Nord User Forum

Hi everyone, I would appreciate the group's advice please

I have been doing "the usual research" we all do before buying new keys and after weeks of Googling and You Tubing the Nord Lead 4 comes top of the list.
My only hesitation is its small 4 octave keyboard. It seems a bit limiting for such a powerful bit of kit, surely it deserves 5 octaves ? ( ie T1 Virus and Prophet )

4 octaves seems so common these days, what is going on? I can totally understand a smaller keyboard on a mono synth

I would appreciate your thoughts on 4 octaves v 5

I play old school rock/blues/prog

Many thanks

Dave

Yes... it would be nice to have 5 octaves AND a better keybed (feel and size) AND polyphonic aftertouch AND sample support AND better effects... we keep waiting.

For me 4 octaves on my NLA1 are enough and it's easier to travel with.
I have 5 octaves on my NE5D but I use very rare the highest octave.

I also do hope for a successor of the A1 with 5 octaves and aftertouch...

Greets

Eumel

Yes I also would like to have 5 octaves. It's ok with 4 octaves on the Lead because of multitimbrality/split - on monotimbral synths 4 octaves are much more limiting if you want to play with both hands. But five would be best.
Also somehow for me more importantly the NL keys are unfortunately about 1 cm shorter than standard keys. That's slightly unpleasant when playing lots of chords. Not the only synth with such keys though. (Would likely have bought a JD-Xa, but I didn't want two synths with the same key size / octave "weakness", among other reasons.)

Sorry, but doesn't the new Prophet-6 and Oberheim OB-6 also both only have 4 octave keyboards? Seem to be the new industry-standard, smaller studios and all...?

+1 on the New standard, I don't understand why, unless you play a lot of Edm/Sequenced Music etc.... But 5 octaves is the ideal number both for live, studio and sequences too. I might have already bought an OB6 if the octaves were 5, in fact, I found a P12 at a good price and the 5 octave made the difference....Between waiting/standing by and jumping on the P12.

Many thanks for your thoughts.

On balance the Nord Lead keyboard is a deal breaker for me, and Im going for my second option, a Prophet Rev2, which has a full size proper 5 octave board with after-touch.

More or less the same price.

Best regards to all

Dave TK

Good idea for the Rev2, I have the Prophet 08 and I love it....

Quai34 wrote:Good idea for the Rev2, I have the Prophet 08 and I love it....

It's true that it's only 8 notes polyphony?