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Summary of Contents for Novation K-Station
- Page 1 K - S T A T I O N K-station polyphonic synthesizer User Manual in music, anything is possible.
- Page 2 Copyright: Novation E.M.S Limited 2002 K-Station User Guide Version 1.1a Features and specifications subject to change without notice due to improvements www.novationmusic.com...
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Page 3: Table Of Contents
The Mixer... The Filter... Envelopes and Amplifier... LFOs... Memories... Summary... MIDI Tutorial... About MIDI... MIDI messages used by the K-Station... MIDI and Sequencers... Summary... Main Features and Operation... Front Panel Layout... Modes and Menus... Oscillator Section... Mixer Section... Filter Section... -
Page 4: Introduction
* Filter The filter in the K-Station Synthesizer delivers the liquid sound of an analogue filter. Selectable Low-pass, 12dB or 24dB cut-off curves with Resonance, Overdrive and Resonance normalize make it easy to faith- fully recreate anything from distorted rave screams to tightly rounded bass patches. -
Page 5: Quick Start Guide
The K-Station is initially set when it leaves the factory to receive on MIDI channel 1, so if using an external master keyboard or sequencer to trigger the K-Station, ensure that it is set to transmit on this channel. Playing the K-Station’s own keyboard, master keyboard or sequencer will result in the currently selected factory preset sound being heard. -
Page 6: Editing A Sound
Listening to the factory demonstration To complete this Quick Start Guide section, some time spent listening to the sounds that the K-Station is capable of producing will be of ben- efit when it comes to creating new sounds. Press the MENUS button - the LED above the button will light. -
Page 7: Synthesis Tutorial
(which creates the vibrations). This Waveform is produced at a controllable musical pitch, initially determined by the note played on the K-Station keyboard or a received MIDI note mes- sage. The initial distinctive tone or timbre of the waveform is actually determined by the wave’s shape. -
Page 8: The Mixer
As well as mixing together the individual Oscillators as shown in the diagram above, the mixer section of the K-Station also allows the rela- tive volume levels of the Noise Oscillator, Ring Mod and any external sound source to be set. -
Page 9: The Filter
The Filter in the K-Station is a Low Pass type. A cut-off point is chosen and any frequencies below that point are passed and any above are fil- tered out. The setting of the FREQUENCY knob on the K-Station panel dictates the point below which frequencies are removed. -
Page 10: Envelopes And Amplifier
Amplifier, which controls the Volume of the sound when a note is played. Note that on the K-Station, there are no controls in a section on the front panel which deal with the Amplifier directly. The only way to hear and control an audio signal passing through the Amplifier is to modu- late it by using Amp Envelope controls. -
Page 11: Lfos
If not reconnected in exactly the same way, the sound would be lost forever. Modern machines such as the K-Station have all the blocks in one compact unit and the sound generating or modulator blocks are arranged in a sensible fashion. -
Page 12: Midi Tutorial
Station, such as telling it which notes to play from a sequencer for example. The MIDI Out socket transmits any MIDI information which might be generated by the K-Station. For example, if a note was played on the K-Station’s keyboard or one of the knobs were moved on the front panel. - Page 13 K-Station. Novation have employed system exclusive messages for two distinct purposes on the K-Station. Firstly, they can be used to back up all of the K-Station’s memories and global data. This feature is extremely useful in building up a sound library on a computer or for making a safety copy of sound and global data.
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Page 14: Midi And Sequencers
This means that if a track is selected on a sequencer which uses MIDI channel 2, and the sequencer then receives some MIDI information from a K-Station sent on MIDI channel 1, it will be re- transmitted by the sequencer not on MIDI channel 1, but MIDI channel 2. -
Page 15: Main Features And Operation
This chapter describes the main front panel controls and how they affect a sound and the operation of the K-Station. Front Panel Layout Oscillators portamento semitone detune pwm depth/ mod env depth pw position position lfo 2 mod env oscillator... -
Page 16: Modes And Menus
The Program will not actually be selected until the third digit has been entered. Note that the K-Station does not have to be in Program Select Mode in order to select a new Program via MIDI (from a sequencer for exam- ple). -
Page 17: Oscillator Section
PORTAMENTO knob This knob adjusts the Portamento effect. With this control set to zero, when the keyboard is played, the pitches of notes change instantly from one pitch to another as different keyboard notes are played. Turning the knob clockwise introduces the Portamento effect. Notes will glide smoothly from one pitch to the next. -
Page 18: Mixer Section
Ring Modulator. Ring Modulation is useful for creating harder Metallic tones. With the EXT position selected, it controls the volume of an external audio signal connected to the INPUT socket on the K-Station’s rear panel. This signal can be processed by the filter, envelopes and effects. -
Page 19: Filter Section
Filter Section The K-Station’s Filter is a Low Pass type. As the FREQUENCY knob is adjusted anticlockwise, harmonics are gradually removed from the sound. When almost closed, only the fundamental frequency remains. Fully closed and no sound at all passes. This type of Filter is musically the most useful, especially for bass sounds. -
Page 20: Lfo Section
SUSTAIN Knob / Slider Sets the level at which the envelope remains following the Decay phase, only while a key is being held on a controller keyboard (or there is a MIDI Note On command present). When set to zero, the envelope will decay to zero without being interrupted. -
Page 21: Volume And Keyboard Octave Controls
Keyboard OCTAVE Buttons These buttons allow the K-Station’s two octave keyboard to be shifted up or down by a whole octave. The entire MIDI note range of C-2 to G8 can be accessed. -
Page 22: Effects Section
Delay This Effect simulates the echoes which would be heard when a sound is reflected off of a hard, flat surface such as stone wall. The K-Station actually incorporates a stereo version of this echoing effect. To visualize a stereo echo, imagine a sound being produced between two stone walls. -
Page 23: Display And Data Entry Section
(called the Carrier). It actually does this by feeding the Modulator signal into a bank of band pass filters. Each of these filters (12 of them on the K-Station) covers a set band in the audio spectrum from low to high frequencies. -
Page 24: Mode And Keypad Section
Station is switched on, these values will be remembered. 0 - 9 Keypad / Menu Select Buttons While the K-Station is in Menu Mode, these buttons may be used to switch to a different Menu. At all other times, pressing one of these buttons will initiate Program... -
Page 25: Advanced Features
Unison allows more than one voice to be used for each note played on the keyboard. This effect is useful when a very thick sound is required. The K-Station allows up to eight voices to sound layered one on top of another when just a single note is played. - Page 26 OSC 2 is able to FM OSC 3 via a dedicated FM envelope. It is impor- tant that it is realized that this Envelope is used only for FM purposes and is not one of the Envelopes available on the K-Station’s front panel.
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Page 27: Filter Menu
To complement the front panel controls in the LFO section, there are many other functions located within the LFOs Menu. This is selected by pressing the keypad ‘3’ button while the K-Station is in Menu Mode. Use the PAGE up/down buttons to scroll through the Menu functions available - See table below. -
Page 28: Envelopes Menu
To complement the front panel controls in the Envelopes section, there are many other functions located in the Envelopes Menu. This is selected by pressing the keypad ‘4’ button when the K-Station is in Menu Mode. Use the PAGE up/down buttons to scroll through the Menu functions available - See table below. - Page 29 Envelopes (thus opening up the Amplifier) whenever the external audio signal strength reaches a certain threshold level. This feature ensures that it is not necessary to play the K-Station from its keyboard or a sequencer in order to hear the external audio signal processed through the Filter.
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Page 30: Effects Menus
To complement the front panel controls in the Effects section, there are many other functions located within the Effects Menus. These are selected by pressing the keypad ‘5’ button when the K-Station is in Menu Mode. The Effects Menus comprise of seven separate sub-Menus (one for each different type of effect available on the K-Station). -
Page 31: Reverb Menu
The timing of the delayed version is very small and is controlled by the Chorus’s own internal LFO (not to be confused with the two LFOs available on the K-Station’s front panel). The characteristic swirling Chorus effect is the result. -
Page 32: Distortion Menu
Chorus initial position sync is set to RGT , after an appropri- ate MIDI event, the Chorus effect will move from the right to the left. Wheel Level (Menu Page 8) This sets how much movement of the K-Station’s Modulation wheel will introduce the Chorus effect. Advanced Features The Distortion Menu Distortion is an effect commonly used by Guitar players. -
Page 33: Eq Menu
EQ changes at the rate determined by the EQ rate control. Note : The dedicated EQ LFO should not be confused with the two LFOs available on the K-Station’s front panel. To change the depth, select Page 2 in the EQ Menu. Adjust the DATA knob for the desired EQ Depth. -
Page 34: Panning Menu
Mod Depth (Menu Page 1) The Panning effect has its own dedicated LFO (not to be confused with the two LFOs available on the K-Station’s front panel) which can be used to automatically pan a sound backwards and forwards across the stereo field. -
Page 35: Vocoder Menu
K-Station’s memories becoming acci- dentally over-written. It is also possible to link two K-Stations or a K-Station and an A-Station together with a MIDI cable and use Sysex dumping as a means of directly transferring memory contents from one machine to the other. -
Page 36: The Utilities Menu
Select Mode, then re-enter Menu Mode and return to this Page of the Utilities Menu. When the WRITE button is pressed, the K-Station will prompt for the Program number to be restored from ROM as displayed below. Rest ? 100 < 100 The ‘from’... -
Page 37: Global Menu
Permanently saving any changes made to Global settings Any changes made to the Global settings will remain valid only while the power to the K-Station is on. To permanently save any new set- tings, the Global Memory must be saved. To do this, press the WRITE button at any time that the Global Menu is active. - Page 38 Using the External Audio Input In order to use an external audio input, the K-Station must be set up to correctly to respond to the level (amplitude) of the incoming signal. Since the levels of these signals can vary substantially, the Global menu functions Input Sensitivity Range and Input Trim dB (detailed below) must be adjusted for optimum performance.This will minimize...
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Page 39: Wheels Menu
This menu controls how the K-Station will respond to Pitch and Modulation from its own pitch and mod wheels. It is selected by press- ing the keypad ‘8’ button when the K-Station is in Menu Mode. Use the PAGE up/down buttons to scroll through the Menu functions available - See table below. -
Page 40: Arpeggiator Menu
To complement the front panel controls in the Arpeggiator section, there are many other functions located in the Arpeggiator Menu. This is selected by pressing the keypad ‘0’ button when the K-Station is in Menu Mode. Use the PAGE up/down buttons to scroll through the Menu functions available - See table below. -
Page 41: Advanced Connection Diagram
This setup allows real-time recording of knob movements into a Computer Software/Sequencer since both the MIDI output of the exter- nal keyboard and the MIDI output of the K-Station are connected to the Computer Software/Sequencer. The Computer Software/Sequencer MUST have at least 2 MIDI inputs to allow knob movements to be recorded at the same time as playing the keyboard. -
Page 42: Factory Preset Sounds Listing
The additional main output tempo sync'ed enveloped filter. This is a powerful eq filter which is at the output stage of the signal path of the K-Station. This can boost frequencies as well as attenuate them - compared the low pass filter which can only attenuate. Positive settings of the amount control will boost frequencies above the fre- quency point and attenuate frequencies below it. -
Page 43: Appendix
K-Station Technical Specification Oscillators 1, 2 and 3 Waveform Square / Saw / Variable Pulse / Tri / Sine / Double Saw / Double Tri / Double Sine Octave Range Shift -1 / 0 /+1 / +2 Mod Env Depth... -
Page 44: Midi Controller List
Novation products or other manufacturer’s products. This is a common practice among manufacturers. Whilst an attempt has been made to avoid misuse of “standard” controllers which could cause problems, Novation takes no responsibility for com- patibility issues. - Page 45 MIDI-SPECIFIED USE K-STATION USE undefined lsb OSC2 MOD.ENV PITCH AMOUNT *** undefined lsb OSC2 PULSE WIDTH POSITION *** (0=50% or in-phase double wave) undefined lsb OSC2 LFO2 PULSE WIDTH MOD *** undefined lsb OSC2 MOD.ENV PULSE WIDTH MOD *** undefined lsb OSC3 SEMITONE *** -12..+12...
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Page 46: Midi Nrpn List
MIDI NRPN List The K-Station uses a few NRPNs as detailed below. Since less than 128 of them are used, only one NRPN msb (bank) is needed. Therefore only the NRPN lsb is transmitted/received and the NRPN msb is ignored and is not transmitted. -
Page 47: Packed Controller / Nrpn Details
5 external audio trigger control 1=enabled bit 6 external audio to fx control 1=enabled EFFECTS SELECT/ KEYBOARD OCTAVE bits 0-2 0=Delay 1=reverb 2=chorus 3=distortion 4=EQ 5=panning 6=vocoder bit 3,4,5,6 Signed value 0 = Nominal Octave where middle C is 261Hz -4 = Lowest Octave +5 = Highest octave... -
Page 48: Midi System Exclusive
MIDI System Exclusive MIDI System Exclusive Message Formats SYSEX MESSAGE COMMON FORMAT SYSEX START NOVATION ID 1 NOVATION ID 2 NOVATION ID 3 DEVICE TYPE K-STATION SyCh SYSEX CHANNEL MESSAGE TYPE CONTROL BYTE SOFTWARE VERSION VERSION INCREMENT 0..99 PROGRAM BANK 1..4 PROGRAM NUMBER 0..99... - Page 49 A full bank dump consists of 50 program pair dumps. When a single bank dump is transmitted, C=0 such that the receiving K-Station current bank will be the destination. When an all banks dump is transmitted, C=1 such that the receiving Station will store the programs in the bank given in the B byte.
- Page 50 MIDI System Exclusive MIDI System Exclusive Message Formats - Receive Requests SYSEX REQUEST MESSAGES (receive only) PROGRAM DUMP REQUEST SYSEX START NOVATION ID 1 NOVATION ID 2 NOVATION ID 3 DEVICE TYPE K-STATION SyCh SYSEX CHANNEL MESSAGE TYPE CONTROL BYTE...
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Page 51: Midi System Exclusive Messages
MENU INITIAL PAGE MODE (0=first 1=last used) KEYBOARD/WHEELS MIDI TRANSMIT CHANNEL 0..15 PROGRAM MODE PARAMETER DISPLAY MODE (0=timed 1=permanent) KEYBOARD OCTAVE SHIFT ALL-NOTES-OFF CONTROL (0=off 1=kill notes & send midi all-notes-off) 23-255 --- (may be used in future software releases) Zeros are transmitted. - Page 52 FILTER OVERDRIVE FILTER RESONANCE FILTER Q NORMALISE (127=zero filter drive at max resonance) FILTER FREQUENCY FILTER KEYBOARD TRACKING (0=NONE, 127=PRECISE PITCH TRACK) FILTER MODWHEEL DIRECT FREQUENCY DEPTH *** FILTER AFTERTOUCH DIRECT FREQUENCY DEPTH *** FILTER BREATH DIRECT FREQUENCY DEPTH *** FILTER FREQUENCY LFO2 MOD DEPTH *** FILTER FREQUENCY MOD.ENV DEPTH ***...
- Page 53 MENU INITIAL PAGE MODE (0=first 1=last used) KEYBOARD/WHEELS MIDI TRANSMIT CHANNEL 0..15 PROGRAM MODE PARAMETER DISPLAY MODE (0=timed 1=permanent) KEYBOARD OCTAVE SHIFT ALL-NOTES-OFF CONTROL (0=off 1=kill notes & send midi all-notes-off) 23-255 ...may be used in future software releases) Zeros are transmitted. Use zeros for future compatibility...
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Page 54: Midi Implementation Chart
MIDI Implementation Chart MIDI Implementation Chart Model : Novation K-Station Function Default 1 - 16 Basic Changed Channel 1 - 16 Mode Default Messages Altered *********** Note True 0 - 127 Voice Number ************ Velocity Note On O v = 1 - 127... -
Page 55: Index
Clock... 11, 19, 28, 29, 31, 32, 35 Clock Input Status... 35 Connection... 3, 10, 12 Controllers... 10 Implementation Chart... 11, A-12 Keyboard Transmit Channel... 35 Messages... 10 - 11, A2-12 Receive Channel... 35 Sockets... 3, 10 Transmit Channel... 35 Tutorial... - Page 56 Modulation Wheel... 13, 28, 29, 30, 34 Calibrating... 34 Noise... 6, 16 Note Messages... 10, 19 NRPNs... 2, 10 - 11, 42 OCTAVE Buttons (keyboard)... 13, 19 Operating System Upgrade... 11 Original Value ... 21 Oscillators... 2, 5, 15, 23 - 24, 37 DETUNE Knob... 15 LFO 1 DEPTH Knob...
- Page 57 Specifications subject to change: The information contained in this manual is believed to be correct at the time of going to press. However, Novation reserves the right to change or modify the specification without notice or obligation to update existing units.
- Page 58 Platinum House 32 Clivemont Road Maidenhead Berkshire England SL6 7BZ Phone +44 1 628 678520 Fax +44 1 628 671122 E-mail sales@novationmusic.com Novation USA Limited Int. Toll-free Tel: 011 - 800 - NOVATION (6682-8466) E-mail salesusa@novationmusic.com www.novationmusic.com Specification subject to change without prior notice.
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