Vintage Synth Explorer

Novation • K-Station

The K-Station is a whole new take on the original Bass Station Keyboard that put British synth makers Novation on the analog synth map! Essentially, the K-Station is an extremely well laid-out and superbly designed 2-octave keyboard version of their new A-Station rack module. It features 8 voices of analog modeled sounds with FM, 12-band vocoder, arpeggiator, reverb and delay effects, 400 user rewritable program memories, and more. Unlike the crowded interface and puny LCD display screen found on the A-Station, the K-Station has a beautiful layout with easy access to its knobs, sliders and buttons. And finally there's a large LCD display!

It has 25 knobs for real-time control, and all knobs transmit MIDI controller messages. The K-Station has three 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 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/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. The K-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 Stations. There's even a built-in Arpeggiator whose speed synchronization and sweep range can be stored with the program for instant recall. The K-Station is really an expressive, compact keyboard that's a hand-on joy to use and is just full of clean analog sounding synth bass, punchy leads, pads, filter sweeps and more! The K-Station is a great piece of kit for professionals and beginners alike! Be sure to also check out the expanded larger keyboard versions: KS4, KS5 and KS Rack.

VISITOR COMMENTS (15)

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Posting Rules: Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

 

Ted James

Posted 33 days ago

I just picked up a badly beaten K-Station. Great sounding machine. Unfortunately. It needs all 4 of it's envelope sliders replaced. Does the K-Station use the same caps for the pots and sliders as the KS4, KS5 and KS? I need a few replacements.

Simon

Posted 60 days ago

I don't agree with kapellmeister. I both have the KS rack and V-station and I must say, that little VST sure can kick some ass. It's fat, can produce a lot of bass, can sound very analog if you want. It's just a matter of programming the damn thing. You know, it's really the same engine. But of course, the sound coming from your computer will also depend on your audio interface and speakers.

Drac

Posted 106 days ago

FYI when it comes to power supplies - it's safe to go *over* amps (mA's), it's not safe to go under. If you under current it (too few amps) it will still try to draw the correct amount from a supply that's not designed to push it, which can cause overheating and eventual failure/fire. A supply that can push more current then required is not a problem however, the unit will only pull what it needs and the supply will work in tandem with that.

So, too many mA's, no problem. Too little = possible functionality problems + overheating/failure of the supply.

mr. kapellmeister

Posted 217 days ago

I bought one back in 2002; hot little board. I got rid of it and later regretted it. I looked for one but couldn't find one for the right price. I bought an X-station... not the same. I bought a KS4 and later a KS-Rack... not the sound I remembered. The V-station just plain stinks.

Ray Duffy

Posted 241 days ago

The original shipped with a 500mA. I just bought one off of ebay and had so problems. Spoke to Novation who advised me to get a 800mA or 1000mA supply. Now no power issues.

However, despite updating the OS and restoring the factory patches, I have solo patches go off key. Anyone else experienced this and is there a know cure?

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