http://youtu.be/E66vNYsnsME
Novation has published a YouTube video which provides a behind the scenes look at their 20 year long company history. The company has also released the Novation Heritage Soundpack containing a huge free collection of synthesizer samples, and launched a music contest offering Bass Station II, MiniNova, and UltraNova as the prizes.
Want to win your choice of Bass Station II, UltraNova, and MiniNova? Three lucky winners will be able to choose either a Bass Station II, UltraNova, or MiniNova to add to their studio and experience the power of the real thing!
Novation Heritage Soundpack is available for free download via Novation (803 MB download size, ZIP archive, contains 972 audio samples in 24-bit WAV format).
The sample pack contains over 1GB of samples and loops, showcasing the sounds of various Novation synthesizers and drum machines. If you like these samples enough to use them in one of your own tracks, you should definitely do so since Novation has launched a music contest in which they are giving away three of their most popular hardware synthesizers:
- Bass Station II
- MiniNova
- UltraNova
The deadline for submitting your entry is March 4th at 4PM GMT. While using 3rd party samples and audio effects is allowed, the jury (including Paul Hartnoll, Timo Maas, Liam Howe, and Eats Everything) will pay special attention to the way the samples from the Novation Heritage Soundpack were used in your track. Good luck to all BPB readers entering the contest!
After unzipping the download archive, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of audio material included in the freebie pack. Novation has compiled a collection of almost 1000 audio loops and samples captured from six different instruments, adding up to almost 1 GB of audio data. You’ll find various one shots and loops from both Bass Station iterations, K-Station, UltraNova, and SuperNova II sounds, as well as a nice set of drum loops and drum one shots from the Drum Station drum machine.
The video embedded at the top of this article is an interesting watch, especially if you use (or have used) some Novation hardware. My first serious keyboard was the K-Station virtual analogue synthesizer and it still remains one of my favorite instruments to date.
The video explains how early Novation instruments took inspiration from analogue classics such as Wasp and the legendary OSCar, and how the company was successful at feeling the pulse of the electronic music scene when they designed the first Launchpad. Seriously, who knew that a simple plastic box with a bunch of square buttons on it would produce such a blast on the music hardware scene?
Regarding the company’s venture on the software scene, company co-founder Ian Jannaway explains how their V-Station virtual instrument sold in huge amounts in the first few weeks, but things turned sour when a cracked version of the software turned up online only eight weeks after the official release. This killed off the V-Station sales completely, after which Novation decided to stick with hardware manufacturing.
Do you use Novation hardware? Will you enter the contest for a chance to win a Novation synthesizer? Let us know in the comments section below!
