Nord User Forum

I am looking for Lead Sounds which really utilize the full potential of the Nord Stage 4. No doubt that the Electric and Acoustic Pianos are amazing and the Lead Sounds seem to be a little better than in the Nord Stage 3 which I previously owned, but in comparison to my old trusty Yamaha Motif Rack XS I have trouble to find anything in the factory Lead Presets which I like. I play mainly 80s Jazz Rock. So I am looking for classic 80s Lead Sounds.
I would really like to do everything with my Nord Stage 4 without the need to use the Motif Rack, but it is the same problem as before. Samples are still not velocity sensitive in the NS4 and I don't know any commercial Preset Seller who really offers High Quality Programms for the Nord Stage.
I have to say that I am not convinced of the quality of for example certain websites who seem to be selling partly old NS3 Samples as "new" NS4 Samples. I don't want to offend nobody. So I don't want to name any concrete website. I just get a strange feeling if I see a demo video for some "brand new" NS4 sounds and the guy is using a Nord Stage 3...
There might be websites who offer High Quality. After a lot of searching until now I have only found one website with sounds which are without doubt High Quality which is narfsounds. His 80s sound set is very nice!
https://www.narfsounds.com/nord-stage-4
Maybe I am wrong and one has to spend more time to optimize the raw samples with the effects and the EQ of the NS4. On the other hand I remember a statement of the My Keys to Music Guy who said that a lot of the NS4 Synth Sounds are lacking High End and maybe also the right amount of Delay and or Reverb...
Here in the forum I have found some Diamonds like for example the "KurzPiano" an amazing EPiano Sound. Because I was looking for an EPiano Sound which can be used with Pitch Bend. But as I said EPianos are not the problem. The problem are convincing Lead Sounds (a really Kick Ass distorted Electric Guitar Sound would be also nice) and I guess that the NS4 would be capable to do them. I am not such a big tweaker. I can maybe add a little bit of delay are EQ to a sample, but that's it. And it is nice that Nord offers Signature NS4 Sound Banks of great artists, but a lot of those sounds seem to be rather exotic and psychedelic. It is just not what I am looking for. In other words: I don't need another Neo Soul EPiano or nice atmospheric string sounds or whatever. There is already more than enough amazing Epiano Sounds and let's say cinematic sounds. That is not the problem.
So is there maybe somewhere a collection of Lead Samples or NS4 Programm which I have overlooked? Thank you in advance. And just one more question. For people who really want to tweak and deep dive into Programm Parameters: Why is there no Desktop Editor for editing the various Parameters of Nord Stage Programms?

You can utilize the full power of the synth by creating programs and synth sounds yourself
If you learn your instrument and the synth you will find extraordinary possibilities.
I myself find it easy to recreate songs now that I’ve dived deeper into synths for the past few years. Even added something more complex to the mix with a System-8.

On the other hand, I see why there is a market for big (commercial) preset packs also for a nord stage 4 / 2, even though those instruments are truly made for hands-on-control and exploration and sound creation.

Electric Guitar for sure is not a sound NS4 Synth can do best, with its monolayer samples there are limits to reproduce real instruments with all their articulations, if that's what you are after, even if, using some Clean Strat or Les Paul sample (you can find some in Nord Sample Library) and applying to it EQ+Amp Sim and other FXs can still hold some good results with little programming effort.

In terms of commercial libraries, you may also take a look at https://www.synthonia.com/marketplace/nord/nord-stage-4

Side note: reading some of your other posts about velocity switching and editor, I have the impression that you expected to find a workstation in your NS4, but unfortunately that's not the case. NS4 Synth in particular is more a Virtual Analog than a ROMpler, even if it can load samples, I mean it is more intended for creating synthetic/unreal sounds than real ones (even though it can also do them and not so bad, but with the limits mentioned above as support for samples on Nord synths was born for playing Mellotron and Chamberlin and other synthesizers' waveforms and actually it hasn't radically evolved in time).

At the end of the day I don't have sleepless nights because the NS4 has no velocity mapping for samples. Anyway I got the impression that in comparison to for example the Yamaha Motif and the Korg Kronos the general frequency range of the NS4 is different. A lot of the existing Presets and imported Samples at least to my ears sound better if you increase with the internal EQ or Plugins or what ever some of the higher frequencies.
Just my subjective impression...

zoot-allures wrote: 22 Jul 2024, 07:16 At the end of the day I don't have sleepless nights because the NS4 has no velocity mapping for samples. Anyway I got the impression that in comparison to for example the Yamaha Motif and the Korg Kronos the general frequency range of the NS4 is different. A lot of the existing Presets and imported Samples at least to my ears sound better if you increase with the internal EQ or Plugins or what ever some of the higher frequencies.
Just my subjective impression...

That may also depend on your listening system you use each time (headphones or speakers and which brand/model of each) in fact, as for any sound, it can make quite a difference.

Make sure you have the “dynamics” turned on for samples. Most of the samples in the Nord sample library have been tuned to fit the instrument that it is sampling and it does make a big difference in my opinion

zoot-allures wrote: 22 Jul 2024, 07:16 At the end of the day I don't have sleepless nights because the NS4 has no velocity mapping for samples. Anyway I got the impression that in comparison to for example the Yamaha Motif and the Korg Kronos the general frequency range of the NS4 is different. A lot of the existing Presets and imported Samples at least to my ears sound better if you increase with the internal EQ or Plugins or what ever some of the higher frequencies.
Just my subjective impression...

I agree with Martin, if you really want good 80s lead sounds, use the 3 layers in the Synth section to create them. Single layer samples won't have the personality of the synth engine.

-dj