Product Reviews

Following the enthusiastic reception given to the V-Station soft synth earlier this year, Novation has now added to its virtual line-up with the Bass Station. While purists argue that you can never expect software to exactly replicate hardware performance (and vice versa), this plug-in definitely brings the sonic expression of the original Bass Stations to the Mac desktop.

As with the V-Station, this plug-in is Mac OS X 10.2 only (10.2.6 recommended) and is available in Audio Unit format only for the Mac. As such it is primarily of interest to Logic 6 and Digital Performer users. The tiny installation took just a few seconds to load, we requested our unlocking key from the Novation Web site (downloading the 1.1 update for good measure) and our Bass Station was ready to roll.

The easiest way to get to know any synth is to load it into your sequencer and start playing. Launching it in Logic 6.2.1, we immediately started scrolling through the 100 preset sounds. These offer plenty of variety and there is no question mark over the Bass Station's sonic character, with lots of rich, fat sounds; smooth, evolving selections and nasty, distorted, rasping patches, emulating every kind of classic analogue bass sound (Moogs, TB303s, electro, dance, and so on).

Enjoyable as the presets are, after a while it's hard to remain excited. Once we started fooling around with the filters, oscillators,

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envelopes, LFOs and any other knobs and switches we could find, the Bass Station's sounds really sprang to life. A little user interaction goes a long way.

How low can you go?

Two oscillators, with a choice of sawtooth or square/pulse waveforms and plenty of modulation dials, provide the basic sound source, while Novation's 'liquid analogue' technology comes into play with the low-pass filters. These sound terrific and twisting the four filter knobs mutates any preset beyond recognition.

The two envelopes are equally flexible - one shapes the amplitude, the other is designed for filter sweeps or controlling swells and attacks. Both are velocity sensitive. Finally, the LFO offers further signals and can be synchronised to the sequencer's tempo.

Any edits you make to the presets can be saved and fully editable banks of sounds can also be set up. More impressively, if you tweak your heart out and then save the song with your sequencer, your Bass Station settings will be recalled next time. Also, if you happen to already own a hardware Bass Station, you can transfer your sounds between the hard and soft domains.

Bass Station 1.1 doesn't require a MIDI keyboard. Notes can be triggered by clicking the Bass Station with your mouse, the velocity of the sound depending on which part of the key you click.

One minor complaint is that having been designed purely as a bass plug-in, it is a monophonic synth. Some of the sounds work surprisingly well as lead lines in the upper registers so it would be nice to have polyphony, but it's hardly a deal-breaker.

There are plenty of soft synths already available, most of which have lavished considerable attention on the quality of their bass sounds. So in a crowded market, does Novation's Bass Station deserve a second glance? On balance, we think it does. The overall sound quality is excellent, the editing functions are comprehensive, the ease of use is refreshing and the price is more than fair.