British synth makers Novation take their now classic Bass Station Rack to the next level. The A-Station is polyphonic, adding 8 voices of polyphony to their 1-unit rack-mount synth. Unlike the original Bass Station and Super Bass Station which were real analog synths, the A-Station gets its voice architecture from the SuperNova synths, which use analog sound modeling. The A-Station has the layout and shape of the famous Bass Stations, but its guts are basically a slimmed down SuperNova.

It has 25 knobs for real-time control, and all knobs transmit MIDI controller messages. The A-Station has three oscillators which provide sawtooth, triangle, sine and pulse width modulation. There's even a simple FM synth engine which can be dialed in for sharpening the sound. Oscillators may be set to Unison or Sync'd operation and a Noise source is also included in the waveform engine. There is a nice lowpass resonant filter with switchable 12 or 24dB/oct slopes and ADSR controls. A second ADSR envelope is available for the oscillators, as well as two LFOs with sample-and-hold and MIDI sync.

On-board effects include reverb and delay. Their send levels can be controlled by the Mod wheel which is a nice effect. A 12-band vocoder is also on-board for processing external mono sounds such as drum loops or vocals. The A-Station's pads sound great when vocoded with external sounds. External sounds can also be used as an oscillator, run through the filters, envelopes, etc. with much better results than were possible on the original Bass Station. There's even a built-in Arpeggiator whose speed synchronization and sweep range can be stored with the program for instant recall. Unfortunately, some of the older Bass Station's problems still have not been addressed in the A-Station. Namely, the lack of a power switch, a puny 2-digit LCD screen, and it's still not multitimbral. But for clean analog sounding synth bass, punchy leads, pads, filter sweeps and more - the A-Station is certainly a great piece of kit to have around! For a cool compact keyboard version check out the K-Station.

Rob Groeneweg

October 16, 2009 @ 2:04 pm

I think this is the ultimate tweaking machine.
Only one voice, but thats the whole point of this great machine, creating your own patches, and make some insane audiofiles with it.
It was my first synth I had and definitly the last to go, love this machine.
It has a knob for every parameter, even if you know nothing about synthesis (like me) this will bring you tons of fun, just grab a knob and tweak it, that's an A station.

Sanhedralite

August 20, 2009 @ 2:00 pm

Nice sound, but fiddly to use

Tekijänoikeuksien Vapahtaja

July 29, 2009 @ 7:02 am

"There's even a simple FM synth engine which can be dialed in for sharpening the sound."
That's a bit misleading claim. It might have FM parameter as so many other analog/VA synths but for sure there is no FM _synth_ imbedded.

Bear Beats

January 21, 2009 @ 6:00 pm

Great, just great. barely uses up any space yet ive used this thing for so much considering the 100quid i paid for it.
I even use it as realtime audio effects for adding reverb etc to a headphone mix when im recording. a decent effects unit for this purpose will set you back the 100quid alone,.
Great sounds for beginner and expert alike.

www.myspace.com/thebearbeats

cevasco

November 13, 2008 @ 10:34 am

buon v.a. semplice da usare e completo, consigliato ad utenti entry level e divertente
-ottimo timbro tipicamente novation e divertente in tutte le operazioni.
comprato 2 anni fa, da quel giorno è sempre presente in tutte le mie produzioni.

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