Nord User Forum

hey y'all

been using a NS3C for quite a while - in love with the thing.

recently acquired a NW2, and was tinkering around a bit when I noticed something that kinda put me off.

with the Stage3, time-based effects like delay and reverb have "trails" in a manner of speaking, where the volume of the effect's output isn't affected by volume changes of the pno/org/syn sections (ex: using the control pedal to affect the volume of the synth section to swell in a guitar sample for a pedal steel type sound with heavy reverb. the reverb's output doesn't change with the volume swells, it just sounds like a washy guitar swell should.)

with the Wave2, it seems the output of the reverb (and delay) is intrinsically linked with the layer volume. if I try the same approach on the Wave, it sounds as if the reverb master is also being controlled by the pedal, leaving no ability to have a natural sonic overhang while adjusting the volume of a layer.

I can see where this would be a desired way of functioning for certain applications, but the inverse is also true. what is this, an oversight? intentional design? not sure if there's any real fix for this aside from an OS update, or getting goofy with amp sustain.

Hi, jcb-

I also have both instruments and just reproduced this behavior. It may be by design, as there are four layers of synth possible, and only one per panel on the NS3. This is the first time this issue has been raised, I think, so you may just want to add it to the Wishlist-



-dj

This is by design, unfortunately -- yet another odd choice from Nord with the Wave2. There's a video where J3PO mentions this, along with a workaround, which if I remember correctly is to set a second duplicate layer with the same settings but with the effects 100% wet, so that if you only fade down layer 1 you will still get the reverb. The video was on morphing.

tsss27 wrote:This is by design, unfortunately -- yet another odd choice from Nord with the Wave2. There's a video where J3PO mentions this, along with a workaround, which if I remember correctly is to set a second duplicate layer with the same settings but with the effects 100% wet, so that if you only fade down layer 1 you will still get the reverb. The video was on morphing.

how funny. hope they'll reconsider that..

unfortunately the workaround you've described doesn't quite go the distance - as you can't really sneak a sound in, you still end up with a full volume wet version at the start of the note. same with the decay on the release.

jcbjcby wrote:how funny. hope they'll reconsider that..

unfortunately the workaround you've described doesn't quite go the distance - as you can't really sneak a sound in, you still end up with a full volume wet version at the start of the note. same with the decay on the release.

Indeed. it's not a perfect solution by any means, but it appears to be the only way to currently sort of accomplish a normal effects structure without using external gear. If I was designing this I would have put the reverb and overdrive as global effects. I can see uses for delay and the modulation effect to stay per layer, and the eq (minus drive) is useful to set individually as well, but drive and verb really do need to interact with the sound as a whole and when you set up a patch which uses multiple layers the sound can feel detached from each of its parts with the current design.

I think this happens because the reverb is global per slot on the Nord Stage, so morphing the level comes before the effect. On the NW2, all four layers are independent, so the reverb is part of the layer itself.

When you need this effect, just do it on one of the two NS3 slots instead of the Wave2.

Just to add to this discussion - the Lead A1, which essentially has the same 4 layer/part structure and fx per layer as the Wave 2, *does* allow the delay and reverb tails you mention. Its layer volume is before the effects feed in the signal chain. I also really wish this had been carried over into the Wave 2. I’d love to think a toggle of the behaviour could be an option in a future firmware, but I wonder if we’ll ever see another W2 update actually.

artofmoog wrote:Just to add to this discussion - the Lead A1, which essentially has the same 4 layer/part structure and fx per layer as the Wave 2, *does* allow the delay and reverb tails you mention. Its layer volume is before the effects feed in the signal chain. I also really wish this had been carried over into the Wave 2. I’d love to think a toggle of the behaviour could be an option in a future firmware, but I wonder if we’ll ever see another W2 update actually.

And this makes sense because the NS3 has the same engine as the A1. I hope you are right, but the NW2 has not had any updates since October of 2020, 17 months without a single update.

-dj

Yes this was one of the things that put me off my NW2 as well. I can think of very few scenarios where the way they implemented it is actually the desired effect. When would I ever want to lose the tail of my delay and verb when I turn down the level of a layer? It's annoying and definitely an oversight, like many other things on this board.

I wish they had an option to make Delay and verb pre or post fader level.

I still like the W2 a lot, but I am highly critical of some of the design choices they made. this is definitely one of them.

Although I would never need this feature, I am very disappointed in Nord's complete neglect of the NW2. There are a growing number of issues members have pointed out, and there are definitely improvements that can be made in a new OS. I have resigned myself to the fact that this instrument that I pre ordered and bought new in spring of 2020 may never see another update. Perhaps if Nord made an effort to update the NW2 and fix some of the major complaints, they would find a wider audience for this keyboard-

-dj