Musicroom have taken stock of Novation’s latest performance synthesiser innovation: the MiniNova.
Compact yet powerful, and perfect for artists and producers of electronica, hip hop, grime, dubstep and other styles, the MiniNova is packed with features such as hands-on performance controls, onboard VocalTune auto-tune, high-quality vocoder and the same incredible sound engine as its big brother, the Novation UltraNova, also available from Musicroom.
Check out the MiniNova in action below:
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Click here to order the Novation MiniNova now or read more about Novation’s latest compact performance synth.
The MiniNova comes with 256 highly tweakable sounds, which can be mixed up and customised to your heart’s content with an arpeggiator, five control knobs and eight never-before-seen animation buttons to create incredible and dynamic effects. These buttons trigger mods within the synth engine that warp and mutate the sound as you play. You can even write and save your own animation behaviours. You’ll also find the mandatory modulation and pitch bend side wheels for added expression and performance control.
There’s also a large filter cutoff knob that gives you instant control of the filter, whatever you’re doing. When combined with the eight animation buttons, the arpeggiator can also create totally new sequences and jam effects in realtime. With space to save 128 of your own sound creations, there’s no need to worry about forgetting your favourite settings and dialled sweet spots.
At the core of the MiniNova is the fully editable Nova-class synth engine, derived from the legendary Supernova series from the 1990s. Such an enormously powerful synth engine is unheard of in such a compact synth. With this awesome capacity for sound creation, and intuitive performance and editing controls at your finger tips, you can come up unique and intense sounds with ease, or recreate iconic modern synth and vocal effects – your ears and imagination the only limits to the MiniNova’s musical potential.
The synth engine can produce 14 conventional waveforms (square, sine, sawtooth, pulse, triangle and combinations) 36 wavetables and 20 digital waveforms, with banks of three oscillators per voice offering density and detuning for fattening up sounds, virtual sync and hardness, acting as an additional lowpass filter.
See and hear more about selecting and editing sounds in the video below:
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There are 14 filter types to chose from, with two able to be run simultaneously, six envelope generators, three LFOs and 20 modulation slots allowing you to link synth engine modules together to shape sound. MiniNova can add up to five effects to each voice including distortion, reverb, chorus, phase, delay, compressor, EQ and Novation’s unique gator effect.
From producers and gigging musicians to bedroom recording artists making music with computers, the MiniNova is a fantastic piece of kit which can also be used as a 37 key controller keyboard. MIDI inputs and outputs also allow users to link the MiniNova up with sound modules, sequencers and samplers as they see fit. Its small-size and massive sounds make it a fantastic mini-synth whether you’re in the studio or on-stage.
Alongside its vocoder, the MiniNova also features VocalTune, which allows you to run vocals through the synth’s effects engine as well as auto-tune voices to keyboard melodies. Playing around with the human voice is only the beginning however – plug a guitar or other instrument into the built-in input and experiment!
Watch the video below for more details on the vocoder and VocalTone features:
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With all the capabilities of the MiniNova, editing sounds can be a daunting and overwhelming proposition, so Novation have created special software, The MiniNova Editor, which allows you to visually access and edit the synth engine from your computer. The Editor works as a plug-in within your DAW or usual music software and allows users to fully edit their MiniNova and enhance their understanding of the synth’s workings and options for customisation.
If you need more space to save your custom patches and sounds, the MiniNova Patch Librarian can store all your settings onto your computer, which can quickly and easily be accessed and moved onto the MiniNova for use. Soundpacks can also be also be purchased and downloaded from leading electronic artists and sound designers for users looking to add new banks of audio to their library, from genre specific sounds for techno and hip hop to vintage synths.
Too long; didn’t read? Here’s a bullet point breakdown of the MiniNova and its capabilities:
- 37 key controller keyboard with MIDI ins and out
- Hugely powerful mini-synth with UltraNova’s sound engine, based on the classic Nova engine of the 1990s
- Brand new VocalTune and classic vocoder effects
- Tweak and warp your sounds in realtime with eight animation buttons, five knobs, a large filter cutoff knob and arpeggiator
- 256 awesome onboard sounds – instantly searchable and with space for 128 custom user-made sounds
- Layer up to 5 effects per voice
- Comes with editing software and a software patch librarian – The MiniNova Editor
- Run guitars and other instruments though the vocoder and effects
Watch the Novation video below to see what artists and producers such as Jamie Muhoberac, Damien Taylor, Carmen Rizzo, Aaron Short and the team at The Lodge, New York City think of the MiniNova, and what they can do with it:
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To order your MiniNova, or to find out more, visit the MiniNova page on Musicroom.com now.
Over the next month, the MiniNova will also be touring the UK on an exclusive Sneak Preview Tour featuring special demo performances from product experts. Head down to Musicroom Nottingham and Musicroom York to see the synth in action before anyone else!