BassStation request ;-)

[Gordonjcp]

Has anyone on here got a Novation BassStation keyboard or rack that they don't mind opening up and getting some good clear shots of the circuit board?  Multiple overlapping shots are fine as long as it's clear enough to read the chip markings.

If anyone's got a broken BassStation they'd be prepared to sell (or better still donate) to a good cause, then that would be best of all ;-)

Gordon

[volg4]

ive got a super bassStation rack, dont think thats the same thing, if you want i can take a shot of it...

[Gordonjcp]

Possibly, does it still have the analogue filter?

[Circuitbenders]

Exactly how much of the original basstation is analogue?

Nobodies ever been able to give me a clear answer.

[volg4]

Possibly, does it still have the analogue filter?

yep, still has the analogue filter, also vca, analogue distortion + chorus

[Gordonjcp]

That is what I intend to find out ;-)

I believe the filter section is analogue but the oscillators are digitally-generated.  The question is, what kind of filter?

[volg4]

hey, i posted some pictures of the super

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GDJN8FDR

21 Mb zip,  8 large photos, hope they're clear enough

if you need any specific areas or chips or whatnot give me a shout

[Gordonjcp]

Dead on.  Right, around the middle of the board near the two big green components (caps, possibly?) there are some surface-mount CA3080 chips.  I reckon it's a transconductance filter, possibly similar to the ones used in a lot of British synths like the Transcendent 2000.

[Circuitbenders]

Bit weird the way those green caps (if they are caps) are just bodged onto the board isn't it?

That space was plainly designed for a smaller component   

[Gordonjcp]

I'd love to know what they are.  They may be some sort of special tempco resistor - the log converters for the VCF cutoff would need that.

[Circuitbenders]

Sorry to ressurect an old thread but someone has just sent me this link detailing some mods on the keyboard version

http://www.sdiy.org/pinky/BStn/BStn.html

[asciwhite]

Bit late to the party on this one, but just to add:

The filter was based on the one found in the EDP wasp. Chris Huggett was a consultant for novation around that time (and had major input to the design) while he worked for akai. Seeing as the wasp was also a digital/analogue hybrid if you have access to one of those, you may find the insides remarkably similar to the bass station.

He still works for them novation too so you never know, he may be contactable..

[mutatenow]

We opened up our Bass Station keyboard and its SMD. After probing the circuit board we can say that the oscillators are DCO and the ENVs are software generated. On the bright side the synth has a VCF and a VCA.
There is a 24 pin IDE connection as mentioned on Pinky's website. We probed all the pins and found in addition to Pinky's results a CV-in pin for the VCF cutoff so we added DCO2 as a modulation source for filter FM which is a useful modification.
On the down side, finding a solution to adding a CV/gate output is dim because of the software generated ENVs and also because the keyboard produces an inverted cv on two of the pins. We're not sure if they're 1v/oct but we doubt it. There would also be the possibilty of using an inverted 5V signal as a gate but its only worth the effort if the CV is 1v/oct. Catch 22.
Audio in for the VCF. We haven't located a point to add audio signals to the filter. Basically the OSCs are in the VCF signal path and it would mean a lot of head-scratching to find a decent solution.
At the moment we're working on using the square wave output on one of the pins for some mutant ring modulator/vocoder-esque effects.
Here is an audio example of the filter modulation mentioned above:
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/adolfchristus/ass-station-bass-station[/soundcloud]

[lazydog]

got a superbassstation here i picked up for 100eu with a fault: noisy, low volume
except at some settings, but all functions still work fine. came with the wrong PSU,
i've tried it with a decent one 600mA and more, but no change.

any idea what could be wrong with it? i'm not in the UK and not fancying the costs
of 2way international shipping atm

this is a potentially great little synth; i've got the original BRack, this one fills out on
features, more or less same thing/role but going further for range of possible sounds.
(unfortunately don't think it can stack poly mode like the BSRack)

[Faldoe]

I don't want to hijack this thread but I have a Bass Station keyboard that has an issue with the memory/presets.

The synth won't save presets. Whenever I power the synth, it produces no sound - I have to manually set the MIDI transmit and receive channels (TX and RX) for the internal keyboard to work. Once I do that, I only get sound out of the "Manual" preset setting. Presets 1-7 produce no sound.

I found out how to re-initialize the synth by sending the stock patches via MIDI into the synth. When I do this, the patches load and work fine. I'm able to edit them but once I turn the synth off and then on, all the work is lost and I have to start over.

I've opened the synth and see that there is no battery for the presets. How are the presets stored and any advice on how to troubleshoot the issue?

Thanks!!!