Novation Bass Station II Swifty analogue synthesiser

General

Get your hands on a wicked little synth bass with the Novation Bass Station II Swifty analogue synth. This mono synth has a completely analogue signal path. For starters, there are two analogue oscillators plus a sub-oscillator, the oscillators support sync, tuning and have four waveforms. There are two filters, the original Classic filter from the Bass Station 1 and a new, darker, wetter and smoother "acid" filter that can both be switched between high-, low- and bandpass. A section of analogue overdrive and effects, and the ability to sync it with other gear via your software and MIDI, rounds it all off.

More features

The 25-key touch-sensitive keyboard has aftertouch, good feel and is ideal for its target audience. You can store your own sound in real time in one of the 64 user slots, or throw it in the cloud, and if you're not keen on making your own sounds, you can also choose one of the 64 factory sounds. It also has a fairly extensive step sequencer and arpeggiator, very interesting for testing your sound or just playing around. The real synth freak will have plenty of fun with the many dedicated knobs and faders, there is also a bit of modulation available: two ADSR envelopes, four LFOs, the Bass Station 2 is quite extensive and made for experimenting.

A bit of history

If you were into (electronic) music at the beginning of the 1990s, you might remember the Novation Bass Station. It was the time when the resurrection of analogue synthesisers took centre stage. It was the time when synthesisers became small and specialised again, in contrast to the workstations and ROMplers of that era that kept getting bigger and bigger. The original Bass Station helped make Novation big, eventually the Supernovas would become the flagships.