thanks for this. i was wondering about the bs2. so many people called it "polite."

i was like, wha?

how could a synth with overdrive, distortion, filter mod, ring mod, 2 lfos, and external in (for rerouting the headphone output back into the filter) sound "polite"?

i mean, nick batt showed it reacts very quickly to program change messages, so you could conceivably have a sequencer quickly step through a few anarchic patches for some wavetable hysteria, could you not?

while there's got to be some wilder-sounding stuff inside the bs2, this vid gives me a clearer idea about what it can do. nice post.

I agree that the BS2 is good for leads (just as the SH-101 was), but have a different view of the bass, which I would never call thin. Moogs can obviously "do" bass, but you have to choose: do you want a fat low end or high resonance? (Same choice with the Tetra.) The BS2 is like an early-80s Roland: turn up the resonance and the bass gets juicy. That's not the only bass in the universe, but it's a good one.

I replaced my Moog Slim Phatty (with a Boomstar SEM), because I find the BS II just as good for analog basses (+plenty more) as the Moog. (I'm not saying they sound the same)

Haaa. DAVID, im subscribed to your facebook BS2 page btw.

Good news on the MIDI drift issue... the fix (for me) was so simple I am embarrassed I hadn't realized it before, but I figured I'd share as I know others have this problem and maybe it will help.

I discovered that drift was almost 100% eliminated if I had the BSII powered via the DC power supply... on my earlier post (scroll up a few) I thought it was due to filtering MIDI so only clock was getting through. Too much MIDI information may be part of it, but I realized when I ran those tests I had the BSII powered via DC.

When I went back to having the BSII powered via USB bus (attached to my PC) it would drift again. On a hunch I re-attached the included power supply and ran the same clock to it (first via DIN and then USB) and it stayed locked!!! I could still get it to drift, but I would have to introduce wild BPM swings to do it. If I kept the tempo locked or moved it +/- 10 BPM it seemed very stable.

Perhaps others didn't have the drift issue because they are running the BSII off DC power or their computer's PSU is able to supply a consistent level of juice to the USB port. Whatever the case, I finally am able to get it to lock to ANY clock I throw at it and I am one happy dude. All it took as using the damn power supply.

Hope this helps others!

Mine doesn't drift... maybe it's because it's connected to a powered usb hub...

I found out that on my BS2 the ringmod seems to have only a minimal and mosly not recognizeable effect. I wonder if there is something wrong with my unit or if it is a normal thing.

Could somebody give an example under which settings the ringmod should have a strong effect?

I thought ringmod would lead to an mettalic influence on the sound. I cant find that on my BS2.

You have two oscillators, you detune them, and then you turn them down in the mixer section and turn up the ring mod. Detuning is the key here.

Edit: actually, it's equally important that the oscillators have different octave ranges or otherwise differ by a large interval. The best results are achieved with square waves.

A powered hub would be the way to go. In fact, I am sure there are some who have it plugged directly in to their PC that don't have the issue either because their USB ports are providing enough power to the BSII.

I learned that not all USB ports are created equal when I was experimenting by plugging the BSII in to various ports on my HP Workstation. If the BSII is a tad underpowered, the 2 digit display screen can sometimes scramble the numbers. This will either get worse or go away depending on the USB port its plugged in to; the DC power eliminates it all together as it did with the drift issue. Perhaps my BSII in particular has an issue, but I others here and @ the Novation forum have commented on drift.

So the short of it: if your BSII has clock drift, try either the DC supply or a powered hub!

Pretty amazing a usb port is enough to drive an analog synth .. didn't think that was possible!

I wonder if anyone used a sustain pedal with their bass station II yet?
It's not working as you would expect: press the pedal down, then play a key and now release the pedal (with the key still pressed) - the sound stops. That's really annoying.

Of course I reported this to customer support. Hope they will give us an update soon!

I hadn't tried this before, but it's as you say on my unit too. I tried switching the pedal's polarity, but that didn't fix it.

Hi synthmaniac,

BSII will auto-sense the sustain pedal polarity. Just connect the pedal before you turn on the keyboard.

Hi synthmaniac,

BSII will auto-sense the sustain pedal polarity. Just connect the pedal before you turn on the keyboard.

Oh Hi Ben, now that you're here i'm inclined to ask: is there any chance of a system update for the BS2? A lot of people would like keyboard filter tracking especially, among some other stuff.. Do you think anything like that might happen?

Hi payt,
We are currently working on an alpha build of the next firmware for BSII.
That's all I can say for now, but hold tight!

That's amazing news Ben! Can't wait to see what it will entail

Hi Ben! The problem is not with polarity... my typical setup: I play big chords with both hands on a masterkeyboard and the lowest note goes to the bass station 2 on a different midi channel (because I have no third hand ).
Now I use the sustain pedal to hold the chord when I release the keys for a short moment to play the next chord. Then I release the pedal instantly so the last chord stops. Unfortunately the bass stations new note (from the second chord which I still play!) stops too.
Doesn't matter if it's sustain over midi or a pedal plugged directly in to the bass station 2.
Note on should have priority over sustain off...

Will it sort out the external arp issues? If it does you will get my cold hard cash the day after.
It is a lovely bit of kit.

It would be rad to have an LFO cycle start option. A lot of what I do uses clock synced LFO (on the filter) and arp or sequencer running along with a master clock/drum machine. This creates complex rhythmic patterns and accents based on where the arp and the LFO line up. I love the unpredictable results of starting the master clock and letting the arp and LFO line up somewhat randomly, BUT... a little more control would be nice. There are way too many permutations to have predictable results.

My workaround is a midi controller quickly sending a sync-LFO-to-key-press on and off in rapid succession, but Novation should make a way to do it with a quick button press from on the machine itself.

Just splitting hairs. My other complaint is that I like the BS2 too much, and I end up writing bass lines that take up a lot of sonic space in my tracks. I just want to hear it do its thing.

This is great news.

Ah, you guys actually do exist! I wrote to you lot 3 times asking for a distributor for the BSII in my country, never got a reply. Bought an alternative synth in the end. C'est la vie.

That's no moon. It's a

I love this keyboard. Stop yapping on GS and get one. Make music

Make sure you watch this after getting your BS2.. It's definitely helpful to learn what each function does.. It saves you from going thru the manual.



This gentleman is doing an extensive tutorial on my favorite synthesizer the BS2

Is there a fast switch for midicontrol only (ie no sound) and then no midi out but with sound? (through still applying and possible tempo/sync)

You can turn Local On/Off via an "On-Key" function, it's not exactly what you're asking for:

Global: Local (upper A)
Range: On or Off
This control determines whether Bass Station II is to be played from its own keyboard, or to respond to MIDI control from an external device, such as a MIDI sequencer or master keyboard. Set Local to On to use the keyboard, and to Off if you are going to control the synth externally via MIDI or use Bass Station II’s keyboard other external MIDI devices.

Thanks! The reason im asking is that im trying to figure out how i could, if i bought one, connect it to the octatrack. Im trying it with my system-1 and i can either get no sound or midi feedback no matter how im changing channels and modes on both -.- Maybe the way to go is a synth with no keyboard and then have a separate controller keyboard

thanks again..

Edit:
Unrelated to this thread, but i solved my system-1 problem. I had to turn off midi through on the midi out. Didnt know there was such a setting!

Heads up: Novation put out a small Beta update. Various changes and librarian software:

Blurb:
Download page:
Focusrite / Novation Beta Testing :: Releases

No filter tracking changes...yet.