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Nord lead 1 or Nord lead 2 keyboard?

Posted: 23 Sep 2022, 21:50
by jjburnt
I am looking for a synth - I own and love the piano 4 - so thought I'd look for a nord synth - my budget is limited and was looking at a Nord lead i or a Nord lead 2 synths on eBay- my playing is decent, and I am a rock musician so don't need an arpeggiator - which one of would be the best to buy - what are the major differences? - - Many thanks - the Forum is always a great place for advice from those in the know
John

Re: Nord lead 1 or Nord lead 2 keyboard?

Posted: 24 Sep 2022, 06:27
by Ledbetter
Get a 2X if you can find one. Better sounds, more memory, arpeggiator, lots of nice stuff.

Re: Nord lead 1 or Nord lead 2 keyboard?

Posted: 24 Sep 2022, 13:12
by alex78
I also play rock and heavy metal music and got an original nord wave a couple of years ago to pair it with my electro4.
It's a great sounding machine and the use of samples and wavetables (the leads are not capable of that) is very convenient for me. It has some nice on board effects as well, while the older leads don't. Check it out.

Re: Nord lead 1 or Nord lead 2 keyboard?

Posted: 11 Nov 2022, 12:16
by Spider
The L1, 2 and 2X are essentially the same synth.
The 2 has some minor sonic additions over the 1: ring mod, a couple more options for the LFO, sine wave on Osc1, tracking and velocity for the filter.
The biggest difference is polyphony: 16 voices against 4 (unless you find a NL1 with the 12-voice expansion). It can have more memory for saving patches, but that requires an external memory card.
The 2X is exactly the same as the 2, but with even more memory and polyphony, and everything is built-in without requiring the installation of expansions or memory cards.

If I were you I'd go with the 2X, which is also the easiest and cheapest to find on the used market.

I also second Alex78's suggestion: if you don't need the 4 layers of the Leads for very complex evolving sounds, you may check out an original Nord Wave that has only 2 layers, but will give you samples and effects.