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Novation Summit 61-key 16-voice Synthesizer

61-key, 16-voice, 2-part Polyphonic Keyboard Synth, with 3 NCO New Oxford Oscillators per Voice, Aftertouch-enabled Semi-weighted Keybed, and Onboard FX
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Item ID: Summit
Novation Summit 61-key 16-voice Synthesizer
Price:$2,899 and 99 cents
Special Financing - Ends Aug 2, 2026. $81/month with 36 month financing*

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Novation Summit 61-key 16-voice Synthesizer
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Novation Summit 61-key 16-voice Synthesizer
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Novation's Flagship Keyboard Synth

Built on the formidable foundation of Novation’s renowned Peak synth module (a Sweetwater favorite), Summit is a 2-part, 16-voice synthesizer with three oscillators per voice, aimed at the professional or semiprofessional musician seeking a powerful, inspiring 61-note keyboard synth for onstage and studio deployment. Summit puts the power of two Peaks right at your fingertips, letting you split or layer two completely independent patches across the keyboard, or switch between them on the fly. Summit also expands on Peak’s layout, with many additional controls and functions accessible on the front panel — including FM routing, LFOs 3 and 4, complete arpeggiator parameters, and more — plus pitch and mod wheels. Summit also features numerous new filter options and an audio input for processing external sources through its reverb, chorus, and delay FX.

Gloriously vibrant analog sound

The beating heart of Summit is its three digital New Oxford Oscillators per voice, hosted on the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) chip. As well as generating authentically analog-sounding waveforms at ultra-high resolution, this architecture also facilitates FM and wavetable synthesis that delivers rich, harmonically complex, and highly textured raw tones. Each voice has a true stereo signal path with dual analog filters, three stages of analog distortion, and analog voltage-controlled amplifiers; while a wealth of modulation assignment options and colorful per-part effects (distortion, chorus, delay, and reverb) add movement, verve, and polish to your patches.

Powerful new Wavetable Editor

Novation has come out with a powerful new Wavetable Editor for Summit that unleashes the full power potential of its wavetable oscillators. The Wavetable Editor is packed with functionality to speed up your creative process, including intuitive drawing tools and a Live Edit mode that let you literally draw your own oscillator shapes and preview them — all in real time! Quickly create your own oscillator waveforms from imported clips with the Audio Import function. You'll also find an expertly curated collection of space-themed audio direct from the NASA sound library, plus exclusive content from top EDM producers Noisia. The Wavetable Editor makes Summit more powerful than ever — inother great reason to add this advanced synth to your sonic arsenal!

The latest firmware: v2.0

Ever the innovators, Novation pride themselves on the work done by Chris Huggett, who lent his iconic design expertise in sculpting synths and sounds with the company, including the Peak and Summit. As such, firmware updates expand the already-robust features for greater creative freedom and flexibility. Navigate stylishly texturized soundscapes of any scale with new stereo shaping tools, including per-voice panning as well as panning in the mod matrix, letting you cultivate the sonic land as you see fit. Modulation opportunities abound with the addition of new mod destinations, using noise as a mod source and more parameters for LFO 3 and 4. Use these tools to harness a rich unpredictability, augmented by the introduction of Animate Envelopes and Arpeggiator Chance features. New chorus modes, flanger, and phlanger are included in the expanded effects, with additional modulation destinations letting you experiment with sound design in previously unavailable ways, like the vintage panache of the Lo-Fi delay.

Novation Summit 61-key Polyphonic Keyboard Synthesizer Features:

  • Premium 5-octave semi-weighted keybed with velocity sensitivity and aftertouch
  • 2-part multitimbral 16-voice polyphonic synthesizer
  • Hybrid architecture: "Digital where it counts, Analog where it matters"
  • Multitimbral engine for splitting, stacking, and switching between 2 simultaneous patches
  • 3 NCO New Oxford Oscillators per voice, enabling subtractive, wavetable or FM synthesis
  • Dual analog filters, analog VCAs, and 3 stages of analog distortion per voice
  • Per-voice analog multimode 12/24dB filters with Dual mode
  • Per-part arpeggiator and effects (distortion, chorus, delay, and reverb)
  • Powerful new Wavetable Editor unleashes the full power of the oscillators
  • Stereo audio in routable to onboard effects and aux outputs
  • Includes Ableton Live Lite DAW software
  • USB-MIDI class-compliant
  • 3-year warranty
  • Weight: 23.46 pounds

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Tech Specs

  • Type: Keyboard Synthesizer
  • Sound Engine: Subtractive, FM and Wavetable Synthesis
  • Analog/Digital: Hybrid
  • Number of Keys: 61
  • Type of Keys: Semi-weighted
  • Aftertouch: Yes
  • Velocity Sensitive: Yes
  • Other Controllers: Pitchbend, Mod wheel
  • Polyphony: 16 Notes
  • Number of Presets: 1024 (512 single, 512 multi)
  • Presets: 768 factory presets
  • Oscillators: 3 x Digital New Oxford Oscillators
  • Waveforms: Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth, Square, Pulse
  • LFO: 2 x LFO, 2 x Global LFO (triange, sawtooth, square, sample and hold)
  • Filter: Analog State Variable OTA 12/24dB Slope Filter; Lowpass, Bandpass, Highpass, Dual Filter
  • Envelope Generator: Amp Envelope ADSR, Mod Envelope ADSR, Loop Switch, Animate
  • Effects Types: Lo-Fi Delay, Flanger, Analog Distortion, Reverb, Chorus, Delay
  • Arpeggiator: 33 Patterns, Arpeggiator Chance
  • Audio Inputs: 2 x 1/4" (L/mono,R)
  • Audio Outputs: 2 x 1/4" (main), 2 x 1/4" (aux)
  • Headphones: 1 x 1/4"
  • USB: 1 x Type B
  • MIDI I/O: In/Out/Thru/USB
  • Pedal Inputs: 2 x 1/4" (expression 1/2)
  • Other I/O: 1 x 1/8" (CV modulation in)
  • Mod Matrix: 16 Slots, 2 Sources per Destination per Slot
  • Features: Stereo Spread Modes
  • Software: Ableton Live Lite
  • Power Source: Standard IEC AC cable
  • Height: 3.62"
  • Width: 39.31"
  • Depth: 11.95"
  • Weight: 23.4 lbs.
  • Manufacturer Part Number: AMS-SUMMIT

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Reviews

Novation Summit
The Novation Summit is an amazing 16-voice bi-timbral hybrid poly-synth, this is the flagship 61 key poly-synth in my music studio today. There are many product demos on YouTube about the Novation Summit, so I recommend you watch them and listen carefully to how good this hybrid synth sounds. It sounds warm, analog, and is highly versatile. The Novation company also provides very nice software to easily download & update the patch banks. There are literally tens of thousands of professionally designed sound patch banks available for both the Summit and the Peak. The Novation Summit is like having two Novation Peaks (which is the 8-voice desktop version of this synth). The hardware effects on the Summit are second to none. This synth is not too big & chunky so it works very well in a space conscious compact music studio like mine. I also think this synth is incredible $ value for what you get, I highly recommend it.
Music background: Producer/DJ
Worth the money
This synth has all the controls you will need to modulate your sound in powerful ways. The thing I like about it is that it hooked right up to Logic and didn't need software or a driver (although it does have control software of some kind if you want to use it). It seems to be built really well and I love that it has an IEC power cable rather than some weird adapter. Within an hour I was making really inspiring and complex sounds that cut through the mix and needed minimal EQ or compression. The arpeggiator is also designed well, because there is a knob to adjust all the right parameters. In my opinion the layout of the arp section alone makes this better than many more expensive high end synths. I haven't even tried out some of the features and I am already loving this thing, and I have owned a lot of synths. I am a very picky person because I need a synth that has rock solid timing when I sync it with Logic. I also love that Novation didn't put a step sequencer on this and just kept it with the wonderful arp all the other classic novation controls.
Music background: Working on bachelors in music tech at USF
Interesting purchase
I am still learning the Summit, and probably will be for some time. It "feels" somewhat like a more portable version of the Moog One (it just has that tone, but without the weight and liability taking it on the road). I bought this in tandem with a Hydrasynth Deluxe and the Summit makes lush, warm sounds effortlessly. Still working on getting more evolving, complex sounds, but likely that is why one would buy an analog and a digital - each has their sweetspot.
This is an awesome Synthesizer.
As an musical composer artist, I am always looking for certain quality of sound to put my music together with. The more I had checked out the "Novation Summit," and carefully examined this, I decided to add this instrument to my studio. What I was so amazed about this is; not only that the sound quality was amazingly wonderful, but the hundreds of added patches that came with this to work with.
Music background: Back when Robert Moog had demonstrated his Synthesizer at a concert in Washington DC back in 1964, where my mom played the violin at that concert, I was inspired by this new electronic music, and ever since I had been adding to my studio experimenting wit
Fantastic Synthesizer
My sales engineer Chris K has been amazing in his support of this and other gear purchases from there as well. I've owned the Novation Summit for about a half year now and am still learning and exploring the instrument. Prior to deciding to buy it, I had done some pretty extensive research online and overall, the sentiments seemed pretty positive. I was not disappointed once it arrived. It really sounds amazing to me and is capable of a wide range of sounds- crisp and digital or warm and analog and everything in between. Granted this is hybrid synth with FPGA-based oscillators with analog components in the signal path, such as an analog filter. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything for not having purchased a fully analog synthesizer, but to each their own. At any rate, there's a lot of depth to what can be done with the Novation Summit, yet it's very approachable and I found it easy to modify some of the presets to my own tastes right out of the box. That's mostly what I've done so far versus creating my own patches from INIT slots, but all in good time. There are some menus, but they're logical and easy to navigate to get to some of the lesser-used functions. And I can't write a review without mentioning the effects, which are absolutely top-shelf, which really contributes to how great the instrument sounds overall. This is Novation's flagship synth and in my opinion it absolutely has a premium top-tier feeling to it. A couple other quick things to mention: updating the firmware when I first bought it was very easy. I also think visually it has a great physical aesthetic, although beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Overall, I really love the Novation Summit and would buy it again in a heartbeat. I look forward to many wonderful years with it. For full disclosure, it is one of 3 synths in my setup and I use those in conjunction with a DAW to create my music.