Looks like version 1.2 has just been uploaded by Novation
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Updates usually aim to be pushed out by 16:00 GMT. So if youâre using components standalone youâll have to wait a bit longer than the web app update push.
Just updated and while i was on Components i also checked out the new microtuning feature there. you can upload and save microtuning tables there. And it seems they are compatible with ScalaâŚvery cool!
This opens a can of worms for me:
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Nice, that sounds really promising, Iâd missed the Scala import support in the patch notes. Looking forward to trying that out. Canât be many hardware polysynths with that kind of microtonal support.
This update turns Peak into a monstrous sound producing swiss knife. Plus the little improvements, they don´t talk about like the screensaver, the improved mod matrix first page with source AND destination on the same pageâŚawesome!
New in V1.2
Peak is without doubt the most powerful synth weâve ever created, and since its launch 18 months ago, users around the world have let us know ways in which they reckon we could make it even better. For the Peak Firmware 1.2 update, weâve made your most frequently requested features reality, and added 178 presets by Patricia Wolf and GForce software. Itâs available now in the Components content manager.
New wavetables
- 43 new wavetables have been added to the Wave menus, hugely increasing the range of the synth at the oscillator level.
Much more modulation
- With two newly added non-voice-specific LFOs (for a total of four), and Pitch-Bend now also available as a modulation source, you can bring more movement to your Peak patches than ever before. The envelopes, meanwhile, see the addition of a Hold stage (up to 500ms) and the ability to loop between the Attack and Decay stages.
Redesigned Mod Matrix
- Your most requested new feature was an overhaul of Peakâs Mod Matrix, and now, with sources and destinations presented on the same page, the days of toggling between them to make and edit assignments are over. And as a knock-on benefit, the Page button now enables quick access to all 16 modulation slots.
FX modulation
- Peak 1.2 adds a new four-slot FX Mod Matrix, in which non-voice-specific modulation sources are routed to FX parameters. Now you can, for example, expand and contract a reverb with a rhythmic LFO, or automate delay time changes using an envelope.
Initialise Manual Mode
- With Peak 1.2, you can keep the current positions of all knobs and sliders when the Initialise button is pressed if you choose to, rather than resetting their parameters to defaults â ideal for getting instantly hands-on with new patches, and creating random ones from scratch.
Get âbetween the notesâ with microtuning
- Peak 1.2 also adds support for microtuning and Scala table import, with 16 Tuning Tables available for saving and recall within any patch, and automatic note selection making MIDI note-to-pitch assignment effortless.
Inspirational new presets
- A new soundpack by Patricia Wolf and soundbank by GForce Software add 178 presets to your library, showcasing the new features of Peak 1.2. Both are available for free in Components.
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I would be very interested to hear more about this. Perhaps post something you make with a microtonal scale?
Try for yourself. On the Scala site are a hundred or so different Micro/Tuning Tables as free Download to play with.
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Heres a demo just posted of one of the new bank of sounds that came with v1.2.
Why on earth they feel they need to try and make this thing sound analog?
Itâs a digital synth at heart, theyâve just released an update highlighting its digital side with heaps of new wavetables, yet they release a bank thatâs supposed to showcase v1.2, of boring old analog pluck, pad and lead sounds, that sound like theyâre all using nothing more than a saw wave?
Sounds like a soft synth from the 90âs doing a stranger things cover
Whereâs the modulated digital wavetable madness? Surely thatâs what people want to hear?
Oh well, just as well they have that init patch button right on the front panel
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Yeah that is a strangely weak demo. Thereâs not much in there that makes me interested tbh. Strange, because there was one sound that I think Dave played on SonicTALK a few weeks ago that sounded suuuuuper lush
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I also find the presets to be uninteresting, like usually. I think because they are trying to showcase features more than sound good. My favorites are the boring ones.
I have always found the Peak like (the font) Helvetica; that is the sonic equivalent of water, which I like and appreciate â the music is the forward thing, not the instrument. A DSI sounds like a DSI (that is, like the 80s), a Moog sounds like a Moog (that is, pretty awesome, but definitely a Moog) but a Peak just sounds like the music you play. How do you make presets for water?
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Oxygène?
Yeah those presets arenât any better than the factory ones. Not selling the synth at all.
I do think theyâve always tried to push the pseudo-analogue side of it though. It does pretend-analogue very well and you canât get a fully analogue synth with 8 voices and three oscillators per voice for anything like the price of the Peak.
But yeah, letâs hear it get weird please. At least make the most of the architecture and modulation. There must be all kinds of new and interesting stuff you can do just with modulating the FX.
Iâm itching to update and spend some quality time with mine now.
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Pretty brilliant.
The Gforce presets are indeed boring. But heyâŚits for freeâŚ
The other free one oth.that came with the update had some very nice though.
And the few ones, loopop was showing in His earlier Video, was simply brilliant.
Thatâs not the case Iâm afraid. Analog hype still is dominant in the synth community. when they put a demo out showing wavtable madness there will be hundreds of comments how harsh, cold and digital this synth sounds and that DSI is so much better.
they want to hear their 80s pads 
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Cool, looking forward to trying it all out tonight.
What i mean isâŚthere is potential.
Just updated - really happy with it so far. The looping envelopes, FX matrix, and extra LFOs really open things up (as do the extra wavetables obviously). I love that you can set the number of loops in the AD stage of the envelopes so you can have it loop for however many times and then continue onto the sustain/release portion of the envelope.
Also the Patricia Wolf presets are pretty cool - definitely not trying to sound analog and she gets pretty weird on some of them (maybe a few too many arpeggiator presets but whatever). Plus I like that there are only 50 so it doesnât eat up a whole bank to try them out.
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Yeah you are right Iâm afraid.
People are still caught up on and trying to mimic 80âs analogue, even with a synth with as much sound design potential as Peak.
I find it bizarre, but I am obviously in the minority
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