Which Nord Rack is Good Nord Rack

The Lounge Other Gear
#21

One thing to note with the NL Rack 2 which caught me out; keyboard split and patch layering do not work like the manual describes for the keyboard Nord lead 2.

So frustrating. The UI is there for layering, it even visually responds like it’s layering (the four patch buttons can be selected together and light up together) but the damn patches will only respond on their midi channel. You’d need to set patch bank 1, 2, 3 and 4 to the same midi channel for them the layer together. This only takes about 4 seconds to do, because the UI is lighting fast, but it’s not fast enough when you’re playing it live with a keyboard in a band.

The split functionality is also totally missing, there is no key board split on the rack.

I’d love to be proven wrong on this, I’ve read the manual top to bottom and can’t seem to configure it to work.

Edit: I do love the sound of the lead though, you can create soft pads, cutting leads, almost acoustic atmospheres, thick subbass and anything in-between. The FM rips speakers with it’s tonality, and ring mod or sync can give otherworldly grit. I made a subbass patch when playing with the band on Friday, and combined it with a RAT pedal. My brother on the drumkit referred to it as the “gootch tingler patch” as it vibrated his drum throne like crazy with its massive throbbing bass :sweat_smile:. I don’t think I’ve grinned as much playing a patch in my life.

It’s a great sounding bit of kit, and fantastic to play with live. It is pretty heavy though, but it’s more of a testimony to the build quality. The pots on the lead are almost as old as I am, yet feel factory new. Good, tacktile click clack on the buttons too!

2 Likes
#22

+1 for gootch tingler.

#23

This is a longstanding thing with Nord Racks. They expect split/layer to be done externally by the sequencer/DAW/whatever is playing them. You can work around it as you say by setting various slots to the same channel (though that doesn’t split, only layer), and then mix or enable/disable with the individual program volumes, but it’s just how the Racks work. Most Rack owners are used to it, but I can see how it would be confusing if you didn’t expect it, and the manual says it more by omission than directly.

I think Performance mode may work slightly differently (the manual suggests that you can layer slots using the Global channel - which should be set to 1 for the factory performances at least - it’s saved with the individual Performance) but I don’t have a Rack in front of me to verify if switching the layers on and off does anything beyond what was saved with the Performance itself.

I think the 4R and A1R (and maybe the 2XR but I doubt it) added the ability to play in on the Global Channel in program mode and use the layering (and maybe split?) via the slot UI, but I can’t verify that directly.

In any case, you’re safe assuming that each slot on a Rack is an independent synth that is always “on” on it’s own channel and you layer them either by setting them to the same channel (as you would with discrete synths in a traditional MIDI stack) or by sequencing the same data to them from the source, on each respective channel. That’s the intended use case and it’s longstanding across the Rack series.

1 Like
#24

Still my fave Nord Lead demo track (I believe it’s a NL3):

#25

…u can’t go wrong with nord…

i got a nord lead rack 2x in use since ages…covers all classic analog terretory plus a little fm with perfect bite and charme plus a wide array of the nord drum sounds, 20 voices within 4 times multitimbral all routable to dedicated stereo xtra output pairs…
heaps of storage, heaps of presets, super solid knobs, simple layout, smooth multi filters, fast n heavy envelopes, no menu diving…

if ur not a nitpicking oberheim/moog/sequential u name it analog fetish, u won’t miss a thing apart from on board fx…which is more another plus than a minus here…since it’s nothing but pure raw classic subtractive synth sound in ur face and in ur mix…

3 Likes
#26

3 is my personal favorite because of the depth of the synthesis engine and also the distortion LP

2 Likes
#27

NL2 rack here. Love it. Versatile, sounds great, quick and easy to use.

:+1:t3::+1:t3::+1:t3::+1:t3::+1:t3:

#28

NL3 might have best UI of all time. But not the best sound. It’ll get you to point B faster than you can say Nord Rack. Awesome at pads, strangely. Sad no Drum Mode.

#29

NL2r here too. Great interface, great sound. It’s a great tool. I’m still trying to find a reasonably priced card for it, but I can live without it, so there is no hurry. Anybody have a good tip in this regard?

#30

I bought a Nordlead 2 kbd about 20 years ago and hunted high and low for a PCMCIA card for storing patches. I finally found one after a few months, but it wasn’t as easy as I thought. The original NL2 has a measly 40 user patch slots and none for drum kits, which is a real crime.

#31

I went hunting for some weeks. Prices don’t justify the purchase imo

#32

Hey delta-c,

Cheers for the thorough write up, cleared a couple of things up for me. Glad to know I’m not just misunderstanding the manual. I understand the rational behind the choices as it’s a sound module, not a keyboard… Hey, can’t have it all!