Members kluster Posted May 14, 2004 Members Share Posted May 14, 2004 Hi, I've been looking to find a Novation Nova on the used market.. Now I have been able to locate one for, let's say, dirt cheap. All the specs sound great, 16 poly, 6 multitimbrality, multitimbral fx... Only thing gnawing away in the back of my head is the waveforms, or rather the lack of them. As I have gathered, it only features triangle, saw and some kind of 'supersaw'. What happened to the sine waveform, for example? Lately I've been interested in very subtle, m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mytee2.0 Posted May 14, 2004 Members Share Posted May 14, 2004 how much is dirt cheap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Yoozer Posted May 14, 2004 Members Share Posted May 14, 2004 Originally posted by kluster Hi, I've been looking to find a Novation Nova on the used market.. Now I have been able to locate one for, let's say, dirt cheap. All the specs sound great, 16 poly, 6 multitimbrality, multitimbral fx... Only thing gnawing away in the back of my head is the waveforms, or rather the lack of them. As I have gathered, it only features triangle, saw and some kind of 'supersaw'. What happened to the sine waveform, for example? http://www.novationmusic.com/downloads/manuals/english/NOVAMAN.PDF See page 10 and be pleasantly surprised . Lately I've been interested in very subtle, m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kluster Posted May 14, 2004 Author Members Share Posted May 14, 2004 how much is dirt cheap? A valid question I live in Finland, so the selection of second-hand gear available is pretty limited. The price I'd be looking at is about 370 euros. (that's about 435 dollars) People over here ask 700-800 euros for a JP-8000 or a virus rack, for example, so the price of the nova seems, at least to me, extremely affordable for the features. If, however, somebody has ideas for a synth that is as easily programmable as the Nova (one thing that's drawing me towards it is the ease of programming) and in the same price range, go for it..! And thanks Yoozer, very helpful reply! Nice info (that I should've come up with myself ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SweetAlien Posted May 14, 2004 Members Share Posted May 14, 2004 That's a weirdo synth, I'm still not sure what I feel about it. It definitely has very unique sound and is a very good additional synth. Ballsy in the lower register, thin in the mids and highs. Not capable of traditional dance/trance sounds you hear on commercial records. Effects make it even more weird. If it's gonna be your main synth - than it's the weakest of all the hi-end VAs on the market overall, IMHO, cause it can do very little. If I were you I'd get JP first. Virus sounds good too, but if it's rack it won't be too much fun to use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Yoozer Posted May 14, 2004 Members Share Posted May 14, 2004 Hm.. as an alternative for the Nova, why not a Nord Rack and an effects box? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AgtOrange Posted May 14, 2004 Members Share Posted May 14, 2004 Originally posted by kluster If, however, somebody has ideas for a synth that is as easily programmable as the Nova (one thing that's drawing me towards it is the ease of programming) and in the same price range, go for it..! They don't get much easier than the Nova. Novation synths are about as dead simple as you can get. The downside, of course, is that most are synths are a bit more flexible, but the Nova can still do a lot. The JP may be more powerful, but it also costs twice as much. Is it worth the difference to you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Purity_Control Posted May 14, 2004 Members Share Posted May 14, 2004 The Nova has a number of functions that let you modify the basic waveforms, 'soften' will round off the edges and according to the manual can turn a square wave into a sine (though it never sounds quite right to me), 'sync' acts like virtual osc sync, and you can use 'sync skew' and adjust the formant width too. So even though there's only two basic waveforms, you have a lot of scope to process them into something more complex than you could have produced on a RA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kluster Posted May 15, 2004 Author Members Share Posted May 15, 2004 Got the Nova. My decision was based mostly on the fact that I had no choice, couldn't afford anything else AND, that for the money the Nova seems like a very apt machine. This little thing hasn't been cared for properly though, still running on an os where the polyphony is 12. Gotta get home and get the little guy in shape. I think I'm not the only one when I think that the presets are WEAK. Really cheesy sounds.. It kinda made me fear that I've bought a cheesy-sounding synth.. But on the basis of ~5 patches I've had the time to create, seems like that's not the truth. The whole truth will reveal itself when I get my programming skills honed; at the moment I'm pretty clueless with the unit. Do share some nifty Nova tricks with me And by the way, is there any way to get the silly *beep* sound off? You know, the one when pressing any button on the synth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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