Jiggery-Pokery Sound has launched Champagne SuperNova, a synthesizer Rack Extension that aims to bring the sounds of the Novachord divide-down string synth developed in the late 1930s by the Hammond Organ company.
Champagne SuperNova captures some of the vintage analog charm and warmth of the Novachord, a synth that is capable of producing wonderfully strange strings and eerie synth choirs.
Taking a different approach to the original Novachord ReFill, the Champagne SuperNova Rack Extension instead uses newly created and clean waveforms inspired by the Novachord, to create a device that I hope is in keeping with the spirit of the original, both in design and in creating a very 1940s/50s synthesizer soundtrack tone, while being a little more flexible in terms of being able to dial back the noise and instability and adjust the tone during or post performance when required, which preset samples can’t do particularly well.
This is not, then, a strict emulation of the Novachord, so much as a stylistic reinterpretation based on its design ethos. Enjoy its cosy and vintage tone, and unlike the real thing, on starting it up, it is immediately playable: you won’t need to wait for those vacuum tubes to warm up!
Champagne SuperNova features
- Fifteen waveforms.
- Authentic Novachord audio flow: five parallel filters (low pass, high pass and three resonant bandpass) and full tone, and the extra “Bright-Mellow” serial low pass filter, and tube amp.
- Six rate-offset LFOs in consecutive note pairs for a richer vibrato.
- Original 7-mode ADR/AHR envelope, with keyboard split Release adjustment.
- Original stepped knobs, plus a continuous pots mode with fine level control and modern ADSR envelope.
- Flexible level control of hum and noise to age/de-age the tone as required.
- Choice of Direct or miked Cabinet output, with or without FX pedalboard.
- Velocity control!.
- Hidden extras for fine tuning.
- Over 100 presets.
- 3D-modelled GUI.
Champagne SuperNova is on sale for the intro price of 39 EUR until March 31st, 2018 (regular 49 EUR).
More information: Propellerhead Software
