Novation Bass Station
Analog Bass Synth (1993)

 

An early neo-analog portable synthesizer from the nineties, this project was originally aimed to a squealchy Roland Tb-303 emulation.

The famous engineer Chris Huggett (EDP WASP and Osc Oscar) worked on the Bass Station developpement.

KEYBOARD 25 velocity full-size C-C keys (transmits polyphonic Midi) transposable over 8 octaves. The main panel features 19 knobs, 13 switch-tabs and 2 buttons - on the left side 2 wheels for modulation and pitchbender.


Back panel terminal connectors:
- mono analog output
- Midi interface (no thru)
- input for optional ECG-1 grip - never been released on the market

Power supply is an external PSU 9V DC or 6 X AA 1.5V batteries.

VOICE analog monophonic machine with subtractive synthesis.
A voice is composed by 2 quite identical detunable DCO oscillators (C2-C7 16' 8' 4' 2' sawtooth or pulse with variable width) with volume mix balancing.

waveforms pulse width detune OSC2

PERFORMANCE special functions:

- keyboard can be shifted to 3 octaves range - adjustable portamento glide + autoglide legato for a Tb303 "twang" effect - single / multi triggering: restarts the EG1 or free flown mode - wheel variable pitch or cutoff modulation depth - tuning function A-440Hz portamento

 

LFO a main delayed modulator (shapes: saw, triangle and random) and 3 destinations
LFO WAVES

- VCF cutoff - DCO1 pitch - DCO2 pitch A second slimmed-down LFO manages the DCO1/DCO2 pulse width with fixed rate.

ENVELOPE 2 identical 4-segments EGs:

- EG1 amplitude (hardwired) - EG2 AUX can be assigned to filter cutoff or pulse width EG ADSR

 

FILTER resonant lowpass filter at 2 / 4 poles slope originally based on EDP WASP vintage synthesizer from 5 Hz to 10 kHz.

filter 4 poles

 

 

MIDI all knobs send Midi CC# - check table below.
Even if synthesis is monophonic, the keyboard polyphonically transmits Midi messages

105	Filter Resonance	112	Autoglide On/Off
106	Filter Mod. Depth	113	Env.2 Attack
107	Env.1 Attack	114	Env.2 Decay
108	Env.1 Decay	115	Env.2 Sustain
109	Env.1 Sustain	116	Env.2 Release
110	Env.1 Release	117	Env.2 Velocity
111	Env.1 Velocity

 

MEMORY:

- 7 RAM patches The "manual" slot is the sound actually on the knobs positions. Sounds can be saved only by Midi sysex.

RELATED FAMILY:

	Bass Station RACK - Updated with larger patch memories and CV gate controls
	Super Bass station RACK adds even more features than bass station rack - like extra EG, ring mod, sub osc and more memory.
	Bass Station II 2013, a totally different machine.

VST PLUGIN / SAMPLED VERSION there are some free and commercial samples set:

-Rhythm lab -Hollow Sun -NOVATION

-FREE sample pack -FREE sample pack -Commercial VST PLUGIN