Everything about the Nord Wave Synthesizer

Wave 2 First Impressions

Postby DJKeys » 13 May 2020, 02:17

Updated after more experience.

I have been working wih this machine for a few days now just programming sounds for my Top 40 and classic rock stuff. The instrument is a joy to use, has a great keybed and a rich sound. It is also much larger and heavier than any previous Lead (or the Wave). It it is nearly the same size and weight as my NS3C. There is a lot of guts to this thing. In my opinion (as misssoundscape's), this is not a new version of the Wave, but a completely new instrument in its own class with premier DNA from the entire Clavia/Nord family.

Getting around is pretty easy, as it has a similar structure to the A1. Tha Analog waveforms are incredibly useful and you can easily dial in a starting point when programming. The Shape waveforms are especially notable, as the Osc Control can give you a wide range of sounds on a single waveform. The unison feature adds real fatness and polyphony is more that I will ever need.

The ADSR Envelopes for both the Amp and Filter have the same interaction as a classic subtractive synth. All oscillators can be detuned up or down and the mod envelope can be set to negative values! The Filter envelope can be inverted as well, which makes for some cool possibilities.

Using the A1 as my guide, I was creating sounds quickly and found myself saying, "wow, that was easy". I love that the shift and copy/paste buttons are right next to each other. The filters sound great, and being able to adjust the filter envelope amount is a cool bonus. Pretty much every needed parameter can be morphed. Also, the independent Wheel assign section is a great addition. The chorus, phaser, and ensemble sound great, but I have not yet been able to get the sounds I want out of the reverbs (that will take some more experience). I would rather have two more adjustable Hall reverbs than a Cathedral which I really wouldn't use.

I worked with the arpeggiator briefly. It is more advanced than the A1, and gives you the ability to store your own rhythmic patterns (but not your own notes). The solo feature in the Layer section is awesome and saves a lot of time, as you can just push one button to solo any layer when editing.

The filter and the amp can both be over driven, but the quality of the sound of the distortion is really dependent on the filter settings and oscillator selection, so I need to experiment with that more. It seems the Drive in the EQ section is weaker than the filter drive. The EQ drive doesn't seem to increase as you turn the dial, it behaves parametrically in my experience which is much different than my NS3. I hope Nord can make the EQ drive more powerful going forward.

If you load a sample, it has its own pre-programmed filter, so you will need to enable the filter to mangle the sample. The EQ is defaulted to logical frequencies, and the parametric mode allows nice sound tailoring.

I also found that if I want to trigger sounds from my NS3 on different sides of a split and the NW2 is split as well, the split points must be the same notes. Makes sense, but it had me confused for a while (that is not hard to do LOL).

The 0.84 manual is still a little behind the curve, as the utility section opens the Arp pattern instead of Layer swap in version 1.02. I believe things will catch up as the synth is used more and these small discrepancies are resolved. I apologize if my thoughts are a little scattered, as I pieced them together as I worked with the instrument.

All in all, this keyboard is very flexible and above all sounds fantastic.

-dj
Last edited by DJKeys on 17 May 2020, 18:54, edited 16 times in total.

Nord Stage 3
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Wave 2 First Impressions


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Re: Wave 2 First Impressions

Postby missoundscape » 13 May 2020, 09:20

Great first impression. I also used my A1 as a guide to program my song-settings. That's why I believe the NW2 is the successor from the A1, rather than the original Wave.

Go to the website to get the new updated manual. Some things are better explained in the new manual, like the midi section. There are some crucial changes in the new manual.

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Re: Wave 2 First Impressions

Postby DJKeys » 13 May 2020, 18:54

missoundscape wrote:Great first impression. I also used my A1 as a guide to program my song-settings. That's why I believe the NW2 is the successor from the A1, rather than the original Wave.

Go to the website to get the new updated manual. Some things are better explained in the new manual, like the midi section. There are some crucial changes in the new manual.


Did that, thanks. Explains a few of the new behaviors.

-dj

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Re: Wave 2 First Impressions

Postby taxman » 24 May 2020, 15:55

@DJkeys are you sure, there's a phaser on board?
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Re: Wave 2 First Impressions

Postby DJKeys » 24 May 2020, 16:38

taxman wrote:@DJkeys are you sure, there's a phaser on board?
Best regards


Absolutely. When cycling through the effects (in V 1.02) the RM and Chorus LEDs come on together and that selects the Phaser effect. Quite good as well-

-dj

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Re: Wave 2 First Impressions

Postby taxman » 24 May 2020, 20:29

Oh thank you I thought I've read that there' s nö flanger and phaser in it
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Re: Wave 2 First Impressions

Postby DJKeys » 24 May 2020, 20:31

That was changed in the latest firmware. I don't believe the first build had a phaser.

-dj

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Re: Wave 2 First Impressions

Postby taxman » 24 May 2020, 20:41

Oh thank you I thought I've read that there' s no flanger and phaser in it
In the early Version theres no phaser in the panel
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Re: Wave 2 First Impressions

Postby taxman » 24 May 2020, 20:42

That are great News
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Re: Wave 2 First Impressions

Postby DJKeys » 24 May 2020, 20:55

taxman wrote:Oh thank you I thought I've read that there' s no flanger and phaser in it
In the early Version theres no phaser in the panel


Its listed on the panel I believe in the newest hardware revision. Not in the original, which I have-

-dj

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