KVR Audio

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 1:33 am

mkastrup wrote:I own both a Nord Wave and a Nord Rack 2X.

Nord Wave really is a performer synth for gigs.
You sample what you need for the performance while having a synth ready at your hands with all knobs for live tweaking. There is only one thing i hate in Nord Wave and thats the chorus, too blurry too my taste and the chorus seems to put the emphasize on modulation on the right channel giving a very uneven chorus balance. The Delay and Reverb is stellar though.

One thing i did though was to sample my old Juno 6 OSC's with Chorus setting I and II for use in Nord Wave and this works crazy good.

For studio use get Nord Rack, for performance live get Nord Wave.

One thing that gives Nord Rack a major + is its Unison, a very clean, phase free chorus type of effect which i adore. Only minus i can come up with on Nord Rack is the missing ability to modulate via Key tracking, only the filter have key tracking.

Also the Nord Wave is about 2k euro these days which makes it a very expensive investment unless you really need a synth/sampler for performing live.

/Michael

Thanks for the info, I had no idea Nord was still making these... you mean this right?

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ ... hwodeErGPw

Gadget Fiend · Post by **Gadget Fiend** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:26 am

dczx wrote:Are there are VST's similar to the Nord Wave in features/functionality?

Forgive me for sounding "a bit" snarky. But there are no VST's similar to the Nord Wave for the simple reason that no purely software instrument will ever provide the sublime integration of hardware and sound on offer in the Wave (and in the Nord Lead 1, 2 and 3). Clavia instruments are incredibly well designed and beautifully made. The designers clearly understand that when it comes to features, more is often less. The Wave is a perfect example and perhaps the culmination of all that Clavia has learned over the past 15 years. There are loads of hardware and software synths with more features. But almost none of them offer the immediacy and musicality of the Nord series.

Although you can't load your own samples into Omnisphere, it's design philosophy seems the closest to the Nord keyboards in terms of Omnisphere's "powerfully simple" approach to synthesis and interface design. But again, there is no comprehensive and seamless hardware integration with Omnisphere. Mousing around in Omnisphere just isn't the same as programming sounds on a Nord.

mkastrup · Post by **mkastrup** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:14 am

zerocrossing wrote:
Thanks for the info, I had no idea Nord was still making these... you mean this right?

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ ... hwodeErGPw

Yep

samsam · Post by **samsam** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 11:01 am

Gadget Fiend wrote: The Wave is a perfect example and perhaps the culmination of all that Clavia has learned over the past 15 years. There are loads of hardware and software synths with more features. But almost none of them offer the immediacy and musicality of the Nord series.

Totally agree.

Another poster wrote 'Wave for stage, Lead for studio' which of course is a valid opinion but I disagree. The multitude of synthesis options of the Wave are awesome for the studio too. If you just want something to load up with samples for performance, there are cheaper options. I also disagree that the chorus on the Wave is sub-standard. It's actually my favourite of all the effects it has and the chorus combined with some of the unison-style wavetables are an awesome combination. I do agree that lack of LFO MIDI sync is madness, but there ya go, nothing's perfect.

So IMO: Nord Wave - great for performance and for the studio. At a price...

[Lucky me getting over 20 % discount when I bought mine new, wouldn't have had the cash otherwise]

krushing · Post by **krushing** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 11:24 am

The 2X still sells for over $1k? f**k me.

Cyforce · Post by **Cyforce** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:55 pm

If the main concern is synthese + wavetables + samples - try Alchemny!

mkastrup · Post by **mkastrup** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:26 pm

samsam wrote: unison-style wavetables

Unison style wavetables where ? The included waveforms are single cycle not capable of unison. Well you can create something unison like by pulsewidth modulation on saw with lfo to saw shape but thats the only one.

/Michael

samsam · Post by **samsam** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:02 pm

mkastrup wrote:
samsam wrote: unison-style wavetables
Unison style wavetables where ? The included waveforms are single cycle not capable of unison. Well you can create something unison like by pulsewidth modulation on saw with lfo to saw shape but thats the only one.

/Michael

Sorry, bad terminology on my part: yes, I mean waves that combine well together (using both slots) , detuning and adding the chorus for a unison-type sound. I find I like to use a few of the 'spectra' ones. And I know we differ on the merits of the chorus.

If i need full-on unison I've got a couple of Soft-synths to fall back on.

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:06 pm

OK, I did a little unscientific show down last night. I found a bunch of Nord Wave samples on Sound-on-Sound and on the Clavia site. Here are some of them Nord posted to Soundcloud:

http://soundcloud.com/search?q%5Bfulltext%5D=nord+wave

Here on their site (little players on the right)

http://www.clavia.se/main.asp?tm=Produc ... am_Library

and for fun I threw in some Lead 2x examples: http://www.clavia.se/main.asp?tm=Produc ... rd_Lead_2X

Then I turned to some wavetable/va synths I own. In my test I tried Synthmaster 2.5 and Discovery Pro as my wavetable synths/va and Dimension Pro for a hybrid wavetable synth that can load samples.

Now, I didn't even bother to try and make similar patches or anything. That rabbit hole is not one I care to go down. What I was more after was to see if I could hear a significant difference between the hardware and the software. Again, I know this is a bit less than fair considering the audio samples of the Wave and Lead are compressed, but oh well. I doubt anyone's going to loan me a Nord for my test and I mentally took that into account durning my shoot out.

One more time for good measure: this wasn't to see if they were "the same" just could be similar in the personality of sounds and sound quality.

I'm no longer considering a Nord.

Don't get me wrong. They do sound great to me but in the end I can't for the life of me imagine dropping $2k + on a Wave. While the Lead 2x does sound like a good deal, I also put the kabash on that as well. If there is a difference it's much slighter than the difference between VA and Analog hardware, that's for sure and not worth the space on my desk. Even sub $1k I felt like it would be my most expensive hardware synth and I think just not worth it to me.

Nord Wave-ish VST?