Novation PEAK is a brand new 8-voice polysynth

Novation PEAK is a brand new desktop polysynth from the tech giant and it looks like a genuine rival to the Access Virus and not only because they look a little similar.

The Novation PEAK has 8 voices and a plethora of sound sculpting tools to keep any synth head interested for hours on end.

British synth legend Chris Huggett who was the man behind the awesome OSCar as well as Novation’s very own Bass Station and Nova synths was heavily involved with the design of PEAK too.

Not fully analog

Despite its quite hefty price tag the Novation PEAK is not full analog although it does have an analog filter for each of its 8 voices plus reverb, delay and chorus effects.

Using a combination of 17 wavetables and high-quality digital oscillators, the Novation PEAK is designed to ‘sound completely analog,’ and this analogue-hybrid design has a total of 24 oscillators, a multi-mode filter, analogue distortion, and the three discrete digital effects mentioned above.

Additional features include an arpeggiator and the Novation PEAK is enabled to receive polyphonic aftertouch for extra expression when playing.

Each voice has three ADSR envelopes and two LFOs each.

There are two ‘Animate’ controls for swift performance related tweaks on the fly.

Added features like 3 optional distortion points; pre, post and global, all enhance the flexibility of the Novation PEAK.

USB, MIDI DIN, and CV are all standard.

The price being mooted for the PEAK is $1299 USD. That’s a hefty R 17K excluding import duties.