Nord User Forum

Hi,

let me just start by saying I'm a big nord fan, I love the interface (owned a stage 2 in the past). And I'm a synth newbye.
I'm thinking about a second hand nla1 but for the same price or actually a bit cheaper I can get a brand new waldorf blofeld keyboard. What intrigued me about the latter is the 16 part multitimbral, better keyboard action, aftertouch and programmable arpeggiator.

Obviously I'm biased towards the nla1, but was wondering what your thoughts are for a synth beginner with little time on his hands and whether there might be other alternatives to consider.
Oh I like blade runnery / 80's analoge/warm synths as well as the use of the arpeggiator

many thanks

The Blofish is amazing, but the UI is far from easy. The NL's are more old school and easy to understand in classical terms ... IMHO!

If you're gonna "roll your own" a NL is the way to go!

EDIT: hot stuff https://waldorfmusic.com/en/blofeld-sof ... og-voltage

The Blofeld pairs nicely with the A1, and they sound very different.

Yes, the A1 is four part multitimbral and you can do a lot with four parts but if you need more than four parts the Blofeld makes sense.

Keybed and it's features is subjective and based on your needs so I won't mention them.

I believe the main point comes from workflow differences. With an A1 everything is on the front panel with (mostly) 1-knob per function. Do you plan to program the synth a great deal? The Blofeld is very different...not worse...but different. I find the immediacy of the A1 makes it very fun to program. I think your preferred workflow will have the deciding factor on which your purchase.

Ahh...edit/addition. Build quality: research the Blofeld build quality for both software and hardware. It's not that great. Nord on the other hand is stellar.

-L

I think the key to your post is the "little time on his hands" bit. The A1 is amazing, if you have hours to spend, the sound creation possibilities are rather incredible. But if you just want a preset to sound like a prophet or a moog, they are there. Or you can download user created patches, or entire banks, I found good links on this forum for that. On the other hand, if the target is to emulate mono solos or moving pads to play covers from the 70s thru 0ies, I reckon just about any decent modern poly synth would work.

I think the A1 will be the best for you, for the interface, and for the sounds you want too. The Blofeld sounds really digital, not warm analog and 80’s.

Many thanks.
I was wondering: after having changed a program, wouldn't rotate slightly a knob create a sudden sound jump as the phisical state of the knob might be in a different position than its stored state?
I know shift rotating knobs can help, but doesn't this prevent fiddling with programs on the fly?

Lastly nord3s surfaced on eBay for about the same price. Led rotaries and better Keybed are intriguing but I suppose the A1 timbre ( va bladerunnery kind ) would be more compatible with what I'm after.

Sure.

varignet wrote:Many thanks.
I was wondering: after having changed a program, wouldn't rotate slightly a knob create a sudden sound jump as the phisical state of the knob might be in a different position than its stored state?
I know shift rotating knobs can help, but doesn't this prevent fiddling with programs on the fly?

Lastly nord3s surfaced on eBay for about the same price. Led rotaries and better Keybed are intriguing but I suppose the A1 timbre ( va bladerunnery kind ) would be more compatible with what I'm after.

Yes the unknown current settings thing is an issue, which takes some time to get used to. But you can see what the current dial setting is at the {press of a button + twist of a dial} without changing it. Then you can manually move the dial to that setting as a starting point. But it is easy to get lost in LFOs and oscillators and envelopes after a while, but that's also part of the fun.

Ok I've bit the bullet and getting a second hand nla1

Thinking about performing live and having the morph functionality programmed, would you recommend getting a sustain pedal / expression pedal or both?
I'd ideally like to limit the number of pedals down as I'll also have another keyboard next to it and hate having too many cables/pedals laying around

Actually I started reading the manual, can you actually program 2 separate morphs using both the wheel and expression pedal on a single slot?