Clavia Nord Lead 3

All I gotta say is, the circle LEDs around the knobs ROCK! Analyze any patch or preset instantly, all the knobs snap to where they need to be. Tweak the knobs via MIDI and watch 'em move in real time. It doesn't get any better than this.
The presets are all right- there's some good ones, but really if you have this you should make your own sounds. It comes with nearly a 1000 presets but those are only a small sampling of the 1000000000 sounds in this baby.

After every track I write, I save the entire bank of sounds I used on the track to a file on my computer. This is done using the Nord Sound Manager, free on Clavia's site. The whole process of saving or loading synths from this program takes about 60 seconds. No effects, which bugged me at first, but really, this think is all about top notch synthesis, you can do something else and get top-notch effects rather than some tacked-on board.

You have to own it for at least a few months to understand... this synth is INCREDIBLE. The way you can tweak it using morph groups, or having MIDI CC preassigned to every knob, and the circle LEDs on top of that- others have mentioned the great sounds you can make, but for me, it's how quick you can make them that's so great. That means that there's less time between hearing the idea in your head and getting it into the synth, and that means no more losing ideas! I use it for psytrance, and I could never be without it.

Never had any problems of any sort. OTOH, I'll tell you what I think in six months when I start live PAing on a regular basis.

Never had to talk to them, hope I never need to

If you're interested in a digital synth for electronic music production, this is the best of the field. Period. If you are on a budget and want to spread out your money on digital synth, analog synth, sampler etc. then you may want to opt for the Nord 2 for your digital synth, or maybe the Access Virus b if you want some allright built in effects and vocoder. For me though, I wanted to make digital synths no one had ever heard before, and with the Nord Lead 3 it was more easy than I could have ever imagined. If you want the best, go get the best.

OS version 1.2... and it loaded easily! I hate synths where loading the OS is a night's task in itself...

Best interface of any synth, I defy anyone not to be able to conjure up unique sounds with this. The presets aren't great; the ones by "Zon" are the best, so download his bank from Clavia's website and see what the Nord can really do: hat's off to the man.

Intuitive multi mode different to the Supernova 2 (my all time favourite multi mode setup) but nearly as good funcionally. Not being able to mute the different parts when being externally sequenced is awkward, and it would be nice if there was some indication as to which slot was playing (flashing led maybe)?

24 note is ample polyphony for a synth of this sort. It's never going to be your only keyboard, so don't waste it's polyphony on basic stuff you can do with something else...

No effects: no big thing. Forces you to programme the thing rather than rely on fx, unless you have effect implementation like on the Supernova 2... :-)

Nice playable keyboard, one of the few synths around where I feel you really gain something by having the keys rather than the rack. It truly is a "performance" synth.

As I said, the presets aren't great, but the few good ones really stun! Seems to be too much emphasis on FM style pianos... do we really need 10 or so? Anyway, a doddle to initialise sounds and throw in your own. A nice touch is being able to initialise a patch back to either basic FM or basic VA as a starting point.

It doesn't sound very analogue to me (the Virus is a better emulation, but more on that later) but it certainly has a unique sonic character which can sound quite beautiful; more digital than warm, but extremely clear.

Let's see in 6 months. Haven't seen any software glitches or crashes yet, so that's a good start...

Not ahd reason to deal with them yet... hope I never do :-)

I'd certainly want to replace it if stolen. I bought the Nord to replace a Virus C that I had for a few months and couldn't get on with (see my review under Access...) Sometimes you just know from the start if a piece of gear is gong to suit you; I felt like that with the Nord and not with the Virus... sure the Virus sounds more analogue, but it's difficult to set up, the manual sucks and it tries to do too many things at once (that modulation matrix is ridiculous) The Nord is a simpler concept, well executed and sounds superb, if different... it's easy to setup and inspires me everytime I touch the keys... 'nuff said.

Lots of knobs on this one. It did take me a little bit to setup a multi but I didn't even bother looking at the manual. So not super intuitive but everything is there right in front of you. Tweaking sounds is very easy to do and thats the most important thing.

24 notes of polyphony and 4 part multimbral. No built in effects but unlike most boards like the Korg Triton it sounds very good without them. I like some of the sounds on the Triton but it is an effected sound which isn't a bad thing sometimes.

Huh! Who is the reviewer below? This guy obviously hasn't touched a Nord. No seriously, I can't believe the bull this guy is spewing. He must think it's a rompler and hate the fact that is doesn't have a sampled piano or something. This is a synth through and through and is great for all types of electronica and experimental music. If you need synth textures then this will give them to you without complaining. Best of all it sounds great without effects. That is amazing to me. Most of my boards need effects to beef up the sound and the Nord doesn't need them. Later I'll run it through a few effects units and I'm sure I'll be even more impressed then. The less hassle I need to get the sound I want the better. It's a Virtual Analog and it does a strong imitation of the real thing but it's not perfect. However, I love the sound and it has a distinct character that is strong and well defined. I have a Waldorf Q and love that for it's strong sounds that fit in the mix quite well. The Nord is up there in the same league with a powerful filter which is very important to me. It responds to my playing and reflects my mood with more nuance then all my other gear. I love the springy keyboard and the aftertouch works without much effort. I'm still not sure about the pitch bend knob but I think I'll get use to it. Either way I rip leads, appegiate and pound out bass lines on this thing without problem. It gives continually and surprises me with the power of it?s sound. How many other pieces of gear out there now will do that. Very few indeed!

Just got it. It seems solid but I'm won't say a thing until I have more then 6 months and move it around the house a bit.

Haven't called them. There is no need as of yet. I dread customer support for most companies and hope I never have to use them.

The quality is worth the price. You ever notice that most musicians have a few pieces of gear that are expensive but they always use. I think the Nord falls into this catagorey. It has the details in the sound that most synths don't have. It's not the end all be all but it fills its niche very nicely. As usual try one out and compare it to other VAs. You may have other gear that fills in the gap for your sounds and might not need it but you never know until you try.

This is the only good thing about this thing.

For $2300.00 you would think this thing would have effects.

The sounds on this thing SUCK.If you have not heard this synth dont buy it by what some of the people are saying hear it for yourself.I play techno and trance, and the sounds on this thing might be cool for country or folk music it didnt work for me. I tried to tweak the knobs and everything.My friend who is head of the keyboard dept. at Guitar Center played and played this thing and he agreed.The best analog synths Ive played are Access Virus B, Waldorf Q, Novation Supernova.

Only kept it for 2 monthes,that was enough.

Called and complained,didnt do anything.

This synth is VERY overpriced.The sounds SUCK even with the tweaking of knobs.I own all kinds of high end gear and this was a major disapointment!

The user interface on this synth is the best out there.
What you see (so pretty) is what you get.
The morph grouping is very easy. I do wish you could
have the aftertouch button hold while triggering the aftertouch on the keyboard with one hand and turn the knob with the other. You can't do it all with just two hands some times.
The manual is very easy to follow.
The presets are a good starting piont.

I love that pitch stick and textured metal modweel (not stone). There are no standard effects. You can use the differnt distortoin types to get some planger and phasing sound. the lfo has pan. I like to have the raw sound that sound good then add the effects in the end. I have not used the appegeator that much. This thing is packed with all the asensals The only thing I think the NL3 need is a audio input with vocoder. cant have everything.

The sound blows me away every time I play it.
I here some people on forums say the NL3 is not as "raw" as the NL2,1
What that means is the 1 and 2 can not make sofer sounds The NL3 can make all the all the sounds the 1 and 2 make plus softer lusher sound the 1 and 2 can't.

It is a tank
steal shell tank

have not dealt with the support yet

I only noticed one bug. The keyboard hold light dose not rest when you change pathes. Other than that Nothing to conplain about. Can't imagin what Clavia could inprove with OS from 1.2 to 2.0 we will have to see. I would like NL1 and 2 patches to work with the NL3.

Finally a synth that makes sense. Fast - intuitive - fun and powerful like hell. Just go nuts - the board will actively TEACH you what's going on visually. No need to understand anything to begin with.

24 voices. No built-in effects (thank God). All the classic MIDI features and a great mother keyboard.

Just pure evil - voodoo - synthesizer mayhem power deluxe. This synth sounds so freaking good that I am somewhat forgetting about my other synth gear. And I have pretty damn good stuff :)

Seems OK to me so far.

Seems OK to me so far.

Excellent machine.

Rev 1.20 This is what a synth should be. Real knobs, LED indicators, MORPH grouping. This is the dope for programming. The only thing it's missing is a 10 key numeric pad.

Everything you could ever want. For those of you complaining about "no onboard effects", get a clue. I'm sick of paying for onboard effects that sound like crap. On my other boards, I disable the onboard FX and use something that sounds decient. Even the TC M-one blows away the "onboard FX" on every board ever made. Don't believe me? Try it yourself.

Unbelieveable. Straight from my dreams - this board does everything I could ever want in a SYNTH. I wish people would stop comparing it to sampler. It's not a sampler, it's NOT SUPPOSED to sound like a sampler.

General built quality is excellent -except- for the keyboard contacts, they're rubber pads (like a TV remote control) Only time will tell if this will cause problems, but I'm dissappointed in that aspect of the design.

If I only had one synth, the Lead 3 would be it. Yea, it's 2 grand, but it's more powerful and more flexible than any other VA Syn on the planet.

software v 1.20
Drummerboy does not know what he's talking about, if he'd spent some time playing with the thing and not just wimped out because the presets were crap he'd maybe begin to realize what a fantastic synth this is. presets are always crap, that's a rule of thumb. you should NEVER judge a synth on the presets. these companies don't have the time to work on presets properly and they always tailor them to the middle of the road market. Editing patches could hardly be easier, the interface is very well designed with easy access to all major parameters.

Not as many features as a lot of synths going around but none of the features it does have are crap ones that you would never use, and i prefer things that way. it has 24 voice polyphony with unison mode that doesn't reduce this. no inbuilt effects but it sounds so good that it doesn't need them. Effects are usually added to disguise the fact that a synth sounds weak anyway (like the Novation supernova). Keys respond to aftertouch and virtually all parameters can be assigned to any or all of the four morph groups - aftertouch, wheel, velocity and relative to keyboard position, making this the most expressive synth available. No onboard sequencer but there is a fairly basic arpeggiator. they have upgraded this from version one and may well do so again in future updates. i'm not too bothered about this though as i find things like that don't get used all that much anyway, and despite its simplicity it does things that the novation nova didn't do like monophonic lfo cycles when playing arps, something the nova doesn't do the way i would have liked it to. also some of the novas effects were not good, particularly the reverbs which were very nasty.

This synth can sound very moog like and also very digital. the filters are very nice, you can get real acid squelch and phaser type sounds using two filters in parallel/. some people have complained that the low pass filter does not fully resonate when turned fully up like some synths. this is true but i personally never found THAT much resonsance to be of any use as it just cuts out the oscillators. i also think that this filter is much more analog sounding than any others that i've heard. The range of sounds that you can get out of this thing is truly vast. i've filled up nearly 4 banks of 128 patches with excellent sounds and i don't think i've come anywhere near exhausting the possibilites of this keyboard. it's got loads of memory space too which is just as well. the quality of the sound itself is also very pure and rich, even better than the Kawai k5000

The build quality is very sturdy and i've never had it crash or do anything unexpected. I'd be scared of taking it to a gig though as somebody might try and wrestle it off me, and it took a long time to save up for this box.

I've e mailed them a few times and they did write back in a couple of days. they seemed friendly enough. have not had experience of repairs so far touch wood.

if it were lost or stolen i'd cry for a week. i'd have to get another one. I have owned a Kawai k5000 and Novation Nova and this is in a different league. there really isn't anything i don't like about this synth, it's a great design. it's the king.

The ultimate interface. Don't dance around in the dark any more. The NL3 lights show you exactly what you are hearing.

A bit of reverb and echo would be nice, but then you would lose some of the natural simplicity of the design philosophy.

This thing sparkles like powdered gold dust. Listen on a good pair of monitors or headphones and you will want one and dream every night about wanting one until you finlly get one.
DRUMMERBOY, in the previous review, has played enough synths to realise he has no ear for music and should perhpas take up origami. This thing costs a fortune because it is so good. I have played and owned many many synths over a 20 year period. This is the best I have ever come upon.

Had to replace the first one because the heavy mod wheel was not centred and wobbled. This one I have now looks dodgy, but so far so good.

Interface seems at first to be wonderful. I saw it and immediately knew where things were to tweak and turn.

Good features on a spec sheet not in operation.

Weak. The waveforms like your sines, triangles,etc. didn't have any bite. Very bland start up wave. Once you start adjusting parameters the results can sound no better than a JP-8080.

Housed in steel but what good is that if the bolts and screws look like they're going to come off?

Never had to experience their tech support

DO NOT KNOW THE BIG DEAL ABOUT THIS KEYBOARD. SERIOUSLY RECONSIDER BUYING ONE IF THOSE ARE YOUR PLANS. I' VE PROGRAMMED AND PLAYED ENOUGH SYNTHS TO KNOW THIS SYNTH IS BAD AND NOT WORTH ADDING TO YOUR SET_UP.