I liked Nord synths and I'm shocked by this :)

[PALU]

Lately I had some spare time (which is really something I didn't have in the last 12 months - a second kid, building a new house and so on) and I though I will check out some new hardware synths that appeared lately.

I went to one of the biggest music shops in my town and of course there wasn't any Minilogues or Elektrons (as far as for my experience in Poland you mostly see Yamaha workstations and digital pianos in shops - no synths really).

But I had an opportunity to check some other stuff. There was one of the Roland Boutique synths (I think JX-3P - rather "meh" for me), Arturia Minibrute and Microbrute (I thought I will love them - but again "meh"), Korg Electribe (fun, but the presets I checked were soooooo '90 and cheesy), Moog Little Phatty (I played Sub 37 some time earlier and it sounded much more interesting), Roland JD-Xi (interesting, some great presets, but the overall feel was like it's a beginners workstation type of thing and the whole analog vs digital architecture felt restrictive) and Roland TR-8 and TB-3 (these were fun to play, first time ever used a proper TR style sequencer).

And then I spotted some Nord stuff. Never played it, never really was interested in it. I think it was Nord Piano, Nord Lead and Nord Modular (not sure which revisions). And in no time I was playing on all of them on the big PA in the shop in an awe. The pianos were very playable and inspiring, the synths were great. Wow. Never thought that it would end like this. The guys from the shop were checking from time to time when this weird guy playing dark ambient drenched in reverb piano clusters is going to stop . But I was too enjoying this to stop. It sounded really fun and "in my alley".

What do you guys (and gals) are thinking about the Nord "sound"? Is that that distinctive or other stuff can do what this can do? Do I buy discoDSP's Discovery now ?

[cryophonik]

Do I buy discoDSP's Discovery now ?

No, you buy a Nord now!

[EvilDragon]

IMHO their stuff is way too expensive for what it is (which is usually - limited tweakage, stupid omissions like lack of aftertouch on Lead 4/A1, and so on).

[PALU]

Do I buy discoDSP's Discovery now ?

No, you buy a Nord now!

Very funny

IMHO their stuff is way too expensive for what it is (which is usually - limited tweakage, stupid omissions like lack of aftertouch on Lead 4/A1, and so on).

I had the same impression (expensive, elitist, limited in many ways), but only these synths kept me playing for half an hour or more...

[Shabdahbriah]

I have always liked the sound and 'feel' of Nord synths, but the price has always been prohibitive. That said: IF I could, I would score a Nord Modular (KB). in a heart beat. [2c]

[aMUSEd]

Nord G2 modular engine is well worth it

[dark water]

Too expensive compared to other options now.

But they were responsible for some fuckin' great sounds when dance music mattered:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVLAcKRmjt4

[Daags]

complaints about the price seem focused on the sound ... and for nord instruments, that's only half of what you are paying for. nord instruments are the gold standard of build quality. built to be gigged with night after night and hauled on world tours.

if that's not a criteria that's important to you, so be it, but given the build quality I think the pricing is reasonable.

[illkind]

discoDSP's Discovery is very close to the Nord Lead 2. It sounds exactly like my NordLead 2X (probably because they modeled filters based on samples I recorded for them from my 2X ).

The obvious advantage to the hardware is the knobs for every parameter really, and the pitch bend / mod wheel give it a unique feel.

Hard to go wrong either way!

[xoxos]

smart robust minimal design, playability, and the stick. some people used to say they would send ghost midi messages but mine was always stable, so if you get one that stays at 0, you've got a good one.

i liked mine enough to buy it a second time, the stick really lends itself to emulation imo and is about the finest transducer in the industry. 10/10 for clavia but for me the facts are, the keyboard itself is the same clunky noisy thing you find everywhere, ultimately, for playing software instruments, the only part of the instrument that is distinguished is the pitch stick. i wish i could buy just that in a little metal box. it's a nice synth but for me, timbre is about the diversity of software choices.

[4damind]

People often don't like the Nord for the not so "spectacularly" sound compared to soft synth with some of this "showroom presets" with layers, dozens of FX, step sequences etc
I would always buy a Nord again but my next Nord will be a keyboard version (I'm not so happy with this controller keyboards but that's a different story).

The Nord has also a special a bit rough sound, which I have not found with a plugin. DiscoDSP is IMO crap, Spire can sound close but it's a bit too clean (maybe it needs some different programming). Anyway, after some testing often I replaced this plugins with the hardware and it works out of the box

Not to mention that Nord synth having a good build quality. Made in Sweden, not this China stuff Afaik. They are not over complicated and easy to use also for people without a degree in computer science

[Numanoid]

What took me a bit by surprise is that Clavia has about double the business and turnover compared to Propellerheads.

So Clavia know how to make money

[tehlord]

Nord keyboards are not expensive because they are not built down to a price like 80% of the other crap that's being sold these days.

Made in China doesn't matter, unless it's made in China to be cheap and only to be cheap. My Macbook is made in China and it's built like a tank.

[barryfell]

I do love the Nord's. I'd take my NLA1 over any other synth, hardware or software that I own. I'm seriously thinking about adding a NL4R soon as I use the NLA1 that much and find it that enjoyable to use.

For me value comes from how much I use something, so my NLA1 is well worth it.

[D-Fusion]

4 Synths for the price of 2 is not what i consider to be overpriced.