Vintage Synth Explorer

Novation • KS4 / KS5 / KS Rack

Novation KS4

Using an enhanced version of the K-Station sound engine, the KS4 (four octave keyboard) and the KS5 (five octaves) offer many additional features and benefits.

The keyboards have aftertouch, are semi-weighted, and each of the 33 knobs and sliders transmit MIDI. There is four part multi-timbral operation with four individual assignable outputs. A big plus is a separate effects section for each part - a unique Novation feature from the Supernova. Also featured are 4 Arpeggiators and 16 note polyphony with a 16 band Vocoder.

Novation KS5

The KS-synths have 3 oscillators which provide sawtooth, triangle, sine, pulse width modulation and other waveforms. 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 low-/band-/high-pass resonant filter with switchable 12 or 24dB/oct slopes and ADSR controls. A second ADSR envelope is available for the amp, as well as two LFOs with sample-and-hold and MIDI sync.

On-board effects include reverb and delay/chorus/flanger. 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. 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 Stations.

Novation KS Rack

The K-Station was a great little keyboard, and the new KS4 and KS5 offer a much more professional package to stage and studio musicians! But for those who already have enough keys, a rack module was also released, the KS Rack. It came in a very professional 5-space rack / desktop module with all 33 knobs, sliders and controls as the keyboards. Full of clean analog sounding synth bass, punchy leads, pads, filter sweeps and more, the KS-synths have been used by Infected Mushroom.

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Sanhedralite

Posted 92 days ago

@Danprid.. stick some headphones in the back, scroll to a preset and press the 'audition' button under the screen to the right. You should hear the patch playing..
I have one and I love it.. so hands on and simple

Danprid

Posted 107 days ago

I found a Rack in my new house, someone left it there, I can get power into it, but how do I get sound to come out of it?

Allister

Posted 181 days ago

Got the KS Rack a couple of months ago, and have been having great fun with it ever since.Wide range of analog style sounds,very inspiring.Programming is real easy,with knobs and sliders for pretty much everything.I wish all synths were this easy to have fun with.

Francis

Posted 189 days ago

Had the rackmount version- its a good synth, wasn't a great fan of the filters or EGs (a bit too digital, and not snappy enough) but on the plus side they are quite cheap these days. Not too hard to program, though some things felt a little counter-intuitive.

Delirium Electric

Posted 311 days ago

Yep I love mine! Excellent for trance or minimal techno or psy. Pick one of the bassline presets, tweak the oscilator, set the arp to random and there you go, instant psy heaven! use the hold function, press three keys, and tweak the filters for some deep minimal techno bassline. It's awesome, and haven't bothered to upload the new OS yet. Heaps better virtual analog compared to Rolands IMO

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