Description

INCLUDES FREE NOVATION BAG.

MiniNova is a compact, super-cool studio and live synth with the same sound engine as its big brother; UltraNova. It comes with 256 incredible onboard sounds that you can tweak with five knobs, or totally warp with eight ‘animate’ buttons. It has up to 18 voices with as many as five synth effects on each sound. MiniNova also has an onboard VocalTune™ effect as well as a classic vocoder so you can recreate iconic vocal sounds from hip hop, urban and electronic music.

Don’t let its size fool you. MiniNova is the latest in the ‘nova’ range of synths dating back to the legendary Supernova series. It has the same incredibly powerful sound engine and synth effects as the Novation UltraNova which means it is capable of creating dirty-fat bass synth sounds, soaring leads, lush pads and vintage synth sounds. All this in a 37 mini-key form with a USB port and MIDI i/o so you can hook it up to your laptop and control your music software or connect it to another keyboard or sound module.

Classic & brand-new vocal effects

MiniNova takes vocal effects one-step further. As well as a vocoder, it has VocalTune. This means you can talk into the mic and play the tune you want your voice to follow on the keyboard recreating those classic hip hop / urban vocal effects. You can also run your voice through MiniNova’s effects engine, adding reverb, distortion, chorus/phase, gator compression or EQ. This doesn’t need to be limited to your voice; there is an input into which you can plug a guitar or any other instrument and give it the same treatment; effects or vocoder.

Choose your sound – and get more for free

MiniNova has 256 onboard sounds and space to save another 128 of your own sounds. You can quickly search for sounds by selecting the style of music you’re making, or the type of sound you’re after whether it’s bass synth, lead – hip hop or techno. MiniNova comes with a free software Patch Librarian so you can store as many sounds as you want on your computer. If 256 is not enough, there are numerous soundpacks for MiniNova assembled by renowned artists and sound designers. These include plenty of vintage synth sounds. They can be downloaded free from: novationmusic.com/soundpacks.

The ‘Animate’ performance mode

Switch to ‘Animate’ mode and press one of the 8 backlit buttons (whilst playing the keyboard) to trigger awesome performance functions

Jam with the Arpeggiator

Switch to ‘Arpeggiator’ mode to jam with arpeggiator rhythms in realtime. The 8 buttons act like an arpeggiator step sequencer so you can switch steps in and out!

Editing software included

Editing sounds in such a powerful synth can be overwhelming, so we’ve created a software application that gives you visual access to the synth engine. The MiniNova Editor works as a plug-in within your DAW or music software. You can fully edit MiniNova using the hardware; the software just makes it easier to see what you are doing.

The Synth Engine and effects

MiniNova has an enormously powerful sound engine and synth effects, unheard of in a micro synth. There are 14 conventional waveforms to choose from (square, sine, sawtooth, pulse, triangle and combinations), 36 wavetables and 20 digital waveforms. Each of the 3 oscillators (per voice) have density/detune for fattening up sounds, virtual sync and ‘hardness’ – which acts as an additional lowpass filter. There are 14 filter types (and you can run 2 simultaneously), 6 envelope generators, 3 LFOs and 20 modulation slots where you can link modules of the synth engine together to shape sound. MiniNova can add up to 5 effects to each sound including distortion, reverb, chorus/phase, delay, compressor, EQ and Novation’s unique gator effect.

Instant editing and performance control

The ‘Perform’ section enables you to access the synth and effects engines by switching between 6 positions to assign 4 knobs, giving you instant access to 24 sound-bending parameters.

Specifications

In the Box
USB cable, Power supply, User manual

Included Software
MiniNova Software Editor, MiniNova Patch Librarian, Ableton Live Lite, Novation Bass Station softsynth, Loopmasters sample pack (1GB)

Synth engine
Up to 18 note polyphony (dynamic voicing)
Mono-Timbral

Per patch
3x oscillators, 1x noise generator, 2x ring modulators
Waveforms include:Square, sine, tri, sawtooth, pulse, 9x saw:pulse combinations.
20x digital waveforms
36x wavetables

Filter types
2x filters per patch
low pass no resonance 6dB per octave
low pass 12dB
low pass 18dB
low pass 24dB
band pass 6:6
band pass 6:12
band pass 12:6
band pass 6:18
band pass 18:6
band pass 12:12
high pass no resonance 6dB per octave
high pass 12dB
high pass 18dB
high pass 24dB

Modulation sources:
20 modulation slots per patch
6x envelope generators
3x LFOs
Aftertouch
Velocity
Key scaling/track
Mod wheel
Expression pedal

Total of 66 Destinations including:
Oscillator pitch, pulse width, wavetable index, level and sync
Filter cutoff, resonance, envelope settings
Effects parameters and send levels
Recursive modulation (modulating modulation sources themselves)

5 effects slots per patch
Distortion – up to 2 instances
Compressor – up to 2 instances
Chorus/Phase – up to 4 instances
Delay – up to 2 instances
Reverb – up to 2 instances
Gator
EQ

Misc
VocalTune
12 band vocoder
Arpeggiator – 33 patterns
Realtime Arp rhythm editing function
Chord function – lock up to 10 notes
Patch storage – up to 384 on hardware (ships with 256 factory patches)

Hardware:

Utility, display and patch select controls
16 character custom LCD
1x large detented patch select encoder
1x patch sort switch
1x volume dial
1x detented data encoder
5x navigation/utility buttons
2x patch navigation buttons

Keyboard/performance controls

Pitch wheel (LED lit)
Modulation wheel (LED lit)
37 note keyboard with velocity
4x smooth edit/performance pots
1x large smooth filter pot
1x six position parameter selector switch
6x parameter indicator LEDs
8x three-colour, back-lit animate/arpeggiator/favourite patch-select buttons
2x animate/arpeggiate LED indicators
1x back-lit ‘hold’ button
1x animate/arpeggiator/favourite patch toggle switch
1x ‘favourite’ patch select button
1x arpeggiator tempo control pot
1x arpeggiator tempo indicator LED
2x back-lit arpeggiator control encoders
2x back-lit octave select buttons

Inputs, Outputs, rear panel

XLR dynamic mic input
1x ¼” jack inputs
2x ¼” jack outputs
1x ¼” jack headphone output
Sustain pedal on ¼” jack input
MIDI in/out
12 volt power input
USB/DC/off power switch
USB port (MiniNova can be powered via USB)
Kensington Lock port

Dimensions

Length: 560mm
Height: 75mm
Depth: 250mm

Weight

2.52kg