Novation X-Station

Overall it's pretty easy to use if you have some idea of what midi is and the ideas behind sound manipulation and terminology. If you don't, then you'd better get ready to do some learning! Overall, it's intuitive and easy to use. So based on that, I give it a 9.

These have already been covered well-enough by others, so I won't waste my time or yours by being redundant.

Aside from not having a good-sounding standard piano patch, most of the synth patches sound pretty killer.

Here's where I'm pissed about the X-Station. The problem I have is that EVERY time I reboot my laptop (Dell Inspiron 9300) it tells me "Found new hardware!" and I'm not excited about that. In order to get the damn X-Station to work, I have to reinstall the friggin drivers EVERY TIME I WANT TO USE IT! That has become beyond annoying and often makes me want to toss the unit out the window. But I don't. I know it's the crappy drivers, not the X-Station. But still...

If you don't use it with a computer, consider my rating about a 9 or 10. But with a PC, I can't give it much at all because it is excruciatingly frustrating dealing with the driver problems. Once installed, it works okay with Nuendo but even in that there are X-Station driver-related problems. SONAR XL Producer won't even recognize the X-Station at all, so it (and it's audio inputs) are worthless with that. I can't use SONAR at all on my laptop when the X-Station drivers are installed. Still have yet to figure that one out.

No decent drivers = crappy rating. Come on Novation, get your act together and give us some friggin drivers that we can USE!

If it were lost or stolen.... I wouldn't bother replacing it. I'd get a decent audio-input unit (M-Audio or Sonus). I got the X-Station for it's multi-functionality because I play guitar and write/record on my computers. I wanted to use the audio inputs for recording guitars and midi-for controlling my soft-mixers, etc. as well as for midi-tracks. But it's been such a pain-in-the-ass that I've disconnected it, uninstalled the drivers and have stuck it back in the box. Kinda wish the 30 day return period hadn't expired. I could really use that $450 for something else.

The manual didn't help me set up Key zones, a phrase that appears in the menus but not the manual. I had to use their website to figure it out. I emailed them a question but they did not respond. It is mainly a controller so it's not too difficult to use especially because I'm NOT using it with a computer.

I like the keyboard action and that it has aftertouch. That was a big selling point. also I knew I liked the sound because I have a Novation A Station Synth that this will replace. The effects are good and easy to use but I got some distortion using the compressor I'll have to fiddle with the settings. It provides four kb zones that can send of different channels and use different parts of the kb. I can't seem to assign one zone to the internal synth though!
I have to figure that out.

The KS VA Synth is pretty cool only comes with 200 patch locations and my A Station has 400. I was unable to Sys Ex my A Station favorites to the X station though it is supposed to be possible. The manual is very thin and left me out in the cold on a couple of important functions. I like the sounds great for dance stuff. Stabs/bass/pads/leads etc. Even a couple rhodes/organ sounds I didn't expect.

I really need to hear back from their customer support on sending patches from A Station to X Station and assigning a keyboar zone to the internal synth. If you can't have the interal synth in a keyboard split with a synth module I will be shocked.

I like the X Stations sound and functionality just a little frustrated getting the answers I need. It's a new unit so online resources are negligible for now. I velcroed my Yamaha AN200 to the top right for dual VA madness and I'm having a lot of fun.

OS Version 2.3, X-station 61. Internal sound sounds good except that u can't sync any parameter to external MIDI clock. Manual instruction is not refined enough when compared to Japanese manufacturer (ie Yamaha, Roland, Korg.......), but novation did quite a fair job.

8 voice polyphony KS synth. Keyboard action, to me, a frequent piano player, excellent! The audio interface of x station sounds great for the price u pay. too bad it only offer 2 in & 2 out. If it comes with 4 output minus the spdif out it would be much more useful. The aftertouch and the x-y pad really makes a lot of differences over some soft synth. U get more control out of it!

The playback sounds excellent! Haven't tried recording anything yet as I just got it about a week ago. Mostly just for playing back & recording soft synths. Onboard FX will only be useful for monitoring as it does not provide enough editing parameters & u only get 6 effects!

So far so good! Highly recommended for LIVE use!

Using the latest OS 9/05 .Easy enough to get your head around. The use of two different screens can be annoying switching back and forth from one mode to the other.The manual is pretty bad and you must read it to get around the recording interface. The knob layout on the synth side is great on the other hand the recording interface is confusing.. The input and output share a knob which is really annoying and hard to get use too. The presets are nice and the synth is fat and punchy.

Ther action is nice and a joy to play. The effects are OK but don't expect them to replace your Lexicon, They are passable but nothing to write home about. The arpegiator is cool and works well. The midi works great, real low latency if any. Recording is straight foward and it puts out a nice clean and punchy sound. The only GRIPE is it keeps crashing....

Effects ..OK
Keyboard ..Nice well built reacts nice to playing.
Sounds..Great nice presets to build on easy editing.

OS Windows XP with plenty of resources Realiable ....Well NO>>NO>>NO>> This is the problem. Every time I record it CRASHES and then 10mins later guess what it CRASHES again. When ever I record something in any app...LIVE4,Soundforge,Wavelab...I'll record a track no problems then I arm the app and it will CRASH. I have to restart my computer, I'll record no problem arm the next track YUP you guessed it CRASH ..restart ..It is time consuming and annoying.

Well 6 emails and NO reponse not to mention I waited 3months for delivery after I ordered it.I would still be waiting if I didn't call twice and raise Hell. This company has little or no reguard for the consumer.

I am returning this synth because of the OS problem and being ignored by Novations customer service. I have been making computer based music for 10yrs and i know my gear inside and out. Do yourself a favor and buy an M-box or a dedicated audio interface and an EMU X-board. Don't bother with the all in one yet ...Maybe when they work the bugs out this piece will be bad ass but not as of yet.

Just got my Novation X-Station 49 and I love it! OS version is 2.3.2. I've only had my X-Station since yesterday but I studied it well in advance and know what it's all about. Glad I waited for the larger keyboard... it's the perfect form factor for a nice portable softsynth controller and live second-tier synth.

There are 200 preset sounds that are taken from the K-Station... all very nice albeit somewhat basic (how many synth bass sounds do you need anyway? There's a lot of those). Good built-in effects that combine with the synth patches for some very nice VA (virtual analog) sounds. The X-Station is highly tweakable, and with all the knobs, sliders and lights you won't be able to resist making up new sounds right away. All the parameters are clearly marked with real-world names and everything you would normally want to tweak is readily available so you don't have to go through "pages" of menu options to get what you want. Because the parameters are clearly marked and the display is also excellent, this would make a good beginner synth to learn additive synthesizing on as well as something any pro would be happy to have.

The manual is clear and concise and in one language (thank you). It's also downloadable from Novation's website at www.novationmusic.com.

I have to say that I didn't buy the X-Station strictly for it's synth sounds, although I might not have bought it without them. The synth sounds are the icing on the cake in this case because the X-Station is a total-package controller/control surface/audio interface/synth keyboard. It does a heck of a lot more than any other synth I know of in it's price range.

8-voice polyphony with excellent velocity-sensitive keybed action with aftertouch. I already mentioned that the X-Station has a nice basic effects section. We have to talk about the fact that the X-Station is one-third synth and two-thirds softsynth controller and audio interface: my one caveat is that the effects cannot be applied to the ASIO audio inputs... in plain talk that means that you can't add the X-Station's built-in reverb to the NI B4's softsynth organ sounds for example. You can add effects to other incoming signals though, like from a mic or guitar, so I suspect it would be possible for Novation to add a future OS upgrade to allow ASIO routing through the effects section and I've suggested this to their tech support.

Is there expansion capability? Well yes and no - as a synth there is no expansion capability (er, well the internal synth is entirely software-based so I don't know if the synth can be expanded later or not), but as a softsynth controller the sky is the limit. You can combine the X-Station's internal synth sounds with external softsynth sounds for some huge patches. So as a stand-alone instrument you shouldn't expect anything more than a good-quality 8-voice synth but add a laptop and some softsynths and whoa baby you got monster on your hands.

The X-Station has full midi capabilities and USB interface with audio, which ought to be mandantory for a softsynth controller IMHO. I think a lot of people get into softsynths without realizing the need for an audio interface... it's nice to have it all in one package. Plus, the X-Station can draw it's power over USB and even charge it's batteries (not included) from USB or from the included power supply. So really hooking up the X-Station to a computer is a one-cable deal, total. Sweet.

No on-board sequencer but a simple latching arpeggiator is included. It also features sequencer transport controls for external software sequencers.

The X-Station is getting bang-for-the-buck awards everywhere and it's features are going to be pretty darn hard to beat for the price. If I could, I'd give it an "11" for features, not as a synth but as a swiss army knife.

I know we're supposed to talk about sounds here but sounds are only part of what the X-Station is all about. It sounds fine - not the greatest-ever-made but not bad. Most people will like the sounds very much if they like 8-voice VA's, or if they like the Novation K-Station which the X-Station uses the sound patches from. Honestly the sounds were a bonus for me... I like them and I'll use them but that's not the main reason I bought the X-Station... I bought it to be a controller/interface also. It should be mentioned that the X-Station can send it's internal sounds to a sequencer program like CuBase or Sonar via ASIO so the sounds can stay completely in the digital domain. The X-Station is very expressive thanks to the handy knobs and sliders and the excellent keybed.

No idea on reliability. The X-Station 49 is very light and highly portable. I'll have to say "no opinion" on reliability yet, and the X-Stations haven't been around long enough to know from other owners how well they stand up.

Hmmm... I'll know soon enough how their customer support is I guess. One caveat is that Novation currently only has Win XP SP1 drivers available for the X-Station and says SP2 drivers are "coming soon". I've sent an email asking how soon - no reply yet. It should be mentioned that Novation has released a new graphic template editor for the X-Station that'll be real handy. They also have released some beta "ultra-low-latency" drivers so they appear to be a progressive company that is working steadily to improve the X-Station.

"Fantastic value" is very apt in this case. Nothing compares directly to the X-Station at this time... in fact at this price I'll bet this will send other manufacturers back to the drawing boards. The X-Station costs as much as some plain midi controller that make no sound at all and it beats them at their own game - then you have to remember it's also a decent stand-alone synth and an audio interface with mic preamps. As a softsynth controller the X-Station rocks - I just bought the new Reason v3.0 and it automatically added a template into the X-Station which reads "Propellerhead Reason v3" in the display. How easy it that?

Another thing I like about the X-Station 49 is the overall design and form factor. I've been playing over 35 years and the X-Station 49 reminds me of my 70's 44-note Minimoog, and it's just as easy to use.

What would I change? I'd like a direct-entry way to get to patches instead of scrolling with a knob or the increment/decrement buttons, but that would change the form and size radically - I knew well before buying that there'd be no direct-entry patch selection and I can live with that. I certainly want the ability to route ASIO audio thru the X-Stations effects section and I hope Novation makes it happen.

I compared the X-Station to everything on the market in it's price range and in it's feature range before buying and was just amazed that nothing came close. Other X-Station 25 owners had been raving about the X-Station but I waited until the 49-key version came out, thankfully (the 61-note version is also due out soon). I am very excited and happy to have an X-Station 49. Even if the X-Station was just a VA synth and very basic midi controller it would probably still sell well at it's current price, but with a built-in audio interface and the included templates and presets for many of the most popular softsynths on the market, the X-Station is a well-designed total-package keyboard/controller that fills a lot of shoes.

For the first thing I have to say in this review--this thing kicks A$$! It is so easy to use that it's hard to imagine the sounds coming from it are because of my knob tweaking. At times, I think that it's all part of the "demo"--but it's not (there is no demo)!

The presets are amazing. There are obviously a few here and there which aren't great--but nobody will love every preset.

My manual is still wrapped up in plastic--I haven't even glanced at it and I know what to do with this thing. Big LCD screen (for the size of the synth) and self-explainitory labels around all the cool knobs, sliders, and buttons.

In all honesty, I haven't actually hooked it up to my PC to use as a MIDI controller yet--but this shouldn't be difficult (it ussually isn't difficult to hook up any MIDI controller to a PC).

As a MIDI controller, I can already see where this thing's immense usability will be. It has a great amount of knobs, sliders, buttons, and LEDs to provide users with a familiar physical interface for many different synths and DAWs. Everything is laid out in a very logical order--exactly where I would have put it if I designed it myself.

As an FX module--the effects are pretty good. I guess that it would be nice to edit more variables for each effect (it only offers two variables per effect), but it's not really neccessary. Many times, having minimal effects is all right at this level (especially since you can add as many soft-effects once you get your sounds recorded--that way you can tweak them using non-destructive editing).

As a synth--this thing really blows me away. I was expecting a little cheap piece of crap. Once I plugged it in and turned it on--I couldn't believe my ears. I really got this great of a synth for $500!? It's got 3 OSC's, noise generators, an 2 LFOs that'll go up to 1kHz, an Arp, and one of the most amazing filters I've ever heard! I would have paid $500 for the synth alone--even without the AD converters, MIDI controllers, etc...

As you can tell--I think that the synth is awesome. Although I mentioned that the FX are slightly lacking--they're good enough to dress up the sound of the synth enough to make it sound professional right out of the box (which is something quite important if you plan on gigin' live).

I primarily produce electronica and rap--so this synth suits me, but I can see where many other genres may not find it quite as exciting. Although it's bass capabilities are great for any genre, many of the presets are geared more toward electronica.

I've only owned it for a short time, but it hasn't crashed yet. It feels like it's fairly sturdy. Although the case is plastic, the knobs and sliders feel strong (not like the Yamaha CS2X--cheap plastic knobs that fall off as you turn them). The buttons feel a little stiff, but that could just be because I haven't broken it in yet.

Although I don't expect this to fail on me, because I'm not fully familiar with Novation's reliability--I'm going to rate this as "No Opinion" rather than try to assess a score to it.

I've heard bad things about Novation's support but I haven't needed to contact them yet. Another thing I'll vote "No Opinion" for since I really don't know.

Overall--I can't believe that this little thing packs all of this punch. I've been looking for an all-in-one solution in this price range and I found one that works great. Although it would be nice to have even more options (SPIDF In, more FX options, etc...), I'm quite supprised that it even comes with as many as it has for this price. My only real gripe with this is (1) the mod/pitch wheel feels kind of cheap... Not something I personally use a lot--so I don't care--but I just hope it doesn't fall apart on me; and (2) having the option to put batteries in is a neat idea, but makes me feel like it's a sub-professional tool. Oh well... I guess the battery thing doesn't matter that much (it's actually kind of convenient)...

I'm going to give it a 10/10 because of the main fact that it is well worth it's price. I wish I had purchased a slightly larger keyboard (I only got the 25), but the prices went up rediculously just for a few extra keys. Not that big of a deal though--it's got a standard MIDI-in port for me to connect my Juno to.