NAMM: Evolver X by Sint. Guru Dave Smith!!!

Words from the masta himself..
"...First of all, I've gotten rather tired of software synths. After making the first pro soft synth (Reality from Seer Systems) a long time ago, and having more than 10 million earlier soft synths shipped, I'm finding that I'm tired of computer-based products, and I much prefer working on real hardware. Caveat - of course software and computers are the future, I'm not arguing that. There's just something more fun as a designer to be working again on dedicated hardware that I can touch and hold. Maybe I'm also slightly influenced by the fact that there are gobs of other soft synths out there now, and more every day. And considering the fact that software, especially music software, is regularly and easily ripped off, a hardware product becomes the ultimate dongle.


I've received many requests over the years to re-do old Sequential gear, and later to design software versions of old products. As a synth designer, I really have no desire to re-do a product. If you want the old stuff, it's still around. I like new stuff. New sounds. And, most importantly, instruments with personality!

The concept of Evolver is to generate new sounds that, well, evolve. Sounds that change, subtly or dramatically. Look back at the Prophet-VS and Korg Wavestation as previous examples of instruments that are never static. And, I have to admit, analog still has a warmer, more natural sound, partially because it is never perfect; it has that natural slop. Yes, there are some very cool digital synths out there also; even some that mathematically emulate analog synths have a nice edge to them. I don't think analog is always better, or that digital is always better; they're just different. ..."



Dave Smith who some say is the father of MIDI and a few classic synths besides has er, evolved the Evolver – already hailed by many as a future classic, into a polyphonic rack mounted synth. The original Evolver proved to be capable of some pretty awesome sounds in it’s mono form has now been racked up and given more voices – four to be precise. (see our Evolver review)
The new Poly Evolver is essentially four Eolver’s in a 19 inch rack, each with individual stereo outs.The processing of external signals is still there but with the added bonus of being able to route it through all four Evolver modules for truly complex processing. The original Evolver had a mind-boggling array of modulation possibilities and now with four of em in the same unit, there’s even more to offer.

The Poly Evolver boasts four stereo outs – assignable for each of the modules, plus a mix and headphone outs. As Dave said, the patches are still in development as some of the original Evolver sounds were so big – making them polyphonic was not an option – however the Poly Evolver will be capable of some wicked pad sounds.

Dave will be selling selling the Poly Evlover through his website as before and will be shipping his finished units by April with units available through:

www.davesmithinstruments.com


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