Novation Nova

v3.0 Software. The layout makes perfect sense and editing is easy. No need for a software editor. Compared to my JP8080 the interface is a dream. The manual sucks - though you won't need it much. The presets are good and give you a good idea of what this thing is capable of.

6-part multitimbral. Separate effects section for each part. Once again this thing is very user friendly. I've had it for 3 months and I've completed more songs in a short period of time than ever before. Compared to my JP8080 this thing is very user-friendly. No expansion card slot or anything - you'll need to use your computer librarian or dump patch data as syex into your sequencer. There is a studio module for cubase available as well as an adaptation for SoundDiver.

Great sounds. At least as good as any other virtual analog concerning sound quality, thickness of the sound etc.. The only thing it doesn't do well are the thinern, distorted type sounds like the access virus. The distortion algorithm in the effects section is not really aggressive and overdriven, it's more mild.
All the effects included delay, chorus, flange etc. have extensive capabilites for syncing to MIDI clock. The arpegiator also syncs to midi clock (and it's got user-programmable locations to store user patterns you come up with). I can't imagine using this thing for anything but dance/techno type music. It ios certainly tailored to this crowd. My latest song is currently up near the top of the trance charts at mp3.com ( http://www.mp3.com/AlphaZone ). This song is almost all nova so you can get an idea of what's possible.

No problems yet. It's very compact and well built so I'd expect problems with electronics-related things if anything.

Great customer support. There's a Novation messageboard at Dancetech that is fairly active. Novation employess contribute on a regular basis. You can reach them on the phone easily.

I'd buy it again in a second.
I've been doing electronic music for 8 years. As far as synths I currently own the Nova, Korg Wavestation, Alesis QS8, Roland JP8080.
In the past I've also owned Roland JP8000, Ensoniq EPS, Kawai K1, Roland JP8000. The Nova is my favorite of any of them. I get so much work done with it. You can't beat the price on this gem.

Version 3.0 Software. Eeeeasy to use. The presets are quite useful and accurate emulations. This unit has a good punchy sound that can either stand out or blend seamlessly into a mix. Editing could not be much simpler. 20 knobs and 60+ buttons make editing a joy and no digital stepping sound ever enters the mix while you tweak away. The manual is by far the best cure for insomnia to date.

The nova only has twelve voices. Keep in mind that there are 3 oscillators per voice and things can become extremely thick in a performance. I've only run out of polyphony once or twice but this really is not a tremendous shortcoming. The effects sections is very flexible and allows you to create some very comlex timbres. It also responds very well to velocity and aftertouch which can bring some of the sleeper sounds to life. And the arpeggiator is great fun. It is really a music composer allowing you to quickly arrange and create a complex moving sound that can fit pretty mych any musical taste. A BIG 10 for bang for the buck.

The main focus of this machine is to emulate analogue type sounds from synths of yesteryear. Like the TB303 - it does it well. Oberheim style fatness - it's got it. ARP's - very convincing. The acoustic emulations, however, are a bad joke. Buy a sampler or some all in one workstation if that's your bit. Techno, dance, industiral, new age, and even rock can be accomodated with this unit. As mentioned the unit is equipped with an outstnding effects unit and the filter is really fat and fuzzy.

This is one well made piece of equipment. All of the knobs and buttons have a quality feel. If you want the true analogue experience without the hassles of repair bills, instruments that won't stay in tune, overheating problems, non MIDI capable, and tempermental operating quirks then buy this machine. You won't be diasappointed and most likely won't know the differnce.

Have not had to deal with them but the website is the most user freindly of any available. All updates are absolutley free and a downlaodabel into the NOVA via MIDI. A definite plus.

the nova can be as hard or as easy to use as you want it to be, if you stick to the preset sounds then youll be able to throw up tunes in no time but if your more into creating your own then it takes a little longer but thats not such a bad thing, the longer it takes me to work on a sound the more satisfied i am with the finished product.
if you know very little about analogue then the manual can be a bit of a nightmare, it seems to be wrote for those who already know it all, but saying that your better off just messing about with the machine and reading the manual when you come across problems.

the nova has 12 voice polyphony and 6 part multitimberal, not as much as supernova but more than most other analogue modelling synths. the effects are realy sharp and can have 42 of them going at once which i found pretty impressive and the vocoder is crystal clear, theres also two inputs for what ever you want to plug into it and it transmits every turn of a button dial nob switch etc through midi.

nova should be shot for the beats or should i say beat that they included in the programs, ive never heard anything so crap. they have provided everything you need to make a track but missed out on the percussion, so youll have to invest in a drum machine/sampler to go along with it,
the preset sounds are aimed at the dance market (techno trance etc), if your into that then no doubt you could have a track made in minutes but to be honest its more fun ripping the novas presets to bits to create your own stuff. (ive given it eight for the lack of percussion.)

so far i have had no problems with the nova(touch wood), ive done a few live sets and it seems to handle it self, its a lot smaller than what i thought it would be but its actualy quite solid and sturdy,
i know this may sound daft but the feet on the bottom stick to surfaces like glue so it doesnt slide about.

never dealt with them (thank god)

it took me a while to decide between pc synth or hardware, to be honest i would of chosen software but i do occasional live stuff and i cant trust my pc as far as i could throw it.
so far ive had nothing but joy with it, ive got it hooked up with a sampler and a work station and im writing constantly, to be honest by pc has gone redundant. if your thinking about getting this go for it but take in mind youll need beats and a sequencer to go on top.

Very easy to use, especially if you've had to work with machines with long lists of parameters that you have to scroll through just to find one little thing. Editing sounds on the Nova is a joy and a breeze. You do have to go through some menus, but none of them are ever more than 4 or 5 lines long, and the lcd is bright and clear. The presets are somewhat crappy and too 'effected,' but a few are useful as a starting point for making your own sounds. The manual is as good as it needs to be, and I haven't really looked at it yet. Half of it is just a table of midi implemntations for all the beautiful lfo's and envelopes and filters and effects. Version 3.0, i think.

6 voices, 3 oscillators (plus 2 ringmods,noise, and external input) per voice. 7 effects, a filter, 2 lfo's 3 envelopes per voice. vocoder can be used on only one voice at a time, but how many vocoded sounds would you want to have at once anyway. the arpeggiator seems powerful, but i will probably never use it. effects and lfo's are MIDI-syncable.
the most brilliant thing about this machine are the filters, which are fat and warm and screaming and fuzzy and all the other superlatives that can be heaped on VA filters. on the other hand, they can also be subtle. linking frequency or resonance to lfo's envelopes, or mod wheel is very easy and intuitive. effects are all good, though maybe a little less editable than i imagined they would be; for my purposes though they are more than enough, and you can have seven of them a time! well more like 6, since the vocoder can only be on one voice and EQ is not really an effect. 6 1/2 then. whatever, they're nice and you can change their order to your likiing, i.e. delay>>chorus>>reverb, or >>distortion>>chorus>>delay, or whatever. I'm somewhat disappointed that you can't put filters after effects instead of the other way around, but I will get over this because all i really need is good filters for raunchy bass sounds and mashed-up breakbeats and hard distored electric piano hits and dynamic undulating pads and the nova's filters do all the above for me.
I chose the nova over the supernova because of price and inputs. my sampler now has much more potential use now that i can route it through the nova's filters and effects.
there are many other features to this thing, go read a magazine if you want the full scoop.
oh and the unit itself is very inviting and tactile. it is a tasteful dark blue with a matte-like metal face. the knobs feel solid and sturdy, though unfortunately they are non-infinite and don't pick up at the programmed value. if i had to complain about anything, it might be that the buttons feel a little stiff and everything is very small, which makes the nova a veritable arthritis breeding grounds if you are an obsessive twiddler like myself.
the only reason i'm putting a 9 instead of 10 is because of low polyphony, but i myself haven't had any problems with this yet. i'd rather have 6 voices with 6 independent effects each than 16 voices with only 3 effects to share among the whole lot.

i'm using this for drum 'n bass and trip hop, so it's all basslines, pads, organs, pianos, and effects for me. the factory organs and pianos are somewhat weak, but i think a little tweaking can make them usable. the nova uses the same sound engine as the supernova, so the sound overall is excellent and very versatile too. don't come looking for realistic sounds, that's not the focus of this machine. implenting velocity, aftertouch, and mod wheel responses is very easy.

i've only had it a couple days now, but it seems very dependable and i would bring it to a gig.

haven't had to deal with them yet, but i hear they're okay and pretty on top of things when it comes to updates and the like. O.S. updates can be downloaded and then transferred via MIDI.

I compared with JP8000 and Nord Lead. It's more versatile than both in terms of the sounds you can get out of it. Other than that i don't have much experience in VA, so I can't say much about it's place in that whole arena, but from what i've heard the super/nova's sound is as good as or better than anything out there.

Uses latest OS ver 3.0. It is pretty easy to use once you know how. Once you get your head around how sounds are put together then its pretty easy. The presets sound good especially the pads, leads, stabs, basses. The pianos sounded pretty awful to me and they will be the first thing that I lose when I get around to rolling my own. The manual while thorough could be better. It would benefit from a more tutorial like approach in addition to the section to section layout.

12 note polyphony, 6 voices, 7 independent effects per voice which sound pretty good to me. Vocoder and audio input. No expansion capabilty but then it is a very small box which you could fit in the pocket of your trenchcoat.
Midi is good, knob changes recordable etc.
The onboard arpeggiator looks very powerful.
In short, this has everything that the more expensive Supernova has in terms of architecture but with reduced polyphony, fewer audio outs, fewer parts and less memories. However, it does have different presets (improved in my opinion), a vocoder (brilliant) and audio ins and it is very small (brilliant). In a head to head at the Turnkey shop in London, the Nova sounded much better than its bigger brother but this may have been due to the Supernova having an old version of the operating system loaded.
If you want all the polyphony in the world then I guess that the Supernova is your man. However, if like me you have a few synths and you dont need to program whole arrangements on the one box then the nova is more than adequate. A full arrangement on the nova would probably run out of voices. I wanted it because the dance sounds were much richer and had more prescence than on my sample based synths. However, I think the drums, pianos, brass and other parts are better on other machines and I wont use them. It is unlikely that I will ever use more than 3 voices at the same time. If I wanted/needed more than this I would definately have purchased the Supernova.

Real instruments (pianos, drums etc) are not too good. Synthesiser noises are the best Ive ever heard on a digital synth.
Dance, techno etc is what this box is for.
All the usual stuff for velocity, aftertouch is there. The onboard effects are good and perhaps overused in the presets.

Havnt had it that long.

Never dealt with them, hope I never have to.

If it was lost Id be very upset and would buy another. I compared this with its big brother and chose this because it was smaller, cheaper, sounded better and I didnt need the polyphony voices of the more expensive box. I also wanted the vocoder. They are both brilliant and would not hesitate in recommending anyone to try them out.