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 (12)

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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.

 

mr. kapellmeister

Posted 41 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 64 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?

Nightslave

Posted 88 days ago

Nathan
i got a AC adapter which runs 9V and 1200mA and it's works. Friend of mine gave me that according Samash recommendation

Nathan Reeves

Posted 91 days ago

Anyone have the power specs for the AC wall wart for thsi unit?

I see from the back of the K-station that it is 9V positive center tip -( +-

but it says nothing about the amp/current rating.

I assume 500mA but anyone have a wall wart they can look at to

confirm?

Cheers!

Nate

Ashe35

Posted 91 days ago

Also used by the Cruxshadows

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