Published
Mon, Apr 8, 2013, 16:00
- Bass Station II updates the company's classic, with USB connectivity accompanying the original's analog signal path.
Novation has announced Bass Station II, an update to one of the company's earliest creations.
The original Bass Station, a dual-oscillator monophonic synthesizer with a two-octave keyboard, first appeared in 1993 as a compact and relatively inexpensive analog tool for making basslines. Novation's update, hot on the heels of their just-announced Launchpad revamp, is fully redesigned and expands upon the original's feature set. The 25-note Bass Station II remains an analog affair, with two independent oscillators, one sub-oscillator and a noise generator forming the backbone of its sound. The synth's effects—two ADSR envelopes, two LFOs, distortion and filter overdrive—are also all analog. In the filter section, you'll find a new "acid" filter for crafting 303-style bass tones in addition to a filter just like the one found on the 1993 version. Patch memory has been expanded to allow for 64 bespoke patches in addition to the 64 included with the synth. (USB connectivity, now ubiquitous on the analog synth market, allows you to store even more patches on your host computer.) Additionally, you'll find an arpeggiator, a programmable step sequencer and MIDI I/O.
Novation will release Bass Station II in June 2013 at a suggested retail price of $499.99 / 469.99 Euro.