Novation Bass Station II

not sure there's a rack version of the bass station 2 yet (rumoured to be one coming though), but the rackmount version of the original bass station has better build quality, takes up less room, has vastly better patch storage and has a built in MIDI/CV converter.

you probably should watch some demos of the original bass station though - it's quite a different animal to the bass station 2 (has a lot less features).

just came back from the shop where I tested several units for like an hour. It's the first time I do it and it got me pretty excited! I mostly tested the Minibrute and the Novation BS2 (I gave a quick try to the DSI Mopho but I was already kind of decided not to chose it, and the first things I thought about it (*knobs are awful and programming seems painful*) got me away from it pretty quickly).

I guess I can relate to some things said here about Novation BS2 vs Minibrute. The later is indeed noisier. I've to say I loved its raw sound and the original features its oscillators have (Ultrasaw Amt. and Rate, "Metalizer", ...). I found it very direct.

I did find the BS2 a little harder to tame, because I'm not used to the fact of having a synth with knobs position which are not the actual knob positions of the patch. So I lost some time because of that but I know that's just a question of habit. I didn't spend enough time with it but I'm sure it's more versatile than the Minibrute. And it has preset memory, which is probably more suited to what I want to do with it.

So I think I made my choice. I'll still check the differences with the BS rack before I drop the money.

thanks for you help guys

I can pretty much tell you outright that there will not be a rack version of BS2.

*jots it down*

today i went to music store and tried the novation bass station.

the selector switches felt like they might break, however, the features seem greater in number as compared to the mini/microbrute.

and in conclusion, the novation bass station has presets, which the mini and maxibrute seem only to have one preset at a time.

thank you.

edite:

i believe there is a rack version of the bass station 2:

hmm..didn't know about this when I bought the minibrute. Still have to get to know the mini better. Looks pretty excellent though.

*rethinks choices 1,000,000 times*

well in retrospect, im not sure if the bass station has a realtime tweakable VST or computer based (extern midi) interface, but it should since its lush analogue signal path is digitally controlled.

one thing i like about the brute is that it has the steiner filter, however the novation has the 'acid' (303 clone?) filter as well as a plain multimode one.

no vst plugin or computer interface for the BS2...why would you want such a thing? all those knobs ain't just for show you know...

  On 10/1/2014 at 11:03 AM, BCM said:

no vst plugin or computer interface for the BS2...why would you want such a thing? all those knobs ain't just for show you know...

so it can be shelved as a rack unit i suppose.

booooring

Oh BTW this thing really sings when it's sequenced to death. You can get so funky with the filter (+ modulations) via CCs.

you sure can

I could get one for 405€ at a local store. Surprised the price is so low, on a website like Thomann you can only find it for 465€ or something. Usually I buy second hand but the only ads I saw are like ~375€. I found one for 280€ but the guy don't answers to my messages...

How much did you guys paid for your BS2? I'm so impatient, I hate being like that...

i think i got mine for 360ish with a bit of haggling...

the thing stands on my desk since yesterday. it's awesome, I'm so excited about it. I already realized what it is to have good hardware controls in comparison with mouse and keyboard but now I realize what it is to have a synth which sounds good and which is pretty versatile for its size. can't wait to go forward with the preparation of my live set with it!!

oh and while I think about it, do you people know if there's a chart which shows which MIDI information the unit transmits / doesn't transmit (and receive/doesn't receive)? I want to send CC7 (with the Volume knob) to another synth but couldn't figure out how to do it. thanks!

congratulations on your purchase! i think all the CC info is available on the novation website...

You guys are seriously tempting me to buy one of these bad boys

do you other lucky owners of BS2 use the acid filter a lot? Sounds kind of thin in comparison to the classic one and you can't go very far with resonance. I should make some proper A/B comparison though because the acid one sounds more quiet as the classic and that could influence my judgement. Just wanted to know how you guys feel about it?

used it just yesterday making a wicked bass patch...it's not a patch where I'm going to be tweaking the filter a lot though...for acidy type bass, ironically i find the acid filter not so good...

yeah that's the feeling I have after having used it since October. the classic filter is good though but I read that unlike the acid one it doesn't have keyboard tracking (I read that from a guy on Novation's forum who commented that it was really a shame and a big limitation that the BS2 filters doesn't have keyboard tracking control because it makes it hard to use in certain cases). I have noticed this problem and I often have to turn the volume down when opening the cutoff knob. Maybe they'll fix that at some point, would be great.

I wonder if I could get one of these for £250 second hand lol.

probably not yet...bet you could get one for £300ish though

I filmed a series of videos for Novation going through the BSII and what it can do.

  On 11/16/2014 at 5:32 PM, Antape said:

yeah that's the feeling I have after having used it since October. the classic filter is good though but I read that unlike the acid one it doesn't have keyboard tracking (I read that from a guy on Novation's forum who commented that it was really a shame and a big limitation that the BS2 filters doesn't have keyboard tracking control because it makes it hard to use in certain cases). I have noticed this problem and I often have to turn the volume down when opening the cutoff knob. Maybe they'll fix that at some point, would be great.

Both filters definitely have keyboard tracking. Turn the resonance up to self oscillation and turn the oscillators down - the filters should scale "musically" up and down the keyboard.

  On 11/16/2014 at 1:52 PM, Antape said:

do you other lucky owners of BS2 use the acid filter a lot? Sounds kind of thin in comparison to the classic one and you can't go very far with resonance. I should make some proper A/B comparison though because the acid one sounds more quiet as the classic and that could influence my judgement. Just wanted to know how you guys feel about it?

Try it with this feedback trick.

Great video! Sounds nice as fuck!

  On 12/24/2014 at 1:55 PM, modey said:

Great video! Sounds nice as fuck!

Thanks bro! 1:06 makes me want to go make Ufabulum rip offs.