Novation Bass Station

Released in 1993, the original Bass Station synthesiser was the second piece of hardware ever created by Novation and it's now hailed as one of the most important in the company’s history.

A two oscillator subtractive synthesiser with a distinctive, warm signal path and MIDI transmission; Bass Station brought real analogue character and previously elusive genre-defining sounds to the studios and live rigs of many. Bass Station broke the mould: it had it’s own unique boisterous analogue character and the ability to accurately reproduce the sounds of many celebrated dual-oscillator analogue monosynths.

It was particularly celebrated for its ability to mimic the Roland TB303: a synthesiser that played a crucial role in the development of contemporary electronic dance music and helped define house music as we know it today. Only 10,000 TB303 synthesisers were ever produced, and demand made them cost prohibitive to the average electronic musician - but Bass Station could recreate their sounds at a fraction of the cost, with the addition of full subtractive synthesis control, MIDI transmission and full-size, velocity-sensitive keys. Bass Station was one of the first new analogue synths to hit the music market since the 1980's, a time when interest in analogue hardware was peaking (novationmusic.com).