MiniNova

MiniNova is a compact 37 mini-key synthesizer running the Nova-series sound engine, with 18-note polyphony and enough depth to build patches from scratch or reshape presets on the fly. The engine covers 14 conventional waveforms, 36 wavetables, and 20 digital waveforms, with 14 filter types that can run two at once, six envelope generators, three LFOs, and 20 modulation slots for linking parts of the engine together.

Sound selection is quick: 256 sounds ship on board, searchable by musical genre or sound type, so finding a bass, lead, pad, or techno patch takes seconds rather than scrolling. Another 128 slots hold your own sounds, and the Patch Librarian stores as many extra patches as your Mac or PC can hold. Novation releases free soundpacks created with artists and sound designers.

The 12-band vocoder includes VocalTune, which pitches your voice to the notes you play. Vocals can also run through the effects engine for reverb, distortion, chorus and phaser, gator, compression, or EQ, and any outside audio source can go through the same treatment along with the filters.

Performance controls put change under your hands. Five knobs cover the most useful parameters, eight backlit Animate buttons trigger performance functions live, and Arpeggiator mode edits the step sequencer in real time so steps drop in and out as you play. Twenty-four synth parameters are reachable directly.

MIDI In and Out let MiniNova trigger external sound modules or take input from a larger keyboard, and editing software plus the Patch Librarian run on a Mac or PC. Up to five effects run at once on each voice.