Novation Bass Station II Analogue Synthesizer

Great synth, super affordable, decent range of preset sounds and instant access to the parameters you want to carve it into something special. using it for bass the pre-filter overdrive is fantastic for sound sculpting, riding the pre and post overdrives with the filter cutoff makes fitting a chunky bass sound in a mix very fast. Only had it a week so can't say much more but would greatly recommend even this early on. Plastic case but feels like it can take a knock or two

A stunning synth!



I've been looking for a beginners synth for a long time and had weighed up the various options. This one won the day!



The sound is amazing! Deep and fat - gritty or mellow. With the Filter and the Arpegiator you can produce some amazing bass lines! The lead synth sounds are good too but bass is what this thing does best!



It has 2 Oscillators and a third sub Oscillator (linked to Oscillator 1). Each Oscillator has 4 waveforms! (sine, triangle, saw and square (with an adjustable pulse width!)) And each Oscillator has exactly the same wide range of settings (no reduced set of settings for Oscillator 2)



On the face of it, it has a 4 channel mixer but you can actually hook up 6 sources, including an noise and an external input!



The filter(s) is beautiful and has a giant rotary control for smooth and subtle movements. There are actually 2 filters - Classic and Acid. However, only the Classic has additional settings. These include; low pass, band pass and high pass, as well as slope (12dB or 24dB). The filter(s) can also be fully modulated by the Modulation Envelope or LFO2. It also has the usual Resonance and and extra Overdrive for a bit more depth!



It has 2 LFOs and both have 4 waveforms (triangle, saw, square and sample & hold (random)). LFO1 is for the Oscillators' pitch and LFO2 can be routed to various places e.g. square wave pulse width, filter. These LFOs have a wide range and can move into the audible range. You can also change them from free running or synced to your Tempo.



It has 2 Envelopes; Amplitude and Filter Modulation. To save space these use the same ADSR sliders with a switch to choose which Envelope you are adjusting - a neat trick!



There is also a Distortion setting and a Oscillator Filter Modulation, which allow you to further push the grittiness of the sound.



Finally, the Arpegiator - this is a joy! There is that standard up, down, up down, played and random settings but these can be further enhanced with the Rhythm setting. There are 32 set rhythms that range from one beat per bar up to 8 and also have a variety of rests and ties as well. A great set of predefined rhythms to play instantly. But there is also a 32 step sequences with the ability to add rests and ties here too and it records the key velocity as your are playing - a huge amount of variety.



Talking of the keyboard, this is one of the best reasons to get this synth. It is a 2 octave 25 key, full sized velocity sensitive keyboard with aftertouch (which can be assigned to a variety of modulations). It is a great keyboard and much better than most! There is also a standard pitch and mod wheel which, again, can be assigned a wide variety of settings.



One of the cleverest parts is how you access the various settings. They are accessed by pressing the Function button then actually pressing a keyboard key (with the setting name printed above) - again a great space saver. The value of the setting is displayed on the 3 digit LED and you can play as you are adjusting to see the effect.



This 3 digit LED also displays your patch number - there are 64 great presets and you can save 64 more! Novation even have extra sets of presets that you can download online (for FREE!) No longer do you loose your great sound when you turn off - just save it for recall later.



If you are starting out in the world of synths or even are a seasoned player, this model provides a HUGE bang for your buck! It has all the features of a synth twice the price and a sound to match. If you are looking for a Moog (as I was) but can't afford it, this is the best place to start.



Well done novation for producing such a great synth and well done Bax for selling it at such a great price (I actually ordered one of their B-Stock items for slightly less and it is absolutely perfect!)