KVR Audio

Chopper · Post by **Chopper** » Wed Nov 04, 2015 10:17 am

A great synth, especially if it is your first hardware. Memories, 2oscs plus noise plus sub, enough modulations... Nothing missing, really. I wish it would have cv/gate for a few functions, but to be honest the good midi implementation compensates for it, and cv/gate woulsdn't matter in your situation anyway. Plenty of functions (fm...) give it the ability to cover everything you'd expect from a good monosynth. Not much you cannot do with it and still a bargain even if it would cost twice more. Oh, and the best build quality of any novation synth ever.

grabme · Post by **grabme** » Thu Nov 05, 2015 8:41 pm

I have no complaints about this synth, sounds great and the new price is a steal. Has a nice smooth sound.

Katelyn · Post by **Katelyn** » Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:25 pm

grabme wrote:I have no complaints about this synth, sounds great and the new price is a steal. Has a nice smooth sound.

Ya, I'm finally going to buy one by next week while the price is still low! I'm already excited

Katelyn · Post by **Katelyn** » Sun Nov 08, 2015 8:06 pm

I'm so excited!!! I just bought one off ebay for about $335 USD (new). It's supposed to get here by the end of the week. Seller had a lot of positive feedback and had a lot of products they had sold before, so I trust it will probably work as intended

They only had two left when I put the order in. Another seller or two had them for around the same price as well if anyone wants to get one off of Ebay >.> There is also some normal auctions that are still pretty low at the moment too.

alphavoyager · Post by **alphavoyager** » Sat Nov 14, 2015 8:40 am

Are there any news about the "filter tracking" update? The omission of this very important parameter kept me away of buying it.

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Sun Nov 15, 2015 12:36 am

I've also been tempted by a BS2 ever since I sold my Minibrute. Then I also started checking out the System 1m, but there isn't enough info about that one.

BS2 seems like a very popular choice, but there also seems to be significant overlap with Waldorf Pulse 2 which I own, at least on paper, though I'm sure they sound different. Apart from the fixed filter tracking, I haven't heard too many complaints about it. The obvious differences from the S1m are that it's real analog, monophonic, and the lack of cv/gate ins and outs.

System 1m has the advantages of polyphony, cv io, and being in effect several different synthesisers in one. Though obviously this also means spending more on the plug outs, apart from the already higher price compared to the BS2. As for cv, I don't have any gear with cv io apart from the Microbrute and Pulse 2, and have no plans of building a modular. So it's always gonna be just those two, and maybe some other standalone modules or a mini eurorack (mainly for modulators) in future.

Or maybe I can just save the money, and be happy with what I already have for now. That way, I could maybe even afford an Analog Four down the line, or realise I have enough already and don't need more. Thoughts?

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Sun Nov 15, 2015 11:09 pm

Anyone? Sorry for being impatient, but I plan to order either one or the other later today. Leaning towards the BS2 cause GAS is stronger with that one, but the S1m actually seems more practical apart from the higher price. Any help would be really appreciated, thanks!

ere2learn · Post by **ere2learn** » Sun Nov 15, 2015 11:15 pm

Save the money,there's signs of a new Bass Station coming out soon,European retailers are not re-stocking BSII it seems

shadowdancerbnr · Post by **shadowdancerbnr** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 12:14 am

ere2learn wrote:Save the money,there's signs of a new Bass Station coming out soon,European retailers are not re-stocking BSII it seems

Is that confirmed? I spoke to two retailers in Manchester last week who were both waiting on new BSII stock this week. Both stated that they sell loads of them.

Anyway, I bought one now that the price is so low. Absolutely love it. I much prefer its sound and layout to the Mopho Keys. Well, I mostly like trying to recreate my old SH-101 sounds, and the BSII does it more convincingly than the Mopho.

maschinelf · Post by **maschinelf** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 12:41 am

Thomann ran out of stock last week, and said they're expected back around the end of the month.

I wouldn't be hugely surprised if they announced a BS2 rack or desktop with cv/gate soon. It's been about two years since the BS2, and its been a huge success, so now would be as good a time as any.

Katelyn · Post by **Katelyn** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:34 pm

Been loving mine to death, sometimes I just mess with it before a couple hours go by without me noticing. The only thing I'm really having trouble withis sometimes lower-end bass sounds don't sound distinct enough from other notes but that's probably something I need to just clean up in mixing...mid-bass sounds fine though... and I don't seem to get as much out of the 'acid' filter as I thought I would for what I'm trying to do at times. Classic on 24 db seems to work best for some of the sounds I'm after. I really like to seem to add a slight attack on the envelope to make it sound bubbly too and find myself doing that sometimes.

ere2learn wrote:Save the money,there's signs of a new Bass Station coming out soon,European retailers are not re-stocking BSII it seems

maschinelf wrote:Thomann ran out of stock last week, and said they're expected back around the end of the month.

I wouldn't be hugely surprised if they announced a BS2 rack or desktop with cv/gate soon. It's been about two years since the BS2, and its been a huge success, so now would be as good a time as any.

That'd be interesting to see where all that goes, but without knowing I'm glad I got my Bass Station II as cheap as I did (335 USD).

Katelyn · Post by **Katelyn** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 3:53 pm

I forgot to mention, but the thing I find the acid filter best for is getting a convincing 303 sound.

Also dawned on me this morning when watching a video tutorial on something that the reason that sometimes lower-bass notes sounded too similar to other notes was due to me trying out so many of the features at once lol. But I guess that's to be expected when I'm trying to explore what I can do with it.

It's really a lot more fun this way though, and it just sounds much better quality overall than anything I've used before. Plus you can make it sound like an SH-101 pretty easily which is sweet a well and works out great for me since I was already using TAL-Bassline for SH-101 styled leads and so I know how to get the sounds I want, but now with an actual synth.

I'm glad I got it, and I'm hoping to really get the most out of it as I figure out what else i can get it to do.

Dostoyevsky · Post by **Dostoyevsky** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 3:16 pm

shadowdancerbnr wrote:
ere2learn wrote:Save the money,there's signs of a new Bass Station coming out soon,European retailers are not re-stocking BSII it seems
Is that confirmed? I spoke to two retailers in Manchester last week who were both waiting on new BSII stock this week. Both stated that they sell loads of them.

Prices have jumped up 100€ to 450€ across Europe, Thomann has it in stock for 490€. Any news?

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 4:48 pm

maschinelf wrote:Anyone? Sorry for being impatient, but I plan to order either one or the other later today. Leaning towards the BS2 cause GAS is stronger with that one, but the S1m actually seems more practical apart from the higher price. Any help would be really appreciated, thanks!

Well, unless you plan on making the System 1 part of a modular system, you may as well get the BS2. You can always buy the Roland Plug Outs and run them on your computer for the exact same sound.

Katelyn · Post by **Katelyn** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 9:54 pm

As I've started to use it more, I can really say it's worth it. Starting to realize some things it can do/how it can sound that is just better than things I did with software synths. For a while I hadn't really noticed anything it did terribly different in end result until I started to experiment a lot more in different directions than what I might of done in the past. I don't know if this is because of the hardware or a change in my own method/skill... probably a bit' of both.

Also worried about the switch on mine for changing from the controls of oscillator 1 and 2, it acted liek it was stuck and then kinda loose a little bit. I don't know if something just got stuck in there or if the part holding it in got a crack in it or something. I've been very careful and gentle with it though, more so than I normally am gentle with the synth. I really love it and am terrified that I might break it or something lol.

I've also already quickly run up to around 30 patches I've made. It's fun to just try to go for something else and experiment. I've gotten some inspiration from some patterns and small melodies I've made with some of those patches. Really it's an amazing synth. The only thing I wished of it more is that you could set the two LFO's to more but I think that's just a technical limitation. In software it's pretty easy to do that but I can see how that would be much harder in actual hardware. A third oscillator other than the sub one would be nice too but if you want that, a synth built around bass isn't what you should be after.

All in all I love this thing, and I don't regret buying it for a moment.

Novation Bass Station II