a handful of employees (like DSI)... don't know for sure, but it was Manfred Fricke (the owner) who handled all emails with me.

pretty pricey for a mono, but that sound and feature set totally wowed me

I had a chance to spend some time with Dominion 1 at Music Messe 2014 and I'd say that this has the potential to be one of the best mono synths out there.

Assessing the sound in all that Messe noise - especially with all the modular stuff popping noises all the time - is not easy but still, I'm left with the impression that this thing sounds great. The three oscillators can provide some huge sounds, but if gentler sounds are needed then they can also be coaxed with various filters modes (LP1, LP2, LP3 !)

Regarding the knobs, they felt very sturdy with no wobble and they remind me of MonoPoly knobs. The faders were too wobbly though. However since it was a prototype I'd imagine, or hope, that they will be as sturdy as the knobs on the final version.

Some have commented about the speed of the envelopes - the envelopes have different rate settings!

I really wanted to try the ribbons and they have huge potential. I say 'potential' as they are not finished and need some more work. However, since the pitch-ribbon has no 'dead' centre it should be possible to get natural vibrato, and I commend MFB for trying to introduce something different than the archaic pitch/mod wheels. 'Thumbs up'!


What amazed me at the end of the day was the amount of features packed in this synth. I think MFB tried really hard to cover all options and provided they manage to refine all outstanding issues in the prototype, this deserves to be a winner!

I've had this one on my radar for a while as it's been delayed at least 4 or 5 times !
Demos are sounding really good and very versatile, can't wait to hear more.

Perfect sub 37 companion, lovely vintage sound. I understand now why these 2 synths are being compared (sequencer, paraphony is even to 3, presets, after touch ...)
I'm not convinced by the control board layout (flat) and strips positioned above 2 knobs.
Great sound indeed, should be at 1k euros to fly (maybe street price would be near it ?)

The price is already very reasonable. Sub37 will have less features and it will cost higher...

Not in the USA. 1380 euros ~ $1800 to the sub's $1500

That was a good catch. That was an overstatement by me as I noticed some comments on the 2nd page about looks making the Dominion 1 much more desirable. I think looks can play an 'inviting' part in wanting to play a synth also. But I just found it a shame the Dominion X was overlooked so much because it has a really great sound to it.

But I don't in any way feel the sound is sub par. MFB synths have always had great sonics to them and the Dominions are no exception. The only reason I can think of that didn't get more people to buy the Dominion X (SED) was the clicks on the envs. But those were fixed and aren't a problem anymore. I think the Dominion 1 sounds really good. So hopefully my comment didn't seem like I was questioning the sound, because the sound of the Dominion 1 is superb.

Oh, ok...I forgot that Dominion 1 is made in Europe...

So you tried the original Dominion X, not the X SED? I agree about the DomX 18db filter sounding really fantastic. I hope the Dom 1 is the same when finished. Thanks for the clarifying the differences. When I was looking at getting the Dominion X, I couldn't decide if I wanted the X SED or the original, mainly because the original's filter sounded really cool and I wasn't sure if I liked the SED filter more or not. I would really love to try all these side by side. And yeah, it seemed like the Dominion X SED wasn't readily available outside of Germany when first released.