Novation DrumStation

 

Type:            Analog Modelling Drum Synthetizer Module
Design:         UK
Year:            1996
Price:           about 650 USD/EUR (new/1998), 475 USD/EUR (used/1998).
Homepage:  www.novationmusic.com

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Kicks and drumzzzz

By mid-1996, I was beginning to ear some money and got really decided to dig out gear to fit in my forthcoming Home-studio. I had the lead synth with my BassStation. I had a all multifunction toolbox in the MC-303 but the controllability and the sound quality of this box was quite too limited for what I aimed. I badly needed a heavy drum box, one of those who gives up a heavy THUMP or a deep BOUM to give a quality tempo to all my techno-trax songs. I new of the legendary TR-808 and TR-909 but I got scared when I saw their retail price a decade years after... First of all I didn't have the money and secondly I wasn't mad enough to invest as much on vintage gear which implied MIDIfication and reliability problems... I first thought buying the standard Boss DR-660 drum box. The sample quality was great but the unit lacked enough multiple outs and it's MIDI implementation wasn't really flexible. The solution came with an advertisement of a brand new unit from Novation which promised a 808 AND a 909 will full MIDI implementation for a fraction of the price. I waited the first demo unit on French soil...

The first batch of units touched Paris in Fall 1996, specs were great and sounds quality was very high clearly approaching the machines it was suppose to copy. Unfortunately, they 6 few units were sold out in less than a week and I had to wait for the next shipping which occurred in November. The 10 new units came in at noon and I bought the last one at 5 pm !!! Luck was on my side and furious drums began hammering my room all night long. Sounds were great, distortion was cool and parameter controls (over 100 MIDI controllers !!!) were impressive comparing to the BassStation. I got it synchronized on my MC-303 sequencer and got my first track on line. Bass and Drum that's what everybody calls it.

I was quite pleased with the manufacturing quality of my initial Novation unit the BassStation and I must say, this unit confirmed my good impressions with approximatively the same small neat layout of it's Bass sister. The main BIG difference was that this unit was completely digital and used the new Novation Analog Sound Modeling (ASM) technology to achieve via DSP power what good old analog drums did with capacitors and resistors...

The results are quite impressive and Novation has really hit the spot with this digital unit which outputs really convincing 808 and 909 sounds with full MIDI control for a affordable price. Control possibilities are fantastic with almost every parameter carried over MIDI, built-in Distortion control and additional goodies such as Velocity assignment, Pitched drum sounds, Front-cut and note On/Off recognition. A very flexible unit with a few mighty vintage sounds digitally recreated (not just sampled...) with full control.

I agree that the sound isn't "exactly" like the original ones mainly due to the initial flaws the original TR series had (a good 808 THUMP out of four and so on...). This unit is sonically clean and much more versatile than the original ones. I don't say the DrumStation replaces the TR's: it's just another drum instrument based on the Roland's TR series but with unique features. It is in no way a plain digital cloned 808 or 909. Just hear it, play it, compare it, and enjoy....

If this unit pleased me very much, I must admit that a few drawback features are quite annoying and should be mentioned here. The following drawbacks I have noted should be a guideline for the owner of a Drum Station and isn't a disclaimer of any kind. I love this unit but:

I find the output a bit weak for pro-line level use. This unit doesn't output at +4db but rather at -10db when you are at max on all level and velocities !

Almost none of the 25 presets take advantage of multiple out's !!! You have to eat up your miserable 15 User presets to get up the full multitrack power out of your Drum Station. Damn, what a waste of precious patch memories....

I still don't understand a thing in the Drum Station's MIDI implementation: Why only a fraction of the instruments have a distortion MIDI controller assigned when all instruments can have distortion applied via the front panel ???

Polyphony is rather low and the internal DSP hasn't got enough power to emulate much ASM sounds. Initially, 12 notes can be triggered simultaneously but a technical addenda over initial specifications dropped it to 8 notes. Practically, ASM generated sounds eats up 3 times more DSP power than sample-based sounds (see specs.) and the more Bass, Snare and Toms you use, the more you will overload your DSP. The problem is that when you run out of polyphony, you don't "loose" sounds as usual. You get on the output terrible "cracks" and "screeches" which ruins your mix. So be careful, this is a dedicated sound module good at recreating TR series sound but get another secondary sample-based drum box with plenty of polyphony to get loads of "exotic" drum sounds and massive percussions rolls. You CAN'T do that with a Drum Station and I personally use the MC-303 drum kits to fill in the dramatic lack of polyphony of the Novation's unit. That is THE problem of ASM technology: after all, nothing can be perfect all the way...

The external power supply (9VDC 500ma) seems to be underrated for the Drum Station's power requirements. Time to time, when I power up another module on my rack, the Drum Station freezes into error due to power supply malfunction. You just have to switch it Off and On again to put it on line. This happens to a few friends of mine and seems to be a small design flaw from the first batch of power supplies shipped. Some have been reported to fail and had to be replaced by another one.

Some initial batch Drum stations are known to be very unreliable due to main board fragility. I know two persons here in France who had great problems with their units: main board broken, high output noise, and random crackling have been reported but all have been repaired by Novation. This seems to affect only first batch units as I know that Novation reworked much of the MIDI implementation and functionalities since they released the first Drum Station. These should not be found again but beware of second hand units: try them completely before buying.

Specifications

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