UltraNova is a ‘Nova’ series analogue-modelling synthesizer with a powerful effects processor. It is a single-part synth taking the legendary Supernova II synth engine as a starting point and packing it with the latest technology. It now has brand new features including wavetable synthesis, even more powerful filters, a software editor and a revolutionary new touch-sense performance mode.

Extended information

The 'Nova' family was born in 1998 with the Supernova, which was the first of a series of powerful synthesisers. These quickly became industry standard 'big-synths' which are still used by countless artists and sound designers. UltraNova is the latest addition to the family bringing the range right up to date with a host of new features and a more affordable price tag.

Carrying the Nova name, UltraNova is the next generation of Novation's iconic synth family, which brought you the legendary SuperNova and SuperNova II. It has a 37-note Fatar keybed, illuminated pitch and modulation wheels, eight assignable touch-sensitive rotary encoders, a 144-character LCD, and a large knob for fine control of parameters. Under the hood, UltraNova's arpeggiator, vocoder and USB audio interface make it incredibly useful for today's music makers, and bus powering lets you put it at the centre of your stage or studio rig.

UltraNova's single-part synth engine can employ wavetables alongside conventional subtractive synthesis. It has three oscillators with density and detune controls, two ring modulators, a noise source, two filters, six envelopes, three LFOs, five assignable effects slots, and much more. On-board effects include distortion, chorus/phaser, delay, reverb, and gator plus compression and EQ. Its intuitive top-panel layout helps to make tweaking UltraNova's parameters simple, with dedicated buttons providing quick and easy navigation. What's more, a free plug-in editor provides easy access to the synth's controls and patches (300 factory-loaded, 200 user), from within your music software.

UltraNova's secret weapon is its Touch feature, a unique system that brings a new level of performance control to synth players. Hit the Touch button and the eight encoders become receptive to finger contact. These touches can control modulators and envelopes within the synth engine, so dramatic modulations can be performed with the touch of a finger. With the corresponding Tweak feature - which allows you to group your favourite parameters to the rotary controls for on-the-fly patch manipulation - and a large knob for extra-fine tweaking, you literally have total control of the synth at your fingertips.

Technical specifications

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

Filtertypes:
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

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
• 12 band vocoder
• Arpeggiator – 33 patterns
• Chord function – lock up to 10 notes
• Patch storage up to 512 on hardware (ships with 300 factory patches)

Hardware
• 144 character LCD
• 8x detented touch sensitive encoders
• 1x large smooth encoder (with back-lit filter lock buttons)
• 1x large patch select/speed dial encoder
• 2x volume & monitor mix dials
• 39 LED lit/indicated buttons
• Pitch wheel (LED lit)
• Modulation wheel (LED lit)
• 37 note keyboard with velocity and aftertouch
• XLR dynamic mic input
• 2x ¼” jack inputs
• 2x ¼” jack outputs
• 2x ¼” jack aux outputs
• 1x ¼” jack headphone output
• SPDIF digital output on RCA connector
• Expression pedal on ¼” jack input
• Sustain pedal on ¼” jack input
• MIDI in/out/thru
• 12 volt power input
• USB port (UltraNova can be powered via USB)
• Kensington Lock port