RS032 Novation KS-Rack: Poor Man's Virus

A few years ago, while on vacation, I did, what every real synth head would do, while chilling at the pool, of course, I was crawling eBay and classifieds for synths, when this synth caught my eye. From its layout and form factor, I was instantly reminded of those cool rack VA-synths, I simply couldn’t afford (think Access Virus or Nordlead) and after I was able to talk the seller into lowering his price just a bit more, I was happy to have something waiting for me at home, when I got back from having drinks at the pool (those wonderfully innocent pre Corona times).

When I got back home, sadly, the synth hadn’t materialized and I thought I got scammed (silly me -paying a complete stranger through PayPal Family and Friends) but I was lucky and the synth did indeed materialize. When I unpacked it however, the feeling of being scammed returned instantly, because the poor thing looked like it had been through a war or something. I crossed my fingers and well, I got lucky. It looks like shit but runs just fine.

Only afterwards did I start to dig a bit into Novation’s extensive VA-synth history, because these Novation synths seemed to pop up left and right in classifieds and on eBay afterwards. As it turned out, the unit I got was from somewhere in the middle of Novations extensive VA-cycle and while there had been more synths later, they all seemed to more or less share the DNA of Novation’s first VA, the Supernova. So much so, that patches seem to be compatible between most machines.

So how does an early 2000s Novation VA-synth sound? Not to bad actually. I guess you wouldn’t have one compete in a synth shootout with a Virus or Nordlead, but then again, you’ll probably still end up getting some nice sounds for your money. In the case of the KS-Rack, you also get something to fight off Zombies in a, apocalypse, because it is one massive metal whopper ;)

Credit where it’s due, this video features some visuals by Ambiefix:

   / @ambiefix  

and No Copyright Motion Graphics:


   / @freevideobacks  


0:00 Intro
0:42 Introduction
1:28 Novation's VA History
4:33 KS Synth Engine
5:32 Bass Demo
7:10 Strings Demo
8:24 Arpreggiator Demo
9:45 Drums and Multitimbrality Demo
11:54 Some Random Patches
18:58 Conclusion
19:33 Outro