Nord User Forum

Just to lay it out, without beating a dead horse, fans of spring reverb feel that reverb should be before the rotary effect, while fans of digital reverb and the post processing sound prefer reverb after the rotary.

Why can't we have both available?

Many manufacturers provide a choice of reverb pre or post their rotary effect, going way back to the KORG CX3 v.2 from 2001. And it isn't only on dedicated organ instruments- Kurzweil has provided the choice for over 20 years, as well as some other manufacturers.

I really like my Electro 5D which has reverb at the end of the signal chain, but I'd like to at some point get an Electro 6 with it's three simultaneous sound engines, or else maybe a Stage 3. But with reverb before the rotary on these I can't see myself doing that. Obviously, it's a matter of personal preference and others' opinions will vary.

Clavia could very easily make both camps happy and I'm somewhat surprised that they haven't done so.

It would be nice to have the choice.

As long as we *don’t*, though, it makes more sense to have it before the Leslie AFAIC: you can always add an external reverb unit to the end of the chain, but you can’t insert one before the Leslie effect.

Its like the mixers all digital mixers now having pre amp first then eq then gate then compress and last the reverb..

Its also more clean sounding when reverb comes after the note when you add some pre delay.

So thats why i believe every brand make this as a standar now

analogika wrote:It would be nice to have the choice.

As long as we *don’t*, though, it makes more sense to have it before the Leslie AFAIC: you can always add an external reverb unit to the end of the chain, but you can’t insert one before the Leslie effect.

I totally get what you’re saying, but part of my point is that Nord’s are meant to be standalone instruments where you can dial in the sounds you want without external processing. It would be pretty easy for Clavia to let users decide for themselves what they’d prefer.

M1tsos wrote:Its like the mixers all digital mixers now having pre amp first then eq then gate then compress and last the reverb..

Its also more clean sounding when reverb comes after the note when you add some pre delay.

So thats why i believe every brand make this as a standar now

I agree that putting reverb last in the signal chain is more clean sounding. Some effects like rotary are unique since at some settings (I.e. rotary on tremolo) they often introduce artifacts if other effects are earlier in the path.

But I believe it’s become more of a standard these days to leave the routing choice up to the user.

At the end of the day, it's all software, including reverbs, leslies, etc. Should Clavia undertake a major core OS rewrite, I would guess they would add a bit more depth and flexibility to the effects sections, as it's starting to fall behind a bit. The hard part is doing that without complicating the user workflow as others have done.

cphollis wrote:At the end of the day, it's all software, including reverbs, leslies, etc. Should Clavia undertake a major core OS rewrite, I would guess they would add a bit more depth and flexibility to the effects sections, as it's starting to fall behind a bit. The hard part is doing that without complicating the user workflow as others have done.

It doesn't seem as though having a slightly more flexible signal path would entail a core OS rewrite, but I don't really know. Nord has already done the reverb/rotary routing both ways, and has switched back and forth, which IMO shows some uncertainty which way to go. Making it a user choice seems to make good sense.

In terms of organ-focussed keyboards, Hammond SK Pro lets you switch the position of the reverb. Yamaha YC61 doesn't let you switch it per se, but actually provides multiple reverb effects, including ones both before and after the rotary (though unfortunately, IIRC, none of them specifically emulate a spring reverb, which would be the most authentic thing to put before the rotary, but that's getting picky... for that matter, Nord doesn't specifically emulate a spring reverb either). I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure that none of the following let you switch the position of the reverb, and I think they are all post-rotary: Vox Continental, Roland VR09/VR730, Dexibell J7 Combo, Numa Compact 2X.

The top of the top would be a keyboard with switchable spring reverb before the Leslie, and all sorts of room based reverbs after the Leslie. I am not aware anything like this exists.

Second best thing would be a keyboard which lets you choose. Some do but most don't.

Third best thing is what Nord does in the last generation: pre-Leslie reverb, because as others have said, this makes it possible for you to add an external reverb effect. The opposite is not true.

Fourth best is reverb after the Leslie only.

So I guess Nord still has improved from 4th to 3rd position in some way. Maybe they'll surprise us climbing up to 2nd in the next generation instruments.

Also, pre-Leslie and separate guitar amp simulation, Jon Lord-style. I too, like many of us, don't like Nord's recent approach with Hammond settings: newer models should offer more, not less.