update get the patches here and many more. shop.fluxwithi... Just a few custom patches I designed on the Ultranova to give an idea of how this wonderful synth can sound
Pretty different from the usual ultranova demos. Really like how you use the distortion to create harmonics not just brutal sounds like most others. Those knob actions really add s.th to the performance.
Definitely an extremely underrated piece of kit, it’s such a powerful and easy to use synth and because it’s so looked over they are dirt cheap. I picked mine up for $275! And it’s more powerful and better sounding than anything in say the access virus line even with less “voices”. The ultra nova and mini nova are absolute monsters!
Just for posterity, my experience is totally different. Ultranova had so much aliasing in the top end. The sound, compared to a Virus C or TI, isn't at all in the same league.
Can't wait for mine to get here! It will be my second synth along with a Roland JX-8P and I can't wait to have this great addition! Thanks for doing a real demo not full of EDM crap! So excited to get in depth with the editor and make some crazy sounds! I have a decent pedal collection too and I can't wait to try em all out on this baby! I bet it will sound great.
One good idea I had was using the Envelopes to control the LFO (amount) that controls the panning depth. With a little delay, it sounds good when bass notes are held and you are doing something with the upper notes. Pretty cool way to give basses and leads more presence. This thing has 4 auxiliary envelopes on it, so I'm sure you could fine one to spare!
Thanks for this, Ken. Looking back, I picked up the Ultranova after watching your videos (a few years ago). Thanks so much for devoting your time in reviewing and testing this highly overlooked synth. It has brought me a lot of joy and kick-started me to learn how to program patches and synthesis in general. Your channel is amazing. I look forward to your posts in the future.
Great demo! I have one myself and I really enjoy building patches on it. Great sonic ideas here. A very capable synth. I loved it for the 36 wavetables it has, but every day I find new sonic possibilities with it.
Nice tones, and more exciting then the typical boring "Trance-"Sounds. Underrated synth, this nova universe. And i like 3-octave keyboards. And could fit nice to Cubase with Automap, controlling virtual synths with hardware knobs.
cant believe more ppl havent commented here ... you do good work ,,, i bought a jd xa and a helix and .... point being the jd xa is like the ultra ... needs more dials ... make a plug in interface hardware board
Thank you for these vids about the UN, it made me realise it has more potential then I thought. It made me turn it on again on a daily basis. Especially if you go on and make your own patches and start building your own tweaks and touch effects. BOOM :D. I also enjoy the LFO , it has this mode of cycling through a certain scale
There is actually a clever workaround to create splits, if you dive into the mod matrix & envelopes. Can't recall where I read it, but it's worth a search for anyone interested.
I'd love to see you work up s new patch. There is not much out the with this synth. I have one and am always considering flipping it... But there is something about it that I actually love every time I play it. Perhaps if I could get to know it better, it would be great to see you do more 😄
Very nice spectral synth tones you've generated there.. Very Celestial! I'm glad you did a unique approach to this video - too many other videos are your basic presets. Pretty tough to complain on this machine - other than maybe some might want another octave, or ANOTHER TIMBRE?! (kinda shocking it's not polyphonic with all these other loaded features, but maybe that's a significant bump in processing power and ergo cost tradeoff?).. Can't really compare the sounds of much near the ballpark either.. maybe Blofeld by Waldorf has a notch or two higher in tones plus polyphonic, but that's MINUS the 37 touch sensitive keys so... kinda apples to oranges in a way there for that price point?..) Anyways, Cheers mate!
Ultranova has 18 voice polyphony. What you mean is probably multi timbrality which means you can play more than one patch at the same time. Just to clarify.
I don't think you are asking about voices (which it has 20) but rather I think you mean to ask if it is multi-timbral which it is not. And yes it does very nice drum percussion synthesis.
Hey, Ken...great sounds. Nice design/program work. I love this synth too. Definitely an underrated sleeper powerhouse instrument. Speaking of power, what's the good word on a release date for the System63 mods for Reaktor? Any news?
Chris B I think the ultranova does pretty much everything but piano sounds it seems. I may be wrong though. The Roland Go Piano series seem really decent value for money for quality piano sounds if that helps?
+Flux302 of Fluxwithit.com Got a good Question, Can the Ultranova's Frequency be changed from 440hz to 432hz ? no one seems to know the answer so i thought i'd try asking someone who owns one lol.
+Atom Knows well technically yes and no depending on the theory of tuning you want to use.. you can adjust global tuning in cents and semi tones but my understanding of 432 would be that you would need to tune by tenths of a cent to be 100% dead on. however many people playing at 432 are tuning -32 cents which is quite possible in the Ultranova... I wont be going into this very deep as honestly the 432 tuning imho is a rather good bit of tin foil hat wearing BS... unless you are seriously trying to replay a piece written in that tuning for some reason... but hey experimentation is what makes us human right... SO SHORT ANSWER YES YOU CAN DO THE ROUGH AND TUMBLE -32 CENTS GLOBAL TUNING
+Flux302 of Fluxwithit.com thanks for the quick reply, just looking for the short answer haha.. interesting how quick you are to dismiss the idea of 432 frequency, without having done much Research into frequencies. But hey Ignorance is what makes you human right.
Atom Knows But I have done research into it. I'm not dismissing it quickly, it's not a new thought, not a new idea. Sure I get the whole resonant frequency and way it works with fourths etc... I can see using it for the intervals aspect (of course that's a give and take as it makes other intervals worse) but it seems the vast majority of people switching to this tuning are doing so because a snake oil salesman has tricked them with parlor tricks. That's kinda what I am getting at.
On the mininova the latch key will simply hold whatever keys are currently being pressed. So you can use it whenever. You can also latch some keys and then start turning the arp on/off and everything will continue to work as expected. I would presume the Ultranova behaves in a similar manor.
Sorry i m late.. But if you want to latch a note on the ultranova just set on the gator without gator effect. You can also not use the gator at all on the effects but the trick will do. I use this trick for pads
Sure..Well, plugins undoubtedly can sound stellar but generally when I say "plugin sound" I mean, something that sounds kind of sterile and lacks presence, kind of like early soft synths. Like its trying to be something its not...Digital synthesis is incredibly deep, useful and inspiring and can (now) imitate analog quite well in certain types of implementations..but that wasn't always the case. To me this sounds cool in its own way but it doesn't sound too dissimilar from a lot of soft synth plugins (many of which sound pretty homogeneous)...kind of generic if you know what I mean. When I buy hardware I like it to have its own unique character. I hope that makes sense :)
@@Rhuggins I have to whole heartedly disagree..have you ever played one in person? This video does not do the synth justice, Flux really showcases the possibilities, but the sound quality is not like when you have it in front of you. If you plug it in to a proper sound interface like a Uad Apollo and run it through some vintage emulation preamps and compressors it is a whole new ball game. Sleeper synth is putting it lightly. This thing can rip, soothe, swish, pluck, and not to mention boom thick bass with the best of them I have 4-5 analog synths and quite a few digital ones and I think it is a heavy contender for the spotlight. The modulation alone is tremendous. I just added it to my gear I got it at a great price too. Try it out sometime but plug it in to monitors or a keyboard amp and you will see what I mean. Great video BTW Cheers mate!!
+tblv9300 The interface/ clock is one of the lower parts imho... but I agree very under rated. mostly because of all the very "hop on the bandwagon" dub steppy presets.
+Flux302 of Fluxwithit.com From the beginning I think they made the mistake of hyping the "glitchy/dubstep"touch encoder side of it and layering so many fx on every factory patch. There's a good engine under all of that for people willing to strip away everything and start at the bare osc. It can be a rich sounding synth and at the current used price level (350-400) it's a deal. Definitely a programmer's synth.
tblv9300 no doubt. the key I have found is to back the oscillators off, don't run all the signal so hot and give it some headroom inside the synth and you can coax brilliance. the filters don't sound typical to me. not in a bad way ... they just have their own sound which is awesome. I have plenty of analog filters and these don't fall down where most digital filters do , but I wouldn't say they sound like a typical analog filter either. its just very interesting an a joy to play
+tblv9300 +tblv9300 I agree. I never use the presets; I just go an empty patch and program away. The modulation options on this synth are practically endless. And yeah, the filters are unique--I like experimenting with the different drive options. It's a total rabbit hole for sound designers, and overlooked, probably because it dropped just when the analog resurgence hit. Yeah, I'll use an analog for a super punchy bassline, but this pads I make on this guy sit in a mix well. It's fun for ambient especially. Also, I really like the action of the keys.
yooo these are dope! have you released any of these as a sound pack/would you consider doing that? I'm new to synthesis and I've spent a lot of time with this synth but haven't liked as many of the sounds I've gotten as much as what you shared in the video. either way, this is inspiring!
The ultranova/Mininova is an absolute beast! Everyone is sleeping on it right now. It blows the entire access virus line out of the water in terms of sound and flexibility
@@TheRealDirtySkillz says me. Yes I’ve owned the Virus C and Ti. The FX in the Virus line are top notch and at a lot to the sound but the raw oscillators are thin as hell and the modulation is incredibly limited. I would take the ultra nova over a virus any day. The ultranova isn’t as pretty as the virus series and the effects section isn’t as lush but over all the ultranova sound better and is way more flexible
Pretty different from the usual ultranova demos. Really like how you use the distortion to create harmonics not just brutal sounds like most others. Those knob actions really add s.th to the performance.
These patches are available on shop(dot)fluxwithit
Ken Flux Pierce Fluxwithit I
Definitely an extremely underrated piece of kit, it’s such a powerful and easy to use synth and because it’s so looked over they are dirt cheap. I picked mine up for $275! And it’s more powerful and better sounding than anything in say the access virus line even with less “voices”. The ultra nova and mini nova are absolute monsters!
Just for posterity, my experience is totally different. Ultranova had so much aliasing in the top end. The sound, compared to a Virus C or TI, isn't at all in the same league.
Would this work on my MiniNova? :-)
Can't wait for mine to get here! It will be my second synth along with a Roland JX-8P and I can't wait to have this great addition! Thanks for doing a real demo not full of EDM crap!
So excited to get in depth with the editor and make some crazy sounds! I have a decent pedal collection too and I can't wait to try em all out on this baby! I bet it will sound great.
One good idea I had was using the Envelopes to control the LFO (amount) that controls the panning depth. With a little delay, it sounds good when bass notes are held and you are doing something with the upper notes. Pretty cool way to give basses and leads more presence. This thing has 4 auxiliary envelopes on it, so I'm sure you could fine one to spare!
Thanks for this, Ken. Looking back, I picked up the Ultranova after watching your videos (a few years ago). Thanks so much for devoting your time in reviewing and testing this highly overlooked synth. It has brought me a lot of joy and kick-started me to learn how to program patches and synthesis in general.
Your channel is amazing. I look forward to your posts in the future.
Great demo! I have one myself and I really enjoy building patches on it. Great sonic ideas here. A very capable synth. I loved it for the 36 wavetables it has, but every day I find new sonic possibilities with it.
I like the way you're able to get some sounds that resemble FM synthesis even though it doesn't support frequency modulation.
Its got two ring mods so you can get more sounds than FM, only trouble is you can't track pitch harmonically properly up the keyboard with Ring Mod
Wow such beautiful synthesis! Thank you for sharing!
Sierra Fry thanks so mUch
please share your patches, they soun amazing
+Die Go working on it :)
@@Fluxwithit Please!
@@wanmomusic shop.fluxwithit.com/collections/all-products/products/chem-trails-ultranova-mininova-sound-set
Everybody after a dollar.
Nice tones, and more exciting then the typical boring "Trance-"Sounds.
Underrated synth, this nova universe. And i like 3-octave keyboards.
And could fit nice to Cubase with Automap, controlling virtual synths with hardware knobs.
cant believe more ppl havent commented here ... you do good work ,,, i bought a jd xa and a helix and ....
point being the jd xa is like the ultra ... needs more dials ... make a plug in interface hardware board
Thank you for these vids about the UN, it made me realise it has more potential then I thought. It made me turn it on again on a daily basis. Especially if you go on and make your own patches and start building your own tweaks and touch effects. BOOM :D. I also enjoy the LFO , it has this mode of cycling through a certain scale
Boa tarde
Can the key board be split? If so please explain...Thanks...
no.
There is actually a clever workaround to create splits, if you dive into the mod matrix & envelopes. Can't recall where I read it, but it's worth a search for anyone interested.
I'd love to see you work up s new patch. There is not much out the with this synth. I have one and am always considering flipping it... But there is something about it that I actually love every time I play it. Perhaps if I could get to know it better, it would be great to see you do more 😄
+MrBoxxed it should be out some time next month :) just have some fine tweaks and compiling to do
YAS :)
+Flux302 of Fluxwithit.com any chance they might be out? :)))
Luka Nikolic yep they are up on my shop now
How do I load these into my ultranova? I have no software and I use the iPad.
Very nice spectral synth tones you've generated there.. Very Celestial! I'm glad you did a unique approach to this video - too many other videos are your basic presets. Pretty tough to complain on this machine - other than maybe some might want another octave, or ANOTHER TIMBRE?! (kinda shocking it's not polyphonic with all these other loaded features, but maybe that's a significant bump in processing power and ergo cost tradeoff?)..
Can't really compare the sounds of much near the ballpark either.. maybe Blofeld by Waldorf has a notch or two higher in tones plus polyphonic, but that's MINUS the 37 touch sensitive keys so... kinda apples to oranges in a way there for that price point?..)
Anyways, Cheers mate!
Ultranova has 18 voice polyphony. What you mean is probably multi timbrality which means you can play more than one patch at the same time. Just to clarify.
Seriously, please. Just ordered an UltraNova and want to add an oscilloscope. What are you using?
Thanks for the video, awesome!
rick angelone wavewindow
So bad the touch effects can‘t be locked like the mininova can. Would be so usefull
agreed, that and I wish the Ultranova allowed us to adjust screen contrast...
Flux, quick question: will these patches work for Mininova too? If so, I'm in!!
@nick sure will
How many different voices does this have? and does this have any percussion sounds?
I don't think you are asking about voices (which it has 20) but rather I think you mean to ask if it is multi-timbral which it is not.
And yes it does very nice drum percussion synthesis.
How do I reset it to factory? Peace Christo
Install the software librarian and you get the factory patches for free. Those you can drag and drop in the banks A to C of the Ultranova.
So where can I buy these? The mininova is my first synth and I would love to use these and see how you programmed them.
Elias Omar Torres available on my store now
Hey, Ken...great sounds. Nice design/program work. I love this synth too. Definitely an underrated sleeper powerhouse instrument. Speaking of power, what's the good word on a release date for the System63 mods for Reaktor? Any news?
+Ian Goold we are working hard to get it out. unfortunately there was a minor set back but it should be out very soon!
I am super hyped...
very nice work flux
+rickrukkus thanks for the support!
Does anyone know where you can get just a simple piano patch for the Ultranova? I've exhausted my searches
Chris B I think the ultranova does pretty much everything but piano sounds it seems. I may be wrong though. The Roland Go Piano series seem really decent value for money for quality piano sounds if that helps?
@ReaktorLeak Well I may have solved my problem by adding a Roland JdXA. although i haven't found a piano on that either, lol.
+Flux302 of Fluxwithit.com Got a good Question, Can the Ultranova's Frequency be changed from 440hz to 432hz ?
no one seems to know the answer so i thought i'd try asking someone who owns one lol.
+Atom Knows well technically yes and no depending on the theory of tuning you want to use.. you can adjust global tuning in cents and semi tones but my understanding of 432 would be that you would need to tune by tenths of a cent to be 100% dead on. however many people playing at 432 are tuning -32 cents which is quite possible in the Ultranova... I wont be going into this very deep as honestly the 432 tuning imho is a rather good bit of tin foil hat wearing BS... unless you are seriously trying to replay a piece written in that tuning for some reason... but hey experimentation is what makes us human right...
SO SHORT ANSWER YES YOU CAN DO THE ROUGH AND TUMBLE -32 CENTS GLOBAL TUNING
+Flux302 of Fluxwithit.com thanks for the quick reply, just looking for the short answer haha..
interesting how quick you are to dismiss the idea of 432 frequency, without having done much Research into frequencies. But hey Ignorance is what makes you human right.
not jumping to any dismissal without having read up on it
+Atom Knows see above comment sorry
Atom Knows
But I have done research into it. I'm not dismissing it quickly, it's not a new thought, not a new idea.
Sure I get the whole resonant frequency and way it works with fourths etc...
I can see using it for the intervals aspect (of course that's a give and take as it makes other intervals worse) but it seems the vast majority of people switching to this tuning are doing so because a snake oil salesman has tricked them with parlor tricks. That's kinda what I am getting at.
Hi, does the 'LATCH' button allow you to hold a key down while tweaking (for pads, drones etc) or does it only work specifically with the Arp?
+Tone Deaf
that's shit, only for the arp... but i have to udapte it i confess
On the mininova the latch key will simply hold whatever keys are currently being pressed. So you can use it whenever. You can also latch some keys and then start turning the arp on/off and everything will continue to work as expected.
I would presume the Ultranova behaves in a similar manor.
Thanks for the info.
I've heard the Mini is all but identical to the Ultra under the hood so as you say it should work the same.
Sorry i m late.. But if you want to latch a note on the ultranova just set on the gator without gator effect. You can also not use the gator at all on the effects but the trick will do. I use this trick for pads
Tight
love it .. my one wont talk to my pc sadly ... the pc has all my shit on it
Try without USB hub or shorter cable.
@@incognito827 updated PC last year ...all is well ...I appreciate the effort on your part ! thx
Very nice demo. VA sounds like a plugin to me personally. At this price range i suppose its not a big deal.
Ryan Huggins to play devils advocate... what does a plug in sound like?
Sure..Well, plugins undoubtedly can sound stellar but generally when I say "plugin sound" I mean, something that sounds kind of sterile and lacks presence, kind of like early soft synths. Like its trying to be something its not...Digital synthesis is incredibly deep, useful and inspiring and can (now) imitate analog quite well in certain types of implementations..but that wasn't always the case. To me this sounds cool in its own way but it doesn't sound too dissimilar from a lot of soft synth plugins (many of which sound pretty homogeneous)...kind of generic if you know what I mean. When I buy hardware I like it to have its own unique character. I hope that makes sense :)
@@Rhuggins I have to whole heartedly disagree..have you ever played one in person? This video does not do the synth justice, Flux really showcases the possibilities, but the sound quality is not like when you have it in front of you. If you plug it in to a proper sound interface like a Uad Apollo and run it through some vintage emulation preamps and compressors it is a whole new ball game. Sleeper synth is putting it lightly. This thing can rip, soothe, swish, pluck, and not to mention boom thick bass with the best of them I have 4-5 analog synths and quite a few digital ones and I think it is a heavy contender for the spotlight. The modulation alone is tremendous. I just added it to my gear I got it at a great price too. Try it out sometime but plug it in to monitors or a keyboard amp and you will see what I mean. Great video BTW Cheers mate!!
an underrated synth. The built in audio interface is surprisingly good.
+tblv9300 The interface/ clock is one of the lower parts imho... but I agree very under rated. mostly because of all the very "hop on the bandwagon" dub steppy presets.
+Flux302 of Fluxwithit.com From the beginning I think they made the mistake of hyping the "glitchy/dubstep"touch encoder side of it and layering so many fx on every factory patch. There's a good engine under all of that for people willing to strip away everything and start at the bare osc. It can be a rich sounding synth and at the current used price level (350-400) it's a deal. Definitely a programmer's synth.
tblv9300 no doubt. the key I have found is to back the oscillators off, don't run all the signal so hot and give it some headroom inside the synth and you can coax brilliance. the filters don't sound typical to me. not in a bad way ... they just have their own sound which is awesome. I have plenty of analog filters and these don't fall down where most digital filters do , but I wouldn't say they sound like a typical analog filter either. its just very interesting an a joy to play
+tblv9300 +tblv9300 I agree. I never use the presets; I just go an empty patch and program away. The modulation options on this synth are practically endless. And yeah, the filters are unique--I like experimenting with the different drive options. It's a total rabbit hole for sound designers, and overlooked, probably because it dropped just when the analog resurgence hit. Yeah, I'll use an analog for a super punchy bassline, but this pads I make on this guy sit in a mix well. It's fun for ambient especially. Also, I really like the action of the keys.
Nord wave. Is it better?
Somebody please tell Novation to make a Ultranova desktop module!!!!
Just tell novation to start giving me preset sound design work ;)
+Uprightest They already do, it's called MiniNova! :-)
+Flux302 of Fluxwithit.com you can say that about a few of these companies when it comes to you 👍
The Supernova is essentially the Ultranova's father and it's in rack format!
I'd stab someone for an Ultranova with tons of knobs and minimal menu-diving
yooo these are dope! have you released any of these as a sound pack/would you consider doing that? I'm new to synthesis and I've spent a lot of time with this synth but haven't liked as many of the sounds I've gotten as much as what you shared in the video. either way, this is inspiring!
yes shop.fluxwithit.com the pack is called Chemtrails
The ultranova/Mininova is an absolute beast! Everyone is sleeping on it right now. It blows the entire access virus line out of the water in terms of sound and flexibility
Says who? Have you ever owned a virus?
@@TheRealDirtySkillz says me. Yes I’ve owned the Virus C and Ti. The FX in the Virus line are top notch and at a lot to the sound but the raw oscillators are thin as hell and the modulation is incredibly limited. I would take the ultra nova over a virus any day. The ultranova isn’t as pretty as the virus series and the effects section isn’t as lush but over all the ultranova sound better and is way more flexible