MiniNova has a powerful sound engine for a micro synth. In addition to its 256 onboard sounds, it has space to save 128 of your own sounds. You can quickly search for patches by selecting the style, or the type of sound. MiniNova has 14 conventional waveforms to choose from, 36 wavetables and 20 digital waveforms. Each of the 3 oscillators has density/detune, virtual sync, and an additional low-pass filter called "hardness." There are 14 filter types, 6 envelope generators, 3 LFOs and 20 modulation slots where you can link synth modules together. MiniNova can also add up to 5 effects to each sound; including distortion, reverb, chorus/phase, delay, compressor, EQ and Novation's unique gator effect.

The MiniNova includes a gooseneck microphone, taking its vocal effects one step further. In addition to VocalTune and the 12-band vocoder, the mic input can be routed through the effects engine. The onboard 1/4" input can do the same with an instrument.

An onboard USB port and MIDI I/O allows MiniNova to connect to a laptop or control another keyboard / sound module. Editing sounds can be overwhelming, so Novation bundled the MiniNova Editor software, giving you visual access to the synth engine. The software works as a plug-in within your DAW and allows full editing of your MiniNova hardware patches. MiniNova also includes Patch Librarian software to enable unlimited patch storage on your computer.