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

Nord Lead 4 ever!

Postby Muied Lumens » 05 Jul 2016, 19:33

I realise that on forums like these people like me come in and complain about a particular issue or two, never to be seen again. In order to make up for myself I though I'd post a bit on what I love about my new NL4. I also happen to be bored with nothing to do. ;)

I was blown away by the first Lead in 1995 and traded in a lot of gear to afford it. Never looked back. Got the NL2 later, then the NL2X a couple of years ago before they became discontinued. The recent price reduction on the NL4 made me go for that. I was actually saving up for a DSI Pro2 but I live in the UK, so... Things have been looking uncertain here lately.

I don't regret buying it for a single second. For me its the best Nord so far! Really love the deepness of features and the sound is amazing - all the filters really sound fantastic. There is a more open sound than the previous Leads (haven't tried the NL3, just never got a chance I guess) - and that is before the effects, which work very well in their simplicity. I would have liked a separate feedback control for the delay, but there isn't really any space for it and the button settings are well chosen.

Things really start happening when I sync it up with my Machinedrum. I haven't had so much fun in ages! There is also the option of retriggering LFO's from the keys which i have really missed on previous Leads and the sound of the NL4 is in many ways similar to the machinedrum - almost like a separate synth version of it. That is a great thing in my book.

The pitch bend/modulation wheel issues I mentioned in another thread can be worked around. Reprogramming bends and morphs on the fly is fairly quick and easy on the NL4 and I really like that bend ranges are no longer global. I am doing a gig at the end of this month and the NL4 is coming with me. The midi clock sync is rock solid. Plus the soft/hard midi sync works amazingly well - another great feature of this synth.

When the NL4 first came out I didn't understand the impulse morph feature, rather stupidly I think now, because they can be latched, and/or triggered via midi. When you think of it it is quite powerful - you can effectively have 8 different programs in one - just like the percussion mode on the NL1 and 2/2X. OK, it is not polyphonic but other interesting effects can be achieved. Rhythmic triggering really makes the impulse morphs shine. As I'm sure most of you know anyway. When you then include master clock or midi sync - total mayhem bliss!

My only regret is that it took me 3 years to figure this out!

Anyway I'm rambling again... Just thought I'd post something positive for, erm... posterity.

Also a huge thumbsup for this forum! You are doing a great service! :thanks:
Last edited by Muied Lumens on 05 Jul 2016, 19:41, edited 1 time in total.

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Nord Lead 4 ever!


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Return to saved

Postby Muied Lumens » 09 Jul 2016, 23:13

On the Machinedrum there is a neat way to return to the saved program at any time, so you can tweak away until it is hardly recongisable and then at an opportune moment return to the original again. This is a great trick while playing live, and I was looking for a way to do this on the NL4. For a while I thought I would have to send it a program change message, but as it turns out there is a much simpler way - impulse morph lock.

Clear the impulse morph button and then trigger and lock it (by holding it and pressing Copy/Morph Lock), then tweak away... and when you want to return to the saved program again just release the lock by hitting one of the imp morph buttons. Pretty obvious, maybe, but effective.

You now have a "copy" of your main program that you can return to at any time, something that is even easier than on the MD, where you have to actively create a copy of the tweaks you did if you want to return to it.

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Poor man's wavetable

Postby Muied Lumens » 16 Jul 2016, 03:06

Another nice trick is to modulate oscillator 1 waveform (when set to Wave) via midi. It is CC 49 and will change immediately, even in the middle of a held note. It adds some variation to notes and is fairly easy to set up in most sequencers. It can be good for rhytmic changes like the wave sequencing feature in the DSI Evolver synth but goes beyond this as you can change waveforms much faster than in the Evo.

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Mod Wheel scratch

Postby Muied Lumens » 17 Jul 2016, 01:59

Sound Init a Program, switch on Delay and set it to fully wet. Morph assign the full range of the Delay time (Tempo) to the Mod Wheel. Play a note and wiggle the mod wheel. :D

Will take some practice to sound remotely convincing, but it's still fun. Make sure the delay mode is set of Analog on this one.

Obviously this is useful for "glitchy" effects and whatnot. Maybe you'll get some ideas.
Last edited by Muied Lumens on 17 Jul 2016, 02:01, edited 1 time in total.
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