that could be the case … anyway is Dave retiring ? A new CEO is now at Sequential
Yes.
Dave isn’t retiring. They have a new CEO, but he is still head of product design. So every synth is still by Dave.
And to assume this is a focusrite based decision seems shortsighted. The merger just recently took place, and a synth like this has probably been in the works for much longer than that. This synth seems to fill a spot that was vacated by the Mopho X4. So focusrite was influencing Dave way back when he created the Mopho X4 then?
It also seems shortsighted to assume that this will have inferior components. It looks like the exact same build as the Pro 3 standard edition, but I have not heard any complaints about the Pro 3 being cheap quality.
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Hes popping in in every now and then to say hi.
C’mon. What do you think he will be thinking when his babies are being sold cheaply? How would you react? He’s sold out his shares and moving on to pastures new.
As someone else said, not having wood sides helps cut the cost.
Other guesses at what they did to cut costs:
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Surface mount instead of through-hole
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Pro 3 price is significantly lower than the previous model (Pro 2). I doubt simply replacing one analog oscillator with a wavetable engine would account for a $700 price reduction. There must have been design changes, changes to manufacturing process, etc. to produce Pro 3 at the lower cost. To make Take 5, they reused whatever factory equipment, manufacturing process, etc. was used to make the Pro 3, further reducing cost
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Components such as resistors, capacitors, etc. that cost less.
A company can also choose to reduce the profit margin to buy market share. The cost equation has many many input parameters.
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In relation to the Pro 3, the Take Five has a much less featured sequencer, only one filter instead of 3, no wavetables, no touchstrip. The features to price point lines up. All of those are features that would add to the cost.
In relation to the P5 module, wood Has gone up considerably in recent years.
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If they’ve gone surface mount, they may have been able to use some Focusrite capital to upgrade their existing US production facility with e.g. pick and place machines, etc. to be able to stuff boards with a lot less labor at the same quality. That would account for a good chunk of price drop. Also, some folks have hypothesized elsewhere that it’s a mono signal path until the effects, so no pan spread, etc. and half the components.
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In relation to the P5, that one is already surface mount. If you’ve ever seen a pic of the inside of it, it’s all just chips on a board.
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I was going to be a bit surprised that they hadn’t already switched, honestly.
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Just to clarify, you are comparing Pro 2 to Pro 3, yes?
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Yes, apologies, I will edit for clarity.
Edit: Well, actually was comparing Pro 3 price to Take 5, features and whatnot.
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It looks very much like a polyphonic take on a ProOne to me.
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That’s not true.
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I hope not
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Yeah the sequencer looks just like the Prophet X sequencer. Which isn’t bad for coming up with some stuff but it isn’t even close to the same thing as the Pro3/2 sequencers.
Thinking about it, is this the first VCO Poly synth by Sequential with a mod matrix? seems like that could be pretty awesome… I am thinking if they make a desktop version I will be lining up. I almost doubt they will make a desktop version given the keyboard version is already pretty affordable.
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It would be cool if it was. I hope everything is modulate-able, including the vintage knob.
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Where did you see Take 5 has a mod matrix?
I’ve checked the cut-paste specs a couple of times but did not see any signs of one.
it has those mod destination and assign buttons just like on the Pro 3 if you look at the image of it 
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Thanks! Didn’t notice before