Black Corporation has opened pre-orders for a new version of their XERXES 8-voice analog synthesizer.
“We are starting the preorder for our second run of XERXES, which will also be getting the MK2 treatment,” notes Black Corporation’s Roman Filippov. “Because of the semiconductor shortage and their increased prices, this run will be limited to 100 black edition units and we are required to raise the market price of the synth. To make up for the price increase, the new and improved XERXES will have a completely updated VCA section, balanced outputs, and audio over USB, in addition to several improvements under the hood.”
The XERXES features digitally controlled analog oscillators per voice, a multimode analog filter, white and pink noise generator, 2 ADSR envelopes, 2 sync-able LFOs, unique analog BBD chorus with 3 modes, full MPE-based polyphonic aftertouch, and complete MIDI control, including polyphonic aftertouch and MPE.
Pricing and Availability
The XERXES mk2 is available to pre-order, with a total price of $4499, including worldwide shipping.
The main question I would ask is… “Who the hell would be so insane as to pay $4500 for this?” Some manufacturers live in fantasy land, obviously.
The same type of people that would spend $4,500 on a custom or limited guitar from a luthier instead of a mass produced piece of Chinese trash.
It is basically a vacation for many of us locked down by politics and irrational hate your neighbor thought. Let’s talk more and make music.
Your comment makes you sound like you’re either ignorant of the music business or that you’re just hateful of people more successful than you.
There are many synths that are priced at $2000+, $5000+, even $25000+.
And there are many businesses that are successful selling these pro-level gear and ‘dream synths’.
It’s extreme arrogance to pretend that you somehow know better than the people that have actually used these instruments and have saved up their money to buy them.
Black Corporation makes some of the finest analog synths ever made, improving in many ways on classic synths like the CS-80 and the Jupiter-8, and offering greater expressive capabilities, with support for things like MPE.
Lots of people can afford great synths, and why would anyone that can afford a great synth choose to compromise? One fantastic synth > ten mediocre synths.
The previous batch sold out, so… Their aim obviously aren’t the poor who keep whining about prices.
If some commenters would come out of their basement for fresh air they might see that there’s a big world out there. Just because Mercedes cars have big prices does that mean there’s nobody out there to buy them? I think not. SMH
Seems wildly expensive for the feature set. An 8 voice DCO poly can be had for ~$1K, so not really sure what exactly this synth brings to the table for the extra $3.5K. I mean for the price of this thing you could buy a Novation Peak, a Korg Minilogue XD, A Prophet 08 and Hydrasynth and still have money left over.
Presumably quality.
Just check this company’s quality and it’s all about
What you want to spent on it
Let’s talk About other synth that are available and are expensive as well
High quality comes with a price
Loving my Deckards Dream mKII. But then I don’t think Korg Volcas are pricey. 😉
Elka Synthex would be a good VST for Cherry Audio to tackle that would not overlap with what’s already in Arturia V Collection.
There is already the Xils Xyn X. also a lovely VST of this Elka
It’s like 4x the cost of an average Cherry Audio Softsynth.
true, but it exists
And better sounding
Really amusing to see the price but even funnier hearing people equating price with status. Comical.
It’s amusing you think you know, like you have the expense list and the bill of materials.
Parts can cost X or 100X, Maybe they have huge margins, maybe not much at all, but if some one wants to use the best possible parts that cost “100X” its automatically overpriced for you, rights? 🙂
I know i don’t know the cost and all involve making this specific product exist and I’m shore its true for everyone here.
At least they’ve kept the price quite reasonable !
The fact that its a 100-unit run also tells a lot of the tale. Can you say “boutique” any louder? Most of these synths were never aimed at Us anyway. They’re clearly killer and make hella good Xmas gifts, I’m sure, but I prefer being realistic. Besides, I have always had ROMpler-itis: Minimoog over a workstation was my main hardware go-to until softsynths appeared for real. So, no GAS anguish here.
Let them eat cake.
No keybeds on their synths tell me they are serving a true synthesizer fan market.
Rackmount or I don’t want it.
What, no money left to make custom laser cut rack ears? 🙂