Novation DrumStation

Man! whats up guys? Why is the rating of this so low!? I have the v.2 and to my understanding the v.1 v.2 and d station are all a repackaged v.1. if there is any differences its quite minimal. I love this damn thing! Honestly my main reason for getting it was it was the best sounding v/a drum module in that price range. 808/909 love aside honestly i just wanted a nice electronic kit. the chrisp snares and warm fat kicks. I was way over impressed with this box. It sounds excellent. NOw ive never owned a 808 or 909. I however did own a tr 606 for about ten years. let me tell you the joys of analog drums that im sure nobody mentioned. NOISE FROM OLD OUTLETS. NOISE FROM TVS EVEN IN THE SAME HOUSE. NOISE FROM STORMS. NOISE FROM OTHER GEAR THAT WASNT HAVING NOISE ISSUES(DIGITAL). NOISE FROM ANY APAPTER OTHER THAN ORIGINAL ROLAND ADAPTER. AND EVEN AFTER HAVING ROLAND ADAPTER NOISE FROM LEDS. now this wasnt every time. but thats my point. all of this would happen out of the blue at any given time. which was even worse. sit down ready to write something turn it on. "oh ok well looks like my 606 is in a bad mood today ill just have to write later." thats sucks! it gets old especially after ten+ years. i bought my 606 in mint condition from a pawnshop in 97 or 96. it even had the travel case. got it for 19.99. yeah, well there wasnt as big a call back then but even then it was a find. but after years of moodyness i sold it a few months back. so i went with this as a compensation. and it is almost laughable that i got this for a hundred less then i sold my 606 for. oh and did i mention that the internal clock of those wasnt always dead on. ah! yeah so dont listen to all the b.s. about how these are nothing like the real thing. i had a real thing for yrs and i can say there is one big plus. its more clear! the sound is actually slightly warmer then analog. well fatter not warmer. but with a vintage compressor i dont doubtou couldnt get it dead on. i miss my option of triggering analogs but honestly i dont care anymore. i sold all my analog gear for rack gear. and am much happier. the closest i ever intend to get to analog again in instruments is the new moogs. ive owned two bass stations, and i cant say the same for them. wasnt very impressed, well for the price anyways, but this one is a keeper. if you can score one get it.

I've got the earlier model v1. Editing patches is a breeze. I have the manual - but i've never referred to it.
Now the sounds, they are x0x sounding, but nothing like the real thing. Lots of tweakability - but still its no Roland

I've heard polyphony can be an issue - ive never encountered it. No built in fx/no expansion capabilities.

It reacts to velocity and aftertouch. I wouldnt say its a realistic 808 or 909. I would guess the only use for it is for a Dance/Techno musician who cant afford the real thing.

It seems quite reliable, ive never had any issues with it (its been on for about 2 weeks now). Overall its a bit flimsy - it wouldnt be something id take on the road (if i was still gigging). A friend has one which is a bit flaky.

Never dealt with them, i've heard they are good.

If it was lost or stolen, i wouldnt replace it. I now use an MPC with x0x samples which sounds a whole lot better. I've had an original 808 in the past, which was mind blowing - this certainly isnt. Maybe my expectations were too high, but this piece of gear fell far short of my expectations. I guess i read too many positive reviews on the web. I was toying with the idea of a Jomox xBase09 or this, i chose this cause it was cheaper - and now i sorely regret it.

I have the novation drumstation v2. It's pretty easy to use, but there are lots of menus you need to flip through in order to edit features like velocity control and distortion. Saving patches is also a pain in the butt. I think I'm just spoiled with more fancy gear, I don't like having to flip memory protect/enable switches and hitting cryptic combinations of buttons to save patches.

The manual tells you how to do what you need to do, but the content seems like it's been written by and for 3rd graders.

The thing that pissed me off is that Novation failed to mention the whole 'processor usage' thing when it comes to playing sounds. Yes, this thing has a 6 or 8 voice polyphony. But no, you cannot play any 6 or 8 notes at the same time. Certain sounds take up different amounts of processor power, so if you plan on playing a kick drum and a ride cymbal (which takes lots of processing, ~70% or so per note I think), that's only *TWO VOICES*, be prepared for a voice to be cut out when you play your next note.

Polyphony is 8 voices I think, but that means nothing. Again, certain voices take different amounts of processing power and even though it says it has 8 voice polyphony, if you exceed the power of the processor your voices will cut out. Voice dropout happens WAY to often.

Velocity control is alright, but the assignable velocity (vel -> tune, vel -> amp) are fixed. It's either on or off. If you want to adjust the decay time of a hihat and control the volume, you're going to have to do it through a combination of velocity and CCs. It is possible to get the right sound you want out of this box, but for the price they charge surely they could have made an easier way to do it than programming CCs.

Also, the sounds of this machine are very very dry. In order for this box to be anywhere near useful, you're going to have to do some serious processing on it - this includes distortion, compressing and good eqing and reverb for each sound. If you don't have a GOOD hardware setup, ie. a channel and eq for each sound (think 4-6 channels), you're probably better off just downloading some TR808/909 samples off the internet and using those instead. Either way you're going to be spending a lot of time editing them on your PC unless you have the means to do it otherwise.

Honestly I can't say I've ever heard a real 808 or 909 in person dry, so I can't compare the sounds. I do know that the sounds on this box sound pretty close to those I've heard on some house and techno LPs I have from the late 80s, but again you're going to have to process the bejesus out of it.

It hasn't blown up on me yet, so I guess its ok. No way in hell I'd play live with this thing again because of the polyphony issues.

I sent an email about the sounds cutting out and they sent me a nice chart (within a few days) with the processor usage for each sound so I could plan my usage accordingly. Never had to have it serviced so I'm going to say no opinion.

I'd sell it back if I could, since I don't have the hardware or the patience to make this thing of any real use. If I had a nice digital mixer with a 4band param eq, compressor + expander, and 6 channels to devote to this bad boy, I'd hang on to it. But as for now its just sitting in my rack blinking at me. I don't have the time or patience to make it worthwhile.

All that said and done though, it has good 808 and 909 sounds for the price. If that were all I were after I would definitely say this is worth $300.

There is no way this thing will ever mimik an 808 or 909 and anyone 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 both a 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 those rolex watches from hong kong that looks like the 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 wouldnt 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 its time people opened there ears to the subtle difference as people do notice .Novation just keep using the same synth engine , they should have developed the basstation which i own and being analogue circuitry is wonderfully rich and not samey or boxed in sounding.You'll get by with novation stuff and sound very cool but you'll never sound quite as good as someone with a jomox or 909/808 and a genuine analogue synth , ive tried .Its not possible.

OS version 13. There is an original and a version 2 drumstation. They are identical aside from the look (v2 has orange stripe original is yellow). OS 13 is the latest and any unit can be upgraded.
The manual is good -although it should be - there's not much to this thing.

It's very easy to use - you get the hang of it very quickly. With OS13 I haven't had any problems with polyphony. Being one rack space with all those knobs are a little small and tedious but you get used to it. It's got 6 individual, as well as a a stereo main out. Each drum can be assigned to any output.

This thing is meant to be a 909&808 clone - and it is absolutley right on, although you get nothing more - as opposed to say JoMoX stuff which is supposed to have some other capabilites aside from being just a 808/909 clone. I love the distortion effect (the only effect it's got). There is 15 levels of distortion which can be applied to all the sounds, kicks, snares, hats,etc..It's perfect. For example you can create any distorted 909 kick you've ever heard. The 1-15 levels of distortion are not merely one distortion with the distortion getting more prominent with increasing level but rather act like 15 different distortion algorithms.
It's got another feature where you can clip the first few samples from a drum. For example, you can set it to clip the first 30 samples from the 909 Kick. This gives it a snappy, clicky sound at the onset of the kick as the sample comes in right at the peak of the attack. It sort of adds more treble/character to the sound. It's hard to describe but many kicks on techno tracks have this character. Check out my stuff on MP3.com (http://www.mp3.com/alphazone) - all the songs use the Drumstation. Both of my songs went top ten in Trance, and the song "External" has the 909 Kick "clipped" so you can get an idea of the sound.

Never had a problem - I leave it on all the time. It's very small and light and doesn't seem to be built especially well - but I've had no problems taking it around.

Novation is great. I have a Nova too and I get immediate support any time I want. Novation is a rather small company and they want to satisfy there customers.