Which Nord Rack is Good Nord Rack

I have generalized, low-level GAS for a VA and/or Wavetable Nord. I have no room for more keyboard synths, so I’m wondering about these Nord Racks that are creeping on my Reverb feed. I seem to remember that there were powerful feelings among some Elektronauts about certain Nord Racks as the better racks. There are a lot of different Nord Racks. School a brother on these swedish red hot gems.

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Nord lead/rack 1, 2 and 2x are very close to each other. Same layout and probably very close in sound.
Many say nl1 sounds more raw than the other two, some say nl2 sounds more raw than 2x. Some say they all sound pretty much the same.
Nl2 and 2x have some additional synth parameters.
Nl 1 had less voices and could save less sounds, one 1 and 2 you had to save your sounds to a card, while 2x could save them internally.
They are all classics. They are all without internal effects.

Nl3 has the most synth options. Many say it has the best interface of all of them but it is said to have a less punchy and more sterile sound compared to its predecessors.

Nl 4 has also a deeper synth engine. The interface is more like the first three.

A1 has is said to sound the most „analog“. The synthesis is more stripped down, less direct, it uses macros for many different oscillator settings. People say it is full of sweet spots.

Nl3, 4 and A1 all have internal effects

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I’ve owned the 2, 3 and 4. 2 is my favorite for sounds, feels like its own instrument vs the 4 which felt like a plugin. It was an awesome plugin to be sure …

Don’t forget drum mode! Is that only on Nord rack 2? Drum mode is super cool and gives you kits (though it seems impossible to actually edit them)

I never found the effects on my NL3, maybe I haven’t looked hard enough. I agree with the thin-ness, though I hear there could be due to the way the outputs are set up and there is a setting that may help.

Also consider the modular rack (not the G2 rack- Im not sure what it does- no knobs, nothing) the Nord modular sound is right about where the NL2 is but it’s modular! Kind of a pain to get set up (though not much more painful than using overbridge) and won’t work with some Mac os’ but a really special synth.

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damn I forgot to mention drum mode :see_no_evil:
it’s such a great feature

probably misinformation, sorry

2x is great. drum mode… tons of patch save locations… easy to use… very durable. lot’s of knobs. can be lush, harsh or weird af.

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when listening to old recordings i made with the 2x im always surprised at the range of weird sounds it could make from such a deceivingly simple.

don’t forget about the modular racks!

There’s a lot of comparative discussion in this thread that you’d find useful - the Racks are exactly the same as the corresponding Leads to the point that they share manuals: Nord Leads

None of the rack models do proper wavetables, just the Nord Waves, which are keyboard only. This is something you have to accept with Nords, the space of possibility is a lot smaller than something like a Virus TI or Blofeld but the relative simplicity and excellent interface make it easier to explore.

I messaged this to a friend who was also in the market for a Nord Rack recently:

The first gen (1/2/2x) are all pretty similar architecture and feature set. The key features for me are the weird buzzing sounds you can get from FMing and syncing the oscs, the morph groups (essentially you set parameter ranges on the panel that the synth morphs between when you hit different velocities or use the modwheel) and the drum maps (each channel can run 8 drum presets, they are kind of annoying to manage but it can be worth it). 1&2 have a hidden physmod mode that is fun but mostly useless, it’s not in the 2x but I wouldn’t get too hung up on it.

NR1 is has the most raw sound with a lot of aliasing but its annoying if you get one without the voice expansion & pcm card. It’s on a lot of Autechre stuff, there are tracks on LP5 and Cichlisuite that are 100% Nord 1.

Nord Rack 2 is really good, you still get a lot of the same raw sound but with more voices and some extra features like ringmod. You still need to get a pcm card to get the most out of it. 2x is the same thing but with more voices still and no need for a pcm card.

Nord 3 is the best one, the led knob interface is the best i’ve ever used on a digital synth, none of the other ones have it. Voice wise you get more morph groups, more modulation, more complex osc FM and waveshaping, weird filter shapes, etc. The sound isn’t immediately as good as the first gen Nords, you have to work it a little more, but the trade off is worth it for more complex synthesis - the basic FM + filter setup is pretty similar to the Digitone. They took away the drum maps which is stupid but not a dealbreaker, the real issue is that they’re so hard to get and they’re expensive when you do find one.

Nord 4 is good but it’s kind of a step backwards in some ways, its the most analogue sounding one and the osc and filter modelling is really well done but a lot of the weird filter shapes and osc modes have been cut out (like my favourite one from the Nord 2, lpf+notch). There are digital osc waves but they aren’t very good and don’t take to FM very well, stick to the analog waves. Some weird choices with the fx, very cut down parameter set and missing a lot of basic stuff like chorus but you can get fucked sounds from modulating the delay via a morph group. The best things are the impulse morphs and the mutator, the impulse morphs are a bit like the RYTM scenes where you hit a button and it instantly snaps to a different set of parameters and you can drive them from an external CC. The mutator lets you do subtle mutations of a patch or you can fully randomise it, lots of scope for getting new sounds without having to actively program anything.

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I had the NL2x in the past, sold it. I bought again the NR2X like 10 years later, sold it again.
I sounded a bit too thin the first time I had, and the second one sounded even more thin compared to the modern sound you are used to hear now.
It’s a good synth but definitivly not for all genres of music.
If I have to buy another clavia, I will go for the A1.

@estragon beat me to it, but yeah, the racks are, generally and with very few minor exceptions here and there, identical to the keyboard synth just without the keyboard (and pitch stick/mod wheel). So pick the Nord Lead (or Electro - there was an Electro 2 Rack, and maybe others?) you like and get that rack version.

Nord User Forum - View forum - Nord Lead / Rack Forum has a lot of threads (just search) on the differences, perceived or real, between various Leads.

I’ll expand on what @estragon just said though:

To my ears, actually the A1 is the most analogue sounding, by far. I worked with it on a full album and found it very immediate, quite “fun”, with tremendous subtlety and great beauty and presence.

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I’ve got a 4Rack and I really like it. Great sound, great interface, the FM/sync options get you searing sounds, and the amount is modulatable. One neat thing that I had overlooked until recently is using the tempo-synced “Pattern” as a modulation source–these are 128 (non-editable) different stepped LFO “shapes” that you can use for either LFO.

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To add: I recommend demoing discoDSP’s Discovery Pro VST. It’s a gorgeous emulation of, I believe, the Lead 2, and it gives you a sense of the sound and interface.

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Having owned the 1r, 2xr and the 3r: The 3R was the most fun to use and the nicest interface due to the digital encoder led system updating on patch load and the fast modulation wheel assignment to any parameter without any menu diving. However, out of the 3 i find to my ear the 1r has a particularly nicer and more interesting timbre to it, but it does have a lot less features than say the 3r.

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all nord rack good rack

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Nord Rack 1 with voice expansion. wondering what it sounds like - it’s ll over the NIN Fragile album. It was designed by Peter ‘Pelle’ Jubel before he left to form Propellerheads. Can do anything from FM to an excellent Prophet 5 emulation. It’s the only Nord I like. All the others just sound like generic VA’s to me.

I’ve had most of them and I can say that the differences between the various models are largely negligible and mostly synth lore. They all sound great and have that “Nord” sound - bright, cutting, detailed, morphing, etc.

My favorite was the 2x but I’ve long replaced it with a Modal Cobalt 8m, which I think is a great modern alternative. It’s also much smaller and easier to lug around. The Racks are still fairly heavy.

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Thanks ‘Nauts for the predictability great advice!

If only it were 4 part multitimbral like the Nord racks!

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True. Though I always found myself under utilizing the multi timbrality functionality bc it meant the knobs would jump (on the 2x). It was nice to have a funky bass part rolling around in the background.

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have to post this again. So good

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The Nord ones. Are there bad nord racks that I’m not aware of?