It’s the big one – best in show, best picture, performance of the year; you get the idea. The Product of the Year award is MusicTech’s most coveted prize and is given to the product that’s truly earned its headline spot. This product, from all angles, inspires music-makers with its powerful features and beautiful design, and carries with it a weight of awe, ready to leave its legacy in the industry.
Legendary synth maker Tom Oberheim stole the show at NAMM and Superbooth this year when Oberheim and Sequential introduced the anticipated OB-X8 synthesizer, building on the legacy of the vintage OB-series synths. Elsewhere, Elektron dropped the finale of its Digi Trinity: the sleek, matte black Elektron Syntakt groovebox with a punchy sound, impressive synth engines and exhilarating performance functions. Arturia came through once again with its ninth update to the simply amazing V Collection, adding the Korg MS-20 and Ensoniq SQ80 V to its immense arsenal of vintage synth emulations.
Elektron Syntakt
Elektron made tremendous waves in 2022 with the Syntakt groovebox. Not only does this compact collision of analogue and digital synthesis and impacting drum sounds, but a recent update also added Song Mode for performing whole tracks, passages and even sets with a single gesture. Factor in its fun performance tools and it’s easy to see why this versatile 12-track instrument quickly became a beloved gadget for many bedroom producers.
In our review, we said: “Durable, flexible and excellent-sounding at home in the studio or onstage, Elektron has done it again with Syntakt, showing no signs of loosening its hold on the hearts of producers across the electronic and experimental music world.”
Read our full review here.
Arturia V Collection 9
As if this plugin bundle wasn’t already incredible enough, Arturia has now brought two more classic instruments to the fray. Emulations of the Korg MS-20 and Ensoniq SQ80 join the likes of the Minimoog Model D, the Yamaha CS-80, the Fender Rhodes, plus there’s a new pair of Arturia’s Augmented virtual instruments and updates. V Collection 9 comprises a whopping 33 instruments for £599, putting an unprecedented number of vintage sounds at your fingertips for far less than the physical counterparts would cost you.
In our review, we said: “These instruments feel less like attempts to replace their iconic hardware predecessors than unbridled celebrations of them, quirks and all. And where they represent original architecture, it’s with an explorative approach that seeks out novel ways to work with sound in a software environment. Arturia has met the market’s challenges with creativity and finesse and, by the looks of things, they’re far from finished.”
Read our full review here.
Oberheim OB-X8
This year, the music tech world lost a genuine pioneer of synthesis. Dave Smith, the father of MIDI and founder of Dave Smith Instruments and Sequential, sadly passed away at age 72. He leaves behind a stunning legacy of innovations and synthesizers, but one final parting gift was his collaboration with his contemporary, Tom Oberheim. Together, they reprised the Oberheim OB synth series with the magnificent OB-X8.
Combining three vintage Oberheim synthesizers – the OB-X, OB-Xa and OB-8 – and adding a new OB-X8 engine, the all-analogue synth is nothing short of a triumph. It’s certainly not cheap, rolling in at $4,999, but it’s an extraordinary synthesizer with a rich sonic palette to appease artists with a lust for vintage sounds and producers looking for huge modern synth sounds. Dave Smith’s swan song and Tom Oberheim’s celebrated return is an easy contender for Product of the Year.
The post MusicTech Awards 2022: Product of the Year appeared first on MusicTech.
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By: MusicTech
Title: MusicTech Awards 2022: Product of the Year
Sourced From: musictech.com/features/awards/musictech-awards-2022-product-of-the-year/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=musictech-awards-2022-product-of-the-year
Published Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2022 09:00:55 +0000
