It's a pretty good synth. The extra OSC is great in that you can achieve that "two osc detuned" sound that's the basis of many bass/lead noises. There's loads of flexibility/options/parameters and the two distortion modules are nice–as is the wonderful arpeggiator. However, there are some issues with it–some more major than others:
- having to constantly hit the function command in order to dive deeper into mod options can become a bit cumbersome. Though, being able to have those additional mod options in the first place can be worth the headache (sometimes).
- unlike the two ADSR sliders present on the minibrute (filter and amp env respectively), the Bass Station 2 has only one set of sliders that be switched between envelope, filter and env + filter. The problem I have is that I often would go back and forth between env and filter and would lose track of my values–and would have to rely on the LCD readout. I'm sure they wanted to keep costs low which is why they opted for the single set of sliders.
- the fucking thing always returns to patch 00 instead of the last patch that was loaded when it's powered off and on again.
- finally, and this is the BIG one for me: the arpeggiator cannot be triggered by any MIDI In whether it be a sequencer or MIDI keys. To add, the BS2 cannot be clock synced via 5-pin MIDI. So if you wanted to sync it to something like VolcaBeats for example, you cannot–only via USB will clock sync occur. So to sum, BS2 has MIDI IN/OUT capability, but it's on an extremely basic level. If you want to utilize any syncing, you have to have it connected to your computer via USB running a DAW.
I ended up returning mine and hope Novation will either release a rack version of BS2 or will address the various shortcomings many users have been posting about in the forum. BS2 was released last September, yet not a single update/firmware release has occurred.
Again, it's a great synth capable of ground sounds. If you're not worried about the various issues, then it's certainly worth the price tag. However, I would encourage you to atleast visit
Novation's forum prior to dropping the cash.