Nord's classical Virtual Analog Synth Nord LEAD 1/2/2x/3/4/A1 and Nord Rack versions

Nord Lead vs. Reason 10

Postby jgmathieu » 25 Mar 2018, 22:35

Since I have been exploring electronic music for the past 10 years and have considered purchasing a Nord Lead, I sort of have my doubts now that I am using Reason 10 platform along with my Nord Electro 5D. I don't perform in public anymore with my electronic gear and a lot of my synth work is done in my home studio. With my recent purchase of Reason 10, this DAW is very complete in its offerings of various synth instruments and sounds. Does anyone out there feel the same way? It is great to play out with a portable synth like the Nord Lead, but a $400. DAW is a lot cheaper than a $2000 Nord.
Any comments are welcome from musicians playing out with synth software too.
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Nord Lead vs. Reason 10


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Re: Nord Lead vs. Reason 10

Postby Quai34 » 26 Mar 2018, 09:57

Hi,
I had the exact same question 7 years ago when I restarted to play music after a 10 years break....Just to let you know, when I stopped playing music, it was Atari 1040 and Pro24 or Notator so, nothing like the super powerful DAWs of nowadays....But even at that time, after having spent a lot at home on my computer, doing a lot of composing and so on, I felt the need to play with other musicians and came back to play on a Jazz Band with 10 other fellow musicians....
So, keep in mind that music is first a way of expressing yourself and sharing emotion and that you finally get this only when you play with people for people....
That said, it comes to what you consider as a real music instrument....:
A DAW is nothing than just a super recording machine, yes, giving you a lot of the same features that you have with a synth but for me, there is no connections with a DAW....Why do you think more and more controllers of all kind are flourishing these days as a substitute of the mouse and keyboard? And take the form as a classic analog board with Pots and faders?
Ok, you have your Electro and you could use Reason at home to make music....But what about within 10/20/30 years? Will Reason will still be running on your computer? Will it still be existing? Nothing sure about that....
A synth, a real one, like the Lead, will always be a real instrument, with its knobs and metal and pith bend....By The way, you said you have just an electro but how do you use Pitchbend and Mod wheel? You are ok with synth sounds without any real time controller?
So, the question is up to you but at the end, for me, it will still be: Do I want to play an instrument or do I want to "play" a computer?
To conclude on my introduction, I was close to buy a big computer and to go the "in the box" route but I bought a lot of "Old" synths, Matrix 1000, Proteus 2000, XV5080 etc...Well, not the best to tweak, I agree, but they kept their values for the past years, some of them have already almost doubled their values (Matrix 1000...). Why, because an instrument will always be seen as something that holds what our humanity put in them....Not a software in my opinion...And you can get a Nord Lead, the 1, or the 2 for way less than the 2000$ of a new A1 or Lead 4 by the way....
You know what: If you were really happy with just your DAW as a synth, why would you go on a forum to ask this question? Nobody has never forced you to buy a Lead, right?
Last edited by Quai34 on 26 Mar 2018, 10:00, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Nord Lead vs. Reason 10

Postby uzivogo » 26 Mar 2018, 14:26

Yes, it is great to play with a nord lead !
But maybe for you it is the best to play with your computer.
If everybody would think like you there are no nord instruments in the near future.
I wonder why you not think about sell your E5D, so you gain some money for buy new computer games.
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Re: Nord Lead vs. Reason 10

Postby CountFosco » 26 Mar 2018, 15:49

C'mon guys, it's a perfectly reasonable dilemma given the OP's circumstances, no need for a slap down. OP's come to a keyboard player's forum to talk with like minded people who may have wrestled with the same dilemma. I had pretty much the same problem when my bands wound up in the 90s, and I pared back to just a piano and then started with Logic and VSTs (without a keyboard) for years. I only purchased a Nord a couple of years ago when I rejoined a band. I'm really enjoying getting back into keyboards and synths, but I probably wouldn't have done it if not for the requirement to play live. So, in answer to the post, no I don't feel that way anymore.
Last edited by CountFosco on 26 Mar 2018, 15:57, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Nord Lead vs. Reason 10

Postby Execbat » 26 Mar 2018, 22:59

I have Reason 10 and a Lead 4 and I like both. (But phew, Reason has quite many shortcomings as a daw)

The reasons for hardware synths - in general -, in my opinion:

- Live performance of any kind (tho not an issue here). On stage, jam sessions, on youtube videos, etc. Hardware instruments are usually reliable in a live situation. Many acts also use software, but mainaining computers, drivers and programs and installing midi-controllers, audio-interfaces and all the cables requires more attention.

- Easy and fast to "start up". No need for a computer to boot, no daw to run, no plugins to load, no dongles. Just switch on and plug in headphones or whatever.

- Physical interface. I don't create my own patches from scratch with software synths, I browse the presets and modify. On the NL patch creation is much more fun and you end up creating all sorts of different sounds. However, the new synths in Reason, Europa and Grain are much better now, because they are more complete as an instrument, and they can be fun to play around with and create your own patches from scratch too.

-Realtime tweaking while playing. wheel and morphs on the NL are great, all other parameters are centimeters away. Changing a specific synth parameter via midi contoller is tedious. Midi-controller-keyboards in general are bad and I consider most of them overpriced compared to real instruments.



That being said there are of course huge advantages of softsynths and staying in the box, especially when it comes to projects, arrangement, sequencing and production. It's just a matter of what job a synth has to fulfill. :)

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Re: Nord Lead vs. Reason 10

Postby jgmathieu » 27 Mar 2018, 01:36

Thanks for all the replies and although I would not go the route of buying computer games like one person has said, it is good to get constructive criticism from Nord owners even if they are not musicians. I have owned an original ARP Odyssey and played it along with a Fender Rhodes in the 70's. It was a great synth but hard to keep in tune to the music of the day. Although I am still open to the possibility of owning a Nord Lead, most of my work with music is with the Nord Electro 5D and a Yamaha U3 piano for classical music. But I still appreciate the comments, especially from the Reason and NL owners and even the lame ones which don't make any sense at all.
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Re: Nord Lead vs. Reason 10

Postby LudovicVDP » 27 Mar 2018, 15:39

The computer "games" offer more possibilities.
I used to play with Ableton and a keyboard controller. I could do waaaaayyyy more things than with my Nord Stage 2. That's a fact.

Still... I switched to the Nord Stage for a lot of Reasons (pun intended). Here are some of them (speaking only for myself here)

- Do I really need all those possibilities live? (Some yes, I still regret them, but for 95% of what I play, the Nord is sufficient)

- Do I want to rely on a computer live? (definitively not)

- I like the approach of the Nord: Turn it on -> play! That's it. Need something? -> just turn the dedicated knob. It's done! Much quicker and way nicer feeling. So much more pleasure. No need to use a mouse and click here and there. Or to set up every knob of a controller to finally have everything on the tip of your fingers. I think the keyboard gives a more "musician feeling". When using a mouse, I don't feel like I'm playing music. I'm programming, I'm composing, I'm tweeking... and I like it a lot for other projects. But on gigs or rehearsals, I just want to plug and play.

- I still can play around with Ableton and create a lot of things and then import them into the Nord. You can combine the best of both worlds.

- If you want good VST, you still have to pay some bucks. If you only need 1 organ, maybe you'll find something cheaper than a Nord. If you want good synths, organs, Clavinets, EP's, AP's, strings,... might not be that cheap at the end of the day (unless you go for freewares or illegal softwares but then we are not talking about the same thing)

- Talking about cost: How much can you sell your VST if ever you want to stop?

I guess it's a question of feeling and use. Do you go live? Do you stay home? Do you like to "simply" play or to tweek sounds for hours? Do you play classic piano? Or multi-synth stuffs or Dream Theater-like things?

Anyway: you can definitively do great things with both solution (soft vs hardware). There is no right or wrong answer.
But I guess on a Nord forum you'll find more hardware people than on a Reason forum :-D
Last edited by LudovicVDP on 28 Mar 2018, 08:30, edited 1 time in total.

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