Novation DrumStation Rack

oh it's easy allright. all you need is on the front panel

polyphony is weak, but the rest is pure 808/909.

it faithfully reproduces the sounds of the 808 and the 909.

BUT! who's not sick and tired of those old overused sounds? i sold mine because i realized that i got tired of those sounds. and some good samples easily replaces it.

i'm giving it an 8 because it's very good at reproducing those sounds.

it was very durable. never had any reliability issues. strong metal chassis

never dealt with them

summary: great 808/909 sounds at a low price, but a bunch of samples will give you equal results (you wouldn't get the flexibility of the front panel controls using samples, though). reliable and easy to use, but you only get the old, overused sounds you're allready sick and tired of. i thought it would be fun to have one of these things around in the studio, but i later just found it annoying. great machine, though, and if you're after these particular sounds, this is the thing.

i'm giving it this rating because it does a great job in recreating these sounds.

read the manual. it helps. very easy to use...

Polyphnoy isnt the greatest attribute.
Better distortion through an old guitat pedal.
I like the din sync function, i can control my TB with it rock solid..
Nice small rack.

I have owned a modded out TR808 before it was stolen at a party I played at. I own both pieces of equipment and have done an "all-nighter" with both units locked in a room away from the ignorant babblings of the pseudo-intelligent want-to-be engineers always professing their bulls**t to all that wil listen.
I get paid to create. They dont pay amatuers to play.
I can honestly say it is 9.5 of 10 technically alike to the origionals.
the only difference is the noise filter is slightly lower than the original (808).
it is missing a 2nd noise source that the roland had.
I absolutely hate when some moron who spun records at a couple of parties thinks he (or she) "knows" what the hell theyre talking about.
they think that real analog will make them famous.
Just like the rappers that think the MPC 3000 is better than the MPC 2000 (dead wrong)
Here is your expert review from an actual degree in sound synthesis.
not some kid who wears a t-shirt with his favorite DJ's name on it.
I have schematical evidence on paper from my love affair with the 808, frequncies, oscilloscopes all that crazy crap you wonder if anyone toiled through.
I DID!
I am down with the d-station.....

It does crash and have quirks and design flaws.
but so did every great piece of equipment I owned.
I have gigged with it. No-one on exstacy knew the difference.
I even did a Pepsi Challenge one night with a bunch of so called analogue experts who answered wrong every time I said "808 or Station?"
So there you have it

Englishman from Novation called me back at 4 in the morning and I picked his brain for an hour...Very cool!!
Turns out he was part of the design team, he told me what was true and false, also told me where to listen for flaws.
I had a good experience.

If youve read the rest of this review then you already know how I feel about it.
I still miss the TR808 done up by Analogue Solutions, but only in a nostalgic way. I spent $310 on the drumstation, that was how much it cost to ship the 808 over seas for mods.

Dead easy to use, straight out of the box, each knob has a label, the buttons have labels, there's a manual which has info in, never had any problems at all.

It plays basic dance music drum sounds, some people will bitch that it's not a true duplicate of an 808 or 909, but then, who cares? I didn't buy it because I really wanted an 808 or 909, I bought it because it would play a thudding kick when I needed it to, and because I can send each drum sound to an individual output, and so make the sounds crazy by running them through all manner of nonesense.

Bearing in mind what the sounds this machine creates are for, it is a very usable unit, totally useable, anyone can use it, and it works.

blah blah blah, if you want basic drum sounds for any form of club dance music, house, trance, techno, etc, this is your unit, you have the staple sounds, and you can tweak them enough, the distortion is fun to use as well.

It's fair to say that this isn't the most expressive machine, because let's face it, it has very few actual sounds, but each of those sounds is tweakable and for me, I can't complain about it at all, so I rate it 9.

Had a problem once that the kick drum stopped working, but i think that was a loos wire because that particular unit (i have owned two) had been abused a lot and dropped a few times.

I have also had them go mad before, but that's quickly sorted out by pulling the lead out of the back, or turning it off at the mains.

N/A

Yeah, I have had two, they are a versatile device, you can buy used drumstations dirt cheap, there's nothing comparable price wise, and the sounds can't be out dated because they were ten years old already before the drumstation even existed.

This is a unit that I often use, I also have an Alesis DMPro, which I use as my main drum module, but there's usually something I need to use the Drumstation for, for the sake of what it costs, it's always worth to have a drumstation in your studio, and I will say again, who gives a shit whether or not it sounds just like an 808 or 909...

just blast!

There is no way this thing will ver mimik an 808 or 909 and anyine who thinks it does has never owned an 808 or 909.Its close but not close enough.Your money is better spent on a jomox which i compared to botha 909 and 808 i owned and sold and a drum station.Like alot of novations stuff , the drumstation sounds great but lacking when compared , its like one of the rolex from hong kong that looks like
real one but up close is missing the essence of the thing.Thats how the drumstation left me.The jomox didnt , it actually sounded better as it could really do some mad kick drums . Novation , i like but would own whilst i have the choice to own 'real 'analogue circuitry which i'm sorry to say , still blows away all this hybrid stuff.And ive owned well over 15 analogue synths and also owned 10 hybrid synths or used in studios and there lacking aside from the z1 and jp9000 (but even thats lame compared to a Jp8)Sorry , i think ist time people opened there ears.Novation just keep using the same engine , they should have developed the basstation which i won and being analogue circuitry is wonderfully rich and not samey or boxed in sounding.

UPDATE TO MY FORMER REVIEW: I wrote: "...didn't hit it, didn't let it fall down. ... electric-condenser blown, acid poured out, circuit damaged from acid, total damage..." - that was a clear lie by the technician (live lights music, munich) !!! - I sent the drumstation to german novation service center, NO DAMAGE FOUND!!! the power supply was damaged, they did a software update and a small modification to the power jacket (or something...), I replaced the power supply, works fine!

thumbs up for novation germany, nice guys, thums down for livelights in munich, bad guy!

I have a Drum Station V2 and I aquired it used from a guy in New Zealand. One of the best purhases I ever made. It is fairly easy to use and understand. Only interface drawback is that it relies on a 2 digit led display and 12 button pad for deep control. Not terrible, but could be easier. THat aside, this is an easy box to use.

I haven't fully explored this piece for all its functions, but I am so happy with what I have come across already that the rest is just gravy.

No expansion, don't care. Good the way it is. It is as flexible as a 909 or an 808. Don't expect it to be anymore than that. Do not purchase this item if you want a brain that sounds like an Alesis D4, DM5, or DM pro. This is a different animal. It's gain is relentless. Gabber freaks pay attention!

Heh, heh, heh. My Tannoy monitors are having to earn their keep, now. I think they are ready to strike citing unfair work conditions. The speakers just about pop out of their boxes. I love this thing. Imagine the 808/909 with some meat. Yeah, exactly.

No problems yet.

They were very responsive. I immediately got the help I needed in replacing the adapter. I got it from New Zealand and they use a different current than we in the US, so I needed a different adapter. Boom, done. They rock.

I would chase the world over looking for the person who stole my baby. ......or I would buy another one.

Very Easy to use, the operating system is pretty solid however it did requier a reboot a few times.

You get what you have paid for, it's not a Machinedrum which I own as well.

Better than expected, yet requires some tweeking for the desired effect.

COuld have used higher quality components, yet that is the problem with most manfucturers these days!

Depends on who you sepak to, small company getting better at it though. I have several other products from them, the early version of the supernova was a disaster!

NO, the Machinedrum is superior in almost every manner.

Easy to use, almost one nob per function. Sounds just like a 909 and 808. The sounds do need a fair bit of processing to great though.(compression, eq etc)

It does what it does, what it does it does well.

It is possible to get alot of variation out of the sounds and if you phrase the sounds like a real drummer would then it is possible to trick the ear into thinking it is almost real.

Mainly a Dance music machine but I have used it for Rock as well.

It does do a thing when the polyphony is exceeded (or sometimes only when it "thinks" it is exceeded) when it starts cutting sounds and devloping a mind of it's own. However, a reboot usually sorts this problem out and it doesn't happen very often.

I would not be inclined to gig with something so specialist though.

Small company, so expect the cleaner to answer the phone rather than a slick, well spoken, customer services woman.

Just the thing for dance music

Eeeeasy. Plug&Play. Editing is fun with all the knobs. MIDI and additional functions easy to access via numerous buttons. The two-digit-and-some-LEDs-display is absolutely sufficient. Only annoyance: e.g. lo and hi conga share their knobs (same with toms, etc.), but you'd have to make the module double height to make room for additional ones, so that's ok.

Features are ok, everything there you'd expect from a drummodule. No sequencer built in. Nice Distortion which can be added seperately to every single sound.

Dum! Dum! Dum! VERY analogue! Nice! Nothing natural there, but really fat analogue bassdrum, fat samples (snare, open hihat which cuts like a knife when you alter it with the closed one!) - techno, electro, jungle, drum'n'bass.

Hmmm... dunno... mine went down when I reorganized my rack. Don't know what happenend, didn't hit it, didn't let it fall down. Here is the diagnostics from a german technician: "Elko geplatzt, Saure ausgelaufen, Platine veratzt, Totalschaden." Rough translation: electric-condenser blown, acid poured out, circuit damaged from acid, total damage. Not good...

Never dealt with it. Maybe I'll give it a try.

Very cool thing. Will try to find another one, maybe a bit cheaper because of all the software-synths out there which sound great as well.

It's a rackmount unit so you'll probably want some sort of external keyboard for sequencing. And with just a two digit LCD display what it's doing can be somewhat cryptic w/o the manual... and speaking of the manual, it is brief and assumes you have knowledge of MIDI. It's got knobs... lots of knobs. The box has the classic TR-808 and TR-909 sounds with greater editing capabilities via the knobs.

Eight voice polyphony, built in distortion for each drum and the ability to cut a bit of the front of the sound, easy to use for a rackmount. No expansion. Midi i/o/t. No onboard sequencer. There is this great little feature called "audition" which will play a 4/4 loop with the beats on the whole notes, first beat of each measure accented so can listen while you are editing and filtering. My favorite feature are the audio outputs. There is a main stereo output and 6 assignable outputs so you can apply external effects to just one sound. VERY useful. 20 factory drum kits and 15 user drum kits on the first version, 20 on the second version (first version has yellow highlights, second version has orange). It also has DIN Sync so you can sync your old synths to it.

The sounds are straight from the TR-808 and TR-909. Nothing more nothing less. The onboard effects are decent, but to get that nice punchy hardcore bass drum I use an external compressor. If you want the drum sounds of electronic music get it... it may be too limiting for some people, but it works great for me.

Yes!! Reliable... I've heard if you overload the polyphony it gets wacky, but I haven't had any problems yet.

It's great. Kicks the 808 and 909. This is the unit you need. I use an Alesis 3630 for my kick drum compression. If you want the sounds this is the only way to go. A lot of places are dumping this on clearance so make sure you don't pay more than $450 for it, although it would be worth the current retail for around $560.

The Drumstation features two drumsets, 808 and a 909, both sound very realistic, no differences to Roland's original are audible. Editing the sounds is quite easy and goes far beyond the possibilities of the 808 and 909 boxes (any drum's pitches may be altered, attack and decay phases of most sounds are changeable and so on). Most parameters are editable by knobs on the frontplate
WARNING: When overloading the polyphony (8 notes), the instrument's behaviour gets unpredictable, even random! Avoid overloading by any circumstances!
They include a manual, it's well done and suffices for understanding the Drumstation and its use.

The Drumstation is capable of playing eight notes at the same time. WARNING: Do not overload -- The results get random!
The distortion for any sound in any preset is adjustable, there are no additional FX except distortion.
Tweaking the knobs generates MIDI messages, so editing is recordable by a sequencer, supports nice realtime effects.
The possibilty of extracting MIDI timecode and supplying it to a DIN SYNC OUT jack allows synchronisation of a TB303 or similar. Very nice feature...
The Drumstation has NO builtin sequencer.

The drums really sound like the Roland TR808 and TR909 drums. There are no 'natural' drumsounds included. The drumstation is best used for music where naturality of drums is not essential, e.g. techno or dance.

The Drumstation is very reliable and functions well. I found two bugs in its operating system: - random behaviour when exceeding polyphony - missing or ignored sounds when modifying 'Note On Recognition' parameter
I used it for liveact performances as standalone drumbox.

- don't know-

Nice thing at all. I don't regret having bought this one.