“I’m can’t get any sound from my Novation Bass Station. What’s wrong?”
The most common cause of this in the Bass Station Keyboard is that the MIDI RX (receive) and MIDI TX (transmit) channels have been set to different values. This causes the keyboard to be “Dead” (no sound). Most keyboards have a parameter known as “local control” that determines whether the built-in keyboard plays the built-in sounds or is simply transmitting MIDI. In the Bass station they simply map the MIDI channel of the keyboard to the receiving channel of the synth engine. If they are set to different values the synth isn’t going to play. Here’s how to get it set correctly:
Turn the keyboard on.
Set the UTIL. MODE switch (below the PORTAMENTO knob) to the KEY’B position.
Press the TX KEY once (the second E up).
Press the lowest C key once (labeled 1).
Press the RX KEY once (the second F up).
Press the lowest C key once.
Now return the UTIL. MODE switch to the OFF position.
Playing the keyboard should now produce sounds.
Other possibilities for no sound output include:
Volume knob set to zero.
An incorrect MIDI RX channel has been selected when playing from another keyboard
A volume MIDI message of zero has been received.
The modulation wheel has been assigned to control volume – try pushing the mod wheel forward to see if volume increases.
