Novation Nova

I'm using the latest version 4.something. I'd been using 3.0 since I got it a year and a half ago up until a month ago since I didn't have the tools to upgrade it, and my buddy couldn't figure out how to back up all my sounds.

Anyhoo, the presets are questionable at best, but a lot of them are not far off. I've done a few minor tweaks to some of them and come up with gold. The performance patches that come preloaded get written over without mercy or even checking what's on them.

I had the basic idea of subtractive synthesis when I got the Nova so editing sounds wasn't that hard, and with all these knobs and buttons it's only gotten easier. Sometimes I wish there were a few more dedicated knobs (individual controls for each envelope, oscillator, etc.) but really it's not that big a deal, I just have to pay attention to which light is on. There is some menu diving for the more advanced features, which can be a good thing, as 99% of the time I don't think I'd want a knob for sync skew or format width. Editing performance modes was tricky at first, as I basically sat down and figured out how the hell to do it on my own. Easy as pie for doing what I do now.

16-voice polyphony with the new upgrade. I have no idea how I managed to live with 12 for so long. even maxing out the multi-timbrality (some layers, some splits) I never want for more voices.

The built-in effects are really easy to use, especially with the send knob being right there. The reverb and delays sound decent for what they are (part of the synth sound), the distortion is chintzy, but neat for what it is, I actually really dig the flange/chorus/phase for thickening up a sound a touch or giving it some shimmer. Tremolo I'm embarassed to say I have never been able to figure out. When I have it set to tremolo the send knob seems to do nothing. I guess I'll have to *gasp* crack the manual!

I'm not really sure what this thing can do midi-wise. All I care about is that I can plug a cable in and get sounds to come out. I'm not planning on using it as a control surface/master apreggiator/midi clock/kitchen sink. I've got an MPC-1000 and a ReMote 49 LE, and they get plenty of usage.

It's got all the features I need and a few I'll probably play around with in the future.

It is a very realistic synth, and by that I mean it is dead on for sounding like some oscillators and filters in a box.

I hate to put this thing into just one category. The presets scream "make sounds on me that kids with pacifiers and floppy pants will love!" but I've gotten some stuff out of it that could work for almost anything. There are some really smooth pads to be gotten as well as some of the most aggressive leads and basses I've been able to use. The oscillator section is really versatile, and almost anything can be routed to the modulation sources far beyond anything I need. The velocity sensitivity works really well; I've had to turn it down plenty of times to compensate for my somewhat inconsistent playing.

As I've said before, the really flexible, great-sounding oscillators are amazing. I don't think I've seen anything short of wavetables that give me the kind of variety of sounds this box has. At first I was really disappointed at not having a triangle wave, but I've since gotten over it and focused on crafting great sounds out of what I have. With my new (to me) double saw wave things are even more fun. It sounds a little digital and "sterile" at times, but other times it sounds as dirty and gutsy is I'd care to have it before it gets into analog problems.

I use it every gig with no backup. The knobs worry me, but that's just because they stick out of a piece of digital equipment. I've only had it weird out on me a couple times, but never during a gig. Tip: never EVER let that adapter get too warm, as it will make your synth do funny things. It's happened to me twice, and each time I just gave it a little while to cool. No big, but it does linger in my mind as a possible way to waste a large sum of money should it ever go out.

I'd give this thing an 8 if it weren't for the finicky adapter.

Never dealt with them directly, and I wouldn't want to try and deal with a company across the ocean from myself. They're really good with releasing updates and posting their manuals online, so I can't complain. I wish they still supported this thing, but they don't seem to be doing much with hardware synths these days. Pity.

If it were lost or stolen I'd probably try and save up for a Virus. It seems like the only synth that is capable of doing what my Nova does and then some as far as features, polyphony and multi-timbrality. Honestly I've wanted a virus for a long time, but the price was always waaay to high, so this seemed like a really good (way better priced) alternative. I'd definitely say that it was worth the money though.

Been playing synth in earnest for close to two years now. I took a piano class in high school, but as far as musicianship goes I'm pretty novice.

I used to own a Novation X-station, and my friend owns the Novation KS-5. I guess my familiarity with their products is what drew me to the Nova in the first place. As far as I'm concerned they're an underrated company that makes a fine instrument for a price that I can afford.

I love the sounds this thing makes, the interface is awesome, and I really love the performance mode. Really I can't ask for anything more. In fact, I'm glad it doesn't have more. I'm really not at all interested in those horrendous workstations that so many companies seem to want to put out these days, as I don't need a bunch of orchestral sounds, sequencers, samplers, and various other doo-dads that take up precious room that could be used for knobs and sliders.

Sure, it's not a Moog, but it's not meant to be. It's meant to be a useful, flexible and powerful machine that I can use to make music in a live or studio setting. I run the Nova through some cranked-up speaker mains for high sounds and the bass sounds through my bass amp. It's loud and gets plenty of analog signal path with speaker coloration by the time it hits my ears, so I really never notice any of the nitpicky things you always hear analog nuts talk about. Recorded, it can sound somewhat digital at first, but with a good engineer you can either work through it or use it to your advantage.

I used it on all my band's recordings, which can be found at myspace.com/teamsharkweek. The sounds were recorded directly onto the computer, and I never went through and overdubbed any other patches or sounds. Anything you hear on there can be played with a 49-key MIDI controller.

So final summation: I highly recommend this synth, especially for the money. It'll get the job done with flying colors.

There is a lerning curve to this synth. I run O.S. 4.1 I sounds great. One tip is to back off the default level on the oscillators lower the 127. I noticed that when they are peaked they pruduce some audible crackling noise. However easily sovled simply save new preset with lower level.

16 Voice Polyphony, every function can be controlled by midi. Sync the arpegiator easily with local control set to off.

Excellent sounding VA synth. I love it.

Bought mine used in good condition. Seems to be pretty solid.

NA

I like this synth because I can get awesome sounds out of it, It has a good arpegiator and lets my host sequencer breathe easy while the external synth takes care of the processing.

Using OS V4.1
The presets are crap and don't do justice to this jewel.
Fortunately, it is very user friendly and a breeze to program (provided that you have played with analog synths before).
The Manual is well done, with a bit of background on subtractive synthesis for people new to analog-type synthesizers.

16 voices with the OS 4.1 revision.
Built-in effects are quite good despite the fact that some people find them "cold" and digital sounding, with a bit of tweaking they can sound warm enough.
6 parts multitimbral with 7 effects on each part all independent! (the new Access Virus TI has finally got that too, 7 years later!)

Arpeggiator that is programmable!

The sound is amazing! Once you unleash the real power of this beast, you will be surprised of what it can do! I've managed to get the Nova to sound like a Yamaha CS80 or a Moog or a Prophet V.
The filter is smooth and "juicy" (on the 24 db setting). Maybe not as unpredictable as the Moog, but very close.
The presets are more trance and rave oriented. Not really my style.
The tweaking response is excellent (no zipper effect here as on the Roland JP8080).
The compare button is really helpful when programming and saving patches to allow you to preview the old settings.

The Vocoder is the best ever made! 40 bands! Sibilance control! It leaves the whole synthesizer unit intact (it is an effect)! You can Vocode a 8 voices unison sound with ease!

Well suited for analog synth sound emulation (Jupiter 8, Prophet 5, Moog, Oberheim, and many more)

Uses the same Motorola DSP chips as in the Clavia Nord Lead 3, but has only 5 instead of 6 in the Nord. That's why only 16 voices polyphony. But it has a DSP for effects alone!

Here's where it gets a bit troubling. I've bought mine used and got it with the original power-supply (which gets quite hot). And after a couple of days, the unit started to show some problems:the display would go dark and LEDs would light-up and some others would blink and no sound would come out of the unit.

E-mailed Novation, and got a reply the next day. They told me it sounded like a bad power-supply problem, and they gave me the address and phone number of the distributor for Novation products here in Canada. Called them up and they told me they would have to order one since they didn't have that item in stock and I would have to wait about a week to have it delivered. The cost? $125 cdn !!!!
WAY too expensive for me for a simple power-supply (a third of the cost of the whole unit! )

So, since I have some background in electronics, I decided to repair it myself. It turns out that there was a defective soldering joint on one of the wires on the circuit board.

I havent had a problem since...

The Nova itself seems well made, but does get warm after a while.

Novation should have provided a better quality power-supply.
Unfortunatly, the Nova requires a special power plug (female 5 pins DIN) so you cannot use another power-supply easily. It needs +5 volts, +12 volts, -12 volts.

Got a quick reply to my email, but the replacement part was too expensive (power-supply).
But the service was very good.

Since it is working fine now (see above) I just LOVE that unit! I used to own a Korg MS2000R which was almost as great as this one, except only 4 voices of polyphony and no reverb effect and only 2 parts multi-timbral, so I sold it to get this one. I don't regret it one second!

I'm using version 4.1 and its pretty good. The preset sounds were fine but its a lot better making your own sounds on this thing to fit your music needs. Yeah, it does take a while to get the sound you really desire but the solo oscillator function is really handy. The manual is online and really basic but you shouldn't really need it as everything is right in front of you to play around with. I give it a nine because of those hidden sounds that take you too long to get.

You're probably going to want an external midi keyboard for this as it only has a 'demo' that plays a little jingle for the sound. 16 polyphony is usually enough (v3.0 only has 12) very rarely do I run out of room. Multitimbral for real, you can go into 'performance' mode and seperate the six 'programs' to midi channels 1-6. And the 'sequencer' sucks a ton. I never use it. The only effects I even think about using are chorus, distortion and subtle delay. The reverb is pretty awful. Too much delay sounds cheesy also.

This is why I own it. Huge range of sounds and everyday I can come up with something new. You can even grab those presets, change them a little and you have completely different and (sort of) original sound. The only thing I can complain about is the NOISY outputs. The Nova is about 5 times more noisy than the rest of my equipment combined. You can manage though by turning the master volume up on the Nova and your mixer volume down and also by limiting the amount of effects you use. It seems to clip a bit more often then my other equipment while using effects.

Yeah, some of the 'fast data' knobs near the top are getting wobbly but other than that it is built like a tank. No problems here and haven't had problems gigging. Hasn't crashed on me once.

Haven't had to deal with them

If it were lost or stolen I'd buy it again. Its a great instrument especially if you're not filthy rich. A lot of sound for not a lot of money. I really enjoy that it is truly multitimbral and that you can create your own sounds. I also enjoy that as soon as you have all your sounds ready that it is a breeze so set up your 'performance' and you can start making music right away. Only things I don't enjoy are the noisy outputs and the long editing process sometimes. Overall a 10.

i am writing this after owning the nova for over one year now, in addition to my earlier review.
i still like the nova a lot. things which i dont like: the sonic possibilities are not very big. you have to search around for a while to get the desired sound, but its definitely possible to achieve. its just hard work compared to other modern VAs out there sometimes.
the effects are really annoying.
in general i am really surprised how cheap you can get one of those these days, so its still a good bargain..

Presets good. Editing simple- press button, twist knob, job done.
Manual's ok.

Good poly. Truely multitimbral effects- one of the most noticeably good things. Everything MIDIable.

D&B, dance, ethereal, fab.

Solid.

Nothing's gone wrong yet.

I'd buy another in a flash.
If I have to struggle to gripe, it's that you I can't turn off the blip sound when you press a button.

O.S 4.3, The presets are awsome on this beast. Editing of patches is as simple as TWEEEEEEEAAK and bammo, something new, something exciting. I still haven't even opened the manual and I am churning out killer tracks with a more pro sound than anything I have done in the last 20 years of playing.

In every respect this unit provides plenty of everything and anything I need. MIDI response is immediate and very solid using it with a JX 305. Pressure sensitivity and after touch fine depending on the patch.

Ok, why the fuck would you buy a Novation if you are after realistic sounds. This machine is a ballsy piece of gear and absolutely the perfect workhorse for all forms of electronica from 80's style Yazoo, Depeche Mode through to the latest Trance, Techno, D&B sounds.

Solid as a rock. Its sending me back to live performance after 5 years stuck in the studio.

N/A

After 15 years playing guitar in various punk/ska/indy bands, I've found something that has revitalised my enthusiasm for contemporary music and performance. I can't wait till I start to explore my Nova and find out a plethora of exciting new directions. I also use a JX 305, a TG33 ( I love the pads on this baby), S550 sampler, Juno 106, Korg Poly 800, SH101, Kawai KX5 and I still pull out my Vantage guitar and Ibanez base. Just buy the thing and start groovin' cats. Peace !

i think this synth is pretty nice for making trance,i used to use old analog stuff because of their straight forward sound,now i have the nova for about 2 years and it still come up with some new sounds.the way i use nova is multimbral mode in combination with my computer, and i believe that nova is very easy to use that way..

This is addition to my earlier review. I'm using OS4.01, not 3.0. Very easy to use.

Check my earlier review.

I make electro-ambient and this synth is great addition to my other equipment. I use it mainly for synth lines, distorted sequences and additional backing stuff like effects etc. It's not good for everything, quite good for basic analog-type stuff.

Knobs feels good and it's build like a tank (metal), no bugs.

Never used.

I would buy it again. It's very important synth in my setup: Roland Juno 106, Roland Jupiter 6, Roland XV-3080, Yamaha AN1x, Yamaha FS1r, Kawai K5000R, Novation Nova, Elektron Sidstation, Elektron Machinedrum, Waldorf Microwave XT, Waldorf Pulse.

i am using OS 4.01...The Presets are mainly crap...they dont show the capabilities of this great machine..Editing the patches is very easy, this is one of the most logical laid out synths that i know..

polzphony is 16 voices, and 6 part multitimbrality...thats really ok, and its enough for my needs. the built in effects are crap...the delay is usable off course, and partz of the distortion..i wish there would be more parameters existing for changing the distortions sound a little bit to my own likes...There is an onboard arpeggiator, with manz patterns, but i dont use it much..

i reallz like the filters of this machine...the sound gives me that "Juno"- feel i am baldy missing on other VAs like the nord, or the virus...

seems to be sturdy built...i guess i wouldnt take it to a gig...

this is the most convincing VA i have been playing on so far. it suits my style of making music, and it has a wide array of sounds to generate..for that price of 550 euro that i paid for it, its unbeatable..i think i would buy it again...i wish it had a better EQ section, with parametric mids...otherwise its incredible...BUY IT!!!