Clavia Nord Lead 2

Too easy.

It is a great synth, but not enough features.
No effects, no memory, no audio in, no display.

Good!
But that pitch bend stick is stupid, hard to be precise with it.

No idea.

I was choosing between Z1 and NL2, got Nord, and now i can tell
it's the both i need.
Korg lately are out of their mind, discontinued Z1, put out some crap like Karma, MS2000...

Version 1.04

This Great Red synth blesses me with 16 earth-shaking voices of polyphony from the gods. The keyboard action is pretty much like half-melted butter, soft yet reassuring. I always know it's right below my fingertips, waiting for love and touching. It doesn't accept any expansion boards, but there's really nothing more you need than this red beast's awesome sounds. As for MIDI, the Great NORD has In and Out ports, but I prefer to let my NORD fly solo and I don't like to force it to interface with other inferior gear (and all other gear is "inferior" compared to the NORD). There is no onboard sequencer, but you can program some mind-bending arpeggios if you study the manual for a while. I personally travel everywhere with the manual, as a Muslim would the Koran.

Shakespeare and the great poets througout the ages could not come close to expressing the love I have for my NORD Lead 2's sounds. So I shall forever be lacking and inarticulate in my praise. But allow me to simply say this: Compared to the NORD, all other synths are mere imposters, shallow cowards in the face of a Great and Angry Red Synth God. Of course, all of the sounds on my NORD are incredibly useful, and with some tweaking, they become sublimely heavenly. From fat basses to searing hot lead, everything cuts through in the mix (of course, I'd rather not have my NORD sit in any "mix" -- I rock this bad boy solo all the way!) Glory unto NORD! Believe it or not, some people have commented that the NORD lacks effects and is thus lacking. Of course, these people are FOOLS! who don't recognize that when you have raw synth waveforms as perfect as the NORD LEAD 2, adding effects is akin to putting packets of catsup on filet mignon. You may as well re-color the sky or re-shape the planets. Such is the perfection of NORD!

As sure as the sun comes up, my NORD will rock. Kingdoms and empires will fall before the NORD will fail me.

I once had the pleasure of meeting a representative of CLAVIA at a musical instrument trade show. He was a friendly gentleman and was very kind when I followed him around the trade show all day. He did inform me on some particulars of the Nord Lead 3, which I am still suspicious of, since it is clearly NOT a NORD LEAD 2!

If my NORD was lost or stolen, I would curse the heavens and set fire to my studio. Actually, I would simply scour the pages of every used gear publication on God's green Earth until I could purchase a replacement. Then I would begin programming custom Patches all over again, as I have the exact settings engraved in my head, much like Mozart and his symphonies. I personally make music along the lines of Depeche Mode, Crystal Method, and BT -- all of whom drink from the chalice of the NORD -- but I could easily see this synth being used to make any type of music, now and forever. (As an interesting side note, I have heard that BT has fallen into software synthesis, but I'm sure he will see the light and come to embrace this MIGHTY RED GOD OF SYNTHDOM once again.)

Whatever this synth can do is on the front panel. There is no sifting through menu heirarchies to edit features. Even patch dumps can be accomplished without delving into the menu. This is a good thing cause the display is a three-digit LED. The presets sound rough, phat, hard, soft, and surreal. There's 99 by default. I really haven't used very many in recordings, as I just edit them to my tastes. No patch editor is necessary. There's a knob or a button for every feature on this synth. The manual is the best I've read (better than the tripe Roland feeds us)... and it contained a very useful overview of subtractive synthesis as well!

16 voices, 4 parts: More than most VA synths... Plenty of voices and parts. Haven't run out yet (YET).

NoFX: So what? That's what outboard FX are for :) besides.. this thing doesn't need it. It would have been nice to have them on board though, eh?

Expansion: Single PCMCIA slot that offers a ton of memory. Not wholly necessary, since a simple patch dump to a sequencer is all the memory you need.

Midi is perfect.

This is the easiest to use synth I've ever owned.

Realism is not the Nord's bag. It's not VA's bag, either. This synth works well for any kind of electronic music, IMO. It does decent strings sounds, bone-rattling basses, and ear-piercing leads.

Velocity can be assigned to nearly any parameter. No aftertouch... but that never mattered to me anyway.

I've never had a problem with it and it has enough features and clout to be used alone on stage with a sampler. I would gig without backup any day with this thing. It's a tank.

Haven't tried. The manual has all the info I want. I don't know about OS updates, as I haven't gotten around to that yet.

If someone stole it I would hunt them down and hurt them. I would make them dead. It's the best synth I've ever owned (I also have/had: Roland XP30, JP8080, JX305, Kurz K2Vx, Yamadog RM1x). I'm considering an Access Virus to suppliment it in the near future. The price on this thing was unbeatable, so I got this instead :) I don't regret it, either.

I'm still on softare version 1.04.
The presets on the Nord are pretty cool, but I rarely use the presets except as a starting point for creaating ny own sounds. . Editing the patches is insanely easy, although it's easy to get lost in all the knobs...! The manual is incredibly very well written and doesn't have the really bad translated feel of a Roland manual. I don't use the manual alot, but when I do, I can find the answer really quickly...

Polyphony - 16 voices,and 4 x multitimberal. No effects, which along with no built in sequencer are the only reasons this baby doesn't get a perfect 10...but you can wiggle a decent delay out of the it has The pcmcia card gives you 297 sounds !!! and tons of drum kits...as well as performance storage...

Midi: excellent...all the knobs send midi information, you can record every move they make...no sequencer, as mentioned before, but a really good arpeg , actually 4 of them...

Best for techno or minimal electronic shit, amazing for electro !

No onboard fx, but you can get great delays from the lfos, and you can
crank up the filters so high you'll either go deaf, or your house will crumble...they're that good...

It's very responsive...

I took it to Sweden and Germany when we toured (I'm in Toronto),
and the thing was a rock...I have not had any problems with it,
and it's built like a tank...

Haven't needed support, but I have ordered the 1.06 upgrade...

I'd definitely buy one again, although I'd wait till the price dropped, as I bought mine here in Toronto brand new, and paid dearly for it :)

Wish it had a sequencer, but that's about it...oh yeah, maybe more outs for the drum kits...

Conclusion: Brilliant piece of gear, very intuitive...highly recommended !

Just had to add one more comment about the NL2 -- I finally got into using its "drum kits", which are absolutely beautiful. Basically, a drum-kit patch splits the keyboard into 6 zones, each with its own tweakability for envelope/filter/etc; this lets you set up some very, very nice analog percussion. It's PERFECT for making Squarepusher/Aphex Twin style drum and bass clicks and pops and bloops. Yet another reason to get yourself a Nord 2 yesterday.

I'm using 1.06 (I think). Dunno about the manual, I barely cracked it open -- it's that easy to use. Every function has a knob or button on the front panel; programming and saving your sounds is so easy it's not funny. Even setting up your multitimbral settings is blazingly obvious.

12 voice poly, 4 part multitimbral. Good key action, still kinda synth-springy, but good. The real star is the pitch stick...this is the most intuitive performance-oriented pitch control EVER. You can easily do guitar-style vibrato, pitch dives, and more, a thousand times easier than with a traditional pitch wheel. No aftertouch, nor can it respond to it, just velocity. No sequencer, no effects; this baby was meant to live in a studio, not in your bedroom.

On to the bad -- patch storage. You get 40 slots for user programs and THAT'S IT, you'll need a PCMCIA card to store more. Kind of annoying.

This is the most expressive lead synth I have ever seen, heard, played with, or owned. Between the pitch stick, the very nice modwheel, the above-average key action, and immediate front-panel sound-warping access, you can do a hell of an emotive performance on this thing.

As for the sound -- it's true what people say, any sound you make on this girl will sound like what it is, the Nord. But that's not a bad thing; it's got character, and I suspect it will continue to be known and loved long after it becomes "obsolete". The filters are very smooth and can be driven up to squealy incoherence, and the "virtual analog" tones do sound very fat and analog-ish. I got some very nice pads and great portamento leads on it; still searching for a good bass, but I suspect it's in there somewhere. It's got a nice "morph" feature where you can store two snapshots of almost all the knob positions and use the modwheel to morph between them.

I'm using this for trance/techno/drum&bass/trip-hop and it fills in VERY nice for pads, worms, leads, even plinky percussive bell-type noises thanks to the oddball non-analog bonus features like ring-mod and what not.

It's heavy as hell and feels like a damn tank, I'd gig with it without hesitation. HOWEVER, I have encountered a heat problem with it where if I leave it on for a few days, it occasionally crashes itself. So if you're doing a 72-hour gig, consider bringing a backup.

Never had a reason.

Lord almighty, this is my #1 synth now. When I sit down at the Nord I feel _inspired_, end of story.

Very easy, anyone thats used a synth before should be right at home. If your not it comes with a great manual more on that later. Within 10mins i was creating some wicked sounds and effects.

Good on the features dept, only thing that would be nicer is higher polyphony possibly, and maybe aftertouch, most 500$ and up keyboards come with that now. Unison rocks, the filters are incredible, has the normal ADSR stuff and an arpeggiator :)

Great Sounds, thats the main reason i bought this thing. It sounds so analog yet it has high quality sound listen to the demos on your monitors and youll know what i mean. It does good instrument sounds but doing old analog effects and sharp punchy leads is where it shines. I probly wouldnt use this for alot of instrument sounds but its not really for that, It works good with a Z1 as backup.

Got mine used and its in great shape, metal casing and trusty keys. Knobs are rubber but i havent had any problems with them they most have steal poles inside them.

never used it

id give this a 10, id buy it again if i had the money and it was lost. It is kinda expensive, but its worth it since you dont have to pay for repairs. Great synth overall.

vers.1.06
presets sound great,especially some of the patches in the perfomances! Some of them are just absolutely fat, ground-shaking, speaker blowing sounds, while others are smooth and rich. I especially love the edgy-screaming effect the FM parameter does, nothing else is as raw as the Nord in my opinion and I heard them all.

polyphony is enough for most purposes, keyboard action is great. The Nord sound is raw and very analog like because its not masked or enhanced with excessive effects. You can of course add whatever effects you desire but thats what makes the Nord sound so in-your-face!

The Nord to my ears sounds very convincingly analog. It also has a unique sort of gritty quality that makes it distinct from other vitual analog synths. This synth is great for just about any music genre. From funk, hip-hop, soundtracks, techno, industrial, rock, pop,r &b, etc...Put simply, it rocks!

I think the construction of the Nordlead is solid. An all metal chassis, solid feeling knobs, a great stone-like mod wheel and how about that awesome pitch bender! The Nord is specialized synth,and I would use it mainly for leads, basses, and some pads. Depending on the gig, it could be the primary board or be a secondary board when supplemented with a pcm-based synth
primary keyboard

Never really had to deal with the company. The manual is very easy to understand and the web site also offers free sounds and operating system upgrades

I would definitely buy another one if it were lost or stolen. I own Roland,Korg,Ensoniq,and Novation products and the Nord is a standout! Its red color and green lights is an eye catcher in my studio. I love its sound. While other manufacturers have their models and they all sound great in their way, I chose the Nord because of its unique raw SOUND! If there is anything on my wish list I think it would be cool to have a programmable arpeggiator with tempo display, A sub oscillator, and maybe bigger display with a numeric keypad. All these "minor" complaints doesn't really matter though considering its just so easy to use and the sound quality

Ease of use rates a 10. I'm not sure which version software I've got, but according to Nord's site, the differences between .04 and .06 are subtle anyhow. I cannot emphasize enough how easy it is to just sit back, set the arpeggiator or play a nice chord, and tweak knobs to your heart's content! The night I brought it home I was up 'til 3.30 am just listening to the sounds "evolve" under the twist of the numerous and logically arranged panel knobs. The manual is comprehensive and provides an excellent roadmap of the synth. Also included is a chapter on subtractive synthesis, for those who've been using 80's and 90's synths so long they may have forgotten how to get these type sounds. I bought the Nord Lead 2 because I wanted a synth that was easy to program and sounded good. Couldn't afford a Super Jupiter w/ Programmer so I bought this one instead! No advanced degree required to program one of these boxes!

As is probably well known by most readers of this site, the '2 is a sixteen (16) voice, 4-part multitimbral synthesizer without any effects. They really retro'd out on it by not including effects but that's a good thing because this way what you hear is what you get and you can be sure that the sound generator stands or falls on its own merit, unaided and not masked with effects. I have installed mine in my home studio, where I've got outboard gear I bought on the basis of personal choice/listening, which I prefer to the (usually) cheap-sounding internal effects on most keyboards. I think Clavia made a fair assumption in thinking most purchasers already own some decent outboard gear.
The keyboard is 4 octave (sleek and surprisingly not too small) with a conveniently located octaves up/down button palette. It accepts a PCMCIA ("PC Card") memory card on the rear of the unit, accomodating gigging musicians with large appetites for sound! There is no on-board sequencer, although every knob on the panel transmits controller information via midi, so if you've got a computer running you'll have a very good time composing and mixing with the Nord.

Aside from the fantastic sound and ease of use, Clavia has to be given a ton of credit for making keyboard instruments "sexy" again. This thing is such a pleasure to look at, from the all-red metal casing to the sleek panel lettering, to the "moog-like" font used for the synth's name, and especially the wood pitch stick and stone mod wheel. I've seen other Nord 2's with brushed aluminum wheels, and thought mine might be a very early version, but I'm still curious about that...

So, not only does it sound great when it's on; it looks great and dramatically improves the appearance of the room it's in when it's turned off, too! (Silly, yes, but at these prices it's not such a foolish consideration now, is it?).

The Nord Lead 2 is a very realistic emulation of an analog synthesizer. Panel rocks; sounds are phenomenally convincing. It goes one further, in that it is capable of becoming reeaallly "ugly" in a way only digital synth's can, which gives it a unique signature against the older boxes it seeks to emulate. This is a wonderful playing instrument that puts a broad range of expressiveness at your fingertips. It is a pleasure to compose with, which cannot be said for too many other keyboards.

This is a very solid, well-built machine. As previously mentioned, the entire casing is metal. The only concern is that, if handled poorly, you might bend/break a knob. Thus, get a case (pref. hardshell), just like you would for any other instrument, and you'll be fine! The permanently attached grey power cable is an oddity in this day and age, and perhaps not the best way Clavia could've done this. But, seen as a nod to "retro", it's actually pretty funny... I would take this thing anywhere.

The website is fantastic operation that really shows Clavia's dedication to serving its customer base. Haven't needed to call/email them yet, so I'm unqualified to comment in any detail.

This synthesizer is destined to take its place among the great classics of keyboard synthesizer instruments. In the years I've played keyboards, the only other synths that have given me what I've been after are the Super Jupiter and the Memorymoog. (o.k., and a clavinet through a Marshall stack). For being a sleek, euro looking box, the Nord 2 thunders elephantine when called upon to do so! It is definitely a hard rock synth. I got the best deal in the universe on mine (yes, I bought it new), so I'm not going to complain about the steep list price or the dealers that are unwilling to stand down. I will say, though, that if there weren't such a high willingness to pay such high prices, everyone would be dropping their prices, right? In that sense, it must not be overpriced...

Mine is the softare version 1.06, the latest version. The presets on this thing are phenomenal (particularly the Prohet 5 patches), but could use a little tweaking. Fortunately, no synth on the market is as easy to edit. No nested menus of any kind--it's all on the front panel! The manual is very well written and easy to follow. IT even includes a section explaining subtractive synthesis--nice. The only difficult thing about this sunth is getting from one patch to another. There is only up/down buttons, I would prefer numeric keypads, but no big deal.

This is a 16-voice (expandable, but I'm not sure to what--32 probably) synth with MIDI in/out (no thru) and full MIDI implementation. Any knob can be routed to MIDI. It accepts aftertouch but doesn't generate it. THe back has a card slot for a PCMCIA card to either save your own sounds to, or have an additional 297 sounds already on it, downloadable from the Clavia web site (pretty neat feature). There is no on-board sequencer or built in effects. It does have pressure-sensitive keys, but instead of just affecting volume, ANY parameter can be controlled by velocity. The real feature of this synth is the SOUNDS, though. Nothing makes sounds like this! The leads sound EXACTLY like my old Pro One, the basses are incredible punchy, and the bells and pads make you swear you're listening to a Prophet. I love them!

It has some presets which are listed as actual instruments, such as piano and guitar, but they sound nothing like a piano or guitar (they do sound cool though). However, you're not playing this to make a realistic xylophone, you're playing it for SYNTH SOUNDS, which no other synth can even come close to. This is it! Actually, it has a few very convincing organ sounds, and a few electric pianos which are very good too. Again, it has no effects, but it does respond to both velocity and aftertouch. I'd imagine this would work well for rock, or any music where killer synth sounds are required. Maybe classical would have no room for this, but anything else sure would.

I'd say I could rely on this unit. It is incredibly sturdy and I have had no problems with the internal workings yet. I would NOT use it on a gig without a backup because I need my other synths to fill the few holes this cannot (such as pianos).

I have not dealt with the customer support people, but the web site offers a lot of tech help such as software upgrades, new sounds for your PCMCIA card, and even a copy of the manual!

I would most definitely buy another one if the need arose, it's just incredible. The prcie is a little high, but worth every cent for both the sounds, and the fun of playing with the knobs and buttons. I've been playing for 10 years now, and own an Alesis Quadrasynth and an Ensoniq ESQ-1. I compared this to the Yamaha and Roland cheap and worthless attempts to capitalize on this synths amazing abilities. Sure, they're cheaper, but they SOUND cheaper too. The user interfaces are NOT as good, and the sounds are NOT convincing. This does it better than they'll ever dream of doing it. I guess I wish this had a numeric keypad and maybe some more room to store your own pathces without the need to buy a card. But I can live without those things as long as it sounds and plays the way it does.