Novation's first technical director was Chris Huggett, who designed the Wasp and OSCar synthesisers and wrote the operating system for the Akai S1000. The core technology of Analogue Sound Modelling (ASM) was introduced in 1995 with the Drum Station, which modelled the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines using digitally synthesised models of the original waveforms. Influenced by the Roland TB-303 Bassline, a portable compact synthesiser designed for instrumental accompaniment, the Bass Station used digitally controlled analogue oscillators (DCOs), an LFO, and a filter to replicate the sound of a traditional monophonic twin-oscillator analogue synth. In 1993 the company released the Novation Bass Station. The MM10 combined with the QY10 arguably constituted the first completely portable modern music workstation. It was based on a device called the MidiCon, which was never released and was the first hardware controller the company made.
Novation's first commercial product, released in 1992, was the Novation MM10, a portable battery-operated keyboard controller with full-sized keys, designed to operate with the Yamaha QY10 music workstation.
