music systems ltd industry electronics founded 1992 ; 24 years ago 1992 as novation electronic music systems headquarters windsor house turnpike rd cressex business park high wycombe buckinghamshire england key people chris huggett products keyboards synthesizers midi controllers parent a division of focusrite audio engineering ltd website www.novationmusic.com novation digital music systems ltd. is a british musical equipment manufacturer founded in 1992 by ian jannaway and mark thompson as novation electronic music systems . today the company specialises in midi controllers with and without keyboards both analogue and virtual analogue performance synthesizers grid based performance controllers and dj controllers and interfaces . at present novation products are primarily manufactured in china . contents 1 history 2 key products 3 references 4 external links history edit mm10 1992 with yamaha qy10 bass station 1993 nova 1999 novation 25sl mkii 2012 novation s first commercial product released in 1992 was the novation mm10 a portable battery operated keyboard controller with full sized keys designed to operate with the yamaha qy10 music workstation . it was based on a device called the midicon which was never released and was the first hardware controller the company made . the mm10 combined with the qy10 arguably constituted the first completely portable modern music workstation . 1 in 1993 the company released the novation bass station also known as the bass station keyboard today regarded as a classic synthesiser . influenced by the roland tb 303 bassline a portable compact synthesiser designed for instrumental accompaniment bass station used digitally controlled analogue oscillators dcos lfo and filter to replicate the sound of a traditional monophonic twin oscillator analogue synth . 2 the core technology of analogue sound modelling asm was introduced in 1995 with the drum station which modelled the roland tr 808 and tr 909 drum machines using digitally synthesised models of the original waveforms . 3 novation s first technical director was chris huggett who designed the wasp and oscar synthesisers and wrote the operating system for the akai s1000 . while working for akai he gave novation s founders advice and support contributing to the design of the bass station and drum station the former featured the filter huggett had designed for the edp wasp and joining full time in the mid 1990s to design the novation supernova . 4 he has been a consultant to the company ever since and has been involved in the design of many of the company s products . supernova ii 2000 rear panel x station 49 2004 supernova released in 1998 was a 3u rack mounted polyphonic synthesiser with 16 note polyphony and multitimbral operation an important feature being the provision of multiple effects units which could be assigned to each timbre allowing a much richer sound than had generally been possible with a multitimbral synthesiser . supernova and its successor supernova ii have been used by a wide range of artists including orbital atb the faint sin jean michel jarre and a guy called gerald . 5 having produced controllers since the beginning and synthesisers from the early days the company added usb based computer audio interfaces and in 2004 produced the x station intended to provide a complete music production environment with the addition of a computer sequencer microphone and monitoring . 6 this was followed by midi controllers featuring no keyboard at all but instead offering varying numbers of buttons pads control knobs and sliders all sending midi messages . with the introduction of the sl range in 2005 this was complemented by novation automap a software system that automatically detects and maps the controllable parameters of a plug in or software application and configures the control surface to address them . automap has continued to be developed to the present day and is available in a number of formats including an ios app . 7 in august 2004 novation was acquired by focusrite ltd. and became a subsidiary named novation digital music systems ltd. 8 launchpad 2009 a keyboardless midi controller the novation launchpad was launched in 2009 with an 8x8 grid of large illuminated buttons that could be used to trigger sounds loops effects and other parameters initially in conjunction with the ableton live music performance application . launchpad was one of the first grid based performance controllers and this area expanded over the subsequent period to become a significant aspect of the electronic music hardware market . 9 the company expanded into dj controllers initially with the novation dicer in 2010 which consisted of two sets of buttons designed to be attached to a turntable or laptop 10 and then a full blown dj controller in 2011 with novation twitch which differed significantly from then available devices of the type in that it used twin touch strip controllers instead of the more common turntable emulation providing additional control capabilities . 11 ultranova 2010 all these different areas of synthesis and control have increasingly combined in novation products to create hybrid instruments and devices such as keyboard controllers with miniature grid launchers and on board synth and vocoder capability for example the ultranova 12 2011 and mininova 13 2012 . novation synthesisers have been used by a range of electronic acts including drum and bass rock group pendulum french composer jean michel jarre steve hillier of dubstar and british group orbital . in the track triumph by the rap group wu tang clan novation is referenced by wu tang member rza . key products edit this section lists past and present key novation products in chronological order with brief descriptions . see also 21 years of innovation novation official web site article . 14 mm10 1992 was a battery powered portable keyboard system for the yamaha qy10 music workstation . later updated as the mm10 x. bassstation 1993 aka bassstation keyboard included a pair of digitally controlled analogue oscillators dcos with pulse and sawtooth waveforms plus an lfo with random triangle and sawtooth waveforms and replicated the sound of a monophonic twin oscillator analogue synth for bass and lead lines and synth effects plus midi controller data . bass station rack 1994 bassstation rack 1994 included dual adsr envelope shapers 12 24db per octave filter oscillator sync and lfo dcos and built in midi control voltage cv converter . users include william rbit biosphere massive attack orbital apollo 440 nine inch nails radiohead jimi tenor laurent garnier atb sneaker pimps out of logic and underworld . drum station 1995 drumstation 1995 used analogue sound modelling asm drumstation included all the sounds of the tr808 and its successor the tr909 and the same tone controls for each sound including tone attack decay tuning snappiness and distortion depending on the sound . super bassstation 1997 added an arpeggiator noise source ring modulator an additional lfo bringing the complement to two a sub oscillator an octave below oscillator 1 analogue chorus and distortion effects keyboard filter tracking stereo outputs and panning enhanced memory analogue trigger signal output and more to the original design . supernova 1998 polyphonic synth providing a complete multi effects processor for each of its eight audio output parts and a total of 56 programmable effects available on all voices all the time . supernova originally featured 16 note polyphony later expanded to 20 with a new operating system and three dcos with asm to recreate the classic analogue synth sound . a comprehensive filter provided low high and bandpass filtering with 12 18 and 24db octave with resonance and self oscillation plus overdrive and key tracking where the filter tuning could follow the keyboard . two powerful lfos and two ring modulators completed the sound modification capabilities and the supernova specification was rounded out with eight analogue outputs and full midi implementation . supernova and its successor supernova ii have been used by orbital atb the faint sin jean michel jarre and a guy called gerald . nova 1999 nova 1999 essentially repackaged the supernova into a desktop performance module based around the same synthesiser engine . supernova ii 2000 was available in 24 36 and 48 voice models with additional 12 or 24 voice expansion boards . available again in a 3u rack mount format the supernova ii was also available in a 61 note performance keyboard version with velocity and aftertouch enabling sound tweaking during live performance . fm synthesis capability was included along with ring modulation dual analogue inputs and a 42 band vocoder . an 8 part arpeggiator was also on board and in its full version the product offered 8 part multitimbrality and 48 voice polyphony with 57 and 2304 oscillators running simultaneously . a station 2001 a station 2001 was a cross between the bassstation and the supernova . with voice architecture was based on the supernova a station added 8 voice polyphony and a basic fm synthesis engine reverb and delay plus a 12 voice vocoder for processing external sounds which can also be used as an oscillator source and processed via filter and envelopes . an arpeggiator was also provided . k station 2002 was a 2 octave keyboard version of the a station with 8 voice polyphony three asm oscillators providing a range of waveforms plus fm synthesis and a noise source a 12 band vocoder arpeggiator dual adsr envelope shapers and two lfos reverb and delay effects . ks series 2002 ks4 ks5 and ks rack used enhanced versions of the k station engine with a range of additional features . the ks4 was a 4 octave keyboard while the ks5 offered five octaves . keyboards are semi weighted and include aftertouch and all 33 control knobs on the ergonomic control section send midi . the ks series included four part multitimbral operation with multiple assignable audio outputs a 14 band vocoder and a separate effects processor for each part . remote 25 2003 interface x station 49 2004 remote 37sl 2006 xio synth 25 2007 remote 25 midi controller keyboard 2003 was conceived in 2003 to bring back hands on tweaking to the computer musician . in addition to the remote 25 which was midi based the remote 25 audio provided the same facilities with the addition of a built in usb audio interface and later developed into the x station . the remote keyboards were originally developed as controllers for propellerhead reason . 15 v station and b station 2003 . these software products still available at the time of writing april 2013 provide virtual emulations of the k station and bass station respectively . both are available for macintosh and windows platforms in both vst and au formats . x station 2004 was designed to create a complete music making environment by adding a computer sequencer microphone and monitoring . supernova class 8 voice asm based synth engine template based remote style midi control and a 2 in 2 out stereo audio interface and multi effects engine plus semi weighted aftertouch keyboard . remote zero sl 2006 was an addition to novation s midi and usb controller range most of which feature keyboards with no zero keys . what the remote zero sl did offer was an enormous selection of knobs buttons sliders and trigger pads that could all be freely assigned to virtually any hardware device or application that supports midi . at the heart of the remote sl range was automap which detects the sequencer in use and the software plugin instruments used in the project . it then intelligently and logically maps the software s controls to the controller s host of rotary controls slider and push buttons . nio 2 4 2007 was a multi platform compact 2 in 4 out usb audio interface aimed at musicians in general and guitarists in particular bundled with a specially selected complement of 20 software effects in the nio fx rack application controlled from the unit s front panel which resembled a guitar effects pedal . xiosynth 2007 was a keyboard synthesiser with usb audio interface and