Korg and Roland -- old again

[gridsleep]

Looks like K & R are anxious to stay on top of the VSE, so they decided to do what they do well, best -- by doing what they used to do ... again. Oh, and let's not forget Novation. So, we have the Kronos, which is basically everything Korg have done up until now in one unit that hardly anyone can afford; the Jupiter-80, and the less said about that, the better; and the Ultranova, which somehow seems less than even a Nova. Maybe they should have called it the Mini-Nova, but that sounds like an album by a couple of overzexxed Russian teenage girls. Or the Mikro-Nova, since it's trying to do what someone else's Micro-something is doing. All the independant designers are making sheetmetal 1980's analogs. I officially declare the age of anything new to be over.

Unless someone is working on a fractal calculus sound engine for eighteen dimensions of audio.

[balma]

And what happens if VSE´s readers and members, does not like what "K & R" release?
Do they go to bankruptcy?

[cornutt]

I'll agree that most of the design innovation seems to be in soft synths these days. My guess is that the hardware companies have seen what happened to the Neuron, plus the relatively anemic sales of the OASYS and V-Synth, and drawn some conclusions from that.

[nuketifromorbit]

I'll agree that most of the design innovation seems to be in soft synths these days.

Modular cough cough...

[Doooooooom]

Dewanatron are doing interesting stuff. I think Yamaha should do an FM synth with full hands-on control like an MS2000.

[Yoozer]

So, we have the Kronos, which is basically everything Korg have done up until now in one unit that hardly anyone can afford;

OASYS: $8K
Kronos: $3K (and that's around the price of the Motifs and Fantoms).

What were you saying again?

[Stab Frenzy]

Looks like K & R are anxious to stay on top of the VSE, so they decided to do what they do well, best -- by doing what they used to do ... again. Oh, and let's not forget Novation. So, we have the Kronos, which is basically everything Korg have done up until now in one unit that hardly anyone can afford; the Jupiter-80, and the less said about that, the better; and the Ultranova, which somehow seems less than even a Nova. Maybe they should have called it the Mini-Nova, but that sounds like an album by a couple of overzexxed Russian teenage girls. Or the Mikro-Nova, since it's trying to do what someone else's Micro-something is doing. All the independant designers are making sheetmetal 1980's analogs. I officially declare the age of anything new to be over.

Unless someone is working on a fractal calculus sound engine for eighteen dimensions of audio.

This is the biggest load of drivel posted on VSE in a long time, and that's saying something. Congratulations!

[Pro5]

to OP> what have you got against oversexxed Russian teens?

[Zarith]

and the Ultranova, which somehow seems less than even a Nova. Maybe they should have called it the Mini-Nova, but that sounds like an album by a couple of overzexxed Russian teenage girls. Or the Mikro-Nova, since it's trying to do what someone else's Micro-something is doing.

"Ultranova" fits perfectly. It's a Nova pushed to the max. Feature wise, the Ultranova is on top of the Nova range. it includes more oscillators, more filters, wavetables, an extremely deep modulation matrix, LFO waveforms, more effects, variable filter distortion, A programmable gater, a chorder, better converters, a vocoder, usb connection, a dynamic user interface, etc...

There's nothing mini or micro about the Novation UltraNova, only its price

Personnaly I think Novation did a great job. The Ultranova is really a step forward.

[tallowwaters]

to OP> what have you got against oversexxed Russian teens?

They don't like to gaze at his navel as much as he does?

[RD9]

Innovation is overrated. What synth manufacturers should be doing is perfecting what they have already done before instead of wasting time on silly touchscreens, LCDs, and lights which don't really improve musicianship. All these so called innovations do is give you more buttons to press and menus to cycle through instead of facilitating music writing. More options will not move us forward. But refinement will.

I say backwards is the way forwards if it means having to go back and redo and perfect the MS20, Arp 2600, and Pro-One. I really like the approach that Moog and DSI did with the Voyager Classic and Mopho kb.

Leave wild unfettered innovation to Buchla (just kidding).

[Kidney05]

Innovation is overrated. What synth manufacturers should be doing is perfecting what they have already done before instead of wasting time on silly touchscreens, LCDs, and lights which don't really improve musicianship. All these so called innovations do is give you more buttons to press and menus to cycle through instead of facilitating music writing. More options will not move us forward. But refinement will.

I say backwards is the way forwards if it means having to go back and redo and perfect the MS20, Arp 2600, and Pro-One. I really like the approach that Moog and DSI did with the Voyager Classic and Mopho kb.

Leave wild unfettered innovation to Buchla (just kidding).

spot on.

[Phollop Willing PA]

Innovation is overrated. What synth manufacturers should be doing is perfecting what they have already done before instead of wasting time on silly touchscreens, LCDs, and lights which don't really improve musicianship. All these so called innovations do is give you more buttons to press and menus to cycle through instead of facilitating music writing. More options will not move us forward. But refinement will.

I say backwards is the way forwards if it means having to go back and redo and perfect the MS20, Arp 2600, and Pro-One. I really like the approach that Moog and DSI did with the Voyager Classic and Mopho kb.

Leave wild unfettered innovation to Buchla (just kidding).

spot on.

Couldn't agree more and one more thing, do it before I die, please!!!!

[meatballfulton]

What's wrong with touchscreens? If you have to have menus it's a good solution, especially if you can move virtual knobs and sliders.

What's wrong with lighted controls? Useful on dark stages.

Want something to help with musicianship, how about more performance controllers? I don't need 200 dedicated knobs, I want controls that can be mapped to what I want to be able to control...more expression pedal inputs, more than one mod wheel, joysticks, XY pads, whatever.

I don't want old analogs reissued unless they have MIDI and patch memories added like the Moogs (notice how the Voyager OS was a sales bust?).

Hey, I love the old synths but I like living in the modern world. Leave the big 3 behind and support the smaller companies that do old-school analog if that's what you want. Bought a new SEM yet? How about one of the many new modular brands out there (I like my dotcom)?

Start saving for that crazy analog poly shown at Messe

[tallowwaters]

Innovation is overrated. What synth manufacturers should be doing is perfecting what they have already done before instead of wasting time on silly touchscreens, LCDs, and lights which don't really improve musicianship. All these so called innovations do is give you more buttons to press and menus to cycle through instead of facilitating music writing. More options will not move us forward. But refinement will.

Yeah, those silly touchscreens making everything insanely easy to edit, nothing like naming patches by via scrolling through the alpha numeric menu via a knob. Then those assholes, that practically owe us everything because we complain about them on this forum, have the nerve to give us all sorts of options for sound synthesis that require a few button presses to find. The nerve! It's like they expect us not to rehash the same s**t over and over and over and over. Don't they realize all other music ended after that Lucky Man solo?