Novation K-Station

Just wanted to add to the complaint list for clicking- the volume pot appears to control level through cc messages... adjusting the volume while playing results in some clicks and distortion and other nastiness.

I bought my K-Station last month,and i absolutly love the damm thing.
I mean when im in school,Im F#$@ing dreaming about it.
The presets are nice but I like makeing my own sounds most of the time.
Oh yea a QUESTION for all the other K-Station users out there....HOW DO YOU APPLY PATCHES? please E-Mail me Cradleofdeath86@aol.com
The manual is easy to understand,at least for me,but i doesnt tell you how to apply patches ...or if it does can somebody plaese tell me what page. Thank You! :-D

Great Polyphony,havent had a problem with it,Yet
Great Effect really easy to use.
Not shure if it has expansion capabilities. If it does can somebody imform me of which ones? Ill Greatly Appreachiate it...or however you spell it. :-D
There is MIDI IN,MIDI OUT,& MIDI THRU. therefore you can hook it up to your master keyboard/workstation. Really Kool!
The feature downfall is that there is no onboard sequencer,buy hey you can always go buy one!

well im useing the sounds for my industrial band,but these sounds arent just for industrial music. It also work well with Techno,Electronica,Dance,maybe rock if you can make it work,very slim though.
Onboard effects are again GREAT love em!
Includes an Arpeggiator really kool
the sounds are totaly customable depends on what you want.

Ive only giged with it once and it was great except for this annoying popping sound when you cycle through the voices,I heard there was a patch to fix this IS THIS TRUE? Please help is greatly needed.
I would definitly use iit on a gig without a backup

Never needed to.
Wish i knew how to upgrade the damm thing

If it were lost or stolen I would be on a killing RAMPAGE to hunt down the MOTHERF#$%@ER who stole it!then if i couldent find it id gop out and buy another one :-D. i think it was worth the price i paid for it.
ive been playing for 8 months.
I LOVE it totaly.I HATE the popping DAMM POPPING!
I Picked the K-Station because of its price and portability.
I Wish it had a 48 TRACK SEQUENCER :-D
Its a really big help makeing music...if you have a sequencer.

PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO UPGRADE & APPLY PATCHES TO THE K-STATION!!!!
E-Mail ME PLEASE Cradleofdeath86@aol.com

1.0.09

What can I say, I bougth that damn thing and there was a reason behind it. I owned a couple of VA synthesizers and this one especially stroke me because of size and sound. Once I got it unpacked it reveiled alot of other nice features I was not aware of when I tested the unit. However, it is easy to use. What is see is what you get. And it goes even further, what you don't see is what you get. Many features are either hidden (double waveforms) and need a look into the manual or they are tacked in the manua (FM, Sync, etc.) Especially I was impressed with the Oscillator section and all the additional features. More straight forward is the filter section with a low pass filter only. However, you got two nice additional parameters: Drive and Norm for altering the filter characteristics. The rest of the machine is straight forward, 2 LFOs, 2Envs, etc. It might surprise you that it has 7 onboard effects and all are working at once!! It contribute to the sound alot. The ARP is not my kind of toy but you can do alot of crazy stuff with it. It definetely goes behind every "normal" Arp seen. Everything is well layed out and easy to access. Stuff in the menu is rather a pain to change but gets better over the time. On the downsize is the monotimbral. I wish it had split/double function ala JP8 but I can buy another one when I need more K sounds. They are not that pricy. Velocity works fine, aftertouch is missing (but not a bid deal with a 2 octave keyboard). To make a long story short, for a 2 octave keyboard you get alot for your money, great sound with 8 voice polyphony, effects galore, sophisticated arp, very good midi specs (including syncing everything) and a nice blue display!

The K station excels when it comes to sound. 3 Oscillators are just nice to have (and better than just 2). FM and Sync is doing exactly what they promise and sound great. The filter is very analog sounding too and the additional drive parameter distort the sound in a pleasant way. The norm parameter makes a good SSM2044 emulation as well. You can expect every sound you would get out of a decent analog synth and much more. The effects are sounding good. Maybe not lexicon quality but this is a portable synth and what you get on the run is great. Good thing is that you can blend in many efx via wheel. Using all the wheels and velocity you can create a wide spectrum of sounds without even touching the knobs. Overall, the sound and expressivness is great and you will be surprised what you can get out of this little board.

So far so good. The newer os seem to fix some bugs. Lets see...

n/a

I guess for the money and the size it is the best out there. The uQk I was looking at was sounding less warm and more pricy. You might miss the multitimbral features but I guess it was not intend to replace your studio setup anyway. After all, you can double the sounds with unisono mode 2.

I bought it for a special reason, to have fun on the road or in the hotel and later on integrate the sounds in my songs when I am back in my studio. I tried this with some other monophonic gear but the lack of polyphony is not acceptable for me. This way I do have a little box that is easy to program (and more difficult when you want to really dig in) and sounds terrific. It is probably not the most flexible board out there but it definetely beats some of the older classic polyphonic boards out there. The effects are a great addition to the sound!! Overall, it gets a thumbs up.

Ver. 1.0.09
The presets on this board are usable. Plenty of bottom end and they demonstrate what the synth is capable of, though you can get a lot more creative than this. Edting patches is childs play, the menus are quick to access for paramaters that aren't laid out in front of you with all the nobs and buttons.
It loses points here for the lack of patch naming which is a curse onstage. Apparently Novation did this to keep it compatible with their A-Station module, and because it would use up most of the K-stations memory, but now they are trying to find a way round this.

I find the 2 octave keyboard seriously limiting. 3 or 4 would be much more practical. You can hit the octave transpose button but this is a drag when your in the middle of something. I play it from a larger controller keyboard but if you don't have another set of keys, it would be better to go for the new KS4 or 5.
Otherwise it's diminuitive nature makes it great for the studio. The arpeggiator, LFOs and effects are all syncable to MIDI clock at various subdivisions. It is however mono-timbral so don't get too carried away.

Above all else this synth sounds fantastic. I checked out Korg MS2000, Waldorf Micro-Q, Access Virus b and others but chose this one for features and quality for money, 'cause I didn't need 16 parts and surround sound capability. The sound is comparable to some of the high end gear at less than half the price.
Onboard effects are good value. It has a very flexible delay and you can mix in distortion with the level nob. All 7 effects incl. the vocoder can be run simultaneously which is a luxury. The reverb don't sound so nice, use it sparingly.

Hmmm. Pretty sturdy build for so small a thing. Although a lot them, including mine, appear to have imperfections. Pitch bend wheel rubs against the case, nobs slightly off center. Everything works fine though so I'll get over it.
Amp makes a huge pop when you power it up. This could be embarassing if the whimpy little power plug should fall out.

Great for novice and pro alike. You can justify most of it's short-comings for the price you pay so overall I like it. Do make sure it meets your needs before you buy this just 'cause it looks so cute on the shelf. I shall call it 'mini me'.

Using version 1.00.09. The presets are very good- anyone who does not believe me needs to check out the first demo file on the Novation website. It is very very easy to edit patches- just go left to right and you'll have a great sound in no time.

The max polyphony is 8 notes, but that is enough with a 24-note keyboard (try playing an 8 note chord :)) Built in effects are very easy to use, just like the rest of the keyboard, just select with a button and then edit with the knob. The action is similar to that of any other keyboard in this price range. They are pressure sensitive however they do not transmit aftertouch. The pressure sensitivity adds some neat depth to some of the patches- depending on how hard you hit the keys, it morphs the patch to have a harsher attack, or a softer attack, etc. etc. No on board sequencer, but in a board this size and cost, there doesn't need to be one!

This is a beautiful sounding board, with the classic Novation sound. It works great in techno/trance music, although it would be comfortable in almost any other genre (the basses are superb). On board effects are good sounding, and include a vocoder (score!). It reacts to your playing- hitting the keys harder or softer makes the patches bend and morph. However it does not transmit aftertouch, but it can receive it over MIDI.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd cry and then go buy a new one. This is an awesome synth that is worth every penny of its purchase price. It is a real breakthrough when you consider how much it gives you for how little you pay. I love its sounds, its vocoder, and its ease of use. I don't really hate anything about it! I compared it to many other VA synths (this is my first VA synth), including the JP8080, MS2000, NordLead 3, etc. etc. I chose this one because I love the Novation sound and it was such a great deal! I wish it had an internal power supply and an on-board sequencer. It is very very helpful to my music making- it is the first thing that I reach for when I get inspired. I think that this is a great synth and anyone with the money should have one.

The preset sounds are not good, but i realy never use any preset sounds anyway. But it is very easy to make som very good sounds by your self. It is easy to edit patches and so. The manual is not so good. It does not expalin how to change OS for example.

Thi synth is a real performance synth. Great 2 octav keyboard. Enought for a good baseline or a short "clatchy" lead sling. 8 voices are good. The effects are good, and i know what good effects are coz i got a Korg Karma.

This is a true Techno/Trance machine. So if you like fat bases and nice strings or good "synth" leads this is a synth for you.

The OS (i got 1.0 in my K-Station) is very instable. I dont like it. I will upgrade it to morrow coz there is a new one on the Novation page. So i hopw this will fix the buggs.

I have not tryed it yet.

When i have fixed the OS and the synth become stable it will be a 10 until that i will give it an 8. Coz i sounds the way i want it to sound. And i have own al ot of VA synths for example, Nordlead, Ms2000, Nova II and a Jp8000. I think K-Station is a great synth coz it is not so hard to work with as the Nova and Ms2000 with matrixes and special patches. I like the simple way of editing like the Nordlead. So i like the K-Station very much, it is a great complement to my Korg Karma.

I have had a K-Station for two weeks now and I like it a lot. The OS is version 1.0 and there are bugs but these can be worked around. I tend to go for equipment with knobs on and this fits the bill very well. The manual is terse but fairly complete. You do need to read the manual to get the best out of this synth but you can do a lot without it.

The K-Station is 8 note polyphonic but this reduces if you select Unison mode where you can stack voices to get up to 24 oscillators!
Unfortunately the stacked voices must all use the one patch but you can detune them for very fat basses and string pads. The filter is limited to one LPF mode but it is a very good filter and it is especially good at creating 303 basses. Surprisingly, the effects are all available simultaneously and they work well. The distortion effect is particularly good because it can be applied in moderation to thicken a sound without noticeably distorting. The EQ effect is also useful since you can create a modulated HPF with it but it is not resonant. The FM mode is useful and uses a seperate A-D envelope generator so it is possible to create decent FM sounds. The Rhodes piano sound is a good example.

I use the K-Station for techno and progressive music and it fits the bill very well. Acid basses, rich string pads and Hard House synth stabs are all easy to find. The three oscillators and the extensive modulation options mean that it is generally possible to emulate any other synth with the obvious limitation that it only has a LPF.

The build quality is a little disappointing. I took my first K-Station back to the shop because it had two knobs pointing 20 degrees from the vertical. I thought that it might have taken a knock but since the replacement also has knobs pointing in odd directions I guess it's just built that way. The pitch bend wheel scrapes on the case but its more a matter of aesthetics than a problem. These build problems are a shame because the physical design of the unit is especially good.
My K-Station has two bugs that I have noticed. To turn local mode on/off you sometimes have to spin the data knob several times rather than the one click which works for other on/off settings. Initially I thought that local on/off didn't work at all. More seriously, the LFO 2 to Oscillator PWM modulation control actually adjusts the Mod. Envelope to PWM parameter. This is a shame since the LFO setting is generally more useful. The only way around this is to use an external MIDI controller to adjust it. The knob transmits the wrong controller data as well so I guess it will be easy to fix in a later OS update.

I sent an email to Novation regarding the local on/off issue and they didn't reply. Not a very good start but I will reserve judgement until the next time I have need to contact them.

The K-Station is a very capable synthesizer and I am generally very pleased with it. Its only because its so good that the minor problems stand out so much. I am not a keyboard player so the 2-Octave keyboard is more than enough for bashing in basslines without dominating the desktop. As for missing features, I think that the addition of a multimode filter would be a good idea but thats all.

Presets are kinda crappy, but who uses VA's for presets? (I know a lot of people). It is however an amazingly easy kit to use. Very user friendly, lots of knobs, easy menus etc.. etc...

I read that it has tweakable "filters". However it has only a Lowpass, which isn't bad at all, I just thought you got "filters". All effects are extremely easy to use and sound great (Like other Novation effects sections) are easy to edit and if you need to dive into a menu it's simple and straight forward. However the arpeggiator is BROKEN, more on this later.

Heard a SuperNova lately? It just sounds completely amazing. The presets kinda suck, but dig around and play with it and you can get incredible noises out of it. 9.5 out of 10.

OK, this is where it turns into a big terd. I bought this for it's size and sound to use as a live board.

First of all the thing clicks as you go through patches, even when they aren't oscillating at all. It's LOUD, like really loud. It's stinky, but I heard they were working on it. However on the Micro-Q they had the same problem and the only solution they could find was to mute it as it flipped channels for about .5 seconds. I hope they don't do the same on the K....

The arpeggiator is broken. On about 50% of the non-pad patches if you turn the Arp on and turn the octaves to between +2 to +5 (depends on patch) the whole unit crashes and comes to a halt. At which point you have to restart it, which live would result in a HUGE POP when you flipped it back on if you aren't careful and/or near your mixer. Then you ave to flip all the way back to the patch (more pops) and try again without going up as high in Octaves.

I tried 3 K's and all had the same problem. If you go try one go to preset patch 208 and turn the octaves to +5 and touch the keyboard. Wasn't that fun? As I said this happens on loads of patches, yes even ones you make yourself, 208 is just the one I found this on first and it stuck in my head.

Also, i remember 2 times where I would be tweaking and playing and all of a sudden it would make some huge random other noise. Like "hey what is that acid line doing in my pad????" It was weird and never ever happened in my SuperNova.

Well, it's only been 3 days, but they never mailed me...

I only used it for about 10 hours and it crashed at least 40 times. I bought it as a live kit and it will not function as such. I guess if you are just gonna tweak in your bedroom and never use the Arp it'd be good, but that's not what I think everyone that's buying it want's. For the same price you can get a Nova on EBAY and a cheap controller.

If they come out with an OS upgrade to fix all it's problems I would probably buy it again, but for now i'm not gonna hold on to it and see.

However, it does look great and it's easy to use. Plus it sounds GREAT! So if you aren't planning on going live it'd be OK.

I just picked up the K-Station last week and am already impressed with the available tweakable parameters, conveniently located. programming is fun and oh so easy. although the factory patches are somewhat limited, I have several favorites already and the rest are imminently changeable. the manual is clear although, like most, not terribly thorough.

this may sound weird, but you can tell alot about gear by the feel of its knobs and these are so luxurious. the way they feel and move make twisting them a real pleasure. I figure if a company provides quality knobs and pots, they must be serious about the rest of the parts, too. although only an 8-voice machine, the 3 oscillators make the K-Station phat enough for my needs. I love the number of on-demand quality effects, assignable to individual oscillators during programming or performance. obviously, to get it to do things the original programmers didnt touch on, you have to work a bit harder but, at the end of the day, it's a cool little synth, well worth the investment.

this thing is made for the dance market. it's limited, but I was amazed at how close many of the voices are to my Nordlead, which I love. I bought it as a complement to my Yamaha for layering, pads and basslines, while I'm using the Yamaha for pianos, drums, guitars, etc. it will also do all the wild sounds the Nord usually provides, in a tiny package with nice effects and easier arping than the Nord. Time will tell whether I can squeeze more variety out of it. the building blocks and editing tools are there. there's a lot to work with considering cost and space.

I havent gigged with it yet so we'll see. I'd say it will never be a primary instrument on stage, it's more of an auxillary sound device. I dont think it was meant to be more than that. I'll echo the concern over the clicking sounds, possibly vocoder related. that surprised me and almost made me want to return it the next day. then I started playing with it and decided it was worth that relatively small aggravation.

havent tried to reach them for anything...yet. I was completely unimpressed with the website. at first, I didnt have a manual and was hoping to find one on-line, but no. not a good sign.

If I Did take this puppy out as a singular keyboard, I'd still pair it with my KAOSS pad and Repeater (multi-effects and looper). except for the total lack of traditional drum sounds, I'd be able to create some incredible looping textures using a full range of sonic possibilities. I think you have to take the cost into account to say the K-Station is a great instrument because, if it were twice the price, I might not give it a 2nd look. If you want a small (second) keyboard that makes scary analogue Nordlike sounds and put on a whole new face with a couple of quick tweaks, with tons of effects and live controls, that works very well as a midi-controled layering device, the K-Station is definitely worth a test drive.

presets are fine, editing is nice and easy, there is a manual but you don't need it. You can make 200 of you're own presets and store them

8 voices polyf is enough, multitimbrality is history with this machine, you don't need it. Built in effects are good too especially delay, you can easy lay down effects under you modwheel.

K-station is usable for all kinds of Dance/techno/industrial/gothic/electro/ambient
I am using this machine just for bass and arpeggios.

The chassis is very stable and the knobs too, you can tweak without breaking the knobs, The klicks you hear by switching the presets could be anoying on a gig but the next os update will solve that

If it were lost or stolen i guesh i would scream like a donky.
I've been playing voor many years now on mainly digital keyboards and i've never seen a VA that is so userfriendly as this one. I did compare it with ms2000 with good sounds too but not thick enough to me when i heard the Kstation pumping those fatt round bass