Novation Summit - new flagship synthesiser from Novation

Novation Summit – the new flagship synthesiser from Novation

Novation just announced their new flagship synthesiser, the Novation Summit, building on the success of their desktop synth – Peak.

Novation Summit is a 16-voice bi-timbral synthesiser, based around their incredibly popular Peak synthesiser, you can think of it as two Novation Peaks that can either play independently or together in a single box with a semi-weighted five octave keyboard.

The 16 voices can be split between two synth layers or used in a single polyphonic patch, the keyboard works in three modes – you can split and send different octaves to different layers, layer the internal synth engines or control one of them while an external MIDI sequencer or DAW controls the other layer.

The Novation Summit is not only versatile in its extensive playability, they have also expanded on the sound design capabilities of the original Peak synthesiser. They have added some dedicated Frequency Modulation parameters, allowing for interesting cross-modulation between the oscillators. They have also added redesigned envelope faders, offering more resolution for those very fine tweaks.

What’s under the hood?

Each of the Novation Summit’s internal synth layers has its own set of effects – analog distortion, chorus, delay and reverb – much like on the Novation Peak.

They’ve also kept the same high-resolution Oxford Oscillators (capable of traditional subtractive, FM or wavetable synthesis) and analog filter circuitry.

Each of the 16 voices in the Novation Summit has an analog state-variable OTA filter with pre-overdrive and post-distortion, you’re also able to create some interesting dual-filter routings depending on the voicing in your patch – such as dual band-pass (when coupled with distortion or overdrive this can make any sound source into a wild screechy lead sound).

A very clever feature that Novation have worked into their new flagship synth is the fact that patches made on the Novation Peak can be loaded on the new Novation Summit. This will ensure a large variety of available patches, but it’s also great for anyone who may be upgrading who has already created a bank of their own sounds on the Peak.

The Novation Summit is set to retail at USD $2299 (Around R33k excl. duties), which may seem pricey but keep in mind this is an absolute synthesis powerhouse, it’s only around USD $500 more than a single Peak and offers far more value than just having two.