Novation just posted a 1.1b1 public beta for the UltraNova hardware synthesizer. While only a point release – there are a lot of great new features and some fixes. Links to the update are at the bottom of the post.
Note, according to a Novation rep on the forum “The update is not immediately reversible, however if you were experiencing any problems we would be able to help you out!” I just upgraded and for me it’s been a very solid and the features do improve the user experience quite a bit. I had one case where a patch I created on the last OS had started experiencing minor clicking artifacts. I set my sample rate to 48 and the problem went away (even if I go back to 44.1).
There are some notable features such as the added display to show the big knob Control Lock assignment.
“An asterisk is now displayed next to the patch number to show that the patch has unsaved changes. …When editing it is fairly easy to lose your edits by navigating away from the patch. Now, if you do navigate away by mistake, you can press the Compare button to revert your edits”.
“A compressor with fixed settings has been added before the input to the modulator for the vocoder: this improves the overall sound.” All the vocoder patches sound way better!
This beta also shows that Novation hasn’t forgotten about us UltraNova users and continues to support this great synth. I personally hope this also signals an even bigger update with enhancements note in this update – like Tap Tempo and Tweak encoder “toggle”.
What’s New
Below is a list of what’s new copied from their public beta forum. Lots of great features above-and-beyond the few I mentioned.
Firmware Updated to version 1.1.03
- Added display to show the big knob Control Lock assignment.
- When editing it is fairly easy to lose your edits by navigating away from the patch. Now, if you do navigate away by mistake, you can press the Compare button to revert your edits
- Pressing any of the synth menu buttons a second time will return to the main patch menu.
- An asterisk is now displayed next to the patch number to show that the patch has unsaved changes.
- Arpeggiator now outputs notes via MIDI and USB. This is a setting within the global menu.
- Delay, EQ and distortion are now full stereo effects. Many more of the factory Vocoder patches will now maintain stereo width.
- A compressor with fixed settings has been added before the input to the modulator for the vocoder: this improves the overall sound.
- Fixed Octave button LEDs becoming out of sync with Octave setting.
- Fixed bug preventing envelope decaying to zero in some cases
- Fixed long release times did not allow the envelope re-trigger to work correctly.
- Fixed issue when very long envelope release was combined with touch trigger envelope: touch now gates properly.
- Fixed an issue with the release of a touch envelope during the release stage of a voice that prevented the proper operation of touch trigger.
- Fixed an issue with chord function when triggering notes if a patch was set to poly2 voice mode.
- Improved anti-aliasing filter on sine wave: as a result all patches that used this, in particular bass patches, sounds cleaner.
- Improved smoothness when modulating filter to avoid unwanted artefacts.
- Improved interpolation between legato mono voices with different velocities.
- Improved Mono Auto-glide legato portamento consistency
- Improved oscillator level modulation from LFO sources.
- Improved LCD layout for audio menu to make headphone level control more obvious.
Plugin Editor Updates
- Added Touch on and off as an on-screen automatable parameters.
- Added Ultranova Editor as an AU insert FX. Logic users are recommended to use this.
- Added further selection options in the Mod table.
- Editor now installs RTAS to 32 bit directory when running Windows 7 64
- Fixed value mismatch when syncing certain parameters.
- Fixed Editor not updating synth parameters when instantiated while in Automap mode.
- Fixed not being able to automate using hardware in Ableton Live.
- Improved CPU usage when changing patches.
- Improved mouse sensitive on stepping parameters.
Known issues
- Metering will not display when using the AU FX editor when mod wheel, aftertouch, expression, velocity, and keyboard is in the Mod table.
- 32 bit plug-ins crashes 32 bit bridge when running under 64 bit. Users are advised to use 64 bit version of the plug-ins.
- Mac VST version of the editor in Ableton Live only: Touch parameters not configurable as automatable parameter if the hardware is connected. Users are advised to configure the parameter first without the hardware connected or use the AU version of the plug-in instead.
Librarian:- Grabbed patches folder now cannot be dragged to from other banks/folders.
- Fixed not being able to drag hardware banks to the 'My Patches' folder
- Improved time when creating a new user banks on a Mac
- Fixed Librarian 'busy' status when double clicking patch when there is no hardware connected.
- Fixed not being about to drag and drop in OSX Lion
- Fixed parameters with patch A07
- Fixed glitch on patch C031
Known issues:- Copy and paste a bank from hardware to a computer folder will be blank in some situations.
- Patch cannot be drag from bank to bank at the same position
- Graphic icon for folder and bank may not appear if Librarian is in icon view.
Driver- Updated Novation USB driver to version 2.3 for Mac and Windows.
Links
- Visit this page http://beta.novationmusic.com scroll down till you come the Ultranova 1.1b1 section. Then go to the bottom of the section for links to the release notes and the kit.
- Novation UltraNova Support Forum
- Official UltraNova page http://novationmusic.com/products/hardware_synths/ultranova/
- http://ultranova.modulatethis.com/
- UltraNova category on ModulateThis http://www.modulatethis.com/synth-ultranova/
Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html
Mark Mosher 
2 responses to “Novation Posts 1.1b1 Public Beta for UltraNova Synthesizer Firmware and Editor”
Yeah, no FM on this point update. I think a lot of people have requested FM so perhaps in V2. Between synch, OSC Drive you can get some pretty nasty sounds. The waveforms labeled “FM” are in the single-cycle waveform section. There are some fm like timbres within the wavetables. So you can aproximate a snapshot of an FM like sound but won’t get crazy FM shifts like you would if you changed pitch on an operator.
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I have been highly considering buying this synth. I can look past the non multi-temberality and i doubt they could have added FM synthesis in the update, but I was really hoping to see something about synthesis additions. I have read that there are FM waveforms to choose from within the OSC’s but how good do they sound, are they modulatable in any way?
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