Novation SuperNova II Rack

I'm using version 2.0, I think (I write this out of my head due to some free time on work:-)

The presets are numerous but many of them are more or less look-alike, if we're talking about the same category. There are some good presets, but I would use some of them as they are very rarely. This synth needs to be programmed. Otherwise, you willn't get the majority of it's sound capabilities. You could say presets aren't it's strenght.

Editing patches is really easy and fun job. Due to it's good interface, I'm enjoing tweaking sounds on SN2 rack most of all my synths.

Manual? I really wouldn't know. I haven't use it at all.

24 voices of polyphony aren't enough sometimes, expecially when layering sounds, but good enough for studio work.

Effects are OK, but nothing special. Virus has better effect by far, expecially the new ones, like TI. I can't use SN2 as an effect processor 'cause the sound losts a lot of its nature and gets a bit plastic or digital, as you prefer. Virus Classic is much better and more usefull as an external signal processor.

Arpeggiator is really good. Lots of patterns and fun to use.

It respones really nice to aftertouch. With good midi controler, it's fun to play.

Sound? Well, a lot of work is needed to make it sound good, unlike some of my other synths, like Virus or JD990. Good for mellow, warm pads, basses (huge, better than Virus or JP8080 in VA sphere, but a little bit clean sounding), and some other "analog" sounds, but needs a lot of work.

The best part are oscillators, imo. With various setings, like width or hardness and sync, one can get many good exciting resaults.

Fiters are ok, but not for constant use. They have one of small number of sweet spots and that's it. Sweeps are far better on some other synths, ATC-X or Virus, in my case.

You have to be carefull with envelopes. Same as filters they have the sweet spot where they sounds "analog", but most of other times, they aren't.

SN isn't the best thing for strings and good "digital" pads.

Sounds like plastic or glass sometimes, and although that's most of the time really bad thing, it can be settled in the mix very well.

Very unique sound, that's for sure. I could recognise SN from a mile. The best example is "Good Is a DJ", from Faithless. Most of the song is made using SN: the main melody, pads, bass, percussions. Not all of the tracks, but the most of them for sure.

I use it in my home studio. Never left the room and works perfectly.

Works fine. Never had to contact the support.

I wouldn't buy it again, if it were stolen. But, as a addition to my other synth, it's great. Works the best when layered with other synth. SN + JD is great combination for all type of pads, for example. I have a Virus Classic, JD990, EX5, ATC-X and 05RW, too.

I'm using OS 1.5 and it was fairly easy to figure out...I had a little help from a friend (Shout out to Chris Garrett "Stone") to use it with Logic

It has a killer vocoder and its 24 voice is expandable to 36 or 48

Awesome sounds that can be used in any genre of music

Owned it for 6 years and its still thumpin'

updates were on the website

It is the real deal... sounds can be made from scratch

OS 2.0 1024 user-rewritable patches, about half of which are ok. Lots of repeated sounds (there's like 200 of the same bass and chorus pad sounds). Editing is pretty simple. Manual is nice and explanatory.

Mine is basic 24-voice version. Effects are nice, although distortion is too digitally harsh imho. 1024 rewritable presets is very generous of Novation indeed. Only saw/square waveforms. The unique feature it has (except tons of fxs and having that smooth liquid sound overall) - it's attack envelope section can me looped, I find it interesting. I gave Virus C a "10", so I can't give this one more than 7.

Very unique digital sounds. Very thin (effects can't hide that). Crappy distortion makes sounds annoyingly unpleasant and tiresome if you use it too much. Well, contrary to most reviewers here, I'd like to say that I don't think it's very dance-oriented synth, although it's marketed as one and is used by wannabe-pro-trance artists. Certainly it can't do typical hardcore dance/trance sounds right, no matter how hard you try. It's best role in dance tracks is original sounds (for sort of hooks) as a spice. Instead it can give you ultra-smooth unique sounds like pads, fxs, and some not type-specific sounds, that will work fine in non-dance-related electronica subgenres.

Nice synth for additional synth sounds. Hardcore trance producers will be dissapointed if they count on this one as the only VA in their setup. But if you have some other VAs, and you're do general electronica and pop - you will like it. It's pretty limited (like a Nord Rack 2X) in term of sound versatility, but scores high at "uniquness" category. It does not overlap with any of other VAs (well, neither of those VAs I have (Virus C, Nord Rack 2X, Roland JP8080) overlap with each other anyway, they're too different), so I think it's a good addition to any studio.

Version 2.0
Editing is tricky even with all of the knobs and buttons-you constantly have to change modes, pages, and data knobs.
The Manual is very quirky and puts too much text in any given paragraph- this is not a beginners synth.

This a 24 voice unit (expandable)
The effects are killer with up to 7 on one sound.
The Vocoder is awesome-one of the best Ive heard
The sequencer requires patience and great understanding to use it effectively.

Great sounds- works pretty well in the track especialy for trance,acid,dance,techno.
MIDI and controller are very responsive.

Its never crashed on me.

There is a bug:the patch level distorts internally on many of the patches- I have had to lower the level down from 127 to 45 on many of them!Important - this is not a volume issue of the unit itself but the "patch" level of programming.

Using OS2 (hoping for a new os to come)
The Presets sound great. Mostly like trance and electronica style.
The editing, is very easy, if you understand what all the knobs do,
and what it all mean.
The manual is ok. Easy to find stuff, and tells you have analog synthesis works.

Mine is 24 voice. You can upgrade the polyphony to 48 voices.
In action, everything is midi. You can turn a knob or push a button, and everything gets inn to the sequenser. You can even change the performance. Change patch. The sequenzer records everything.

The effect session is the best part of this thing. 7 effects on each part in a performance. You can use different delay setup on each part, different reverb, chorus, distortion setup on each part.
With no loss in polyfony.

You can change velocity via a knob.
It has an programable arpeggiator session.

As you turn knobs end press menu buttons. You'll get the full view of the Supernova II RACK

This thing sound analogue. Can make it do other classic analogue synths. It has good effects. The delay is very programable and syncable. So is the other effects. Just click on the menu button next to the Effect knobs. Sounds great. The velocity can be adjusted via a knob on the panel.

But the down side is that you can hear that it is a supernova on every patch. Many patches sounds more or less abit of the same. Unless you do drastic changes in the sound. I think the virus can sound more different because of the waveforms.

Have never experienced loss of data. But when I change patches with the knobs, I hear "zipp" sounds. Another thing is when I listen to the patches by pushing find button, and I change patch, you can still hear the previous patch untill it finnishes. Hapens every time with the LFO Madness patch

Not tech support for my Country. But they answer the mail.
You can upload your patches and banks to their websites in exchange of goodies. You can win stuff.

I would not buy it again. I got this for 1000$, a super offer. I think I buy a KS RACK. But it was worth what I paid for it.
I use a Roland XP-30 as a master keyboard, works fine. I have been playing for a year.

I don't hate it. I love it. Very flexible and looks great too. I compared it with, Virus B/C, Nordlead 3,
Waldorf Q, Waldorf XKT. But I got this for a very good prise. But I think it is on the same level as these other synths. I'm planing to get a Waldorf or Nordlead, just to get some variation of the sounds inn my music.

Sorry if my English is bad. Please send me mail.

Never did a software upgrade.. my sn2r is a pure virgin.

Presets suck imo, but that could be explained by saying that I'm not interested in any dance/trance related sounds. Anyway, I can't remember a synth that comes with great presets out of the box.

Editing is easy and fast, except for the first night :) The 2nd day, the snowball starts rolling and in the end you're editing, creating and playing your own sounds like a kid that looks around in a toyshop.

Manual.. do musicians ever read manuals anyway? The manual is quite silly in some places, but on the other hand, who cares.. the machine is so simple-to-use!

My model is the standard 24 voice model, when you use it as a 1-part performance synth, no problems. However, I can imagine that sequencing with it leads to notecuts..

Effects are very useful, each part has its own effects and that deserves thumbs-up! The chorus/phaser/flanger can be set to 0-rate, meaning that you can create resonators and such.. quite nice when you work on realistic instruments.

As said, imo built-in presets suck. And that was my first impression when listening in the shop! I sortof ordered it 'blind', based on the specs alone. However, I assume it's great when you do this kind of music.
If you're doing Vangelis-style music (70's/80's style Vangelis), it's great for everything related to that kind of style.
I managed to create some realistic voices with the sn2r, such as realistic toms, shakuachi (including the overblowing!), solo violin and violin ensemble (8 solo violins :), french horn ensembles, choirs, many synvoxes and lots more.

The sn2r would benefit a lot from additional LFOs and Envelopes, and there could have been a better routing system. I also miss decent scaling. FM is nice in theory, but when you can't scale your oscs (operators) better prepare for some aliasing then (it *is* a digital synth!).
There are some minor thingies that could be fun, but aren't suported yet.. such as inverting a single oscillator, a more yamaha-style way of implementing FM, a sync that doesn't cause aliasing, a standard LFO for creating analog-fluctuations without offering the normal ones, random delay, comb-filtering as part of the voice structure, not just as part of the FX group, more voice settings to modify in the part editor, range-edge-fading in the range editor of the part editor etc. Other than this, it's a damn fine workhorse, with solid crisp sounds, fat, meaty, professional, wide-ranged ..!

The FX are part of the sounddesign, and that rocks! Wanna use the reverb for something weird, off you go, don't worry! Not that shared DSP crap anymore.....which is indeed a hint to other manufacturers making usualy more expensive machines than Novation!

Sometimes it crashes at startup.. but it's not anoying enough to run an update :)
The only issue I have is the 2 knobs next to the display, sometimes they slip.. meaning that you are twisting them around and around, while the parameters don't move along..
Other than that, it looks and feels quite reliable!

Never had any serious problems.. lets try to keep it that way!

If it was stolen, I would .. .. did you ever see "Cape Fear" ? The price is worth it.. for some people it's alot of money, but it's not expensive at all.

I'm playing for 18yrs since I started with pianolessons.. however, I consider myself a composer (doing leaders etc. for tv/film), not a live player.
Other gear: JD800, JD990, FS1r, SY77, DX7, Korg Poly61, 2 good PC's
I couldn't be without FM as well, and I rate the SY77 equality high as the sn2r.. the computers, SY and the SN2r would be my stuff to take to a tropical island.. that is, if they've power overthere ..!

Very easy to use, if are familiar with programming analog gear you'll have no trouble at all programming the SNIIR. All the vital functions are available right in front of you.
The presets are great! Variating from hard-edged growling basses to warm & lush pads.
The manual is pretty simple but so is the machine! It's all so... logic! The manual gives you step-by-step instructions, so you'll be up and running in just minutes.
People are complaining about bugs in the OS, but i haven't noticed any at all (OS 1.5)

Polyphony 24, 8 voices.
The effects section is massive! 7 -independent- effects for each sound. That means you can set different reverbs and delays for each sound! Some say the reverb sounds metallic and i must agree, BUT don't use too much of it and it sounds great! Expansion-boards are available to expand the standard polyphony from 24 to 36 or 48(!).
All the buttons and knobs sends MIDI-data.

This synth is for analog freaks and analog freaks only, don't expect any realistic guitars or pianos but analog madness.
The analog-emulation is definately the best i've ever heard. It's the next best thing!

I would gig it without a backup. It feels very sturdy. The only thing i am worried about is the midi and euro connectors on the back, they seem a little bit weak.

I had some trouble setting it up (my own stupidity) and i sent an e-mail, got the problem solved 30 minutes later! Thats pretty fast customer support.

I would pick it all over again. I love it, the sounds, the feel, everything. This is a very inspirational bit of gear.

I have a new 1.5 O.S. and it sounds great; very lush orchestral sounds
and very authentic leslie function for organ sounds. All others I have tried, fail miserably at any leslie simulation offered. This unit offers very advanced midi programming to boot.

The built in effects are a real plus for this unit and I found they
can add a wealth of texture to your original sound. I'm wondering what kinds of sounds are available on the expansion card as I own the 24 voice model. It should be interesting to see and hear. I've not had this long so it will take a little to see all it does but the sound is killer. esp. the low end of the audio spectrum; you want bass, you got it. Hope your system can handle it's hot low end signal.

It is a very expressive unit handling finger touch well and converts it to a very dynamic range of sounds depending on velocity and pressure characteristics of the key strikes. Aftertouch keyboard is
well recommended. If you buy this unit for any reason, let it be the
quality of sound output. It is TRUE fidelity. Music truly to one's ears.

Only change I would make is to go with higher quality full shaft pots.
Also I would change the knobs to setscrew retained ones as well.
And, the printing on the panel gets lost in the dark colors of panel.
should be a little larger type point and all white characters.
I have no technical reliability issues. It is rock solid construction.

Nick B. is a very helpful contact. He has given me any support I asked
for prior to purchasing unit. (technical specs., etc.)

I don't play a lot of keys as I'm a guitarist by trade but am stretching out a bit as I play some keys too. This baby sings.
I am having a ball with it. You will too!

I have updated to OS 1.5. It is very easy to use. It is the first synthesizer that I have used, and after 2 months I have mastered it. The manual is great at explaining how synthesis works, but nothing beats turning knobs and pressing buttons!

Great polyphony compared to other synths. I have the 36 voice rack model. Excellent effects that are very easy to get to and edit. Can expand-- add more voices, up to 48, and also add a digital I/O card. Then I can use the digital spdif output to my MD recorder instead of analog. Excellent MIDI support, can control any feature through MIDI so your sequencer can record and play back any knob move, button press, etc.

The presets are quite broad and VERY nice. There aren't a lot of presets that are harsh enough for my tastes, but a few knob turns takes care of this. Very lush, though. Awesome sonic range! I love the sounds, and the fact that with the OS update to version 1.5 you get 6 oscillators per voice!! I have read another review complaining about distortion and cutting out. Please note that when you are triggering 15 occurences of a patch that is using 4 voices, then you are going to use more voices than the synth has. ANd yes, it is going to cut out. But rest assured, I don't know of many other synths with as many voices as the Novation comes with. The sounds are very diverse, and truly amazing!!

I would trust this on stage with no backup. It seems rock solid thus far. I have logged many, many hours with no disruptions, no crashes, no problems. I have no reason not to depend on it!

Novation has a reputation for solid backing of their products. I have no first hand knowledge of this, however. Because I have had no problems with mine!

I would buy it al over again, and recommend it to anyone looking for a great synth. It is worth what I paid! I looked at a few other synths-- korg, virus, (skipped everything by roland), nord. It simply has much more. Perhaps an Alesis andromeda sounds better (it is true analog, not analog modeling), but it is also a grand more, and has much less features. And the difference in sound may not be noticable enough to pay that much more. There is no other synth I would buy. Get the rack model, no reason to pay that much more just to have a keyboard. Use any MIDI controller keyboard, like a fatar or something. Save a few hundred dollars this way!

The SNIIR is a bit difficult to understand at first, but once you get the hang of it its pretty easy to use.

This board has more features then one can easily immagine, this is its b strength, its very flexable.

The onboard effects are so so -- but thats outdone by the fact that theres just so plain many of them .. another strength of the SNIIR design. The sounds that come with it are all very pretty, some are a bit thin, I think the synth would have benifited from a 4th oscilator.

I've only had it for 2 days, and have noticed some problems with it. I seem to be able to make it distort by triggering alot of voices on a single channel, and one patch (A007) seems to use fantastic ammounts of processor power -- trigger 10 or 15 of this patch, and the machine will distort and cut out. However most of the sounds are so rich you won't be using 15 of them at once. (e-mail omegadan@thehumbleguys.com if you want a midi file which makes it distort)

haven't dealt with em yet

I've pointed out some problems, but its really still a pretty good synth. Anyone interested in some electronica or dance tunes would do well with it. One also must remember the OS is still on version 1.3, hopefully some of the issues I mentioned will be addressed in future versions.

Now, I haven't had this machine for more than two days. However, since it is built to be like the old synthesizers used to be, I didn't have any problems twisting and turning knobs and pushing buttons to create some awesome sounds already.

I am using version 1.3. The inbuilt programs are good starter sounds. If one wants to have some meat on which to shape, there a plenty variations to reshape. If one's into building totally from scratch, there's an Init Program function.

It is like editing on an older type synth, with gazillion of buttons and knobs. This is a class act synthesizer.

I am not really into manuals, but they have been known to follow the master into the little room. It seem to cover what would be needed to understand the machine and some sound concepts. But, if you've done synthesizer in the PAST, you don't really need the book.

Stunning! I got what I expected and MUCH MUCH more. This machine can do synthesizer sounds, it does not do sample playback aka acoustic sounds, and other complex presamples. But, oh, are the sounds good. Oh yeah! I really don't know how to express it, but if you're not into synth sounds (as in vintage etc.) DO NOT go for this machine. That is what it does, and it does it excellent excellent excellent!

Just got it two days ago, so I can not state an opinion (but the hope of a #10 rating in this category is there).

Never dealt with Novation. As far as upgrades, one can download them from http://www.novationusa.com or http://www.novationuk.com, free of charge of course.

Absolutely brilliant!

This is The ultimate synth if you're into vintage sounds, real old SYNTHESIZER sounds, AND it has all those cool electronica sounds one could ever ask for.