Bass Station II Owners

So this synth has been out for a while. I have been watching it for as long and finally have some $$$ to throw at equipment again.

How y’all getting on with it now that the romantic period is over.

AUX

I will never sell it. Like it so much.

It might not have a huge amount of character or individuality, but it sounds so good.

Used it in my latest track which I posted in the “My Sounds”-forum a few days ago, here: https://soundcloud.com/dawid-dahl/dawid-dahl-i-den-ondes-vald

It will always have a special place in my heart also because it is the synth which taught me basically everything about synth stuff like how filters, envelopes, lfos, oscillator shapes, pulsewidth, etc etc work. It was just so easy when you had everything physically in front of you in that manner.

I remember prior to owning it, when I looked at say, the NI Massive plug-in, I didn’t understand a thing. It was just a whole lot of stuff to me, so complicated. But after having owned the BS2 for a week or two, I could suddenly understand like 90% of that plug-in. Really cool. (Not that I use softsynths anymore, but still.)

I’d say: take the plunge.

It’s a wonderful instrument. I sold mine.

Maybe it’s because I don’t have a particular attachment to the OMG ANALOG scene, but honestly I found it difficult to fit into my workflow…every time I’d make a patch, I wanted to be able to create more interesting modulation routings and ran into the synth’s limitations.

For bread & butter sounds it’s a fantastic and easy to program little thing, and the sound itself is beefy and extremely satisfying. Plus it’s one of the only synths in its size class with full size keys and aftertouch, which for me was a huge bonus.

Ultimately I just wasn’t getting anything out of it that I couldn’t get out of my plugins with more flexibility and less hassle. The fact that it was hands-on was its best selling point to me, but I’ve spent most of my career working with MIDI controllers and custom mappings so it really didn’t balance out in the end as far as being a meaningful improvement.

But really, if you want a great sounding synth that’s easy to program and rewarding to play, then the BSII is an excellent choice, especially since it’s relatively affordable compared to other hardware.

I have only had mine for a month but I’m still trying to like it. For the price I think it is pretty awesome but there are some little things that make me not fully click with it.

The filter tracking is the obvious one. Didn’t think that would bother me so much but a lot of the time it does. The switches for selecting oscillators and pwm are a bit awkward to use. I often wish that I could use LFO 2 to affect pitch as well but that’s probably based on old habits with my other synths.

The sound is pretty great though. I think I mostly find weaknesses in this synth when I compare it to other stuff I have used. Most people would very much enjoy the BS2, I’m just kinda OCD with synths in the same way I was with my quest for the perfect guitar tone several years ago. The BS2 is an inspiring piece regardless of my nitpicking and you could certainly make some great music with it.

Thanks for the replies.

@Dawid > nice work!

Pretty much what I expected. Limited but does what it does well. For $499 delivered can’t really go wrong. Looks like Novation are going to get my money on this one :wink:

I like it a lot, but might want to move to the original rack version for space reasons. I sequence it with MIDI since I am not much of a keyboard player anyway. PM me if you are interested in purchasing a non-smoking studio, lightly used model in the box within the U.S.

I feel the bs2 is the best sounding modern analog
kills a moog voyager and sub on vintage tones
amazing machine and an embarrassment for major synth firms that a $500 analog sounds so right on the money
well done novation
one trick for lush vintage sounds is to route the output to an analog delay and back into the input
double up full sound, fake poly and instant kid a, radiohead, on account the bs1 was used with space echos on kid a

I really like mine also, fully recommended!

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big minus point: actually you can’t use the arp/seq from external midi triggering, only for the keyboard.
Novation promise an update though, for months now.
I think’s that’s a shame when you see reactivity on firmwire update of companies like elektron, mutable instrument…
http://forum.novationmusic.com/forums/bass-station-ii/arpeggiator
http://forum.novationmusic.com/forums/bass-station-ii/arpseq-not-midi-triggable-wtf

plus as the arp seq is put on front to sell, it’s e’ven more non understandable

@Two Beautiful> thanks for the offer but I am in Australia…

@Orwell>big call on the moog! I only had a few minutes with the BassStation and was pretty much instantly sold. Like the re-route business :+1:

Hey Dataline I have seen a vid with your BassStation in the mix and pretty much every video with a BassStation init.

@LFO cheers for pointing out the arp limitations. I wasn’t aware of this. Not a deal breaker for me though.

A lot of love for this synth it seems…

I love mine and I can’t see why I would part with it. Great leads and, as the name suggest, very easy to get a deep growling bass out of it. My only complaint is no built in effects but really isn’t anything a Kaoss Pad or Thru Machine on an OT can’t fix.

I see people nitpicking at certain features not working as they like or not having other features. I say take it for what it is. It is a cheap synth but it does have a nice range of sound possibilities. It is my first analog synth which that novelty quickly wore off for me. My Access Virus C can sound pretty much the same and do far more however it is a complicated synth and I can quickly get lost in modulations and completely off track from what I intended. With the BSII I bought it for bass duties and with its direct simple interface I get what I want done quickly and easier than my other gear.

The BS2 is an awesome piece of equipment! Sits really well with other instruments too … here is a track of mine with BS2 on two channels + guitar and drums:

Couldn’t resist!
Should be here in the next couple of days…

I have a BSII and love it. Sounds a little vintage, very nice.

But I have some GAS for the Moog Minitaur.
Has anybody compared the 2? Does the Minitaur have more bass/ low end?
Of course the BS offers much more, but what about the basic bass sound?

Will the Minitaur give me something the BSII can´t do? (soundwise, not the CV thing)

Greets
andajazz

I got one at for a very good deal and couldn’t pass it up, but even at full MSRP, I’d buy it twice over.

It’s the perfect workhorse for me. I always use it for simple leads or deep basses. It’s not going to blow your mind with uniqueness or character, but it’s damned near impossible to beat as your bread and butter. Given it’s availability and cheap price, it’s a hard synth to pass up and will find itself much more usable in your production over similar monosynths of its price range.

Bottom line: it’s a synth I know I won’t ever sell because it’s just so damned useful. Very basic, but very versatile.

Mine has turned up and I am seriously impressed. Sits in the mix nice, warm and vintage type sounds or can be aggressive when you want it to be. Filters are excellent. Super stoked…

What about BS2 vs. Minitaur? Anybody has compared both?
I have the BS2, will the Minitaur give me more Bass?

Minitaur certainly gives more bass. But for me it was of no use. Minitaur is the Moog sound. But I feel the BSII has a more variable sound pellet and controllability.

But controlling you minitaur with A4 CV is fun!

It will give you moogy bass! Overall BS2 ftw…

I’m lucky enough to have a Moog Taurus 3, I haven’t heard/used the Minitaur but folks on the Moog forums who have used both say that they are very comparable when it comes to getting that famous bovine low end.

Anyway, I got my friend to bring his Bass Station II up a few weeks ago and we did a bit of a comparison.

Long story short the Taurus (and therefore probably it’s little bro the Minitaur) obliterates the Bass Station II in the bass department.

The BS2 does have a much wider pallet of potential sounds though.

My main problem with the BS2 is that the layout isn’t particularly intuitive for me… lots of shortcuts to learn etc.