Bass Station II's secret sound-design weapon is envelope retriggering. It’s now possible to configure your envelopes to retrigger once the decay stage has ended, opening up a whole range of new possibilities. In short, AFX Mode allows you to make changes to a sound for every key on the keyboard. This works by enabling an ‘overlay’ on any patch. Overlays are a modulation source which remembers knob and switch positions for 25 different keys (the length of the AFX Station’s keyboard). Outside of these 25 keys, the patch on top of which the overlay sits will play as normal. The sharing of controls is a well-established Novation tradition, here continued as painlessly as I've known it. The synth has two oscillators, two LFOs, two envelopes and two filters. With more huddled twosomes than Clapham Common and only a finite amount of panel space, sharing is as logical as it is inevitable. For LFOs and oscillators, this works well enough, thanks to intelligent use of switches. The user interface also has a second type of switch — of the programmable type. For these, there are LEDs that indicate stored values adjacent to each switch. Features : Cutoff ♣ Resonance ♣ Overdrive ♣ Filter frequency to Mod Envelope depth ♣ Filter frequency to LFO 2 depth The original front panel has been 3D modelled and additional controls have been added for ease of use. The Filter envelope has its own set of ADSR controls and OSC1 and OSC2 have their own section for pitch modulation and PWM control.

Both oscillator’s pitches can be modulated by LFO1 which has four waveforms, a speed and delay selector plus a depth rotary. They can also be modulated by a Modulation Envelope (ADSR sliders) the depth of which is controlled by another rotary. Both options tend to give you pitch effects from anything like vibrato (subtle adjustments to LFO1 will give you this) to more dramatic movement over a longer period with the Mod Envelope. Novation launched the original Bass Station in 1993 and it became an instant favourite. Its digital oscillators and analogue filter defined countless dance and electronic hits of the 1990s. Filter: Two filter types ♣ Acid type (diode ladder filter design) ♣ Classic type (derived from original Bass Station) The Bass Station 2 boasts an analogue signal path, leaving the modulation sources (LFOs and Envelopes) in the hands of very capable software. Like the original, its oscillators are DCOs rather than VCOs and anyone who takes this information as justification to flounce away like a wounded teenager could be missing out. For a start, the coarse and fine tuning controls have a higher resolution than many synths with patch memories. Perhaps due to the limitations of seven-bit MIDI CCs, subtle tuning and detuning is often neglected. Here, although you'll never hit Minimoog swirliness, the oscillators rub up against each other with more warmth than DCOs typically manage. Each oscillator's nominal range is 16' to 2', with sine and triangle joining the regular saw and pulse waves. Pulse width and pitch may be swept by an envelope or an LFO, and since there are two LFOs, you can indulge in the luxury of slow, spooky vibrato and fast PWM. LFO: Two LFOs each selectable between: ♣ Triangle ♣ Sawtooth ♣ Square ♣ Sample and hold ♣ Both LFOs independently adjustable between rate and delay time ♣ Key sync LFO 1 & 2 ♣ LFO slew on LFO 1& 2 (low pass filter on the LFO waveform)The dissapointment came when I loaded some sysex patches from my songs and sustituted the plugin for the real thing. The patches sounded quite similar but not quite right.

The Bass Station 2, like many other monosynths at the moment, only has a two-octave keyboard, but then so did the original. With a name like Bass Station 2, it's completely reasonable to expect a serious presence in the lower regions, and my subwoofer would not disagree. Extra assistance comes in the form of a sub-oscillator tied to the frequency of oscillator 1. Pitched at either one or two octaves down and with a choice of sine, square or pulse waveforms, this sub is even more versatile than that of a Roland SH101. As a starter synth, the layout is amazing, very easy to follow the signal flow on the synth. It also has a great function that shows how far you are away from a selected patch’s original setting when you twist a knob, a great learning tool. Bass Station II ships with 64 factory patches and a further 64 user slots. Patch dump enables you to archive and swap sounds Its tone-shaping capabilities have now been expanded to break away from the original's low-pass shape alone; now you'll find high-pass and band-pass options too, all available with 12dB or 24dB slopes. There's also a brand new filter option, Acid. As its name suggests, it's capable of tones which evoke the 303 and its relationship with resonance will have synth lovers drooling. Modulation stationThe keyboard mechanism is a two-octave (25 note) velocity sensitive synth-action keyboard with full-size keys and assignable aftertouch major firmware update released by Novation 5 years after initial release with a ton of new features, including duo mode, which turns this mono synth into a paraphonic weapon. Mixer: ♣ Osc 1 level ♣ Osc 2 level ♣ Sub Osc level ♣ Noise generator level ♣ Ring modulation depth ♣ External signal level Analogue effects section: Bass Station II includes fully analogue distortion and filter-modulation effects and a separate filter overdrive to add an aggressive, crunchy sound-quality By now the sound I’ve been accidentally creating as I work through the synth is taking on a life of its own and I’m starting to truly believe I’m some kind of analogue synth genius – a slightly less good looking Jean Michel Jarre perhaps. Anyway, my sound is huge, it’s fat and it’s very dirty. What do I need now? Overdrive! Yep, just in case you need it Bass Station II’s signal path encounters an overdrive circuit which determines the amount of distortion you can add (it actually comes in pre filter).

Firstly you have a choice of Classic and Acid filter. The former is variable so the slope can be adjusted between 12 and 24dB and the type adjusted between low, band or high pass. The Acid filter, however, is a fixed 4-pole low pass based on diode ladder types ‘found in various synths popular in the 1980s’ according to the manual. We’re pretty sure they mean the aforementioned Roland TB- 303 as you get splashes of its acid like squealing across presets, but more on these later. For the final splash of sonic mangling, there's an 'Effects' section. It's just possible that Novation's terminology guys got carried away one Friday afternoon because the knobs concerned are: distortion (a post-filter overdrive) and 'osc filter mod' (audio level modulation, the source oscillator being 2). However, you won't bemoan the creative labelling once you realise how valuable the two are. Distortion is thrashingly excellent and is the ideal stimulant for the 303-curious everywhere. I won't risk the wrath of the Bassline Gods by claiming you can exactly match that fabled silver box, but when you've engaged the Acid filter and spread resonance akimbo, distortion is clearly the last piece of the jigsaw. There's further dirt, too, thanks to that second effect. Audio-level filter modulation adds its own distinctly toothy bite, and when you begin exercising the mod source's pitch, the currently-selected filter gets an electrifying workout. Filter FM also works wonders when processing external signals. Bass Station II is now a paraphonic monosynth, because you can control the pitches of each of the two oscillators separately in its single-voice architecture. Play two notes at a time rather than just one and get interesting interactions through the Ring and Filter Mod. OK, I admit it, there's an arpeggiator too, but let's leave that for a moment, because it's such a pleasure to encounter a step sequencer on a modern synth. Perhaps it's my ongoing SH101 fixation, but I can't help noticing that, apart from the maximum length of a sequence (32 steps, compared to the SH101's 256), the two are functionally very similar. The Bass Station 2, though, has not one but four separate sequences to draw from. It even remembers them after a power cycle.

The top half of this monophonic, monotimbral synth is dedicated to the pots, switches, and sliders used to coax audio out of it. All of these are sensibly split into different sections, including the Master section, Oscillator section, LFO section, Filter section, Arpeggiator section, Envelopes section, Effects section and Mixer section. So, for example, in the Master section, you'll find the three-character alphanumeric LED and volume dial while the Filter section is home to the large rotary knob used to control the filter's cut-off frequency or its center frequency. The layout looks a little crowded at first, but everything is grouped together logically and it soon becomes second nature to make tweaks and changes. The build quality is decent, but not outstanding, though. Bass Station II’s pattern-based arpeggiator and step sequencer are a fun and immediate way to find new inspiration. The sequencer lets you record your own notes, ties, rests and rhythms in real time, then store them, recall them and use them with any patch you like. Easily and automatically sync them to your music software or hardware setup, or even add swing to get your groove going. Connect to Just About Anything You also get Melodics, a handy desktop app that's a fun and intuitive way to learn how to play MIDI keyboards, pad controllers, and drums. Melodics provides you with challenges, structured learning, and goals to make learning less intimidating and more exciting. Here's what Novation say about the Bass Station II:

Equally at home on stage and in the studio, Bass Station II is a classic analogue synthesiser that can sound as warm and mellow or aggressive and hard as you want it to. Modulate the filter to make it sing, crank the distortion to toughen up that bass, and push the resonance to self-oscillation to get those lead lines screaming. Classic analogue filter – switch between low-, high – and band-pass modes with 12 and 24dB/octave slopes – with an aggressive overdrive Featuring two tuneable oscillators, plus a sub-oscillator for enhancing the all-important low end, as well as noise and ring modulation, Bass Station II more than delivers when it comes to generating raw tones. It's also got two distinct analogue filter types – the Classic multi-mode filter of the original Bass Station and the 24dB/octave Acid filter, with its darker, smoother sound – plus plenty of modulation in the shape of two LFOs and a pair of ADSR envelopes. If you're an inveterate envelope tweaker, the concept of sharing will never feel totally comfortable. Here, you can at least set the basic shape of both envelopes simultaneously, before flipping a switch and controlling the mod envelope alone to make fine adjustments. Perhaps this just felt easier, to me, than former Bass Stations because the sliders are a big improvement over the original knobs.

Cookies

Bass Station II is now a paraphonic monosynth, because the pitches of each of the two oscillators can be controlled separately in its single-voice architecture. Two notes can be played at a time rather than just one, and users can get interesting interactions through the Ring and Filter Mod. When recording a sequence, it's worth keeping an eye on the display, because this is the only visual cue to which sequence you're about to overwrite. This is one of just a few anomalies; it arises because the selected sequence is stored in each patch and its number might conflict with the sequence-selector switch's actual position. Notes are entered in step time, along with rests and ties. As an extra bonus, the sequencer faithfully captures note velocity and transmits the patterns out into the world over MIDI/USB. It's therefore very practical to send the results into your DAW.