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NOVATION ULTRANOVA !!!

LostTsunami

By LostTsunami
in Keys, Synths & Samplers

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alison87 Newbie

alison87

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Sounds alright but not exactly mindblowing. I was kinda hoping it'd shine compared to the Gaia vids, but it doesn't really. I'd like to hear it more in motion, playing a tune with some knob tweaking. It's hard to tell how useful something is when you just hit one note.

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Buuzer Newbie

Buuzer

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I like those presets for the most part. Even though a lot of them are flooded in FX, and I wouldn't use any of them "as is", they do give me a fairly good idea as to what patches are possible.

 

Best of all, they sound considerably different to what I've gotten out of the GAIA, so I think this synth would compliment the SH01 nicely.

 

Just my $0.04 (opinion fee adjusted for inflation).

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ChristianRock Newbie

ChristianRock

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It's a much better sounding engine compared to the Gaia, I don't think that can be disputed (the Gaia still sounds to me like it uses wavetables instead of free running oscillators... while the Supernova engine is very well known).

 

The presets sound a bit lame though, and it might not have the visual appeal of the Gaia (which isn't the prettiest synth, but at least it looks very modern and cutting edge).

 

So I don't know if this will be successful, honestly...

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Boxed Newbie

Boxed

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I couldn't disagree more. The presets sound like they're mostly routed in Dubstep, Grime and Drum&Bass. But they actually sound really good - you couldn't get those types of distorted dark sounds from an ordinary synth without heavy external processing. The fact that it can do them straight out of the box is great.

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acidduck Newbie

acidduck

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Guys, I just got my Ultranova!:love::love::love:

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I'm still just tinkering with it, but first thing I notice is that the controls feel great. I own a few Novation products - KS Rack, X-Station, NIO and Remote Zero SL. The Ultranova is the best feeling product I have used from them. I immediately love the rubber knobs. The buttons also feel a lot nicer than my other Novation products.

 

The build quality seems pretty good for a synth at this price range. Of course it is plastic, but it feels very solid to me. The keys are Fatar, as with other novation products, which is good for me, because I love the feel of the X-Station keyboard. Everyone has their own personal likes and dislikes about keyboards so if you hate the X-Station keyboard, you'll probably hate the feel of this too. But so you know, this feels like it's about the same sort of resistance as X-Station - the aftertouch sensitivity feels pretty good to me.

 

I've only just had a quick jump through the preset patches. They sound ok. I think this synth engine really has a lot of potential. The presets could probably be better, but I don't think anyone buying this synth will want it as a preset machine - you want to tweak the hell out of it!

 

The menus are really good. Novation have obviously put a lot of thought into the "workflow" for patch design. I haven't dug into great depths yet, but everything seems very logical with this synth. Of course we would all like a dedicated knob for as many parameters as possible, but the different sections are only a button press away, and the most common features are very accessible.

 

It also came with a registration card for Automap 3 Pro. So thats nice as well... my other novation products only had standard Automap, and I would have to pay extra if I wanted Pro. SO it's nice that this is a part of the package here.

 

There is no software CD. You have to download the installer from the Novation site. I don't have any problems with this. Whenever I buy a new toy, the first thing I do is visit the manufacturer website and get the latest drivers and software anyway.

 

Another nice inclusion is the power adapter. I can just plug this straight into the wall and start playing it without needing to connect to the computer. The adapter also comes with interchangeable plugs for different countries. Mine came with one for Australia, one for US, one for UK and another one - maybe some other European connector, I am not sure. In fact, I have not even connected it to the PC yet! So I am yet to see what the Software editor is like.

 

Anyway, so far so good!

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acidduck Newbie

acidduck

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I was pretty lucky to get one this early - the store sold me their demo model (and gave me a good deal!) The demo one was the only one they had, and me being the impatient bastard that I am had to buy it there and then!

 

I probably shouldn't have spent the money, but I can't help myself. I am addicted to buying toys! :)

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cheungaryk Newbie

cheungaryk

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I was pretty lucky to get one this early - the store sold me their demo model (and gave me a good deal!) The demo one was the only one they had, and me being the impatient bastard that I am had to buy it there and then!


I probably shouldn't have spent the money, but I can't help myself. I am addicted to buying toys!
:)

 

Congrats! How is the built-in soundcard/audio interface, and the vocoder?

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Bernard Newbie

Bernard

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I was pretty lucky to get one this early - the store sold me their demo model (and gave me a good deal!) The demo one was the only one they had, and me being the impatient bastard that I am had to buy it there and then!


I probably shouldn't have spent the money, but I can't help myself. I am addicted to buying toys!
:)

 

Good luck with this and keep us all in the loop :thu:

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acidduck Newbie

acidduck

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I haven't had a lot of time to play with this baby yet... it's actually becoming annoying - people keep visiting or wanting me to do stuff, and I really just want to stay in my room all day and play with my Ultranova!

 

Anyway, I've had a brief play with the VSTi software now. I think it's pretty good! Conceptually it is like the Virus Control software. It's a good interface I think, but I am undecided if I think the Virus software or the Ultranova software is better. I haven't really written any tracks with it yet - I've just been tinkering.

 

The main thing I notice with both the software and the hardware is that everything is very logically laid out. It's a very easy synth to program. It's got a lot of power despite the fact that it's only one part (I still can't believe manufacturers are making single part synths these days though! I can live with it though).

 

I am finding it very fun. The vocoder is pretty cool too. I have no use for the vocoder, but it sounds fine to me, and you can do some cool things routing external audio through the synth engine (so you can apply filters etc to external audio as well as effects. X-Station only let you apply effects). I think the vocoder is much more effective than the one on the KS series synths. Maybe it's just me, but I could never get any decent vocoder stuff out of my KS Rack.

 

I've never used any other Nova synths, so unfortunately I cannot make any comparisons to their sound.

 

The patch browsing system is cool too. Something I like is that you can choose to browse patches both numerically (ie by the usual bank/patch number method) and alphabetically. Makes it so quick to find the patch you are looking for - plus although the category and genre filters might seem a little tacky when you read about them, they do work well. As long as you categorise your patches appropriately I guess!

 

I really like the big filter rotary encoder too. It's very smooth to use, and it can instantly be assigned to any parameter. Just touch the dial you want to control, press the lock button and then you can use this big endless encoder to control the last touched parameter. The filter knob is pretty smooth to use. All the other rotary controls are notched .

 

All in all, it's quite a good synth. I'd actually reccommend it to anyone who is new to synthesis, just because it is very easy to program, but has so many modulation options that you will be creating exciting patches for quite some time.

 

I have one complaint though - for some reason i have a very quiet high pitch hum that is coming out of the audio engine to the left output. It's very quiet, but it's there. I need to get this checked out. I am sure it's probably just something unique to mine - I have never encountered noise issues with other Novation products. I got a waranty with this, so it's just a matter of finding the time to go back to the store. I am yet to try and contact Novation, but I might send them an email and see what they suggest.

 

As you can see though, I am pretty happy with it so far. I wish it was a bit cheaper, but even at this price range, I don't think there is much else that I would rather have purchased.

 

Hopefully this might be some help to the folk out there who are uncertain if this is right for them!

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LePera Newbie

LePera

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You were wise to buy the demo, because if they sold it and it was the only one, chances are they made a decision not to carry it.


Otherwise, they would have kept it to demo to other people, I would think.

 

Or maybe they liked the "Acidduck" and did him a favor or because they thought he would be the Aussie Ultranova guy.Play us a song Aussie Ultranova guy..:wave:

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