Dave Smith Introducing New Synthesizer

dave-smith-new-synthLast week, Dave Smith Instruments teased a ‘big announcement’, leading to a lot of speculation about whether they were going to introduce a new synth module, a keyboard synthesizer, a firmware update or something else.

Now, they’ve confirmed it’s going to be a new synthesizer. 

“We’re putting the finishing touches on the new synth!” DSI notes on their Facebook page. “Here’s a small photo in the meantime…”

The photo is just a teaser – so let the speculation begin….

We’ll have full specs and details once they are released.

Update: DSI has released another photo teaser:

dave-smith-filter-routing

59 thoughts on “Dave Smith Introducing New Synthesizer

    1. yeah the 17-20 is interesting. not on the p12.

      4 voices of that engine would be great as long as they let it work in multitimbral mode easily. that’s been my issue with DSI stuff. t’d still own a poly evolver if it did multitimbral well because i loved the sounds it can make, but honestly if i want polyphony digital is usually as good, if not better for a lot of sounds i like. i’d still rate the evolver line as DSI’s best for drum sounds. from what i’ve messed with it the p12 is even better sonically and in terms of synthesis, but only being able to do one sound at a time makes it not fun.

      i find that most of the people that want polyphonic analog don’t really want synths to make new sounds so much as they want to make the same sounds of older poly analogs and tbh they’re likely never going to be happy with anything new.

        1. oh yeah. sorry it’s been a while since i tried the p12. and i do like how that works.

          well, i still hope they let you break it down further. i would own the p12 module if it could also function as 12 monos or 6 duos. (or even better some combination thereof!) i mean that mod matrix was so good. it was one of the most fun/fastest interface synths for doing percussion sounds i’ve tried, but i was like no, i’m just not going to want to multitrack when (imo) so much of the feel depends on hearing all the sounds at once.

  1. Looks like it’s going to be a 4-voice, probably based on the architecture of the Prophet 12, with a 3-octave keyboard.

  2. I think it either Carbonara sauce, or Ricotta and tomato sauce available from supermarkets in the autumn.

    shit is it Dave or Delia were talking about

      1. I have a hard time believing 100 individuals actually down voted that comment in like an hour. Not that I disagree that it deserved it…

          1. These days, people don’t even understand second degree… Probably another consequence from the Freemason and Illuminati, where it’s all about the 33rd degree.

      1. Dave has almost always been a knob-per-function designer, but frankly, I greatly appreciate a smaller compliment of assignables if it means a slightly lower price. Korg gets the top row of that wrong, where Yamaha has it right. I want the Attack on the front end if its a hard-wired amp envelope. I also liked Emu’s modules for offering that, which takes some of the sting out of Cramped GUI Syndrome. If DSI goes that way, its pretty easy to predict that it’ll be well-designed and grab-abble. I sympathize with the love of knobs ‘n sliders, but sometimes a little compromise ends up working to your creative advantage. A Tetra has few knobs, but the editor is solid, so you can roll your own pretty easily. Let’s see if this is a middle-ground tool with some of that going for it.

  3. Maybe a 8 channel, 4 part mutl-timbral Evolver/Mopho hypbrid?

    or DSI take on the Electribe/MonoTriibe?

    hopefully not another monosynth

  4. I’m going to guess that as soon as the details are announced a group of people who have never played one will take to the internet to denounce it as a “fail” based on knob count, price, polyphony, analog-ness, physical appearance or all of the above.

  5. some sort of patchable linear thru zero fm box with additive capabilities, across between a jomox sunsyn and a kawai k5000, plenty of cv i/o and a bangin’ fun to play sequencer, of course it can poly chain and sample and fm the oscillators with said samples

    1. We already have a massive analog additive synthesizer. It’s commonly called the cathedral organ. Been around for a few years.

      1. Good point. I’ve had the privilege of playing a real pipe organ and a Hammond B-3 with a real Leslie cranking away. With standards like those under your belt, it can make you a bit skeptical over synth arguments. There’s not really a #1 “Best” anything. Its about how well you can paint with whatever you stack up. I suspect the new wundertoy will be a P-12 trickle-down synth, because that’s always been the standard. If its half the price of a P-12, you’ll see 3x as many of them in use.

      2. Not really an additive synth unless you can control the harmonics over time. Not really what an organ does, though some people ‘play’ the stops.

        1. Fair enough about harmonic control. I’ve seen “additive” synth widgets that only offered 16 overtones, which is a cruel joke. In a synth, that’s pretty crappy. With a pipe organ, its a real-time, seat-of-the pants controller situation way more than any kind of sweeping event generator. I think we should play the pipe organ over additive events… thereby annoying two groups at once. 😛

  6. How about a decent os and full midi imp for the Tempest I spent thousands of euro on ? Dave Smith, inverntor of midi invents a synth without full midi implementation. Sounds like a joke

    1. Well the teaser image looks exactly like the rectangular buttons with reddish orange on the Prophet 12. So I’d imagine it’s a compact Mopho X4 or MonoEvolver sized Prophet 12, which would be pretty cool.

  7. I don’t know about you guys, but I have great hopes on something new (Could be from Dave), something with a new architecture that could start defining the new sound/technology of the next decade perhaps. Of course and IMHO, the prophet 12 is on the edge of the new era, but a little bit out of the pocket for some of us. Hope someone can bring the new platform for the masses to start defining the sound of the future.and again. dreaming is for free…rt?

  8. I recently picked up a used Mopho Desktop for a next to nothing just to try it out.
    I am very impressed… Never got the whole DSI thing untill now.
    Look forward to hearing what Dave’s got to show us. Im gripping my wallet tight these days so it better be out of this world .

  9. I’m not sure what it is, I bet it’s gonna sound great and be fun to play.
    I’m really just happy they got rid of that funky oval button design.

    1. I got a tetra a couple of years ago. It’s been great fun and well worth what I paid for it. Why would I be pissed that a 2 years after I decided to buy an instrument based in its own merits that a newer (and most probably entirely different) instrument is released..?

    1. To be honest, when was the last time you saw something truly innovative in the hardware synth market (that wasn’t modular gear). I mean – aren’t we all a little bored by now of the same subtractive synths with mildly different features and only the filter or an extra envelope to really differentiate?

      I’d love to see something truly new that I could put next to a Virus/Nord/DSI/Waldorf/Moog/etc. synth and know that from the moment I turned it on I was going to get wildly different sounds rather than a variation on a theme.

  10. 4 knobs and 4 Led make a lot of speculations Dave Smith is now the king of marketing 😉
    I have no doubt about the quality of DSI’s products ! Always great.
    Only one thing I hate on DSI’s products, the filter bleed ! It’s time to fix that, dave !

  11. Tetra keyboard with some sort of sequencer – bit boring but I suppose inevitable. I’d like to see a dedicated seq with mod controls ie: lfo(s), env, random event gen & multi cv output / input then I’d be interested Dave..

  12. I still believe it’s a P12 in reduced format, with the module interface… but at least we’ve now got a picture of one of the “bells and whistles”… a Filter routing knob between parallel and serial… that’s not in the P12.

    But that leaves a fundamental question: Is Dave finaly using new analog filters? … or are this bonus’ed with more than one filter per voice? … is it an added digtal filter before the analog section?

    exiting, exiting :O)

    1. CV in and out, those great P-12 control strips plus a DECENT paraphonic mode? Hey look, kids! Its that killer, modern Pro-One people have been wishing for! It looks like more of a control center than a mere monosynth, so it’ll sprout tentacles with Volcas on the ends before the second run hits the stores. Very impressive instrument, Dave.

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