Nord User Forum

So I decided to do a by-ear test of my Nord Lead A1's number of active voices when playing unison level 3 across 2 to 4 slots simultaneously.

In Unison 3 across 4 slots (all 4 slots with unison set to 3, all 4 slots "lit", playing the keyboard) I could play a chord of up to 6 keys simultaneously. When adding the 7th note, the second-lowest note was dropped.
In Unison 3 across 3 slots, I could play 7 notes before one was dropped by adding the 8th = 21 voices. Odd that there isn't 24+ voice polyphony allocatable here, I thought this was a 26 voice synth?
In Unison 3 across 2 slots the polyphony jumped to 10+ keys (I assume 13, or 26 voices).

Unison 0, 1, and 2 results were the same as for Unison 3.

I conclude that a) Unison does not steal voices at all on the Nord Lead A1, b) The voice allocation is a bit odd in that with 3 slots active you only have 21 possible voices no matter what the unison setting is, and c) Other than that, this is a heck of a great deal, since unison really kicks ass in many cases and being able to use it without penalty is awesome!

I like to emulate similar Unison settings by using the Chorus effect instead

I haven't analysed the results in detail other than setting them by ear but to me

Unison 1-Chorus Value 0.5

Unison 2 Chorus Value 1.0

Unison 3 Chorus Value 2.5

By using the Chorus effect as well as Unison you can use the Mod Wheel to Morph the Chorus values to emulate the Unison settings rather than being stuck with a static value

For Example,set Unison to 1 and then add chorus Effect value to 2.0 which would then emulate the Unison mode 3 Value,you can use the Mod wheel to change the values in realtime.

Yes, unisons and choruses are very similar in nature. The difference is that a chorus will have a bit of motion (often cyclic) to it, whereas a unison will only have the random beat frequencies as the only "motion". Depending on if that matters to you or not, you might find them interchangeable. However, for some sounds one or the other might be more clearly preferred. Unisons, by definition, are integer-increment effects (e.g. they are only adjusted in discrete integer quantities) - while of course the amount of detune per voice is variable the number of voices is clearly an integer. So, yes! You can definitely simulate a unison with a chorus or vice versa, but in some cases one will have a characteristic that might be more desirable than the other.

The Unison seems to my ears anyway to have a wider pan spread than using the Chorus.

I like to have more control over the Chorus effect though,than just the preset values of a Unison,hence why I prefer to use a Chorus setting as opposed to a static Unison but thats just my preference,

Its one of the things I like about the NL3 in that the Unison/Chorus can be user defined,Don't know why Nord never Carried this over on the NL4.

Yes, the ability to morph the chorus is really a nice feature. In fact, the Chorus is a huge selling point of the A1 to me - one of the primary reasons I opted for it as my first Lead synth instead of the 4. I bought my A1 to be a sort of one-man-keyboard-section for 80's new wave and dark electro stuff, and that lush chorus is a huge part of that sound. Since most of the synths in that era were in fact very simple (OMD famously used a one-oscillator Korg Mini-Preset, for instance) and just multi tracked (hey presto, slots!) and heavily effected (hey presto, chorus!) it's basically exactly what I'm looking for.

I *might* end up with an NL4 later on, or even wait for the NL5 if it's a nice step forward, but for now an A1 effectively replaces a whole rack of gear from a gigging/jamming perspective. I'm trying to figure out how to best pair it with a few rack modules for an insanely portable setup now.

I conclude that a) Unison does not steal voices at all on the Nord Lead A1, b) The voice allocation is a bit odd in that with 3 slots active you only have 21 possible voices no matter what the unison setting is, and c) Other than that, this is a heck of a great deal, since unison really kicks ass in many cases and being able to use it without penalty is awesome!

Unison voices are reduced automatically and dynamically before notes are stolen. At least that is how it works on NL4. So there is a drawback, but it's often not that audible.