Nord User Forum

Hi.

I am a verry happy user of Nord Stage 2 EX and fell in love e.g. with the Silver Grand piano sound.

I bought Focusrite Clarett 4Pre audio interface. When connecting NS2 to Clarett and playing piano with 'direct monitoring', the sound quality is pretty much on par what I can get directly from NS2 headphones out (using the same AKG K712 headphones in both scenarios).

The problem is that when using a custom mix (A/D D/A conversion involved), the sound quality is rather bad when comparing to direct headphones out from NS or direct monitoring in Clarett.

My question is that is realistic at all (with any interface) to expect the brilliant NS2 Silver Grand sound to 'survive' A/D => D/A conversion with no audible impact on the sound itself? It was a little of a surprise for me to find out that a cheap analog mixer, even with some noise, is still having the sound perfectly intact, but a high quality thunderbolt audio interface will have an audible impact on the sound characteristics while doing A/D D/A conversions.

Happy to hear your experiences on the topic,

Jukka Pesonen

There is something wrong.

If at all noticeable, any modern audio interface — let alone the Focusrite — should be almost transparent.

I would definitely agree with analogika. You should check your routing and system carefully for anything unexpected - out of phase doubling or mixing to mono are possible culprits.

Yes, better check how you are recording/mixing the stereo channels. If you are using single mono tracks for L and R they should be fully panned in opposite directions. NOT in the middle (which would make it mono and cause some degree of phase cancellation).

Thank you for the instant replies, the issue was exactly which you mentioned. A phase cancellation due to not panning the L and R channels.



Kind Regards,

Jukka Pesonen

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