Is Novation’s Bass Station II now black?

Leaked pictures show that Novation’s new synth could be turning to the dark side… But you could decide the final colour and change synth history!

We love getting the inside scoop on something and have just received some exclusive leaked pictures of Novation’s Bass Station 2 that reveal that it might well be taking a turn to the dark(er) side. And we’ve also received word on just why it’s taken over two decades for the UK synth company to follow up the original…

The story so far, then: Back in 1993 Novation announced the original Bass Station. It sold incredibly well, offering great bass sounds for the then very popular acid house scene (although arguably not quite the TB-303-ness that many wanted). A couple of decades pass, Novation release more synths with more polyphony, more controllers, Mininovas, Supernovas, you name it, but no more Bass Stations.

Then, suddenly, at this year’s Frankfurt Musikmesse with no prior warning, along comes Bass Station II. We had some exclusive videos of the machine in action at the show here and as you can see, it quite definitely had a grey finish. That’s had…

New leaked pictures reveal something else, though: Bass Station II could now well be black. Just check out these, admittedly rather rough, pictures…

Novation officials have refused to comment but our inside sources reveal that the final colour is still to be decided. They also told us why there’s been such a long gap between both models – two decades being a long time to follow up a successful release by anyone’s standards (even The Blue Nile’s)…

“The original was very successful but both music and time moved on. Of course, software synths have been hugely popular but over the last couple of years the resurgence in ‘true analogue’ – where people have been demanding proper analogue synths – plus the need for tactile playing and programming has meant that we have constantly been asked to bring back the Bass Station. Basically, we eventually bowed down to the pressure, and demand for the 303 sound never seems to wane hence the addition of the new Acid filter in Bass Station II.”

So what colour will Bass Station II end up being? We think that black is very cool but it sounds to us like Novation need some help, so head on over to our facebook page where we’ll soon be running a poll. You could end up changing synth history!