I’m new to all this, looking for advice about getting the best from a Novation Nova.

I have purchased a Novation Nova from a friend who didn’t know what it was and have bought a PSU for it (which will arrive next week) but I’m not sure how I will program Bass/melody loops for it to play? I feel like I will need some keys to plug into it is that right?

Yes, you will need an external keyboard with a MIDI OUT plug (and a MIDI cable) in performance mode, but you can trigger the synthesizer sound with the part buttons in prog mode.

Make sure to order the right one or you will fry the device. I'm not kidding. Did you contact novation to get the right reference?

The Nova is a fantastic device. First upgrade the OS to the latest version (you can see the OS version when you boot up the device) to benefit from the new filters especially the Lo Rez filter that sounds better than the default filters, available by pressing the "special" button in the filter section, and it will also increase the polyphony from 12 to 16. Google "Novation Nova OS download"

With the latest os, you also get 128 slots for user arpeggiator and sequences. Custom arps are slot 0 to 64, custom sequences are slot 65 to 127. I am making the distinction because they act very differently. to program custom arp or sequences push the global button then page all the way up. You should be able to enter notes with your keyboard step by step and a footswitch can input rest notes.

The effects suck a bit, especially the chorus/flanger/phaser and the reverb, the rest is fine. I usually only use the chorus to widen the sound. Set the chorus speed to zero, the depth to 127 and crank up the chorus level, it will sound nice. Don't overuse the reverb, it will make your sound muddy.

You should also keep the bass eq under -15/-20 to clear out the muddiness of the synth, and crank up the high eq to +10/+20, it will sound better, and keep the osc mix level under 80 it's very important to get a better sound. User the overdrive in the filter section to crank up the volume.

Finally you have 2 modes, prog and perf. in perf mode you can play up to 6 different patches at the same time, combine key ranges, layer sounds, combine arpeggiators ...

It's a very powerful device yet it's dirty cheap. So keep quiet about it so the price doesn't go up ;)

This synthesizer was made by the guy who designed the Peak and the Summit AND the AKAI S1000 sampler AND the OSCar and the wasp.

It was used by Legowelt who has a page about it with some audio samples.

http://legowelt.org/718-2/

You can download some good patches here

https://rhythm-lab.com/novation-nova-supernova-patches/

you'll need MIDI-OX on PC to transfer the sysex to the device.

/r/synthesizers Thread