Novation Bass Station II

It is fantastic to see that some companies still produce analog synths in 2014. Novation has a long history with synthesizers, both digital and analog. I have owned the Super Bass Station (rack) for about 10 years now and was very interested with Novation launching a new Bass Station II. I got one very soon after the release, and I am very satisfied with it.

By looking at the features, it is very similar to the original Super Bass Station, with 2 oscs + sub and LFOs and distortion. The only thing missing is actually the analog chorus of the SBS. However, the BSII offers many other up-to-date features, and is much easier and quicker to use. The 1u rack of SBS has very tiny knobs and several double function switches that slow you down. The BS2 has very straight forward user interface, and although there are several extra features that can be activated using the keyboard and a shift-key, most of the time you are tweaking what is immediately available at your finger tips. The keyboard is of good quality. The synth feels solid.

The BS2 is surprisingly well made and sounds huge considering the price-point (and even without considering it). The sound character is very close to the original Bass Station, and reminds me of some older Roland stuff. You can easily program soft and warm analog tones of the 80's. The filters are of really high quality, and although there is a special acid filter, I somewhat prefer the Novation's own 12 and 24 dB low pass filters. The pre-filter drive works wonderfully with the oscillators, try it with the sub osc and hear how it changes the tone in a really nice way. There are not many analog synths available at this price point, and this is about the only one that comes with proper patch memory. Although the name is "Bass Station", it can do all kinds of sounds. I typically use it for dirty and noisy lead sounds instead of bass.

It definitely sounds much better than any VA or software synth. It's really easy to use and there are plenty of usefull features. It's very much suited for both live and studio use. What buged me the most though was that it's oscillators are out of phase. It's normal with a vco synth but it's unacceptable on a dco synth and there is no apparent way of fixing it. Novation support is unresponsive as well. There is no keytracking amound knob and the arpegiator drifts. Novation hasn't released a firmware upgrade yet in order to fix those issues. It's a petty 'cause its built quality is very good.