It’s that time of the year, where I have once again accumulated many shiny toys and now I have a desire to trim the fat. I have on my desk right now a Novation Peak, Nord Rack 2 and Prophet 12. They’re pretty different synths, with various pros and cons. Right now though my main concern is how they sound (or more accurately, how good I can make them sound).
I’ve done a basic comparison and thought it would be fun to share the results. Synths are always in the same order, no FX were used (internal or external). My goal wasn’t to make them sound identical, but I did approach each patch using the same basic ingredients. I tried to keep the sound design basic so that the Nord Rack 2 could keep up
For those who like to do a blind taste test I’ve hidden the synth order in the spoiler at the end.
Sound comparison
PW Lead
Method: 2 square waves, slightly detuned, pulsewidth modulated by a fast LFO. Added some stereo using unison/panspread.
Basic bass
Distorted bass sound. Low square with detuned saw ontop. Distortion applied post filter.
Noisy triangle pad
Single triangle oscillator with a wobbly pitch. Bit of whitenoise added ontop.
Please keep in mind this is a very subjective way of determining which one sounds best. I'm confident that someone could make any of these synths sound better than I was able to here. This test reflects just as much on my abilities with the synths as on the synths themselves.
With that out of the way, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
nord sounds richer or fuller somehow to me. it’s interesting to hear the peak and p12 sound similar, though the p12 has a little extra sauce. tough choice… i’m partial to the p12 because i just got one and am not likely to give it up. maybe the choice, if you have to make one, comes down to the features/tones you think you need for whatever music interests you. they all seem pretty flexible and capable.
Yeah these sounds are definitely favouring the Nord somewhat. The Nords to me always excel at bread and butter sounds. The other two synths are much deeper however.
I’m currently considering keeping two of them, the Nord and one of the others. Bit conflicted, cause I get great results on the Peak when I just sort of noodle around on it, but when I have a clear goal in mind like here I personally favour the sound of the Prophet.
I might just keep all 3. This was really just a fun exercise for me, and I was curious to hear people’s thoughts.
The Nord sounds a lot better initially as the stereo spread seems much wider and fuller. Tried to ignore that and focus on the sound otherwise though.
Favourite -> least favourite:
PW Lead - 1, 3, 2
Basic Bass - 1/2 sound incredibly similar, 3 I don’t like the basic sound here, not sure if it’s the drive or the filter.
Triangle Pad - 1, 3, 2
I wonder if the P12 requires more extra tweaking to keep up? The Pro2 is fairly vanilla to start with, but you can (and kinda have to) build a lot more into it, just makes it a bit more hard work.
Nord definitely gains a lot for the stereo spread, but really didn’t like the bass patch for it.
Very suprised how close the Peak and P12 are for the bass patch, can’t really tell much apart here.
That’s probably down to the Nord’s magical Unison mode, which doesn’t eat up any polyphony. The other two synths are trying to keep up using panspread, because unison on those eats up voices I need for those big chord voicings.
This is interesting to me, cause for me the Prophet sounds the best out of the 3. In the first clip, it has a bit more of a brassy sound thanks to the filter, which I kind of played into. For me the Nord sounds really nice, but it’s a little basic. The Peak sits somewhere in the middle character wise.
I think it’s due to the distortion interacting with the filter. Nord has a very different sounding distortion. To be fair, I could’ve probably gotten a stronger PW going on to get it more in line with the other sounds. Again, wasn’t really trying to make them sound identical here. Just went with it.
I think with PW Lead, the P12 loses a bit for me as the square wave sounds a bit too ‘computer game’ and kind of ‘thinner’. The Peak’s wave just sounds a bit nicer to me, but could be filter settings?
Triangle pad I’m starting to struggle to decide which I prefer of the first two, I’m starting to think more about the patch difference rather than overall synth-tone really. P12 maybe just sounds a bit thinner again?
I’d agree that the Prophet sounds thinner than the Peak. Honestly, the Peak is the fattest sounding poly I’ve ever had. The filter is apparently based on that of the Bass Station II. If the bass patch had more resonance, you’d hear the bottom end drop on both the P12 and the NR2, but not the Peak.
Unison on the NL1 / 2 does use twice the amount of voices in poly mode; it’s the unison on the NL3 that is more like a chorus. Not sure about the later models though.
…well, whatever u do…don’t sell the nord rack…
too round, too solid, too versatile…so tight and raw and rich, even without any given makeup…
peak has it’s sonic peaks…but i don’t know…but one of my real nerd friends loves it above all…
and he really knows…apart from lot’s of modular, that’s what he’s diggin’…
and well, u can say what u want about the new prophets…they’re ain’t the real thing anymore…
really hard to figure, it’s a truu analog…more of a nostalgic peace of furniture…
while, never the less, this one get’s u the biggest bux in resale…
when i trimmed my fat of the synthland…all i kept was the a4…and the nord rack 2x…
and that’s all the fat i’ll ever need…
#3 across the board, subjectively it just sounds more alive and unique than 1 & 2. I was shocked, shocked I tell you, that it was the Nord. I’ve never been a Nord guy. Maybe I am after all? Oh the lie I’ve been living…
I think that, instead of trimming the fat, you buy duplicates of each one. That way, when you are on a hiking trip, and a salmon jumps out of the nearby river and startles you, and then you accidentally drop one of those synths in the river, then you have an extra, just in case.
Without cheating, my favorites in order were
3 1 2 on all of your examples. Surprised me to find the Nord was my favorite. Of course, this could just mean you have a strong knack for programming the Nord.
I liked 1 the best, 3 second best, but I have a Peak and it almost sounded familiar, if that makes sense! I guessed it right also after listening through the demos. Might just be me conflating familiarity with “goodness”, so definitely not unbiased. The Peak has a more in your face quality to it, which may not be what everyone wants in a poly!
And finally, I would really pick based on your favorite interface, since in a full mix, these would all be barely distinguishable from each other. Bass needs to have oomf for sure, but does a poly need to fulfill Bass duties?
that is logical.