Novation UltraNova multimbral desktop version would be nice!

[nyne]

Would be cool.......!!!

[G-d-S]

indeed

[zvukofor]

definitely. i'll trade my Virus C for it.

[nyne]

NAMM is around the corner.....let see what happens. The last few NAMMS have been quite meh.......

[Spectral Climax]

So...does it have a really good sound if we turn off the effects? Most of the people prefer the older Supernova... Is this just because of the interface? I really don't like Ultranova's interface...it's uninspiring IMO.

[verve92]

I'd like to be 6 inches taller!

[realtrance]

Originally Posted by Spectral Climax

So...does it have a really good sound if we turn off the effects? Most of the people prefer the older Supernova... Is this just because of the interface? I really don't like Ultranova's interface...it's uninspiring IMO.

As usual, lots of FUD on the internet about synths......

I tried turning off _all_ the effects on one of the factory presets that has a really rich, lovely, full sound ("Saw something or other," it's one of the first few), given all the hoo-ha about "oh it's a thin VA it's all because of the effects it has any sound at all" [what you hear said about 99.99999% of digital synths online] and.... nope... sound is still quite lovely, in fact I tried to recreate the sound on my A6 and TI and in both cases, it was a lot of work to get to anything quite as full and rich sounding, _without_ effects.

Older Supernova has more voices. The Ultranova's interface is in fact quite more innovative than most current hardware synths, V-Synth GT being one of the few exceptions. The Touch and Tweak quick options and the lock options and endless rotary to the right of the eight stepped encoders are all quite exemplary for real-time performance tweaking. If you're not lazy and work through the huge modulation matrix (for a synth of this size), the Touch options can really provide quite a new way of playing the synth.

To sum up, sound, mod matrix and touch controls: those are the three things that make the Ultranova. Plus it's wonderful in terms of ease of hook-up to a Mac or PC and the software interface in same is even more excellent.

Automap 4.2 also makes it a perfect controller for Ableton, Logic Pro or whatever else you want to integrate it with.

[Rompetigo]

Originally Posted by realtrance

As usual, lots of FUD on the internet about synths......

I tried turning off _all_ the effects on one of the factory presets that has a really rich, lovely, full sound ("Saw something or other," it's one of the first few), given all the hoo-ha about "oh it's a thin VA it's all because of the effects it has any sound at all" [what you hear said about 99.99999% of digital synths online] and.... nope... sound is still quite lovely, in fact I tried to recreate the sound on my A6 and TI and in both cases, it was a lot of work to get to anything quite as full and rich sounding, _without_ effects.

Older Supernova has more voices. The Ultranova's interface is in fact quite more innovative than most current hardware synths, V-Synth GT being one of the few exceptions. The Touch and Tweak quick options and the lock options and endless rotary to the right of the eight stepped encoders are all quite exemplary for real-time performance tweaking. If you're not lazy and work through the huge modulation matrix (for a synth of this size), the Touch options can really provide quite a new way of playing the synth.

To sum up, sound, mod matrix and touch controls: those are the three things that make the Ultranova. Plus it's wonderful in terms of ease of hook-up to a Mac or PC and the software interface in same is even more excellent.

Automap 4.2 also makes it a perfect controller for Ableton, Logic Pro or whatever else you want to integrate it with.

As a proud owner of the Ultranova for about two months now I can't agree more with everything you said. Still it's mindboggling to me that it seems they're trying to capture the essence of the Supernova engine, but working backwards with the lack of multitimbrality.

[realtrance]

Originally Posted by Rompetigo

As a proud owner of the Ultranova for about two months now I can't agree more with everything you said. Still it's mindboggling to me that it seems they're trying to capture the essence of the Supernova engine, but working backwards with the lack of multitimbrality.

Rompetigo I honestly think that's a price-point as well as integration-with-PC/MAC issue. TI has more polyphony and multitimbrality, sure, but it's more expensive to manufacture, and has proven years-long-more-difficult-to-make-reliable in integration with PC than originally thought.

With fewer voices and monotimbrality, you've got something that's much less of a load on bandwidth, across the board (pun intended), both internally in the synth, and in terms of communication via USB with PC/Mac. That's thus cheaper to build, more reliable, fewer issues in software integration, all good things.

Plus, I don't think the Ultranova synth engine is meant to be an orchestra; it's more like a voice to add to your software orchestration in Live or Logic Pro or what-have-you. Like the JP-8000 was back in 1997 and yes, this synth has some of those same, gorgeous/distinctive unique tonalities making it worth consideration.

All that said, yes, if Novation/Focusrite funded a full-scale 61-key Ultranova keyboard that competed on the polyphony and multitimbrality fronts with the Supernova.... I'd go for it. If I had the money, which I don't now the way I did in 1998, another factor I'm sure Novation has taken into consideration (not me, personally! but taking my case as the typical one; we're all poorer now).

[skira]

Originally Posted by verve92

I'd like to be 6 inches taller!

Just lower the keyboard stand.

[skira]

Originally Posted by realtrance

With fewer voices and monotimbrality, you've got something that's much less of a load on bandwidth, across the board (pun intended), both internally in the synth, and in terms of communication via USB with PC/Mac. That's thus cheaper to build, more reliable, fewer issues in software integration, all good things.

I'm a newbie and the Ultranova is my 1st and only synth. I like it a great deal but the three things I wish it had are be multitimbrality, some basic sequencing functions, and a much more detailed manual or series of instructional videos. Right now I have to record clip after clip sequentially with each sound I use in a DAW to build up musical ideas when it could be much easier for me with sequencing/multitimbrality to disconnect from the computer and play around anywhere I wanted.

If Akai can put multitimbrality and sequencing in their $450 Miniak (I last saw it at the Xmas blowout price of $250) I suspect that it could have been possible for one or both of those features to have been included by Novation while keeping the keyboard affordable.