This 'unofficial' Forum is dedicated to the Clavia Nord Keyboards, including the Nord Stage, Nord Electro and Nord Piano. Discuss any issues around Nord's keyboards, share your favorite patches, samples, and music. We are not affiliated with Clavia!
Some confusion seems to be around, so at risk of stating the obvious this may help:
an instrument which supports Sampling: is able to record, (and often edit) sounds and play them back.
an instrument which is a Synth: generates sounds by combining, shaping and filtering simple electronically generated waveforms into more complex sounds.
an instrument which supports MIDI IN: is able to have its own sounds triggered/played by another external device
an instrument which supports MIDI OUT: is able to trigger the sounds on another device (which might do sampling) - it may or may not be capable of making any sounds on its own (e.g. a drum pad, controller, sequencer etc.)
The ND2 does only the last 3 things.
There are devices which do less (or all) of the above, (and tbh there are plenty of MIDI devices that have MIDI IN but don't make a sound at all), but hopefully this clarifies the differences for those that were unsure, and is not meant to be patronising in any way.
These users thanked the author neolithic for the post (total 2):
Just following on from this: does anyone know of a compact sampler with midi in and audio out? That way the 'macbook' part could be taken out and we could simply use the ND2 to trigger via its midi out into the samplers midi in? I had a quick ask google but nothing compact came up except MPCs which are far to complex for what would essentially be an SD card with audio and midi functionality.
I also did some googling:
The Akai MPX8 and 16 are simpler than the MPC series -
more compact, little more awkward : mircroGranny2 (actually a granular) seems like a lot of fun
Last edited by wartaler on 28 Mar 2015, 09:55, edited 1 time in total.
These users thanked the author wartaler for the post:
Stoat wrote:Just following on from this: does anyone know of a compact sampler with midi in and audio out?
Even though it's meant for dance/electro music production, the Korg Electribe ESX is a fun and versatile piece of gear. It has MIDI in out and thru, and some good sample tweaking abilities, and a basic sequencer fwiw.
The onboard pads are not velocity sensitive, but it responds to velocity via midi. There is a new ESX 2 which was recently announced, not sure if it's actually available but retailers are listing it - it's pretty compact. The old ESX is built like a tank, so worth picking up on eBay. It comes in two flavours - the original one had a SmartMedia memory card slot, and they replace this with SD cards in later models. aside from that there is no difference between them, and you can pick up the older models and some SM cards on ebay at a good price... ( they also work with XD cards and an adapter)
Anyway, maybe of interest.
Last edited by neolithic on 28 Mar 2015, 11:34, edited 2 times in total.
There's also the Alesis SampleRack that was released recently. It's a rackmount sample based e-drum brain with both MIDI and e-drum trigger inputs. I am considering getting one to pair with my Nord Drum 2 in the same kit. Only $200 US.
I think I know what my next order will be. I love the ND2!
