Novation Drum Station (1996)
Analogue Sound Modeling

 

Rackmount module digital emulation of classic Roland TR808 and TR909 drum analog machines.

The drum station technology is a smart mix of virtual modeling and sampling process.

RACKMOUNT 1 unit. Main panel features a basic segments display, 22 knobs, buttons and 7 switch tabs. Note that all knobs transmit Midi CC# and can be recorded.

Rear panel terminal connectors:
- main signal out
- 6 analog AUX outputs
- Midi interface
- Sync interface at 24PPQ
- headphones (front).

Power supply is a 9V external PSU DC.

VOICE system handles 8 channels of polyphony, relative DAC is an AD1859.
The Drumstation is a mix of 2 syntheses:
- VA Analog Sound Modeling ASM - a virtual analog technology
- PCM digital samples.

 

 

 

VA ASM the modeling section is based on an ADSP-2181 microprocessor which calculates 5 classic drum percussions, each with individual following tonal controls:

Kick - level is the volume - pitch is the tuning - decay is the length of the bass drum - attack: the volume of a shaped pulse at the beginning of the sound	Tom - level - pitch - decay - switch selector between 3 TOMS each mapped individually
Snare - level - tuning - snappy: the level of white noise - tone: is the filter applied to snappy	Cymbal* - level - decay - tune *ASM cymbal applies only to tr808 emulation, 909 mode uses plain samples.
Hihat - level - decay - tuning

PCM ROM contains 6 samples: rimshot, cowbell, cymbals (909), maracas, claves and clap- edit is far more static and limited to mix level and pitch tuning:

 

 

FX a neat distortion/fuzzer helps for some 909 gabber hardcore kick.

 

 

SYNC interface converts incoming Midi clock to Sync 24 for vintage drum machines or sequencer like Roland Mc-202 or Tb-303.

 

 

 

EDITOR available resource:
- Midiquest (PC/MC / $$$)
- Novation Drum Station iPad editor (IOS, free)

 

MEMORY:
- 25 ROM reset kits
- 15 RAM kits
Data can be Midi dump by Midi exclusives.

 

 

RELATED FAMILY:

	Drum station V2 orange script + updated OS
	D-Station (V3) different knobs design+ latest OS
	Bass Station Rack similiar hardware but dedicated to analog bass

 

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

	name	price	link	demo
	Waveshaper	FREE lite sample pack + commercial one		n/a
	Novation	FREE sound pack from famous NOVATION products		n/a

AUDIO DEMO

factory song 1 factory song 2 factory song 3 * sequence jam p1 with Basstation sequence jam p2 sequence jam p3 tr808 emulation soft

another tr 808 emulation lame snare detroit 909 Chigago sound 909 loop parameters tweak parameters tweak again

* factory demo has some glitches- known also as polyphony bug

 

VIDEO CLIP SELECTION with Bass Station rack with KORG ER-1 with TB-303