Sequential Take 5 five voice poly

The Lounge Other Gear
#636

*disclaimer writing this on phone

Rev2 16 voice is an excellent synth and excels in the modulation department. Rev2 is so much fun with the layers. My own personal opinion is that the synth is overly bright, jarring, and sterile. I don’t like how it takes 2-3 LFOS and the VCM sequencer lane trick JUST to get the sound lively and less sterile.

I like very basic sounds that have been proven over the years are easy to make typically, but I find it cumbersome to dig in on the Rev2. The Curtis filter is great at times but I feel the sweet spot is extremely limited (for my uses anyway). I love the keybed.

The Take5 reminds me more of the P6 I had. Never owned both (P6+T5) simultaneously but I am reminded of the warmth and ease of use. The sweet spot on the Take5 is wide. Very easy to dial in the type of sounds I love.

The Take5 filter to me is way more musical. It can do excellent leads, lush pads, and thick bass actually, with very minimal effort. The keybed doesn’t bother me but I can see why people would want more keys.

The Take5 filter drive is interesting. With resonance it squeals but in a pleasing way. And the more you push drive, the squeal levels out and almost goes away. There must be some level compensation trickery going on inside?

Personally, I find the Take5 filter design way more interesting. No question. I am a big fan of the brassy nature found in the Rev2 (I know some hate that) but you can easily do similar on the Take5.

I wanted a compact poly synth for moving workspaces around the house and the Take5 is perfect for that. I think these are very different synths and either are a great addition to a rig. One certainly doesn’t make the other redundant.

I built a smallish rig in the living room for while away from the main studio area and the Take5 handles all the various duties perfectly. I’m beyond impressed.

The type of music I like for example is: Kamaal Williams, Devonwho, DamFunk, B Bravo, Teebs, Mndsgn, Sasac etc.

Summary for those too lazy to read everything:

decide if you want modulation/keybed or tone/portability. Those are the deciding points IMO.

Biggest con for Rev2 is the required work to just get usable sounds.

Biggest con for Take5 is fact there are only 5 voices and 2 LFOS.

But they are different machines for sure, obviously.

5 Likes
#637

I’ve got another thread going where I’m considering ditching the Rev2, and if I replace it with anything eventually it would probably be the Take5.

You’ve kind of confirmed my feelings on it, so I’m not crazy, the Rev2 is kind of hard to work with and a narrow sweet spot for sound.

Thanks for the review
:pray:

2 Likes
#638

Didn’t realize there was a price hike on this. It was 1299 before right? Seeing it for 1499 now.

#639

Just checked here in Montreal and the price has increased of 200$. :open_mouth:

#640

Still $1299 at Sweetwater…

#641

Yea - seeing that now as well at Patchwerks. The price jumped to $1499

WTH? Didn’t this thing just come out?

#642

That’s just enough to dissuade me…damn

#643

Wow, that is crazy to see price jump so soon. Of course, this could be just another effect of chip shortages and shipping issues adding up, along with the inflation train that seems to be running out of control Every company seems to be raising their prices.

I hopped on Reverb and it looks like about half of the retailers have upped the price now to $1499, so I imagine in the next few days, they will all be at that price.

And just a heads up, looks like Detroit Modular still has them listed for $1299 on their site, and the 10% off halloween code spooky10 still works.

Edit: In the 2 minutes since I have first typed out this message, Detroit Modular has also raised their prices. It’s going fast people! But, if you hop on Reverb you can still see that there are a handful of retailers selling them for $1299. Some may still have sales on their sites as well, which may be worth looking into.

1 Like
#644

i agree with everything here 100%

i has a character you cant get anywhere else. for me, there’s no question that this is the synth to get if you want an analog poly. i like the teebs reference, because that’s true. no other synth in my experience gets even close to that modern unique experimental but still almost lofi and vintage timbre. there’s nothing like it. just an unbelievable synth, especially for the price. it has me considering a Pro 3 as well

and that is the same probem i had with the rev2 i loved the brassy core sound, but i was always trying to dial it back. and it couldnt even get close to beautiful glassy tones we get here from sine wave and fm. i’ve been dialing back the modulation on my Take-5 patches recently because the core sound is just so beautiful that the more i get away from it, the more i want it back. adding a slight noise modulation to the pitch, osc 2 modulation to the cutoff for some barely detectable grit and subtle saturation is just so sweet and syrupy. i could play with the raw waveshapes and some filter movement for hours without touching anything else. i am blown away by this thing

but yeah, if anyone is trying to decide between the rev2 and this, there is no question. hands down, get the take-5. if you are trying to decide between any “affordable” (under $2,000*** or so) synth, this is the one. nothing touches it

2 Likes
#645

i saw some listings that had $1299 almost as an introductory price, with the full price grayed out. not sure what that’s all about. maybe sequential planned to market them at that higher price going forward.

that said, mine arrives friday. i caved.

1 Like
#646

It’s 200 CAN$ more from the initial price if you want a Take 5.

#647

They’re still the same price here in the UK? Bizarre

Anyway I replaced the main board in my T5 (arrived a day early which was a bonus) and the USB port worked straight off. Ran the calibration routines, dumped my patches back in and got down to some playing. A few hrs later while saving a patch the synth decided to ignore the cal routine and reverted to its pre cal state with the 5 voices all at different settings. I ran the cal routine and it was fine? One to keep an eye on…

#648

Under 3,500 certainly opens up a wide range of synths… in my recent search of poly synths I ended up playing a Take 5 a bit in a store and as far as basic patches go it felt a bit lacking when in direct comparison to a P5 or Udo Super 6. Seems T5 makes up for it by having a mod matrix to me but yeah something about it’s core sound reminded me a bit of the korg VCO synths which is not a bad thing considering it has more features. I suppose I did write it off a bit as not demoing well in store and needing more time to dive into it. Ended up with a Waldorf M which just oozes with vintage mojo and has a ton of depth in programming. But yeah the fact it was even getting compared to synths near double its price is telling that they did a great job on it.

1 Like
#649

I’m in tears because I missed the Halloween sales and then the price jumped $200 US the day after. After tax, that’s around a $400 difference in cost, in less than 24 hours.

I want one, but can’t get over that sudden price difference

#650

You can always ask, explaining that? Sometimes places meet you where you’re at!

2 Likes
#651

good point, i maybe aimed a little high there. definitely better than any other option under $2000

#652

Get them where and how you can for as low as you can

Thomas Coatney (Patchwerks)

Nov 3, 2021, 10:48 PDT

Hi Adonis,

Thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately Sequential raised the price and we are unable to offer the old price. It’s supposed to be raised for all retailers across the board, so with that said if a few retailers haven’t raised the price yet I would suggest trying to pick one up from them at the discounted price while they still last. If you have any questions or if there is anything I can help you out with please let me know, Have a great day!

Thank you,

Thomas Coatney
Customer Service Specialist
www.Patchwerks.com
(844) 928-3376

1 Like
#653

This feels really sucky from Sequential/Focusrite? Holidays coming up, the device seems to be a succes, and now they increase their prices? hmmm, i don’t know how this comes across…

1 Like
#654

A lot of prices are going up due to the shortages right now. I suspect it’ll go down in price again in a year or two.

#655

The shortages were already there for at least 1,5-2yrs. This synth was released only a few weeks ago.

1 Like