Novation KS Rack

I bought this new 2 years ago for ??300, the OS is the one that came out of the box. The presets on the whole are good with some nice basses and some great pads but I found myself twiddling knobs on every patch. It has to be said that the lead sounds and nearly all of the sfx sounds were completely useless. Patch editing couldn't be easier, even an 8 year old child could operate this rack and still make a cool sound.

The manaul assumes the new owner knows nothing about subtractive synthesis which can only be a benefit to anyone unfamiliar with the process. It's well written and explains what it does, why it does it and how to do it. Thumbs up for people just getting into synths and need questions answered.

16 voice poly and 4 part multi-timbral. The effects are limited on this unit with only Delay,reverb,chorus/Phaser,Distortion,Panning and an EQ but they are good quality. I don't think there's an effect on it I don't use on a regular basis. The editing of effects is very easy with great effects literally 1 or 2 presses or knob turns away.

It has good midi implimentation but that's to be expected. Alas there is no sequencer but the arpeggio section is adequate. I think it's implied you would have a sequencer of some sort before you buy given the fact it's a rack module.

This synth is not really about making realistic sounds but has a couple of nice organs and a couple of great elec pianos. I love the drum presets because there so 90's it's unreal but I prefer to make my own percusive sounds. I have used it mainly for creating leads,basses,pads and drums. The sounds I make are very electronic (Trance,Ambient,Prog Electro) and this baby just churns them out with little effort. If you're not familiar with subtractive synthesis you might take a little longer.

As I said earlier the effects are good but just in short supply. It's velolicty and aftertouch are ok for me but not great.

It's a workhorse and that's for sure. I've used it 5 days a week for 2 years, sometimes for 18 hours at a stretch and this thing has never crashed or frozen or controls becoming unresponsive. If all companies made hardware like this thier repair depts would be finished overnight. I have never had to consider a backup for stage use because it's so reliable.

Never had to contact the manufacturers.

I would deffinatly replace it if it was stolen or lost. I've played for 23 years and own Novation KS-rack, V-Synth GT, Fantomx6 ,Korg R3, Roland XV 50-80, Emu 6400 ultra sampler,Jomox xbase-09, Roland MC-909 and a Novation A-Station.

I love the ease of use with this unit and have to say the quality of the sounds you can make is astonishing for synth of this price. Within minutes you've got a fat bass sound you've just created or a rippin lead which makes your ears bleed.

I hate the vocoder, it really is a waste of an LED an input port and your time. It seems o me like an after thought on Novations behalf and I'm upset they didn't make it better. My Korg R3 kicks it's *** at vocoding, then again so does the V-Synth. Poor show Novation :(

At the time I bought this while in a V/A frenzy and also purchased a JP8000 and an AN1x. While the other 2 had good sounds and a great deal of scope I have to say this wins hands down everytime. I sold the others and stuck with the Ks rack simply because of it's ease of use and good sturdy oscillators.

As above I use this nearly everyday for something.

Using OS v2.1.02. After a solid 12 months using this synth, I can advise that the Presets are very usable "as-is" however editing is just so easy that I tend to do it even if I am alreayd happy with the preset. Editing patches is very intuituve ergnomically editing tends to flow from left to right accross the synth. The manual is very clear for most topics. I have found some issue using an external source (microphone) through the vocoder where sometimes the signal simply is not recognised. FOr this I am taking off 2 points.

16 voice poly, 4 part multi-timbral with 4 individual output OR 2 stereo outputs. I would prefer more (say 8) individual outputsm but I am very output greedy. Effects include Delay, Reverb, Chorus, Distortion, EQ and Panning. They all work well and are easy to understand and implement. As far as I know there are no hardware upgrade options for this synth, just any new software OS's that may come out. The contols obviously control the synth, but you can use the controls as a midi controller for other synths (read knobs for "soft" synths), which although I have tried (and it worked) I just found it all too difficult trying to remember which knoc I had assigned to what. I really like the fact that there is a headphone port right on the front panel. It makes life easy when doing live jamming/performing. There is no sequencer but there is a nice arpeggiator, whic has very cool drum arpeggiations, these effectively drive rhythm sections ie Bass Drum and Hi-Hat from the one synth part, very nice. Hypersync I find "interesting". To be honest I'm never really sure whats it's going to do, sometimes I like it sometimes not. The filter section works very nice but is a little light on for features (not enough filter types or roll-off slopes to choose from), but this only minor and as I said earlier this synth is east to use and the simplicity of the filter section can also be viewed as a nice thing

It's a VA synth, so many few sounds are really meant to sound like the real thing, despiute this, drums are nice, organ and electric pianos are nice and the "non-real" sounds really kick-arse. They call the synth the Liquid Engine (or something like that and really does have a liquid edge to it, lots of running water type sounds can be made. If you like these (as I do) then this is the synth for you. You could make mostly modern music with this I believe anything from ambient, to trance, house and techno, no problem. The sound on this synth is very alive. I am so happy with the sound I'm gonna give it full marks.

have been using this for 12 months now without issue (except for glitch with vocoder and microphone), because of glitch I will give it 9

I dealt with the local distributor here with my problem, they tried to help but didn't fix the problem, instead I found a work-around. They were helpful and friendly, but only semi-useful, can't be too harsh, but I'm gonna mark them down for this one.

I'd buy novation again if it were stolen (or lost), maybe not this one, but maybe, who knows? The price was wirth it to me. I love the sound, hate the external input section and operation. I got this for the liquid sounds, I also own Virus Indigo and Waldorf Q rack, they all sound different and complement each other nicely. Ideally I would like this synth more if the input section was more stable, it was 16 part multi-timbral and 32 mono outputs, but hey... This synth is the easiest synth to drive so it really helps you make music rather than getting bogged down in the workings of the synth, highly recommended. Finally you can jam with this box all by itself and still have heaps of fun.

Almost all of the crucial parameters are easily accessible from the front panel. I've bought one and after five minutes, without reading the manual, I began creating sounds.
The manual, in any case, is well written, giving a brief introduction to sound synthesis and midi and then explaining clearly all the menus and options.

Effects quality: very good
midi implementation: very good, every knob sends nrpn controller messages to the sequencer.

No expansion capability, almost poor polyphony (expecially when using the unison for an oscillator), too little memory to store patches and performances (400 patches: 200 presets+ 200 users, all memory locations are rewritable. 100 performances: 50 presets, 50 user)

This rack sounds really good. The presets are very well programmed and, most of all, very usable. The sounds programming possibilities are almost infinite. It can be used for dance, but it has the sonic possibilities to be used also in new age, electro-jazz, electronic or experimental music.
Of course it is a synth: if you want a great sounding piano, then you may better go for a sample based synth. Nevertheless, in addiction to the common waves, this rack has also organ, electric piano, clavi waveforms.

It seems very solid and well made, although one of the knobs (the one that makes you navigate the menus) is significantly hard to rotate. In a

I've sent them two mails for support and they answered to both in a few hours. What a difference with respect to the old Novation support!

I must say that this is a very good synth, and one of its main strengths is the very high quality/price ratio (high quality for a cheap price). It would be perfect if there was the possibility of expanding polyphony and memory.
Comparing to similar device, I must say that it has very much personality, its sounds are almost unique. I can recognize them from all other gear.

I had to take a look in the manual to know more about performance setting and midi implementation. For the concept of this super synth, I think they made it really simple to understand.

16 voices polyphony it's enough. I tested it with maximum part used in performance mode and I was not be limited by the polyphony. Built-in effects are incredible. The LFO speed are quite unbeatable. MIDI capabilities are quite good. I tested alot of different parameter with my midi controller and everything that you see on the interface, you can control it via MIDI.

Alot of user memory for performance and patch. It's a pure synth with a new cool feature the hypersync. In bonus, you can use the vocoder with any patch you want.

The sound is quite unique, very liquid. I found alot of trance type of patch in the preset. I made some good drum kit from the actual drumkit preset with some tweak. You can tweak alot of sound to made your own or start from the basic patch to make some sound from scratch.

I also be able to made a nice drumkit for hardcore/gabber music.

I made 2 gigs with it, never had a problem. Very reliable. Download the latest patch if you want to avoid minor problem with glitch.

They made a patch to solve a glitch problem with the OS.

For the amount of features you got for this box and the quality for the price, I give the perfect rating.

Latest version 2.0.
I had some problems to load O.S., but it was related to my MIDI distributing device.
This is definitely very fresh sounding synth. Good addition to my Kurzweil, EMU and other 'heavyweighters'
I would say that its primar function is to add new flavors to rock and pop production or to be used for dance music.
The manual is one of the best for synths, so after reading and little experimenting you can get maximum of it.
I had KS-5 prior to rack, but didnot like keyboard. I think that rack is even better.

Poliphony is not very generous, but sounds are amazing. I agree that it is always better to have less voices, but good (as Kurzweil).
It has no sequencers and nothing except synthesis controls and one of the best arpegiators.
MIDI implementation is perfect, OS is stable, no flaws.

Expresiveness of sounds are really great, leads and pads are so good that it is hard to stop playing. Moreover, after experimenting, I found that I can make very interesting new sounds without hassles. Compared to EMU Proteus 2500 it has equally good filters, warm and open. It is really pure satisfaction for creative musician to work with KS.

I didnot have any problems for 6 months. I think it is very good quality synth/

I asked them if they can provide me with some kind of digital output, they replied immediately that such is impossible and send me free of charge their VSTi Bass Station. Nice.

I would buy it again, it is very useful part of my setup.

This synth is easy to use. Its the first synth which I had used, and I was making decent patches in just a few days. A good layout makes this unit very intuitive to use.

The KS has 16 voice polyphony, which is quite enough for most users, and 4 multitimbral parts. I found the MIDI easy to set up and there is plenty of room for adjusting things. The wheel bend amounts, what the mod wheel does and such like. The arpeggiator is quite useful too.

Well, this being a synth, you are in control of the sounds. Great strings, leads and organ sounds, along with sound fx can be achieved. I find the bass a little weak myself, but some of the presets cover this quite well. Carefully programmed sounds can be quite expressive, with filter settings changing according to velocity and the vast amount of settings that can be adjusted using the mod wheel on the controller. Best suited to dance styles really, but theres no reason why it couldn't be used for much more.

Never gone wrong. Decent build, although possibly not ideal for on the road, the KS5 would be better for this.

Never needed.

This synth is my most used piece of equiptment, as it covers so much variety so well. Absolute bargain in my opinion.

Smart design and layout makes it easy to program your own sounds.
Still too much in menu's, but very logical and excellant at the price.
Performances do not alter original program slots - all synths should be like this!

Excellant range of features at current price.
Effects are a good starting place for people with limited outboard gear.
Rating considering price:

You will get something out of it you put in the effort, but you will need effects to hide a slighty weak and clinical character.
Occasional clicks and other problems of which more later.
Professional sounding gear costs or buy second hand, at current price could have been a bargain if had no problems.

Here we are at last!
Does it work?
I have got rid of mine after having it repaired 3 times and it still had the same fault!
Pops and clinks aside, values on mine changed by themselves when ever the OSC 3 LVL knob is turned too low!
Try programing when values will change and the screen skips from your current position. Tap near the Osc 3 knob and watch other values change, almost funny!
It feels well built for the price, but remember i had it for months before i noticed the problem, because i always seemed to have the OSC 3 knob set high.
Software or hardware fault?
Who cares! too many other people have had this fault.

Novation eventually replied when i first emailed about the fault but by then the shop had helped me out.
Eventually after many repairs the shop refunded me and i bought some other gear.
website is useless too!

I am still looking for an analogue substitute, in a rack, as cheap as possible.
The KS Rack would have fullfilled my needs for now had it ever worked properly.