Is now a good time to buy a Lead 4?

[Lyonart]

I have noticed that prices for the Lead 4 have suddenly dropped (by about 35% in the UK) since the announcement of the A1. Is now a good time to grab one or is the '4X' likely to come out at Frankfurt with better features including some of those taken from the A1?

For just over £1,000 the Lead 4 is starting to look more like good value.

Any Lead 4 owners got an opinion on whether the Lead 4 is good enough in its current form or whether gripes about the LCD display are big issues?

[Mr_-G-]

Hi Tinpig, I have been wondering exactly the same thing. The A1 is not out yet, so, I doubt they would come up with a NL4 update this early. Perhaps more likely they will bring an OS update with alternative effects or similar as insinuated in one of the NAMM interviews. That would be great, of course.

I see the new NL4 price not so much a "good value" but instead as "more reasonable". I thought it was too expensive at the original price. So yes, it is more tempting now.

[Lyonart]

I see the new NL4 price not so much a "good value" but instead as "more reasonable". I thought it was too expensive at the original price. So yes, it is more tempting now.

Hi Mr G, yeah I agree the Lead 4 has seemed overpriced but the recent drop in price has brought it back into contention for some.

I'm looking for a more capable synth to use with my Stage 2 (although I do really like the Stage 2 synth) it just has too many compromises when trying to make certain sounds especially those requiring modulation. Having said that the Lead 4 also has a number of compromises and these have to be factored in. However a third off the previous price makes some of those compromises seem less 'expensive'.

I am currently at a musical crossroads and will be producing more of my own electronic music together with live performing of more traditional rock/pop music with my band. I like the Prophet 12 and the Virus TI2 but these are over £2k each and I'm not sure I can justify this right now especially as I also need an audio interface for my Mac.

I've also looked at the Pulse 2 which at £399 seems good value and a keyboard version is due soon for about £5-600. This is a different beast to the Nord and In my opinion the Lead 4 might give me some additional benefits or features (I especially like the Impulse Morph on the Lead which is fantastic).

Nord certainly do like to make it difficult for their customers in terms of compromises within their products. I was not initially impressed with the Lead 4 but I am starting to warm to it (especially with the price drop) such that I might even be tempted to sell my Novation KS5 to fund its purchase.

[ricard]

Interesting about the price drop. I haven't seen anything here in Sweden or on thomann.de . Was it just a temporary reduction? The NL4 and A1 I would think are intended to cater to slightly different markets so I wouldn't see the need to reduce the NL4 price just because the A1 is coming out. In fact, the reverse should be true: since the NL4 is more of a 'fully featured' machine, it would make sense to keep the price up in order to be able to price the A1 reasonably high (seen from the manufacturer's point of view of course).

Quite frankly, I'm wondering how well these machines sell these days. When they brought out the original Nord Lead (and the NL2) they were almost alone in the VA market. Only the Roland JP-8000 I felt could give them a run for their money. Today the story is very different. There are much more VA's out there, with most of them apart from the one-to-one knob-to-parameter relationship offering more features for the same price. Then there are new real analogs too, like the Elektron Analog Keys (also from Sweden). 4 voices only, but true analog sound generation, and the voice architecture feels like a 'next generation analog' rather than just a revamping of a classic analog style sound chain.

Personally I was seriously considering an NL4 but upon closer examination found the sound to be harsher than I would like, no matter what I did on the machine to soften it. Currently I've gone with a Blofeld desktop version, and might migrate to the keyboard version in the future. Yes, it has much fewer knobs, so will have to see how much of a limitiation it is in practice. Some user interface features make up for this, such as a graphical display of the envelope shape.

[SocProf]

I have not seen any price drop in the US. Street prices remain at $2299 at Musician's Friend, Sweetwater, etc.

[Frantz]

Sometimes there are good deals at local stores, just because they can't keep more than a certain number of products for a range, or for a brand, they wish to renew the stock and make a new model come in.

[AdamStage2]

The original price of the NL4 in the Uk was £1549,it then dropped to some stores selling them for £1299 a few weeks ago,but since the introduction of the A1 which now sits at £1299,the price of the NL4 has risen back to £1549,I've been keeping an eye on it because I'm looking to buy the NL4.

To me it seems like Clavia dictate to the retailers what they can buy in/sell them for,the recent hike to the NL4 price seems like a way of dominating the sales,let's face it who's gonna buy an A1 if you can get the NL4 for the same price,personally for me think the NL4 should be more suited to the £1299 and the A1 at £999,given Clavia market it as an entry level synth to the NL series it's rather highly priced IMHO,I guess we'll see if the price gets dropped if sales don't fair too well.

[Mr_-G-]

£1299 is an interesting price. At the moment you can get any of these for exactly that amount:
Nord A1
MOXF8 88
Yamaha CP40
Korg Krome 88
Roland FA 08
Jupiter 50
Korg SV-1
Korg M3 73

All very different, and I agree that it seems that the A1 (and NL4) are in the wrong price category.

[ricard]

Clavia appear to be trying to market the A1 as being different from the NL4, not necessary an entry-level version of it. Indeed, the A1 has some things that the NL4 doesn't such as being able to use reverb and delay at the same time.

Agreed, Clavia's gear is pricey. Very much because of the in-house manufacture and probably lower volumes than Korg, Roland and Yamaha. I would think. They try to make up for it by offering something different, the question is if it is different enough?

[Muziksculp]

Clavia appear to be trying to market the A1 as being different from the NL4, not necessary an entry-level version of it. Indeed, the A1 has some things that the NL4 doesn't such as being able to use reverb and delay at the same time.

I wonder if Clavia can update the NL4's O.S. to add this functionality, and maybe more cool, and useful features in the future ?