Think they’re made of a ceramic material, aren’t they? Kind of a Nord signature, along with the wooden pitch stick.
Yep. Never found the NORD system ever-so useful though for expressive playing. I normally prefer a joystick, with modulation on Y and pitch-bend on X.
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I have a similar understanding. The Nord Modular line for Clavia was almost like the ARP Avatar for ARP. The company had poured so many resources into the R&D and not seeing the necessary financial returns to survive. I don’t blame Clavia for the reluctance to gamble once again on a virtual modular product. I know some will say, just update the G2/G1 code and reuse the same G2 keyboard but things never seem to be that simple.
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Given the boom in modular / eurorack over the passed decade, I reckon there would be a big market for a G3, (especially if it had midi to CV)
OTOH, it seems Nord have settled on their proven market - keyboard players in bands, churches etc, not techno / electronica producers. It obviously works for them. But they certainly haven’t been innovative at all of late. Nord Drum was the last fresh thing they came up with IMO.
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no fucking wayyyyyyyyy
You hit the nail on the head.
Since they have changed their name to nordkeyboards, it’s very much clear what their vision is.
If you look at the Nord Wave 2 even as this is a synth, it has more DNA taken from its Nord stage / Nord Electro counterparts than from the Nord Leads.
Nord Lead 4 has been moved to legacy products on their website.
I am curious if we can expect an Nord Lead 5 this year, followed by an Nord Lead A2.
If you ask me, I do not think so, I really think the are closing the curtains as it comes to creating
a pure synth. But let’s hope I am wrong.
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maybe the opposite actually. I’m sure a lot of people would say look at the price tag (likely well over $2k) and just consider how many real analog modules they could buy with that. not saying they wouldn’t sell though, just that the landscape of modular and real analog is vastly different than it was twenty years ago.
of course we never know what they were doing software-wise. but the code base is quite old. it’s not even Clavia who are responsible for making it run on modern machines. they stopped development fifteen years ago, before Macs even went to Intel. so it’s likely they’d basically have to start over.
I think you’re correct actually. as I said above, the landscape for real analog is different. $2300 for a virtual analog Nord Lead 4 when comparing against an actual analog Prophet 6 for example… it worked 20 years ago when there was no such option (plus many more besides!) but these days hardware virtual analog is seemingly past its prime.
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Agreed. Once you have 2300 saved up you may want to just buy a complete system. You can easily say oh 2300 in my pocket if I save up another grand I can get a complete system. If you have no idea what you’re doing with a modular setup a complete system is the way to go. It’s thought out well and you can play right away.
Also Reaktor 6 blocks and other virtual modulars are a viable replacement for the G2 system. The GUI on the virtual modulars are really intuitive. Those users will spend 300 on a program and be done with it. They maybe even satisfied and just make music with that setup.
So if there was a G3 at 2300 who would buy it ?
It seems like the money makers are stuff for touring keyboardists that keep Clavia afloat. The experimental stuff can tank your company down if you don’t watch it.
Sample Editor for Nord Wave 2 and Nord Stage 3.
Another intriguing product in the offing for NAMM this year… I’ve had a MicroModular for an eternity and did have a dalliance with a Nord Drum 2 and have often mulled over a larger Nord… this could almost be the one that best pushes my buttons.
Alas, there is stiff competition and I have no space for another large keyboard… looking at the layout and I don’t think that a module version looks feasible. Would be happy to be proved wrong on that one…
I have got to agree the Nord Wave 2 is a bit of a sleeper – i mean it’s not flashy relative some other announcements. But with samples, virtual analog, wavetables and FM synthesis all together in one package – and with user replaceable samples, this is an attractive collection. If it has a good performance interface, and sounds good – and given that the price is reasonable this could be very attractive. Those are quite a few ifs though.
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Absolutely in agreement with your assessment. I think the other thing will be price - not seen anything yet but may have missed it.
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The comparison chart on the NW2 page stacks it against the A1 
No A2 in sight probably. I don´t mind though but a separate pitch envelope and some bug fixes would be great. Would be more interesting if it was stacked against a NW1 or Stage. Would have been nice is they added inputs to sample straight into the keyboard like the Waldorf Quantum.
My Korg Kronos gives me all of that tbh. The Nord interface is much easier to use, but not sure it really has the Kronos flexibility.
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I have to say that I’m pretty underwhelmed by that demo… It really is aimed at “traditional” keyboard players and less at synthesiser geeks. I reckon that’s Clavia rather than Nick to be fair. Lots of chat about arps, fx and samples but little by way of getting into the VA, FM or wavetable stuff. That said, the automatic mapping of samples is pretty slick. It would be pretty quick to create all manner of sample content for it with tonnes of harmonics that can then be tempered with the synth engine…
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$2700 it’s available for pre-order now.
Another sound only demo from Sonic State:
Coincidentally enough, I was just listening to some of the sounds on that demo… nice enough, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just too expensive for what it is. I guess I’ll be looking for a deal on second hand original Wave should I ever feel the need to scratch that itch…
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I’m still waiting for a better demo – i’ve got to believe that there is a lot more under the hood with this. Somebody walking up at a show isn’t going to get inside a synth.
The price seems to the premium side, i’d agree jeye_musik, but then again Nord is premium so it seems in line to me.
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I can’t get over the lack of cross modulation. It was the point of the original Wave in my eyes, and just layering doesn’t cut it. I don’t even care if it didn’t have a single lfo, the lack of cross modding the samples means, that not a single of these layers will be as exciting playground as the first Wave(which we can layer by multitracking).
I can layer samples and more with Wavestate. Morphing would be much more interesting, than the Korgs ”vector synthesis” of course, but without cross modulation it’s not worth 3 times as much as Wavestate.
Jesus Clavia! Could you please put some effort into it.
In a year or two you are releasing Lead 5, and it will probably have cross mod, but it doesn’t have samples;
Why are you keeping these things as two separate synths, if you are not being able to put some effort into either of them?
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