hey guys, this is my first post on the gearslutz forum though i have been trawling these pages quite a bit. bought a novation bass station II and its my first ever synth. i am really loving it and can get crazy experimental sounds coming out of it that i didn't expect it to be great for. however i am new to synthesis and am encountering some walls i was hoping someone here could help me out with. sometimes there is a bit of noise in the sound and i have the noise osc all the way down, where else could the noise be coming from. also sometimes i turn all the oscillators right down (off) and there is still sound, where is it coming from? also i kind of stupidly have overwritten every single patch and was wondering how i would get just one of them to go back to the initialise patch? thanks

Welcome to GS!
Cool synth, I own one, and love it!
The noise could be feedback in your overdrive knob (filters area) - or distortion in your effects area. the other thing is are you sure that the switch labelled "EXT Ring Noise" is set to the bottom setting before you turn the knob all the way to the left (anti-clockwise) - as this is a common mistake.
You can download the sysex from Novation's website with instructions on how to restore your patches to factory settings:
PC instructions
Mac instructions

thanks, i thought i had tried that but seems it is working now. how would i overwrite just one patch to make it the same as the initialise patch? i dont want to resotre all the presets cause i have saved a lot of sounds which i want to keep

You should be able to send an individual patch via sysex using your favourite MIDI software - see page 19 of the manual

I haven't tried this - but if I were you - I'd do a complete backup (SYSEX dump) first before making any crazy changes.

I'd like to say to all you lucky Bass Station 2 owners out there that the biggest surprise for me at Musikmesse 2014 was the Bass Station 2. What a great sounding little synth!

I figured the Sub37 was going to sound awesome -- and it did. So no surprise there. And I knew the Schmidt was going to be over the top -- which it was. So no surprise there.

But I wasn't expecting the Bass Station 2 to sound as good as it did.

Congrats and keep rockin' those Bass Stations!

It's hands down one the best bang for the buck synths ever.

Bravo, Novation!

Exciting to imagine what the evolution of this synth will be.

A six-voice would make a great modern Juno, but with more sonic possibilities.

+1, I think exactly the same...

I have a Novation 25SL Compact. I was curious for those of you owning the Bass Station 2, if you could tell me how the build quality compares. Thanks.

I have to join the chorus singing BassStation 2 praise. We stood there (at MusicMesse) with a friend just tweaking and listening to an acid bass line for what seemed like an hour. Lots of fun!

I really love the envelope option which combines the amp+filter (like on my Roland SH-2). It's a perfect design for quick sounds and definitely improves the workflow to having only the two-page system available (still there on the oscillators though!).

My opinion is that it is built quite tough. For the price, it is excellent value for money. The knobs are not wiggly - and nice movement. They keyboard is quite good - to give you an idea: better quality than the minibrute, but not as good as say an Akai MPK25. It has aftertouch! The panel is very well laid out, and has digital control/patch memory for all the settings. The chassis/case is plastic - but it is sturdy - and feels like it will stand a bit of rough treatment. If it were metal, it would add quite a bit of weight to the build. I've heard of people modding the BSII chassis to put wood panel sides and metal bottoms (like a cradle it sits in) - to add to protection whilst gigging.

You should check out the sonic state video, Nick talks about build quality there.

Novation Bass Station 2 Review - YouTube

Then go to a shop and try one out - I guarantee you'll buy one after you play with it!

It's the best synth for the money ever made, I ****ing love mine. It only really has two problems, the first ist that the envelopes are sort of meh... it's not super punchy, and not so great for bass as a result, and the filter tracking is stuck on 100% with no way to adjust it. Small things really in the context that I use it, it's a completely kick ass board. If they make a version with punchy analog envelopes and polyphony it'll be one of the best synths ever made, no joke. It's already up there.

I think it also could do with some CV in/out ability - would make it a killer - then you could route envelopes to a better envelope generating device

Wasn't it great? I was jamming on it so hard I attracted a small audience behind me without realizing it!

I've only played a BS2 that one time, but I also have a Novation 25SL Compact. The overall impression is similar: not exactly "built like a tank" but certainly solid enough to inspire confidence that it'll hold up.

Hmmm. I'm thinking about picking one of these up eventually and pairing it with another analog mono. I've owned quite a few mono's in the past, but at the moment am totally ITB. I am wondering what some opinions regarding "if you had to pair it with one other sub-$1500 mono, what would it be?". So, what do you think? I am thinking either MS20 or new Odyssey (I'm in no hurry here). Minibrute just sounds awful in just about every demo I've ever heard, I've owned a couple MS20's back in the day. Moogs are nice (and I owned a Voyager at one point), but frankly I'm happy with Monark at the moment. Thoughts?

In addition to a BS2, I own a DSI Mopho Desktop, Moog Slim Phatty and Studio Electronics SE-1. All of these could be acquired for under $1,500. For what's available on the market right now, I'd say go for a used SE-1(x).

Considering your budget, however, a Mopho X4 would be another great option.

+1

for weeks i've been trying to figure out which crazy-sounding mono i wanted:

• minibrute: but it lacked a 2nd osc
• microbrute: but i need a midi in, since i'm OTB
• ms20mini: if only it had pwm
• pulse 2: the one i was going to "settle" for, because i'm a knob-per-function guy

last night i dreamed i was gigging with a no-name synth that was exactly what i was looking for. in the dream, i kept playing it with my left hand while using my right to play the cs15.

when i woke up, i realized that my dream synth was the approximate dimensions of novation's analog synth and that i was playing it left-handed because i was using it for bass. (get it? my subconscious was telling me: "get a bass station, fool!")

this morning i re-watched nick batt's bs2 review and realized that with ring mod, pre- and post-filter drive, and filter mod the bs2 would EASILY give me the of gnarly sounds that i was convinced only my 4 candidates could provide.

not 1 knob per function, but plenty of controls to tweak. as for poly, i run everything through the microsampler, which makes any sound polyphonic. running that through the octatrack gives me the envelopes i need.

as a future bs2 owner, i am supremely stoked. just need to get to guitar center to hear it for myself.

The microbrute has a (5-pin) MIDI in, it just lacks a 5-pin MIDI out. MIDI out is only via USB.

right. sorry. midi out is what i need to control octatrack.

after hitting the novation forums, i now remember why i originally crossed the bs2 off the list: too many niggling issues:

• arp/seq doesn’t respond to midi
• arp/seq doesn’t respond to song position pointer
• filter tracking is locked at 100 percent
• have to send a triggering event to activate audio in
• midi clock out sucks

if i'm missing any, please let me know!

fortunately, i think (hope?) all those can be solved with software.

would recording CCs to octatrack result in stepping on playback, since the OT isn't recording the MSB/LSB emitted by the bs2's tuning knob? am i making sense?

i don't think those are show stoppers. You can probably have work-arounds for most of them. I can confirm that the MIDI out/thru works a treat - I've used it to control a groovebox (among others) - and had no issues with that.
The filter thing is annoying - but only sometimes. I believe it is in the works for a firmware update.

Yeah, still amazed by this little synth! Need to program more sounds this weekend. Just to inform those who are planning to replace the blue LEDs under the wheels with some other color, they are 3-mm high-brightness LEDs, mounted on a separate small circuit board. There is no need to drill or use force to remove them, just desolder and solder new ones back in. I finally replaced them with 5-mm LEDs, but then you need to bend the legs of one of the LEDs to allow the pitch wheel to move freely. I am still waiting for a set of knobs to arrive. Will post a photo of the modified BS2 in a few days.

maann i think i'm gonna get this one.

I too have been seduced by this tiny beast. It shall be mine.

What would be cool, is one of those multi-coloured LEDs - and the wheel changes the colour.

Just took the Bass Station 2 on the road as part of my setup and it was really fun to perform with it. I got to hear it through all kinds of PAs and it never disappointed.

Useful trick: I had a sequence that depended on a clock-locked LFO sweeping the filter in a specific timing relative to an arp-pattern-type-thing. However, the LFO needed to be free running, so I would often start the sequence and the filter sweep would be "wrong," lining up wherever the LFO wave happened to fall. Not good. I got around this by programming a cc into the sequencer telling the LFO to sync with key press on the first beat, then a few ticks later programming a cc for LFO2 key sync off. Lines up the same every time now.

Ordered one last night and hopefully will get it tomorrow. I Couldn't resist

As people have mentioned, Novation have the digitally-controlled analog experience and expertise now. It would be great to see a polysynth from Novation - or Waldorf for that matter, who are in a parallel position with the Pulse 2.

thanks for this. i'm in the market for a bs2 and am curious about its midi behavior.

let me see if i have this right: you started the BS2 LFO2 in free-running mode, then you used an external sequencer to send a cc to the BS2 that turned on key sync, then sent a cc that turned off key sync to return LFO2 to free-running mode?

• i've read that the BS2's arp and seq don't respond to midi start/stop/song position pointer. if true, how do you get around that?
  
• i've read that BS2's midi clock out is unreliable. if true, how do you get around that?

in my setup, sometimes the bs2 will slave to the octatrack. sometimes it will be the master clock for the ipad. trying to gauge if i will need any workarounds.

Correct except for "started the BS2 in free-running mode" since the first beat of the sequence contains the cc msg for key sync LFO2 (as well as the first note to be played). Also, you need to advance a few ticks before the key sync off message. It just has to be sent before the next note on in your sequence.

Check earlier in this thread for the arp/seq start/stop workaround. I will say that I record arp patterns from BS2 into my sequences, then save a version of the patch with arp and latch OFF for playback to keep things simple. Not sure if this is how it has to be done, but I've read that others do it this way and it works for me.

So yes, sequencing the BS2 requires those 2 workarounds. Not the biggest deal, really, and hopefully they will provide an update that works around the workarounds.

If anyone has a workaround for the 100% filter key track nonsense (short of recording a manual filter sweep cc to compensate) I would love to hear it. This flaw is the most frustrating one to me. Not a dealbreaker, but definitely cringeworthy at times.

I have never run into problems syncing with other gear either as master or slave, though most of the time BS2 is slave in my setup.

I just bought one a few minutes ago on Ebay.. It was close call between Microbrute and Bass station 2. I got it for a very good price. I'm very excited..

Oh I bought it because it has a step sequencer like the SH101 so I can create my own synth and bass loops.. Record loops on Renoise.


This synth will compliment my GEIST/Tremor vst's. Thank you Gearslutz for reviewing this synth..


Gearslutz rox my sox.