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Apr 2010 Daniel Stawczyk (Status) announces Christmas Sale on Discovery Pro and V-Station Soundsets (20% Off) A brand new "Acid" filter joins the "Classic" original Bass Station filter -("Classic" switches between low, hi and band pass with 12 and 24dB slopes). Bi-polar modulation is rife in the Bass Station 2 and for the filter, its sources are the mod envelope and LFO2. Ordinarily, with small controls, my preference is for positive modulation only, but here the ranges are so effectively spread over each half of the knob's travel that I forgot my usual prejudice.
The Bass Station Plug-In is shipped with the classic originals along with many more totaling 100 sounds for immediate gratification. The patches cover a huge sonic range from screaming leads to phatt funky basses. Bass Station II is now a paraphonic monosynth, because you can control the pitches of each of the two oscillators separately in its single-voice architecture. Play two notes at a time rather than just one and get interesting interactions through the Ring and Filter Mod.Synth can be a little intimidating at first if you have never had an analogue synth, but you will learn analogue from using it and grow to love it. Price is great for what you get! Novation loaded Bass Station II with 64 diverse patches that showcase its huge sonic variation. Novation also left 64 slots free, so you can easily save and load your own patches on the unit, or in the free librarian software. Instant Inspiration The Bass Station 2, like many other monosynths at the moment, only has a two-octave keyboard, but then so did the original. With a name like Bass Station 2, it's completely reasonable to expect a serious presence in the lower regions, and my subwoofer would not disagree. Extra assistance comes in the form of a sub-oscillator tied to the frequency of oscillator 1. Pitched at either one or two octaves down and with a choice of sine, square or pulse waveforms, this sub is even more versatile than that of a Roland SH101. Mixer: ♣ Osc 1 level ♣ Osc 2 level ♣ Sub Osc level ♣ Noise generator level ♣ Ring modulation depth ♣ External signal level As a starter synth, the layout is amazing, very easy to follow the signal flow on the synth. It also has a great function that shows how far you are away from a selected patch’s original setting when you twist a knob, a great learning tool.
The BSII was my first hardware synth but I have some synthesis experience programming patches on VSTs for a few years now. Two Oscillators that have been carefully modelled to preserve the precise tonal character of the classic sawtooth and square waveforms of the original instruments. Featuring two tuneable oscillators, plus a sub-oscillator for enhancing the all-important low end, as well as noise and ring modulation, Bass Station II more than delivers when it comes to generating raw tones. It's also got two distinct analogue filter types – the Classic multi-mode filter of the original Bass Station and the 24dB/octave Acid filter, with its darker, smoother sound – plus plenty of modulation in the shape of two LFOs and a pair of ADSR envelopes. These functions are usefully sub-labelled into separate areas; Mod Wheel and Aftertouch assignments, for instance, as well as 'further' options for the synth engine, including sync'ing oscillators 1 and 2 and setting a Swing value for the Arpeggiator engine, to name but a couple of examples. Bass Station II's secret sound-design weapon is envelope retriggering. It’s now possible to configure envelopes to retrigger once the decay stage has ended, opening up a whole range of new possibilities.
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Equally at home on stage and in the studio, Bass Station II is a classic analogue synthesiser that can sound as warm and mellow or aggressive and hard as you want it to. Modulate the filter to make it sing, crank the distortion to toughen up that bass, and push the resonance to self-oscillation to get those lead lines screaming. OK, I admit it, there's an arpeggiator too, but let's leave that for a moment, because it's such a pleasure to encounter a step sequencer on a modern synth. Perhaps it's my ongoing SH101 fixation, but I can't help noticing that, apart from the maximum length of a sequence (32 steps, compared to the SH101's 256), the two are functionally very similar. The Bass Station 2, though, has not one but four separate sequences to draw from. It even remembers them after a power cycle. Two distinct analogue filters: A brand new ‘Acid’ filter joins the ‘Classic’ original BassStation filter
Note that you will need to have the latest version of each unit's firmware installed. This can be applied by running the relevant product's installer:Low Frequency Oscillation which can directly control the harmonic content of the sound by pulse width modulation or filter cut-off. The original front panel has been 3D modelled and additional controls have been added for ease of use. The Filter envelope has its own set of ADSR controls and OSC1 and OSC2 have their own section for pitch modulation and PWM control.
Turning the large cutoff frequency knob is a smoothly satisfying experience, and the display gives a hint as to why this might be. Instead of the 128 possible values of a 7-bit MIDI controller, filter cutoff insists on twice that amount for itself. An extra bit is gained (rather neatly) by reserving two CC numbers instead of one, and this doubled resolution pops up in several other parameters, making a worthwhile contribution in each case.Then comes the Filter section, which has been significantly revamped. The Classic option here evokes the Bass Station's original filter, which was a key part of its appeal - raspy, powerful and capable of real spit. Bass Station II is fully class compliant, so you can plug into anything via USB and start playing. It also has MIDI I/O on 5 pin din ports, so you can connect your other MIDI gear. You can even connect an external instrument and run it through Bass Station II’s analogue filter and effects. AFX Mode Very good analogue synth. Great sounds, tweaking options and patches. Great synth for learning about how analogue synths work and sound patch creation. Arpeggiator is fun. Latch is useful for sound creation (latch simply makes the key continue to play even when you remove your finger from the key). Midi works well, but I must point out better as a slave device than as a master. It goes out of sync if I set it as master with Volca devices (which only can act as a slave device if not Korg branding), but is flawless as slave for any other midi out device.
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