Nord Lead 4r/A1r discontinued?

Nord's classical Virtual Analog Synth Nord LEAD 1/2/2x/3/4/A1 and Nord Rack versions
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Re: Nord Lead 4r/A1r discontinued?

Post by Happy »

These are very nice products, Really love 4 parts timbral in a hardware box. Marketing tells that even you don't sell some products they can be complimentary to boost sales of other brand's products. Personally, did not buy into the A1/NL4 due to the proprietary implementation of MIDI for patches/sysex and the single voltage power supply. Hope Clavia will continue with modules for the new Leads. Many other manufacturers sell modules, even new entrants in the synth market because not everyone has space for more keys. Everywhere I see more people calling for modules again after a period of "rack" being a dirty word.

It looks like these were the last Nord modules then. The module version of the Nord Drum is gone and the Electro and Piano modules are long gone as well.

For the record, the A1 keyboard is also gone on Bax NL, Not sure this means something new is coming or signifies the end of the whole Lead family. Perhaps Nord will just focus their resources on Electro/Piano/Stage keyboard only.
Last edited by Happy on 15 Oct 2016, 03:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Nord Lead 4r/A1r discontinued?

Post by Mr_-G- »

Happy wrote:For the record, the A1 keyboard is also gone on Bax NL, Not sure this means something new is coming or signifies the end of the whole Lead family.
To avoid unnecessary speculation, better to look in the 'Products' section of the Clavia site. There you can see what is current and what is discontinued (called 'legacy').
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Re: Nord Lead 4r/A1r discontinued?

Post by Happy »

Thanks Mr G. but does that mean the Piano 2, Drum 2, A1r and 4r are still in production. On many retail sites these are not listed anymore and are also not listed in the legacy page as I can see from here. P.S: Just got my hands on a Drum 2 after having to search very very hard.
Example: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/NordLead4R/
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Legacy as of Oct 15 2016
Legacy as of Oct 15 2016
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Last edited by Happy on 15 Oct 2016, 10:48, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Nord Lead 4r/A1r discontinued?

Post by Mr_-G- »

Yes, I see your point, but who knows how they operate... some manufacturers make X amount of units in some short time, create a stock and that is it (keeping a large assembly plant for just one product might be too expensive), production stops very quickly. Others may carry on making them over longer periods of time. I guess Clavia being a small company might carry on assembling some of their products according to demand.
The 4r module is still available for sale in many places (sometimes you see some music gear lablelled as "discontinued", not sure for the 4r), so maybe you are right, and they won't accept large orders from some music stores, but so far, according to Clavia, they are not legacy yet. Or they maybe they are and they do not want to say until the stores stock is gone or until they have a new product out?
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Re: Nord Lead 4r/A1r discontinued?

Post by Happy »

In general and summarizing:

Most companies use a term "EOL" which mean end of assembly on a production line. Apparently Clavia informs this to their channel but not their end users via their website.
Labeling something "EOL" or "legacy in Nord terms" only when stock is gone in the channel is utterly incorrect and Clavia has no way to have knowledge when the last one in stock is gone.

With the lack of information on the Nord drum 3 module, the last moment Piano 2 keybed change, lack of up to date legacy status and suddenly A1/4 racks and the A1 keys disappearing it looks like there are problems at Nord or they just don't care or understand hpw to keep their (individual) consumer fan base informed.

For production point, the goal is to keep costs as low as possible even at the penny level, even billion dollar companies do that, Not so for Nord it seems. due to their dual power supply policy, to ship an order from one region to another region means production needs to rework stock (the power switch), unpack, pack, test all units, resulting in lowering flexibility and increasing cost, which reduction could be given to consumer if avoided. From a consumer point of viewm keeping a power supply switch internal in the unit design and not make it multi-voltage (like other brands do, but still w/o having the need of an external power "dongle"), makes it harder to travel with gear around the world or when you move somewhere.

Nord products are great, solid and nice, but If they would fix these issues, starting with the Lead 5R/A2R definitely would buy in again. Perhaps others would do as well.

Right now, Consumers only can rely on seeing things going out of stock (suddenly !) when they almost saved up to buy their dream machine. THAT is not good to retain a fan-base.

Companies have gone out of business because of stubborn attitudes and internal struggle. Hope Clavia will not be one of them.

That's my rant. Sorry for that. End of story.

P.S:
[1] Here is the A1 keys "end of availability" at a large retailer.
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A1r - end of availability
A1r - end of availability
a1r.png (192.27 KiB) Viewed 2731 times
A1 Keys  - End of availability
A1 Keys - End of availability
A1 keys.png (139 KiB) Viewed 2732 times
Last edited by Happy on 16 Oct 2016, 04:37, edited 9 times in total.
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Re: Nord Lead 4r/A1r discontinued?

Post by Mr_-G- »

Strange, both are still available in a few net shops in Europe, either "in stock" or "available to order".
If they are really discontinued, there might be something nice coming soon. Wave2? NL5?
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Re: Nord Lead 4r/A1r discontinued?

Post by Gustavo »

Well, I just bought a used NL4R so yeah you can still get one of you need ;)

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Re: Nord Lead 4r/A1r discontinued?

Post by Muziksculp »

Gustavo wrote:Well, I just bought a used NL4R so yeah you can still get one of you need ;)

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Hi,

Congratulations Gustavo :thumbup:

The NL4-Rack is one of my favorite synths. Enjoy it.

Oh.. Some dealers still have some NL4 and NLA1 units available in their stock, but these will eventually be sold out. Buying a used NL4-R that is in good condition is just like buying a new one, these things are very well built. Plus, I don't have the transformer low frequency humming issue some users have reported having with their NL4/R and NLA1/R models. Hopefully your NL4-R doesn't have this issue as well.

Cheers,
Muziksculp
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Re: Nord Lead 4r/A1r discontinued?

Post by Gustavo »

Muziksculp wrote:
Gustavo wrote:Well, I just bought a used NL4R so yeah you can still get one of you need ;)

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Hi,

Congratulations Gustavo [emoji106]

The NL4-Rack is one of my favorite synths. Enjoy it.

Oh.. Some dealers still have some NL4 and NLA1 units available in their stock, but these will eventually be sold out. Buying a used NL4-R that is in good condition is just like buying a new one, these things are very well built. Plus, I don't have the transformer low frequency humming issue some users have reported having with their NL4/R and NLA1/R models. Hopefully your NL4-R doesn't have this issue as well.

Cheers,
Muziksculp
Thanks! So far my NL4R doesn't have any humming! Although to be honest, I am not liking it as much as the Prophet 6! But to be fair, if I only had to have one synth for live use, I'd choose a Nord.
Last edited by Gustavo on 26 Oct 2016, 07:55, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Nord Lead 4r/A1r discontinued?

Post by Spider »

Both Leads and the rack versions are still available new from Thomann, so it looks like there's plenty of stock left...
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