Nord User Forum

Hi there,

Has anyone out there experienced the same problem I have with the Amp envelopes clicking
on Bass sounds, You can delay the Attack to get rid of this. But then you lose that snap/punch at
the beginning of the note.

This is a big disappointment as my first Nord Lead 1 did''nt suffer from this.

Hopefully this can be corrected with an update.

Cheers

Basshead......

Have you notified Clavia via their website? They might not read this forum often.

Hi there,

Yes i've sent a support request to Clavia, just waiting for reply.

It would be interesting to know if any other Nordlead 4 owners have had this problem.

cheers

Martin.

Hi Martin,

With attack slammed all the way down to zero I get audible clicks, but easing off slightly on the attack time solves the problem for me. I don't think that this is peculiar to the NL4, or even Nord for that matter; my MS-10 does the same.

Bless,

Pablo

A lot of synths do this though from my experiences this is less common on digital synths. Especially with lower frequencies. In analog terms, when a fast attack on an envelope opens a VCA (voltage controlled amplifier/attenuator), if the oscillator isn't exactly at mid-cycle (ie: 0 amplitude), you will hear an audible click. Same when editing on a DAW and you cut a waveform that isn't crossing 0. You can get around this by, like Pablo said, chilling out on the attack of the envelope. Manufacturers have done other things to avoid this. If the oscillator is reset at the same moment the envelope is triggered, this can be avoided. Some designs have VCA's that wait for a brief moment for the oscillator to cycle through 0. That's in analog terms. Digitally, it depends on intent and design. My Alesis Ion doesn't exhibit this behavior so I'm assuming the digital oscillators are resetting on keystrokes. My Novation stuff on the other hand exhibits the same behavior the Nord does.

Hi peps,

My original Nord Lead envelopes click, but if you slighty raise the Attack and somtimes the release you can
get rid of this. But on the Nord Lead 4 it seems you have to raise the attack further, you then lose the snap/punch at the start of the note.
I hope this is a clearer explaination.

Cheers

Martin.

It could be that on some (digital) machines, they've expressily engineered the envelopes such as not to create clicks. For instance, they could modify the envelope shape to create a softer attack than the actual time setting would lead you to believe. Or have a module in the signal path (i.e. a piece of the DSP software) which suppresses fast transients (clicks) under certain circumstances.

The person at Clavia who wrote the DSP software for the Nord Lead and Nord Lead 2 subsequently left the company, so I could very well imagine that some design decisions where changed when they reimplemented certain functions in the later machines.

The NL4 review in Sound on Sound actually claimed that the envelope clicks are a good thing. It didn't elaborate, but it seemed to imply that this was a realistic imitation of a very fast analog envelope.

It is a realistic emulation of a fast analog envelope yes but that's frequently something people using analog gear sometimes go out of their way to get rid of as well. Either by resetting the oscillators with the same gate that triggers the envelope itself or using a DCVCA. So I wouldn't call it a good thing really but it's def a thing. some will like others won't.