Nord User Forum

Spider wrote:Why do people keep saying it's a weighted action?

Because it's mentioned in the specs:

Spider wrote:Why do people keep saying it's a weighted action?

It is a waterfall semi-weighted keyboard, which is hard to go to departing from a traditional synth action keyboard.

NoDirection wrote:cambe - 8,7 kg - gigantic? - 61 keys with hammond action bad ? - Well I like a keyboard that I can place on a normal X keyboard stand (Nord Leads are to short) , and that do not move around while I am playing... But different people - different views...

It wouldn't be a problem if I was a keyboardist bringing only one keyboard to the stage or living room

But I'm bringing a sequencer, drum machines, racks (Moogs, Nords etc...) and I normally use either my nord lead 4, nord wave or nord lead a1 as sole keyboard for playing the bits I do. So the added weight (4 kg compared to the nord lead a1) and length breaks my back (literally).

If I had a one keyboard setup it wouldn't be a problem, but that's just not the kind of music I do

Besides all that. The choice for this keybed surely contributed to the high price tag...

And I know I'm not the only synth player who advocates for space-friendly synth. Soon, nord may lose the grasp they have left on the synth community...

In the end I will probably end up buying the nord wave 2, but I will wait a lot to see if they release alternative formats...

Argh,

Definitely the reduced LFO section is a bit of a bummer and creative loss. The two LFOs PLUS the Mod Envelope with the routing options was key to creating some really interesting textures, great for ambient pads.

They should have just made the LFO a virtual menu/routing matrix thing, with cross-layer routing potential.

They seem to be under-valuing how important LFO modulation is to people, people really rely on them to create subtlety and individuality in their programming, even for just random exploration and unpredictable sound captures.

So, I sort of feel like, the programming coming out of this new version will always come out a bit canned.


Honestly, just a menu based LFO system and problem solved. I do this with my Pamelas New Workout no problem, manage 8 LFOs out 8 separate outputs, different shapes, offsets, subdivisions.... All from one push knob navigating an LED menu,

Also... MIDI 2.0????????????????

cambe wrote:

Spider wrote:Why do people keep saying it's a weighted action?

It is a waterfall semi-weighted keyboard, which is hard to go to departing from a traditional synth action keyboard.

ah ok, I come from a piano background so honestly I can't tell the difference between "synth action" and "semi-weighted", I use them as synonyms (I use synth action referring to the shape of the keys, not to the weight).
Synth, organ, waterfall, semiweighted, unweighted... they are all too light for my playing

I don't know, I've never noticed that classical piano players or Hammond players were "crippled" and unable to play fast lines, even with their sluggish keybeds.


Actually, a real B3 action is considered probably the fastest possible, because there are no weights or springs. A synth action of any kind has springs (metal, plastic, or just the plastic of the key bending - which sounds horrific but is very common in cheap actions), so after being pressed it pushes back with some force, making it somewhat hard to press repeatedly the key at extremely fast speeds. Actually, a semi-weighted action can easily be faster to play than an unweighted one, because the weights help press down the key again and relieve some of the spring pushback.

Anyway this largely depends on the tension of the springs, even the same action (like the ubiquitous FATARs) can feel totally different if equipped with different springs, which is the most common customization done by the different manufacturers.
For example, the same TP-8o used in the Wave is also used in the Electros (pretty stiff keys) and the Crumar Mojo (very light keys), and most likely the only difference is in spring tension.

So we don't really know what to expect from the Wave 2, the only choice is wait until we can try it in person.

Feeling pretty sad about this so-called Nord Wave 2 (as a devoted owner of two of the originals). The bad choices are mounting up - oversized keyboard, weird Stage look rather than the beloved synth style; the strange single-oscillator decision, the loss of the comb filter, the apparent (not 100% sure) loss of the phase and frequency modulation options for samples which are the absolute core of the Wave's capabilities (it is meant to be a machine to mess with samples), the joke of a single LFO (you just HAVE to have 2x LFOs on Nord synths to get interesting movement in sounds), limited storage...

Of course there are some good things - OLED screen, arpeggiator and gates, clock control, 4 layers not 2. But struggling to see much more. Impulse morph has always seemed just a gimmick to me. And really, a Nord Wave 2 worthy of the name could and should have built on the original and added things, not taken them away. On other forums some have commented that this is more of a follow up to the Nord A1, which seems plausible. Finding it very hard not to see this as a missed opportunity. When I first saw the announcement I was really excited and assuming that I would just have to buy one. As more of the details have become clear I think this is more likely to be another debacle like the NL4, which made the same kind of mistakes in terms of capability and is being end-of-lifed prematurely. I've never understood who would buy such a limited instrument as the A1.

Clavia Nord have such a great heritage in synths that I hate to see them becoming mostly a maker of cheesy keyboards for cover bands (and I say this as someone who also loves his Nord Piano 2 so has appreciation of the wonderful Piano lines even if organs make my toes curl). The sound quality, the interfaces, the pitch stick, the great sample libraries - these are all such a valuable heritage. Maybe there'll be some redeeming features that will become apparent when the full capabilities are known.

Nord:

The LFO amount needs be be bi-directional, positive and negative!!!
Not just positive!

Change the knob values!!