Nord User Forum

Nordlicht wrote:Comparing the synth section of the NS4 with the NW2, there aren't that many differences, and so for me I decided to sell both my NLA1 and NS3C and bought a NS4C (make one out of two).
The synth section in the NS4 is of course a compromise, but a very good one, and I can do most of the things with it that I could with the NW2.
I have the flanger (that I love) and the split possibilities and the sample unison that I'm both used to from my NS3.
Sure, the NS4 has significantly less buttons in the synth section, but the handling is still very intuitive.
And of course, I have 73 keys.

Another conclusion: the NLA1 is still a wonder regarding sound capabilities and ease to program. I really hope Clavia will offer a NL5/A2 in the future, with all the good stuff from the A1 and the NL4, in the form factor of the NW2.

I'd love to see a list of differences between the Wave 2 and the NS4's synth engine. I suppose it could be compiled from the manuals of both, but curious if someone has already done this.

You mention the noisy keyboard on the Stage. The Wave's keybed is not that loud from memory, but my current Electro5 61 has a very loud keybed which seems to resonate further through its metal frame. I'm guessing the Stage's keybed would be similar. How is the aftertouch on the Stage4 Compact compared to the Wave?

The main thing that stuck out to me on the NS4C when I briefly scanned over the manual was that there didn't seem to be a way to detune the synth other than with unison whereas the Wave 2 has a fine tune control. That would seem to make many classic analog sounds hard to recreate, but maybe not?

tsss27 wrote: I'd love to see a list of differences between the Wave 2 and the NS4's synth engine. I suppose it could be compiled from the manuals of both, but curious if someone has already done this.

You mention the noisy keyboard on the Stage. The Wave's keybed is not that loud from memory, but my current Electro5 61 has a very loud keybed which seems to resonate further through its metal frame. I'm guessing the Stage's keybed would be similar. How is the aftertouch on the Stage4 Compact compared to the Wave?

The main thing that stuck out to me on the NS4C when I briefly scanned over the manual was that there didn't seem to be a way to detune the synth other than with unison whereas the Wave 2 has a fine tune control. That would seem to make many classic analog sounds hard to recreate, but maybe not?

The keybed of the NS4C is fine, but the one from the NW2 was significantly quieter (what I didn’t expect). The aftertouch is comparable in both instruments (very good to use).

The oscillator detune thing was also one of my concerns as it isn’t described in the manual. But it actually works in the same way as in the NW2, but only via a little menu and the soft knobs. So you can build "classic" 2- or 3-osc analog sounding patches without using the unison function (that automatically introduces a heavy stereo effect). Btw, detune works with all waveforms and samples!

I was underwhelmed with it when if first arrived. However, after a few months of working with it, I had completely changed my mind. It is the easiest Synth engine to program (I've owned the A1, NS2 & NS3) and the ability to copy and paste layers from one patch to another is a HUGE time saver. I also find that it is easier to make some of the samples to sound a little more life-like. Seems to be particularly true for horns.

Another new Wave2 here.

The Wave 2 was on the shoppinglists since it's release, but a few other synths and necessary expenses had to be done first. To be honest: it's not love on the first sight. On it's release my first thought on "1 GB memory for Nord Sample Library 3.0" was "aaaaah, come ooooon, guys?!?! Welcome to 2020!", but the Wave 2 seems not to be built as a sampler/sample-player. That's - as with the NW - my wrong approach to the Wave 2.

It's well crafted, logic in structure, sounds great, but it really needs some time and depth to get warm with it. Time will tell. It's no replacement for my NW (there's no reason for me to sell it, i still LOVE this thing!), but an addition.

Was disappointed initially. However, it grows on you.

sEIGu wrote:On it's release my first thought on "1 GB memory for Nord Sample Library 3.0" was "aaaaah, come ooooon, guys?!?! Welcome to 2020!", but the Wave 2 seems not to be built as a sampler/sample-player. That's - as with the NW - my wrong approach to the Wave 2.

I agree, it will disappointing if people think of the NW2 as a ROMpler type keyboard that contains a highly detailed library of every acoustic instrument under the sun. You can try to use it that way, but you'll find plenty of limitations, and other keyboards do that much better.

The Wave 1 and 2 are better thought of as synths that can use sample content as oscillators. Just try colleting a bunch of random audio clips and load them in to see what sort of results you get. It takes some time and work, but it will pay off. For every sample I have tried and kept, there are usually 3 or 4 others that just didn't sound good. It's sort of like panning for gold. A lot of my favorites are very small samples that are stretched across the whole keyboard range. Those take up very little storage space, so 1 GB starts to look huge from that perspective.

There are lots of people that revere the old Roland D-50 for its wide range of unique sounds. That synth used 4 partials (layers) that are either comprised of traditional synthesis or samples (with an extremely small amount of sample ROM). The Nord Wave 2 has the capability to build patches like that, it just takes some work.

1 GB in Nord terms is a lot more than 1 GB in everyone else's. For example I built a (surprisingly very playable!) piano on the NW2 the other day, with 2 sampled velocity layers. It was about 150MB of samples and Nord compressed them down to like 21 MB which is crazy! Yeah it would have been nice if they included at least 2 GB (I mean, the piano section in other boards has that much memory anyway) But you can get a lot out of the space it does have.

Using the Wave as a D50 is a great idea and it would be really interesting to hear some patches made in that context.

I've had an interesting experience with this synth over the course of its production, having owned it multiple times, and always ending up selling or trading for something else...but then always coming back to it. There are design choices that frustrate me, and yet it really does cover the majority of sounds you'd need live or in the studio. For deeper synthesis or huge multisampled instruments I have the Prophet X. The Wave will sit above it, covering a wide variety of sounds where the extra details in the PX are not relevant. Plus there are some things the Nord simply does better (FM, supersaw-type sounds, etc) and the layering options are more flexible on the W2 with greater polyphony.
For situations that are primarily focused on organ, piano, rhodes etc I have another board for that.

I got a Wave 2 a couple weeks ago. I also have a Stage 3C and a Lead A1. I don't have any real complaints so far. I've put a fair amount of time into programming the sounds I need and have done a couple rehearsals and a gig with the board. I love the keyboard feel. It's super easy to program. I play in a Floyd tribute, and I programmed from scratch all the sounds I used on my Lead A1 in a couple hours and that was getting used to the flow of the operating system as well. Now I can start from a blank patch and dial in what I want in minutes.

The detune thing was a little bit of a hurdle, but I just took the same sound and put it in 2 layers and detuned the layers, and it sounds fat.

I haven't used a stock patch for anything yet, and I'm basically overwriting them with my own programs as I create them.

As I said on the wishlist thread, having the new oscillator blends that were recently added to the stage 4 would be very useful. There’s a dual saw config that can be detuned as well as several sub oscillator configurations that can be mixed. I’d love to have those options in the wave 2.

DanLong wrote:I got a Wave 2 a couple weeks ago. I also have a Stage 3C and a Lead A1. I don't have any real complaints so far. I've put a fair amount of time into programming the sounds I need and have done a couple rehearsals and a gig with the board. I love the keyboard feel. It's super easy to program. I play in a Floyd tribute, and I programmed from scratch all the sounds I used on my Lead A1 in a couple hours and that was getting used to the flow of the operating system as well. Now I can start from a blank patch and dial in what I want in minutes.

The detune thing was a little bit of a hurdle, but I just took the same sound and put it in 2 layers and detuned the layers, and it sounds fat.

I haven't used a stock patch for anything yet, and I'm basically overwriting them with my own programs as I create them.

This was exactly my experience when moving from the A1 to the NW2. The Wave 2 is super-easy to program and can make some great sounds with just a single layer.

-dj