Novation Bass Station

STANDARD

OK

CHEEZY/PLASTIC, LIKE MOST OF THE BRITISH SYNTHS PAST/PRESENT. CAN'T COMPETE WITH PROFESSIONAL SOUNDS OF A NORD OR WALDORF. USED TO HAVE ONE, AS IN THE 80S, ANOTHER BRITISH WINNER, THE OSCAR, WHICH WAS MARKETED AS THE NEW MINIMOOG. PLEEZE. MY CZ-101 BLEW IT OUT. BOTH WERE QUICKLY JETISONED ON SUCKERS AFTER PROGRAMMING/A-B'ING AGAINST BETTER SOUNDING VIRTUAL/ANALOG. THE TWO REVIEWS BELOW RAPSODIZING ABOUT IT ARE FROM A BRIT (SURPRISE!) AND ANOTHER GUY WHO ADMITS HE'D LIKE TO TRADE FOR A NORD. ANYONE WHO THINKS THIS IS EXCELLENT NEEDS TO CLEAN OUT THE EARWAX, HASN'T SERIOUSLY COMPARED WITH SOMETHING BETTER. GET OUT OF THE HOUSE MORE OFTEN..

PLASTIC, TOY-LIKE CONSTRUCTION'S AN EXCELLENT REFLECTION OF THE SOUND, JUST LIKE THE ROLAND VIRTUALS. OPERATIONALLY IT'S FINE/STANDARD.

NO IDEA

YAWN. IF YOU THINK THIS IS EXCELLENT YOU SHOULD GET OUT MORE/COMPARE WITH BETTER - THEIR MARKETING PEOPLE HAVE DONE A JOB ON U! TOP-NOTCH ONLY IN THE TOY CATEGORY. IN THE BUDGET CATEGORY IT'S COMPETING WITH BETTER ALTERNATIVES LIKE A NORD MINI MODULAR OR CZ-101.

Pretty easy if you know analog gear. The knobs are too small tho for my hands which makes it difficult to use.

Needs a lot more memory to be useful to me. Plenty of knobs and switches, but the quality is poor. Very shakey! The MIDI in/out looks like it wont hold up. The wheels are pretty nice and its cool that it transmits poly/midi.

Sounds pretty good, but I like my Waldorf Pulse better and my Doepfer MS-404. Has good velocity but no aftertouch.

Too fragile and cheap contruction. The case feels cheap. So far no real problems, but Im concerned about how it will hold up in the long run, so I give it 6 for poor constuction job. Its not made for gigging in my opinion, so I would not even put it to that trial.

the word of mouth on these guys is only so / so

I already sold mine a while back due to its cheap crappy feel and the fact that it was so limited compared to my other machines. I really dont miss it at all. Like I said, I have a Doepfer and Waldorf Bass section right now that makes Novation Bstation look sick, so I would only buy another BassStation if I could get it for next to nothing.

A breeze. Just twist and turn....manual is short and helpful but not needed.

Well this is mono synth heaven...its pretty raw and basic but does it KICK BUTT!! This is my favorite synth for many reasons:
1) small portable, only 2 octaves. 2.) battery operated!! 3.) simple and 4.) AWESOME SOUND!!!!!! 5.) did I say AWESOME sound?
.......well it IS ....and VERY!! 6.)Great manipulation and control surface.....19 knobs, 13 switches, 2 buttons, 2 wheels....its cool

.....ah yes, the sonic flavor factor......well, let me put it this way, I have owned a ton of gear, i mean a ton, and a half :)) and many analog pieces. I currently have a pulse, a doepfer ms-404 and of course Im keepin those, but the Novation is a real keeper too. It just sounds TOO GOOD!

I only wish it was steel, but seems pretty rugged to me even tho its plastic

i don t know

Overall the BassStation is way under-rated in my opinion. Seems that there are FAR more rack versions out there and I can see some advantages for sure to the rack and even thought of getting one too, but this mini keyboard with FULL size keys is too cool.....just had to have it......always loved bass keyboards, but this is really way way more than that. Im happy and would do it again for sure.

Very easy

Monophonic analogue synth

i too was amazed at the guy who said it was flimsy , and lacked character?i think he msut have been monitoring through his anus or somthing , quite incredible.....ive owned a whole bunch of analogues
and i was actually blown away after getting one on the cheap.


Theres not much to say about the bassstation apart from incredible ,
ive owned loads of analogue stuff ,sold stuff and had the new hybrid
stuff and tried novations new stuff but to be frank i cant believe
no one notices the difference in sound.The basstation makes the supernova sound so weak and digital , has a quality all its own.I just had a pulse by waldorf and while it had a huge bottom end ,where was the twang or warmth?felt a littlecold as does alot of there stuff...or german )no offence meant)(THEY DO MAKE VERY GOOD GEAR).The basstation though has a real twang to it , funky , warm and really fat....Has a certain groovyness and a character all of its own , and i think is probably one of the best monophonics out there....The most underated modern analogue synth ever i think.

seems fine.

never been in touch

As i said , amazing sounds , is quite flexible and will give track
or mix another edge , for leads and velocity filtered basses and stuff
its got a wow factor of 10....and ive owned 101, 303 ,z1 ,ms20 , oscar
pro 1 and all the 'new' analogue mimikery.I would seriously go so
far as to say you must be crazy to not have one if you do electronic
music! and please , the supernova just totally lacks what this synth
has ,character and warmth and if you hear own of these and think its thin i suggest a brain transplant because youve seriousley missed the boat.

i have owned the bass station, and now own the super bass station.

I will talk about the bass station rack now tho. Editing the patches could not be easier, everything is laid out, many knobs. all functions are on the front, with a few non-synth options inside the utility menu.

it is a mono analog type synth. its midi is perfect. not much else.

synth features are very impressive, very pure.

I own a virus and a microwave xt among other things, and this thing pumps out really beefy bass. the person who reviewed it below must be completely unable to program and/or engineer his mixes.

this little guy can pump out basses so low it makes my monitors get loose and rumble almost out of control. it is also very easy to fix and shape a sound if you know what yorue doing. i suppose if you dont, you will think it is thin and cheesy.

one of the bars on my led died out. nothing else functionally.

its a rack, but for gigging, editing could make it easy to push out great basses to shake the crowd.

never had to use it.

the manuals are great tho.

i really loved it. i jumped on the super bass station band wagon when i saw one up for sale.

the super bass station is quite honestly WAY better than the original, making it wonderfully powerful.

only reason i would sell it is to upgrade to a nord rack 2. speaking of which, anyone wanna trade ? hehe.

It's pretty straight-forward in the use department..nothing out of the ordinary

keyboard action is decent, MIDI is kool

HERE is where it really fails....It sounds very thin and cheesy..It doesn't have a lot of presence or personality (you get what U pay for!)
I think it's a pretty shitty analog synth! I owned one for about 6 months, and realized that it is impossible to get any good bass sounds out of it! The leads are ok, if you like cheesy sounds!
I ended up selling this piece of shit, and put the $$ towards a REAL synthesizer---a PROPHET 5 (that's more like it)

If mine had been stolen, I would have thrown a party to CELEBRATE!!
Comparing it to the early analogs would be a slap in the face to all those great synths!!!!
I think it is flimsy and sounds like KRAP!!!

A good introduction to the world of analogue synthesis. As easy as they come to operate, you have to get used to it but no more than any other analog synth avaliable.

Monophonic. Dull keyboard action. No fx but sounds wicked through guitar effects especially a nice touch of vintage overdrive. You can get cool handles to play it upright 80's style.
v good midi capabilities gives polyphonic out so can be used as sequencer input keyboard. After touch sent but has no effect on the bassstation itself.
No sequencer.

You can program most classic synth sounds into it eg. Minimoog, Tb-303. Making dope ass sound effects is as easy as falling of a slippery log. Gives a small amount of oscillator bleed and hiss, adds to charm. Sits nicely in many genres from electro to deathmetal, thru funk and prog rock. It makes more believable 303 sounds than rebirth.

Never broken down on me, the build quality is toyish but what do you expect for the price

never had to phone

It's my fave bit of kit. fat fat fat low end, scary drumandbass bass, squeely filters (it self oscilates), mad fx and disco leads. spend time getting to know it and you will also know how to operate a minimoog and most other analog syns. I also own an mc 303 and it sounds poo next to this baby. There is no competition in this range.

Easy to use, but limited in the number of sounds you can create. I owned it for 4 months then decided to sell it and get something better (Nord Lead 2). The manual explains how to create sounds.

It's monophonic (except when midi is used). It's easy to use, but it's not what I was looking for. I make dark atmospheric soundscapes with pounding beats. I thought that this would give me some great bass (and sub-bass). I was able to get half-a-dozen decent bass sounds, but that was it.

This was a great first attempt for Novation. It remains an extremely popular synth, but not for me. I did get some great Add N To X sounds out of it.

It's very cheaply made. I would be afraid that if I dropped it, it would be destroyed.

Great. I had a question when I first purchased the unit and their customer support answered it immediately!

I would not buy it again (although I did sell it for a profit). I've only been creating music for 1 1/2 years and I own a Roland MC505, SP808, Yamaha PSR6, and Nord Lead 2. If I was rich I would have kept it for the occasional analogue sound, but alas I'm not. So out it went to make room for something else. I chose this based on the reviews that I read (some from here). Unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations.

Rather easy and very fun! The knobs allow realtime tweeking as well as programming.

Monophonic, which is OK but limited. Best suited for bassline, leads, or sound efx (there are many). Limited in terms of memory, cards, sequencers, etc, but that's not why you use one of these. Haven't tried the MIDI yet.

Sounds excellent for efx, bass, and lead. Bass has kind of a good p-funk sound to it, although I found the 303 emu not quite as realistic. The lead (higher octaves) has a warm, vaguely 70s "prog" feel to it. Also good for freaky, distorted stuff found in much of today's electronic music. I was. however, disappointed by it's lack of good sweeping sounds or "silky" string-like sounds. This is probably due to it's lack of a sine wave.

Pre-sets and anything you leave for the edit selections are reliable. Not so sure about the manual setting...may need tweeking. Not very sturdy, use care when transporting it.

Great for specific uses...not the most versatlie analogue sim there is, but great at what it does. Did I also mention it's loads of fun?

Using this thing is as easy as can be expected. No LCD panel, all
adjustments are made with knobs or the keyboard. No LED's, the only
way to tell what's changed is to listen to it. You'll probably have
to consult the manual after your initial knob-twiddling sessions, there
are simply too many things you can set to figure out what they all do
quickly and easily. Really customizing sounds will take some effort.
This is all typical of older analog synths, but may be disorienting
if you're used to newer keyboards. I personally prefer all the knobs.

Monophony with portamento was exactly what I was looking for. All of those
beautiful blue knobs work in real time. It's compact enough to fit on my
crowded desk and drives my other MIDI devices just fine. This thing
fit in pretty perfectly with my sound and gear setup.

My one and only gripe with this device is that it doesn't do sine waves,
only triangle and square waves. I'm more into softer analog synth sounds,
so it would have been nice if at least one of the oscillators made sine
waves.

The keyboard version only has sound out and MIDI hookups, it doesn't have
some of the extra features the rack version has. You can see a side by side
comparison of the two at Novation's website.

I hope you like knobs and switches, this has plenty. There's an LFO,
plenty of envelope adjustments, the ubiquitous cutoff and resonance
filters, and adjustments for the adjustments. There are two ocsillators,
both of which can be tuned (or detuned :>). There are two knobs and a
switch for the pitch adjustment of ocsillator 2 (scale degree relative
to oscillator 1, fine tuning, and octave relative to osc 1).

I think the Bass Station lacked the warmth of the Minimoog I once played,
but at less than a quarter of the price, I think I can live with that.

Right now, I'm using this to create obtrusive gliding sounds for lead
parts and a beautiful fade-in fifth organ sound for background (not to
be played at the same time, of course). I love it. I can't say much on
TB 303 or other emulation. You can make very harsh and acidic sounds
if you try. There's also a trick for making hectic squeaks and squawks,
though it has thankfully slipped my mind for the time being.

This thing is plastic and extremely light (you can strap it on and play
it standing, like the Roland SH-101). I wouldn't try to defend myself
with it, or toss it around the room. Just play the keyboard like a sane
being and hopefully it'll hold up okay.

Haven't dealt with them. Decent website.

This thing has become my number two instrument aside from my guitar.
I also have a couple of drum machines and a sampler. This is my only
real keyboard controller, and for that reason alone it is an indispensable
part of my setup.

If it was lost or stolen, I probably wouldn't replace it just because it's
against my nature to pay twice for the same thing. If I had money to burn,
I would look into one of those new Sidstations (they're made by Elektron,
not Novation) and a separate controller keyboard, or maybe one of those
intricate new analog modeling synths.

But for now, the Bass Station more than fits the bill. I like experimenting
with new sounds, and this unit lets you do plenty of that.