Novation Super Bass Station (1997)

 

Updated Bass Station Rack with big major enhancements

Extra memory a sub-oscillator, extra LFO white noise circuits and ring modulation between DCOs and much more.

RACKMOUNT 1 rack unit. Main panel features a segment display, 27 knobs, 14 buttons and 10 switchtabs.

Rear panel terminal connectors:
- Midi interface
- main out
- line signal input
- 2 CV/gate inputs
- 2 CV/gate outputs
- headphones (front)

Power supply is a 9V DC external PSU.

 

 

VOICE analog monophonic module based on subtractive synthesis.

STRUCTURE: a voice is composed by 2 (quite) identical oscillators + 1 sub oscillator + 1 white noise.

	DCO1	DCO2	SUB
waveforms	saw / pulse	saw / pulse	square
pulse width	yes	yes	-
detune	-	yes
octave set	-	16' 8' 4' 2'	1 oct. below DCO1
hardsync	-	2 > 1	-

 

PERFORMANCE some special playmode functions:
- knobs transmits recordable control changes
- adjustable portamento
- autoglide legato for a kind of TB-303 "twang" effect
- single / multi / poly triggering: restarts the EG1 or free flown mode
- EG bias assignable to breath controller or aftertouch pressure
- LFO rate and depth can be assigned to aftertouch, breath or Midi CC#
- polyphonic mode chains various basstation units for voices spillover
- SYNC some parameteres like LFO, pan, arpeggiator, chorus can be synched internally to driven by external Midi clock at 18 time dividers.





FILTER resonant lowpass filter at 2 / 4 poles slope.
TIP: External line sources can be VCF filtered (no gain control) only if EG is engaged.

 

ENVELOPE 2 identical 4-segments EGs:
- EG1 is hardwired to amplitude
- EG2 can be assigned to filter cutoff or pulse width.
Tip: the external audio signal can be set at a threshold to trigger the EG.

LFO up to 2 delayed and bipolar modulators (shapes: saw, triangle, square and random) and 5 destinations:
- VCF cutoff
- DCO1/2 pitch
- DCO1/2 pulse width
- chorus speed
- stereo panning movement.

CV unit can be controlled by external tension from vintage synths or modulars.
The module acts also as a handy Midi->Cv converter with many options:
- 1V/Oct. scale e.g Roland SH-09
- Hz/V scale e.g: Korg MS-20
- Strigger option e.g: Moog Minimoog D
- dual trigger polarity inversion.

ARPEGGIATOR up to 4 octaves range, latch mode and 4 patterns: up, down, updown1 and
TECH: The broken chords are Midi transmitted, in addition arpeggio can be sync to clock frequency.

EFFECT there are 3 analog FX onboard:
- filter distortion 99 different saturation stages- it is more a kind of "fuzzer"
- stereo chorus with depth and 8 preset modes, including special Roland Juno-60 emulation - based on BBD MN3209 + MN3102.
- stereo panning motion control.

MIDI all synthesis parameters can be controlled by Midi CC#.

MEMORY:
- 50 ROM patches
- 150 RAM patches
Sounds can be loaded and saved by Midi Sysex dump implementation which is also full backward compatible with previous Bass Station models.

RELATED FAMILY:

	Bass station keyboard less memory, no display, no osc sync, no cv gate, no external filter process, no arpeggiator, no effects, miss 1 LFO waveform, only 1 LFO. The most basic of the series.
	Bass station rack less memory, no osc sync, no external filter process, no arpeggiator, no effects, miss 1 LFO waveform- only 1 LFO.
	Bass Station II a kind of reboot from 2013 but it is a different machine.

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

	name	price	demo
	-Rhythm lab -Hollow Sun	FREE sample pack	n/a
	NOVATION	Commercial VST PLUGIN

 

AUDIO DEMO

factory demo funky bass sync lead Daf- Der Mussolini Arp bassline demo bass lead bass with extreme resonance hypnotic arp goldrunner (R.Hubbard) with 2 overdubs freaking PWM percussions drum kit with 4 overdubs

test: sub oscillator test: ring modulator test: pulse width test: lfo (all shapes) test: stereo panning EG test: noise generator + 2/4 slopes filter test: all BBD chorus modes test: OSC sync test: distortion test: portamento glide test: external filtering

 

VIDEO SELECTION demo Acid with Drum Station and Novation Ksrack tweak