CyberGene

As an ex-owner of the Peak, which should be the same, yes, you can. What is more, on the display you can see what the stored value is vs the current value. It’s one of the best implementations of pots. Because on the Take 5, for instance, you don’t see any numeric values or any hint of the direction in which you need to turn the pot to match the stored value which is the most annoying thing about it. Only when you match the stored value will it show a small dot in the 3-digit display but you need to turn VERY slowly and stop blinking or you would miss it. That being said, the Peak sounded always too dull and generic for me. Such a great concept that I tried to love but couldn’t. The Take 5 in comparison is as good as it gets.

BTW Modal recently released firmware 3.0 for the Argon8 (including better vintage analog approximations) and some of the demos were so dope, especially one junoish, I barely abstained from ordering one. I don’t care too much for the Cobalt that is specifically a VA, but the Argon is both a wavetable and a VA now with even lusher VA abilities that I believe is a very mature product. If I hadn’t sworn to stop purchasing hardware synth I would’ve got one already 😀

I had not thought of it. Are you sure that they use encoders? I haven't owned or even tested one (although I've been tempted many times) but here's what the spec page on the Modal website says:

I usually drink a glass of white wine these days. I’m not a connoisseur and would get what they have but have noticed that I can always recognize if it’s Traminer (officially Gewürztraminer) grape, has a very distinctive pleasant perfumey fragrance.

Why can’t you believe it? 😀 BTW, I’m considering selling my Hydrasynth and keeping only the Take 5. Although from any logical point of view the Hydra is a much better synth I feel better with the Take 5 🧐

Hydrasynth. P.S. Ohh, you've mentioned it, sorry. P.P.S. Then Modal Argon/Cobalt. P.P.P.S. Blofeld

Another option is to wait for the new Montage to be announced and buy it immediately. And then wait 5 years for the replacement to be announced and to order it right away 😀

$5k for a wavetable 🤣 Well, OK, real filters but who cares, it’s still a wavetable. I guess since it’s made in California adds $4000 on top of the real price.

That’s what I’ve been doing lately and indeed it’s super useful!

I’ve purchased a lot of virtual instruments, effects and apps, third-party patches. I also have multiple hardware synths and pianos. But I use none. (Well, not exactly but I’m trying to make a point). I start laying down an idea in my DAW and when I begin browsing through the thousands of patches and options I feel a sudden choice paralysis, should I use this synth, or maybe that, or no, maybe that other one, no, no, no… and it instantly kills my creativity. I’ve been following a composer on YouTube, Jameson Nathan Jones, who is a former classical composer who is now using synths and creates modern music. He recently posted about how he is more creative with self imposed limitations and gives an example of trying to come up with a music idea by only using two keys at a time, no chords. But that’s just one example of intentionally seeking to limit yourself and I’m sure it can be applied to any situation of choice overload, e.g. to force myself to use only one synth. What do you think? How do you overcome overchoice?

I'm wondering if we will see a Vox Continental successor that would compete with the CK, because even now the Vox has some advantages over the CK such as better organ engine (?), modeled VA and FM synth, more control over the synth engine through repurposing of the drawbar touchstrips. What it lacks is better split control, USB audio, display.

That's something I realized only very recently. I'm a Bulgarian, (a Eastern European), and maybe that's reason why I've probably seen a real Hammond organ only in a video, I wouldn't be surprised if there are just 10 of them in the entire country. Of course I like the sound and have listened to records that include Hammond organ but mostly Pink Floyd, modern funk/acid jazz bands like e.g. Incognito, where you can rarely hear a short organ solo, or more often a background comping which I'm not really sure uses a real Hammond at all. Then, more recently I started reading this forum and ended up purchasing a YC61 and then a YC73 but I quickly realized I know nothing about Hammond and all its settings, drawbars, chorus, Leslies, whatever. I don't even think I'm ever gonna play a Hammond sound in any of my gigs, let alone tweak drawbars in realtime. I'd be perfectly happy with a few ready made registrations and a realistic sounding Lesile speed transition. With all that in mind, it's indeed funny how one can get influenced by the crowd and I found myself rejecting keyboards because I've read here have no good clonewheel engine 😀 But frankly speaking, I just can't hear sh*t. On the other hand, I've recently started listening to the wonderful "One Finger Only" by The Drawbars which is basically our dear member analogika on Hammond and I can hear some kick-ass Hammond growls and noises and stuff that I haven't heard so far. I understand where people here are coming from. I guess in the end it all depends on what music will people use that clonewheel for and yes, where that boundary between country-pad and organ-trio is 🍻 BTW, I'm exactly the same fanatic about pianos 😀 And it wouldn't be wrong to say I'm one of the worst snobs in that regard, if you ask people on the PianoWorld forums where I used to participate a lot, where I would go to great lengths about how the lack of real escapement in digital piano actions is what makes them total thrash, why lack of half-pedaling makes a piano completely unplayable, etc., etc. If there was a CK thread on some of these piano oriented forums, you would certainly see it bash its acoustic pianos which even lack string resonance and the damper resonance is more a reverb thing than any real damper resonance. And don't get me started on GHS 😛

My daughter is really mad about “You’re still the one” by Shania Twain and we’ve been listening to it on repeat in the car on our way to the kindergarten and back for days now… And so, if I listen carefully there’s some Hammond organ in the background 😉 Why wouldn’t the CK work for similar scenarios? How bad is the organ simulation? I mean, unless you’re in an organ trio, who’s gonna notice?

I loved the Grand Budapest Hotel so much! Somebody recommended it to me, but I haven't watched his other films, so it's something on my list. I usually binge watch directors. That's what I did with Coen brothers many years ago. BTW, some of their films can go into the absurdist direction, although it's not very obvious visual and factual absurdism, rather subtle psychological one... Anyway, I actually caught some excerpt of it on the HBO channel one night and was immediately hooked which made me stop it, so that I can watch it from the beginning on the streaming app and I forgot! Thanks for reminding me 🍻

If the same keys throughout octaves fail at the same time, it's pretty much indicative of a problem with the scanning logic which can either be something trivial as a loose ribbon cable (I don't know if there's any but it's likely), a failed diode (they use those in keyboard scanning multiplexors) or something else. Certainly not a firmware problem, so you better contact the dealer.

I am constantly through periods. I play with some guys, it wears off, I sell all my equipment and move on to solo classical piano for my own pleasure at home, then after two years somebody calls me, I’m enthusiastic and start buying some gear, it’s great in the beginning but quickly becomes boring. Rinse and repeat 😕 But at least I’m always occupied with some music activities and that’s what matters. Ohh, and I have a permanent job in the IT. Certainly helps in avoiding some depression from the periodic disappointment.

Well, aliens would love the Alien movie then! 👽

I remember that I liked Godfather, Goodfellas when I watched them but I am not sure why they are so highly ranked 😀 I mean, they are good movies indeed, but why would so many people rank them as the best movies ever? In any case, I would prefer Godfather to EEAO any time of day. Is there such a thing as "the best movie ever"? I also remember how The Dark Knight was IMDB top 1 movie for quite some time and that would really amaze me. I mean, imagine aliens visiting the earth some day and we show them our artistic achievements, music, paintings, etc. and we are at cinema and we say: here's one movie about some bat-man and some jocker that we consider the best cinematic achievement of humanity 🤣 Although it's not my personal favorite movie, I think The Shawshank Redemption would be my choice for best movie ever made. (My personal best is SE7EN, laugh as much as you like 😛)

Before reaching that sentence I was already thinking it. Not specifically about you, although I have it in my head from other threads that you play jazz, but in general jazz is more about the music content rather than the sound/timbres, etc. Since I'm more a classical guy, I would compare that to Bach whose music is so "absolute", so to speak, that you can play a fugue on a harpsichord, piano, saw wave or toy piano and it would be the same masterpiece of counterpoint. And then there are more modern composers, where there's some emphasis on the sound palette more or less, being it a solo piano piece (well, Chopin might work on an accordion or Rhodes piano but well, you know, I still prefer an acoustic piano, preferably a grand piano, although we can argue a lot about how a grand piano sounded in his times and I've spent so many endless hours, days and weeks researching geeky stuff like that 🤦🏻‍♂️), or a big symphonic piece, where, again, there's one end of the spectrum with, say, Beethoven much more absolute in this actual music content, compared to a modern symphonic composer where orchestral color is of equal or even greater importance. Same with modern genres of music.

While I don't disagree, music is not just about doing the job and calling it a day. For some musicians it may also be about personal satisfaction and enjoyment that you get from a realistic sounding instrument. We're all different and I wouldn't call somebody a lesser musician (not that you did it either) because he can't express himself on a, say, bad Rhodes piano emulation. I'd say let's leave it to everybody to decide for themselves whether they seek (the impossible) perfection in their tools or accept what they have. Both approaches are valid IMO. One and same preaching can be good or bad, depending on the receiver 😉

Quite possible. I like crazy, non-orthodox and even absurdist movies but that’s too much for me. I am a huge Monty Python fan, that’s my type of absurdism ❤️

Tried to give “Everything Everywhere All at Once” a second chance but couldn’t stand it for more than 40 minutes. To me it’s emperor's new clothes situation.

Yeah, I noticed that for example Yamaha uses the same zone color concept in the CK as we have in the Numa X. Maybe it's not Studiologic who invented it but they certainly made it popular recently with the Numa X Piano line 👍🏻 BTW, I am color blind (protanomaly, i.e. slight red-green deficiency) but I have no major problems with the colored zones.

Well, some would say the CP and YC were the "reface Pro" versions 😀 So, the CK is either a reface on steroids, or CP/YC on tranquilizers, no wrong way of looking at it 😉

The more I think about these new CK-instruments, the more I like them. They started with the great CP/YC concept, listened to some user input (although admittedly not everything) and ultimately brought down what is (arguably) a Nord-like simplicity into an (arguably) budget stage-keyboard for the masses. Not sure if you expected better and more expensive successors to the CP/YC or even a Stage competitor (how many people are in the market for a Yamaha one?) but these will certainly sell like hot cakes IMO.