One thing we’ve heard loud and clear in the comments on this year’s Musikmesse posts is that Synthtopia readers are really wanting to see new analog gear.

iPad music apps can be cool and it’s good to see companies pushing the limits of what’s possible with digital keyboard workstations. But how about some incredible new analog synthesizers?

How about introducing some expensive muscle-car monster synths, already?

We’re serious about this. The Yamaha CS-80, widely considered to be the greatest polyphonic synthesizer of all time, was introduced 34 years ago. That’s a generation!

It’s time for Synthtopia to update its banner with a new keyboard for the ages.

It’s time! We get emails, out of the blue, telling us that that CS-80 in the banner is getting a little long in the tooth.

“Please update that banner!” they say.

But we have yet to see a synth released that can knock the CS-80 out of its position as the King of Synthesizers. And we will update that banner when we do.

Fortunately, one man, Stefan Schmidt, is keeping hope alive, doing what the major synth manufacturers either can’t do or choose not to do.

Schmidt is making a synthesizer for the ages. An expensive muscle-car monster synth.

A ‘Super Synth’.

It’s got 157 knobs. That’s about 153 more knobs than most synthesizers, these days.

It’s got 8 voices, with four oscillators and 7 filters per voice.

The weight is 45 kilos.

The motivation for this crazy thing? To have fun.

It will be so expensive that Schmidt can’t even guess a ballpark price.

It won’t have all the bells and whistles that modern keyboard workstations have.

But when you’re driving a muscle car, do you need to have air-conditioning and a GPS, or do you just want to roll down the windows and listen to that beast of an engine roar?

Check this overview video out – courtesy of the hardworking video gurus at Sonic State – and then let us know what you think of Stefan Schmidt’s new analog synthesizer!