Rev2 or Summit

I'm looking at a mid-range synth, I've discounted the Polybrute as only 6-voice, not interested in mono-synths or modular.
For modulation/complexity and voice count It's now between the Novation Summit and the 16-voice Prophet Rev2.
The Prophet seems to take the bragging rights (not interested in that) but they both seem to be able to create similarly complex sounds.

Anybody tried either of them, got any opinions?

I have neither, after reading this I'd choose Summit. They are both similar in many ways but the hat tips more towards Summit in most places I've read online.

https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/ii9k1n/novation_summit_vs_prophet_rev2/?rdt=38319

chalk_walk
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3 yr. ago
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Edited 3 yr. ago
I'm not sure where the impression that the Rev2 has more modulation than the Summit comes from (I've heard it several times). Here is as fair (and factual) a comparison as I can provide:

They both have 3 envelopes per voice, the Summit can loop all 3, including a fixed loop count; the Rev2 can loop only the third (Summit wins).

The Rev2 has 4 LFOs per voice, the Summit has 2 LFOs per voice (which include a fade in parameter and can be set to loop a set number of times after key sync trigger, meaning they can act as envelopes) plus 2 global LFOs (Rev2 win).

The Summit has 23 mod sources vs 22+5 on the Rev2 (Draw, for a reason I'll describe later).

The Summit has 38 mod destinations in the main mod matrix (vs 53 on Rev2), but the Summit has a second mod matrix for effects including 12 more destinations, so destination wise (Draw).

The Summit has 16 slots in the main mod matrix, plus 4 in the effects mod matrix (20 in total), the Rev2 has 8 mod slots (Summit wins, this is the reason for the earlier draw).

The Summit provides two sources for each mod slot vs one for the Rev2; this requires the Rev2 provide 5 additional modulation sources to 'multiply' by (Summit win).

The Rev2 has an easier approach to assigning modulations, vs a (shallow and simple) menu on the Summit (Rev2 win).

Enumerated in this manner I'd say the two are very similar in terms of modulation capabilities with more complex modulations being available and in greater number on the Summit. The Rev2's modulation win is in terms of 3 additional modulation destinations and 4 LFOs per voice (vs 2 Per voice + 2 Global).

Anyway, as for the comparison, I don't own both presently, but I have owned a Rev2 and I own a Peak (which is half a Summit minus a couple of features). For me the added flexibility in the oscillators (far more waveforms including wavetables) gave much more scope for raw sounds; add to that the FM capabilities, which work for all wave shapes, then ignoring the rest of the synth I found the Peak to have far more scope. On the Peak one annoyance was that the FM adjustments (not modulation, just using them) live in mod slots so you could end up having to go into a menu to set them up; on the Summit they have dedicated knobs for this. The same is true for the global LFOs which are now on the panel. Finally the Peak filters are nice, but the Summit adds the ability to operate the two filters in various mode combinations and to diverge their cutoff (which is modulatable): this offers sound design options you simply don't have available on other synths. All in all, for me, the Peak was a far more enjoyable and appealing synth than the Rev2, and the Summit is a better synth than the Peak, so the choice is clear.

Thanks, that's interesting, and supported by other people I've asked. Those that have plumped for the Rev2 seem to have quite 'indistinct' reasons or just haven't tried a Summit.
The other issue was the number of bugs in the Summit in the first few years, the vast majority having now been resolved by the firmwares, most recently 2.2.

Cheers.