Hot Sugar, aka Nick Koenig, uses the Novation MiniNova to make a silly little song.
Nick used MiniNova for most of the sound manipulation, with Ableton Live to sequence and arrange his “newly created instruments” into a song. “The drums were all recorded using VocalTune [MiniNova’s voice-processing engine] and thrown into a drum machine afterwards,” says Koenig. “The melodies, chords, and general non-drum instrumentation was all recorded live to the drum track made from those sounds.”
The track has two kick drums, both of which were made with the help of longtime musical collaborator Donald Korgoff, (the bewildered-looking guy in the video). One kick drum is Korgoff saying his name; the other is the MiniNova mic bonking Korgoff on the head, run through VocalTune.
Snares were the processed sounds of a cellphone vibrating on a glass table, recorded through VocalTune, and the hi-hats were made from brief clips of a glob of green “sliquid” goo shaking, also processed by VocalTune. Basses and pads were made from the patches on the MiniNova.
For more information on the Novation MiniNova, check out our previous articles, and the Novation website .
via NovationTV
Mental! I love it.
I’ll never give up my MiniNova! Best synth this side of 1980!
After the ultranova…
UltraNova:
Bigger keys
Audio over USB
vs.
MiniNova:
Latchable animate/step sequence buttons
Tweak knob matrix
VocalTune effect
Backlit pitch and mod wheels
Metal top panel
Wood endcheeks
Damn handsome
Becomes a floatation device in the event of forced water landing
Ultranova also has an built-in 2-in/4-out audio interface (incl S/PDIF)
Ultranova has aftertouch.
Ultra has 32-step patterns (Mini is limited to 8).
Ultranova keybed has Fatar action, the minikeys are… typical minikeys.
Ultranova has MIDI IN/OUT/THRU.
You can run audio input through the Ulta’s synth engine, you can’t with the mini
Has the software editor come out for the Mini yet? Can the Mini act as an Automap-enabled controller?
The MiniNova does have audio in – you can either route it through the effects, the vocoder, the vocaltune, OR USE IT AS AN OSCILLATOR, sending it through the entire synth engine – LFO, filters, envelopes, etc, just like the Ultra. The only differnece between Mini and Ultra is the audio is mono and exclusively through the XLT or 1/4″ analog input. No audio in or out over USB.
The MiniNova does have a editor and librarian. It’s had an editor for over 6 months, and it is very similar to the Ultra, same GUI, etc.
I do like the bulk of the Ultra and big keys, but it is all plastic. Somehow, the Mini looks classier even though it’s a mini form factor.
Minikeys are not for everyone, but you can really zip up and down and key some big chords.
Mini or Ultra, it’s a great synth engine and either one is a winner. Advantage IMO goes to mini because vocaltune is a sound design tool. Audio over USB is not that exciting. I just run mine into a soundcard.
You realize just about everything you say in this statement is shortsighted?
Ultranova doesn’t have audio over USB neither does the mini, ultranova has the same (and more recently updated) vocoder as mini, it also has the same touch sensitive knobs, and the wood/metal on the mini with its laughably small keys seem to just be there to try and convence you to buy one (added weight and and looks nice) backlit pitch & mod wheels? Yep they are even full sized on the ultranova, VST patch editor? It’s got that too, last I checked mini hasn’t recieved one of those yet, all-in-all the few things that you listed the mini having that the ultra doesn’t, all seem to be things added to beg the consumer to purchase one or are total non-issues…
I’d never thought about keyboards-as-flotation-devices, proving, once again, that we have some of the most resourceful and imaginative readers on the Internet.
Nice try. I still don’t want one.
OMG!!! that was the best video ever in the universe!!!!!!! and i’m so glad i spent my time listening to that music!!!!!! WOW, THANK YOU!!!!!! i just love hipsters!
I was quite excited to receive my mini nova about 2 weeks ago….sounded great loved the playability of the thing, all the trigger fx are soooo nice!!!!!! Unfortunately after messing around with it for a few hours, when pad 8 was touched it would mute all sound from all patches. I contacted novation and they sent me the most recent driver, worked! THEN…after the update I tried the editor, easy to learn but when I unplugged my usb and restarted the thing….INFINITE LATCH….EVERY STINKIN PATCH….again contacting novation they sent me another driver,(along with a zip of every patch made for the thing:). Installed , no luck. So now i have an extremely annoying $400 piece of plastic, no metal. no wood, cant really play it or sell it:( I dont know if i just got a bum one, anyone else have these issues???
Why can’t you play it? You can’t turn off the latch?
There have been firmware issues but I have not heard of anyone with a unplayable synth.
The top panel is metal. The sides are some kid of manmade composite wood product.
Playable but some patches will just overlap notes to the point of noise, after seeing this post Im on a mission to make it work, gonna try to install an older os. Headache I guess, busted out my decade old microkorg, still works like a charm, just saying.
You can turn off the latch and hit save, that should stop the note stacking…