New Synth

jimi_t

After some thought, I think this definitely belongs here, as its design leans towards dance-orientated production.

---

I know its kind of old news at this stage - it was posted on musicthing and other portals about a month ago - but it seems that thomann have started stocking Novation's (British Synth Company responsible for the SuperNova) new budget/small form factor synth the Xio.



It looks very slick and its feature set is pretty damn impressive tbh;

It's an all-in-one synth, audio interface (with phantom power and mic preamp) and MIDI controller. It runs on 6 AA batteries, with 8 voice polyphony, 200 presets, USB, a semi-weighted keyboard and built in effects (delay/reverb etc). Each voice has 3 Oscillators (17 waveforms + Noise), 1 filter of varying types, 2 LFOs. It has a 32-step gate sequencer and can take OS updates and presets from the X-Station (I think). It basically destroys the microkorg in every category (including its nice price) and the presets are made by big name producers like Ferry Corsten.

I'm just wondering has anyone got their hands on one or is planning to buy it? I was saving up for an an1x but I'm reconsidering spending the money on this instead - I've no "portable" synth as of this moment, and I really like my Nova which shares the same VA Engine (ASM).

jimi_t

Here's a decent picture of the front from Novations site

http://www.novationmusic.com/product.asp?id=32&Type=1&bArchive=False

sturgo

looks interesting! any price details / sound files? was thinking of going for the korg micro, wasn't that impressed with it after listening to some of the demos.

jimi_t

Yeah there's a good few on the Novation website that I linked to. The presets aren't terribly impressive but, from what I've heard, it's a very capable synth. Listen to demos of the Nova/Supernova and the A/K/X-Station or even the Bass-Station to get an idea of how the Novation Virtual Analogue system (ASM) sounds. It would defnitely destroy the MicroKorg - most importantly in terms of polyphony (8 voice compared to 4 voice), the amount of hardware control, the fact it has a sequencer, the USB/MIDI interface, the full size keys and the far superior filters. It's also a lot cheaper than the MicroKorg @ e325.

http://www.thomann.de/thoiw6_artikel-196652.html

jimi_t

Another *incredibly* slick thing thats coming out shortly is the new Korg Kaoss Pad - the KP3.

Article:
http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2006/08/kaoss-pad-3-now-official-and-sexy.html

sturgo

i'm gonna be in the states next week. one place is selling them for $330, thats about €255.