Novation Supernova

Software version 3.0, I haven't upgraded yet. The presets are pretty good, unlike on many synthesisers, though many of them had been overwritten on my SN because it was second-hand. As most people know by now, editing patches with the plethora of knobs (or even with the few menus that there are) is simplicity itself.

This synth still holds its head up today when it comes to polyphony and multitimbrality on a virtual-analogue. For the three of you who don't know: 20 voice polyphonic (with this OS), 8-part multitimbral, and -- what is still one of the Supernova's USPs -- 56 simultaneous effects (seven on each multitimbral part)! Practically everything is transmittable over MIDI. The synth responds, as you would expect, to velocity and aftertouch.

When it came out, the Supernova was geared slightly towards the top end of the dance music makers' market. However, it's no one-trick pony. The simple fact is that it is the equivalent of eight "analogue" polysynths in one box, with full editability and effects. The sound is not quite as authentic as some newer efforts such as the Alesis Ion/Micron, but it beats them in other respects, and sounds far better than most software VAs. Sure, the Supernova doesn't quite have the raw timbre of a Moog or an ARP, but as an 'analogue workhorse' for general purpose use in tracks, it is outstanding. And unlike many software VAs, with the honourable exception of Absynth, the Supernova, when it's not emulating the classics, has its own unique sound too.

This is possibly the best-quality machine Novation have ever produced, in terms of build quality and overall feel of 'expensiveness'. Not even the fantastic keyboard versions are quite as rugged. I would gig with this box with no problem, and know a lot of people who have gigged theirs.

Novation's customer support is famously good. No problems with them at all.

This synth is worth every penny of what I paid for it, especially when it was almost #1300 new! The Supernova has stood the test of time. Other synths, with the exception of the Access Virus series, have fallen by the wayside; but the Supernova is still going strong. When I compare it to my other synths, it provides an analogue sound superior to that of my Yamaha CS01, at least equal in quality to that of my old SH-101 (in terms of pure analogue quality, not range of sounds) and is only slightly pipped to the post by my Moog Prodigy.

To be fair, though, comparing the Supernova to a synth which is basically a slightly cut down Minimoog isn't really fair. Sure, the Prodigy has that fantastic Moog sound that the Supernova can't hope to truly emulate. But it was #350, produces one monophonic voice, and has no effects or memories. The Supernova, which sounds almost if not quite as good, was #300 and has 20 notes of polyphony, 8 multitimbral parts, 56 effects at the same time, etc etc! No, the Supernova doesn't sound quite the same as the real classics (though it easly replaces the 'analogue also-rans'). But as a general purpose workhorse for adding sounds to your tracks, it is in my opinion almost without equal. Rating here is given for the used price.

(using version 3.0)Pretty clear and easy way of finding and altering sounds. Very easy to add and change fx. The only problem is that the arpeggiator programming is a bit complicated. The manual is over 100 pages long, and is very in depth. There are confusing aspects of it, but it really teaches you all you need to know, in order to use it.

A huge bank of preset sounds. LOTS of FX. I have the expanded version that has 44 voice polyphony, 8 part multitimberal (you can run 8 different sounds at the same time, and can assign each one a different midi chanel). Lots of options, lots of buttons. Everything I have ever needed is here.

Amazing. You can get your hard crazy techno sounds (similar to Warp Bros), you can get your traditional Trance Lead, your basic dance sounds, AMAZING bass, and insane fx. All the fx have there own settings. I have the rackmounted version, using a Roland PC-70 controller, and the velocity is very good.

Never had any problems.

Who knows? I have never needed any assistance for this beast.

This is the ultimate synth. Perfect, except it could use some better hi hats and snares. Besides that, very much worth the money I paid.

4.0... that xtra filter is GREAT...ptcahes are very simple to edit. The manual is ok.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT..SUK SUK SUK..they have change from GREAT to SUK over the year. THEY MAKE PROMISES THAT THEY CAN NOT KEEP... NO MORE NOVATION PRODUCT 4 ME....

how GOOD can a product be without providing good support....

I think the manual is real good. And thats about all that matters with most equipment if you ask me. Once you understand this , it is laid out real good. It's like my Minimoog the way it is laid out, but with way more new effects and modulation routing options. You might have a lil bit of a hard time w/ some of the midi settings. (It does get pretty in depth) It's all good though. Updating the operating system was not hard for me. I use a PC. Just make sure your sequencing program will allow you to do this. I use cakewalk ( i know,i know...i wanna get rid of it) But, i had to download a demo version of cubase so i could put the operating system onto the supernova...since cakewalk...at least the version i'm using (6.0) didn't support that.

Every button transmits midi which you can surely not complain about. I like the fact you can sync everything to midi clock (lfo's to filter...delay time...etc.) Let me say it looks beautiful in my rack too. (a necessary comment)

For me, I use the pad / string sounds the most. You can get very nice sounds from it. Sometimes I listen to it and i think to myself, "now that sounds really nice." - It sounds like a very high quality instrument. My brother owns the Access Virus as well so, they both sit in the studio...The Virus sounds very nice as well. I know many people wonder between the two when purchasing a synth..but I'd say it really comes down to what kind of sounds you want. The supernova is more like emulating old synth sounds where as the virus is doing that and adding weirder things w/ it.. you know like hybrid ..just different. I'm kinda an analog freak too.. I have a Prophet 5 and it's interesting cause there are sounds on the supernova that must be trying to sound like certain presets on the prophet.. but i'd choose the prophet over the supernova for those types of presets. Its still good to have the supernova though.. More sounds!! Yet i wonder if i got something like a juno 106 if between that and the prophet i'd kinda have all of the presets that the supernova has. If you're doing trance...i'd drop like 500 bucks on the juno. The supernova is quite expensive isn't it ?! But like i said it looks awesome and thats all that ever matters. (w/equipment and women) Just joking.

I can certainly depend on this machine to always work. I've had it for like 2 years now ...and i've noticed that the filter cutoff knob will sometimes be a little screwy. That is , of course one of the knobs i turn the most. It still totally works though.

You can do many things with this synth. The midi capabilities are quite amazing. I wish those darn special buttons did something and they didn't get our hopes up for nothing...but oh well. Many of the sounds on this sound very nice. Real nice.

My Supernova is running the most recent OS release, 3.1B2... I think its mostly bugfixes from the 3.0 version. Presets on the SN range from earbleed to total cheese. The fact that all patches can be overwritten is nice, so you can overwrite the cheesy sounds. Overall, editing on the SN is decent. Its not quite as straightforward as say, a Nord Lead or Virus, but once you figure it out its pretty straightforward. Most of the front-panel complaints are going to be addressed on the SN2, which is coming out in soon. Some of the parameters are hidden in menus, but for the most part, the most common stuff is on the front panel. One big complaint of SN users are the "Special" buttons which as of the newest OS still dont do anything... they just say "Not Available" when you press the button. Another big problem is that there is no "relative knob position" function... meaning, if you change patches, the knobs may not be in the position that the patch has it saved as, and if you turn the knob, it instantly jumps to the position that the knob is. Meaning, if you go to a patch that has a filter cutoff of 35, and the knob is at 90, if you go to turn the knob it will instantly jump to 90, which can result in some pain if you have your headphones on! There is no way to find out what the setting is before you turn the knob. This definately needs to be addressed.
The manual is okay, nothing special but nothing bad. Pretty much any questions that cant be addressed in the manual you can get answered from SN or the users community.

The Supernova's base polyphony depends on your O.S. If you have anything lower than 3.0, the polyphony is 16, but after 3.0, the polyphony is 20. An expansion pushes it to 32/44 depending on the O.S. The supernova has a comprehensive effects section, which is useful if you dont have any outboard effects gear. Considering that the SN has 8 independent outputs, having an FX section would be kind of redundant if you already have some outboard FX gear (and if you paid full price for an SN, you probably have some FX gear too) The quality of the effects is hit and miss. There is a reverb, delay, chorus/flanger/phaser, distortion, panning/tremolo, and an EQ/Special section. The reverbs range from crap to okay, its essentially a given that if you want a good reverb you would want to use a dedicated reverb box. The chorus/flanger is pretty nice, although it seems like its never a well-mixed effect, its either just somewhat present or completely drowning the sound... theres no pleasant in-between. Distortion is cool, although it also has a tendency to drown out the sound if you use it too much. Delay is really nice, it has a lot of options and can mix well. It also has several sync settings and ratios, which is very nice. Panning/Tremolo is pointless. Really. I mean it. Well, I mean, its pointless to dedicate a knob and the menus to a function that can easily be done with a sequencer or a computer. It really should have been put in a menu. One of those things that will likely be addressed in the SN2. The EQ is a bit wierd... the SN puts out a VERY hot signal to your mixer, and the EQ has a bad tendency to distort the sound "digitally" (i dont think that describes it well) if the bass is turned up.
The Midi capabilities are very very nice. All knobs and some buttons transmit midi controller data. Every function on the SN either has a controller # assigned to it or a NRPN. All can be transmitted to and from the SN. Very comprehensive. The OS can be upgraded from a computer midi file, but Ive heard that PCs have a terrible time getting it to work. Macs are kind of tricky as well.

Being a virtual analog synth, it obviously is not designed to emulate real sounds. Rich rich rich bass sounds are the SN's specialty I would say. Not necessarily thick, like a pro-one or another VA, the Virus, but very harmonically rich and full sounding. Nice leads and a great 303 emulation too.
A lot of people say that the SN is good for trance music, definately it is, but it would be good for some other things as well. You can get some really good textures and nice wierd SFX patches. I would say its good for ambient and industrial too. Maybe hardcore techno like gabber as well.

The SN is really solidly built. A real improvement over the older Novation stuff like the bass station kb, which was like a casio keyboard. Solid case (all metal) solid, VERY smooth knobs, solid backlit buttons. Definately would gig with it. Its never acted up.

Novations support is really next to none. Some people say that Access's Virus support is better, but really all they do is pump out frequent OS updates. Novation's employees are very helpful and friendly, and listen to the user's input and suggestions. Excellent people.

I really really like my SN, but I think I will sell it to get a SN2 when they come out. Its got a lot more features and is trying to do some more neat stuff. Plus a lot of improvements over the original SN.
Ive been playing for about 4 years, the SN has been a delight to use among my gear. I also own (as of now) 2 Nord Leads, a Korg Z1EX, a Kawai K5000S, a Kurzweil K2000R, Waldorf Pulse, and 2 Emu drum machines.
I love the sound of the SN. Its unique in and of its own. Rich bass sounds like I said before are the best thing it does, and I love them. The programming interface could be a little more well designed and lend itself to experimentation (a la Nord) but thats not big of a complaint.
All in all an excellent synth. I wouldnt use it as a primary synth, but definately a backing synth to add detail and texture to your tracks.

I have had the Supernova for about 6 months now. Currently the OS is 3.1.2. The presets are really incredible. There is a wide variation in 4 Program and 2 Performance banks. All patches are editable from the front where there are numerous knobs and buttons to control filters, envelopes, oscillators, LFOs and effects, as well as programming arpeggiators or choosing from preset arpeggiators, and a few other things I am forgetting at the moment. Personally I would not choose to use a patch editor even though I have SoundDiver. Everything is easy from the front panel. The manual is good, but not great. As with most synth manuals that I've seen it assumes some basic knowledge, but you can definately come to understand it all with some patience.

The Supernova I have is 8 part multitimbral with 20 voice polyphony, expandable to 44 voice. Everything will record/playback in midi including the effects, modulation, etc. Over 50 (I believe 56) effects can be applied to each voice in a multitimbral setup. It is a module so has no keyboard.

This synth is definately good for dance of various genres. The onboard effects are in my opinion excellent.

I have had no trouble with the Supernova. The OS is solid. I plan on using it for several gigs. I trust in it's reliability. Of course you want to back up anything and everything on a live gig, but than can become very expensive

The customer support is second to none amongst the manufacturers I have dealt with. Their UK website has a chat forum for Supernova/Nova owners where the programmers of the synth check in daily it seems to answer questions. I called by telephone once for tech support, had to leave a message, and was told that someone would call me back 2 days later...which did happen. I had by then figured out the answer on my own. I'd rather get immediate response but in their defense I was told that they were in the middle of moving. I don't know if they use the same policy for tech support now. In any case, there are downloads of sounds, editors, instrument definitions and environments for sequencers from their site and you can upload sounds to them as well. They even offer suggestions for creating specific sounds if you ask.

The Supernova is extremely easy to use, Simply because everything is just sitting there in front of you, If you want to change something you simply turn the knob, or at most press the menu button for the section you are adjusting (vca,vcf,lfo,etc...) and then turn the knob.

I bought it because after looking at all of the "virtual analogs" the Supernova just came out on top as far as features went. with the new OS (currently 3 beta 10) the poliphony is 20 voices(expandable to 44) which is more than I have ever needed, and more than any other virtual analog synth. The fact that every sound retains it's effects when used multitimbrally is a huge plus. No longer do you need to worry about what your arrangement will sound like when all your parts are stripped of their effects. Every single function on the supernova is midi controllable. The arpeggiator has fantastic capabilities, 8 seperate patterns can be running at once, one assigned to each part (the machine is 8 part multitimbral by the way) and they can even be syncing to differnt resolutions as well as being anywhere from 2 steps to 64 steps long. Fortunatly you can program your own patterns because the factory ones are rather cheesy. It definatly does everything it says it will and quite a bit more, but the reason I gave it an 8 is cause there are some things that seem like they should be easy to impliment but haven't been. For example, the Lfo's oscillate at audio rates but you cannot make them track the pitch of the keyboard therefore making FM synthesis not really feasable.

If you want a synth that sounds like a synth (or eight of them for that matter) then this is what you want. It has no "real" sounds. Many of the factory patches are other synth emulations, (junos, sh-101s, arps, moogs, oberheims. And at least to my ears most are fairly accurate sounding. It has a very warm rich sound. in some situations almost too warm and fat, so much that if your not carefull it has the tendency to hog the mix. Because of its flexibility you can fairly succesfully create almost any synthetic sound needed. It excels at warm, lush pads and fat punchy basses. It is probably not as well suited to harsh cutting sounds as are some other synths, the onboard distortion has only one parameter-drive and is not as hard sounding as it could be. Almost all of the other effects are very good quality, the flanger/phaser is not as intense as it could be at its maximum (same for the distortion) but these are the only shortfalls as far as effects go.

Ive only had it about 3 months but it seems fairly solidly built. At first I had some reservations because the buttons felt a little flimsy but they havent shown any sign of wear in the time I have had it. It also has the nicest knobs of any piece of equipment I have ever owned, you can actually feel the quality in how smooth the knob movement is.

I haven't needed to deal with Novation personally but they seem very supportive of their products, staff from novation commonly contribute to the Supernova E-mail list and seem very commited to keeping their customers happy.

If it were stolen I don't think I would have the money to buy another one, Assuming I did have the money I think I would probably buy a Nova (its the same synth engine but with less voices and less knobs), Because I love the sound that it can produce but in all honesty I don't really need the 8 part multi timbralness, I think I could make due with about 4 parts. I compared it with every other virtual analog synth on the market and the only thing that rivaled it was the Z1 however the Supernova beat it out in poliphony, multitimbrality, effects, and Filters.

I'm using Supernova OS 2(upgradable trough midi sysex file) The Supernova is a real killer !! About 30 knobs, 100 buttons and it Looks and Sounds Great !!! Very easy to use because so many buttons and knobs. All the knobs transmit MIDI Controllers/NRPN's so you can record just about everything in your Midi sequencer!. It has 512 presets. The manual is ok. You will learn a lot just by playing around with it, and believe me, Once you start, you can't stop!

The polyphony is 16 voices (upgradable to 32). It is 8 part multitimbral and has got 8 superquiet Outputs !! The effect section is also great. You've got delay, distortion, reverb, chorus etc, and you can use them on all 8 outputs at the same time, with different Settings! (like having 8 separate effect modules!!!!) Be sure to Control it with a pressure sensitive keyboard, and the Sky is the limit for what you could to with this machine. The only thing i miss miss is an audio Input's so you could process external sounds with the Supernova filters (like the Acess - Virus synth). It also have an the best Arpeggiator that i've seen so far (user programmable of course)

The sound it produces is Outstanding. It is VERY analoge sounding, and has a warm, rich sound. It can produce FAAAT, DEEEEP basses and light "liquid" lead sound. It can sound almost like anyhing! It reacts very well to velocity and aftertouch so get such a keyboard. I will work great with many types of music (i use my supernova primarely for dance/techno/goa). If you like, it can produce some really wicked sound.(great for dance music "background" sounds)

Hmm. During my first week, it refused to power on 2 times??,,strange, but since then It's been working really great. The current OS has got some bugs to be corrected to the next OS level.I've also only had it for about 2 months and it's my first Novation product, but it feels solid.

I haven't dealt with them, but they seem to REALLY help all the Supernova owners/users. The Supernova has got it's own mailing-list and the Novation staff contributes to the list a lot.

This is my first virtual analog synthesizer so far, and a damn good investment in my home studio. I compared it to the Waldorf XT, Clavia Nordlead2, Access Virus and the Supernova was the absolute winner. GREAT SOUND, GREAT LOOK, EASY TO USE, 8 PART MULTITIMBRAl, BUILT IN HQ EFFECT SECTION, AND MORE FUNCTIONS TO COME!! The best synthesizer so far. (voted syntheziser of the year 1998 by many music magazines. It's gonna be in my Studio for a long time. I LOOOOOVE IT!

I'm referring to OS version 1. We have 4 * 128 presets making a total of 512 presets which all sound fantastic. Due to lots of knobs and switches, preset editing is a breeze. The manual is ok.

It has 16 voice polyphony. There is an expansion board which doubles to 32 voice polyphony. It is 8 times multitimbral with a total of 7 effects (delay, reverb, chorus, equalizer, comb filter, pan, distortion) for each(!) of the 8 parts. It has 8 arpeggiators which are more like music processors! Naturally, delays and the arpeggiator is synchronizable via MIDI Clock.

This instrument sounds really analog! And it even goes beyond that. There are two ringmodulators, there are synchronization effects and 9 filter characteristics. It sounds absolutely warm & fat.

I don't have enough long-term experience with the Supernova... you know... it's new! :-)

There is a great tech support at http://www.nova-uk.com - whoever the german distributor (tsi gmbh) is lame.

It is something you must have. I compared it to other virtual analog synthesizers and my decision was... I bought the Supernova. Please read my detailed review at http://supernova.home.pages.de