Novation UltraNova synthesizer

General

The UltraNova is an analogue modelling synthesizer with a very powerful effects processor, and is part of the Nova series by Novation. This single-part synth uses the legendary SuperNova II synth engine as a starting point, and packs it to the brim with the latest technologies. It now offers a lot of new features such as wavetable synthesis, even more powerful filters, a software editor, and a revolutionary new touch-sense performance mode.

The Nova series has been around since 1998 and started out with the SuperNova, the first one in a series of incredibly powerful synths. Quickly, these synths became the standard big synths, which are still being used today by many artists and sound designers.

The UltraNova comes with 300 on-board sounds that can be selected per type (bass, lead, pad, etc.) and per genre (hip hop, rock, house, etc.). This provides performers and musicians with a quick start. If you need some bass for your hip hop track, simply select type 'bass' and the category 'hip hop', and you're good to go. Eight encoders allow you to quickly tweak the patch and to alter the character of your sound. If you want to work in greater detail, you can also use the large, smooth encoder.

The UltraNova comes with a powerful software editor, with which you can alter all parameters visually. You can use it in your DAW as a plugin editor so you can search for patches in the Patch Librarian and sort them per type and genre. In addition to the UltraNova's 300 sounds, you'll have enough space for 200 extra patches in the hardware; the software's Patch Librarion expands its capacity almost infinitely.

The UltraNova offers great presets, but its best quality is creating new sounds: in addition to 14 conventional waveforms and 36 wavetables, you also get 5 effects slots for each sound. Beef up your patches with UltraNova's density and density-detune functions, or use one of many modulation options.

Working with synths creatively also includes shaping and exploring sounds with encoders and buttons. As the UltraNova improved the concept of hands-on sound distortion, you can dive even deeper into the process and gain more creative physical control of the synth engine. By pressing Touch in the Animate section, you'll use a mode that triggers envelopes and sound distorting destinations by simply using a touch-sensitive encoder. These destinations could be anything: oscillator pitch, sync, hardness, filter distortion, cutoff, resonance, effect parameters, or send levels, to name a few. By pressing Tweak, you can go back to conventional rotary control and assign eight of your most used parameters to the encoders.

As such, you have better access to the parameters that would otherwise would be hidden deep in the synth's architecture, thus creating more options for live performances. You can assign them to any encoder you like, and it's possible to use more than one at the same time.

Because the UltraNova features a built-in USB audio interface, you can link it your computer in the studio as well as on the road. There are two inputs and four separate outputs that can be routed completely to your liking. That means you can rout audio to an external FX processor, a second pair of monitors, or to a hard disk recorder. This is also convenient on stage if you have to rout backing tracks from your laptop to the main mix independently from the synth, or if you want to send a click to the drummer.

The synth also features an SPDIF output, allowing you to send digital recordings of the UltraNova directly to your DAW. Its rear panel has MIDI in/out/through ports for connecting external MIDI gear. You can control your plugin instruments and effects by means of Novation's Automap software. This turns UltraNova's eight rotary encoders into software controllers, while the large Speed Dial encoder puts you in full control over each software parameter.

Finally, the UltraNova also features a 12-band vocoder and includes a dynamic gooseneck microphone. You can use your voice for the vocoder (via the microphone), but you can also process other sounds by placing instruments in UltraNova's stereo line input at the rear panel.