Clavia Nord Rack 3

The presets suck, they really do. I primarily use this machine for warm drones and pads. You can get very rich sounds very easily. Most of the parameters have their own control, and any of the very few shared controls are easily displayed and accessed with the shift botton. All the system functions are logical. You do not need a manual for this unit. It even lets you mute different sections of the synth, like the filters lfo's and oscilators to give you a quick idea of what you do or don't need. Its easy to set your chords up and work around the arpegiator.

Pos
-LED's make everything obvious right away.
-The knobs are smooth.
-Morph sections are awesome. Easy to set up and use and disable.
-Easy to route the different timbres between midi channels and audio outs.

Negs
-I would like to see a bit more polyphony. Its an expensive va synth for 24 voices spread over 4 timbres.
-A reverb or delay or overdrive would be nice. The distortion that they have built into one of the filter options is laughable. It doesn't rough the sound up at all, just makes it a bit brighter.

It sounds good, but a little wimpy. Its very warm sounding. I guess the best description would be it sounds 'nice' for better or worse. Not a good synth for industrial or dubstep or anything, but its great for ambient and pop. Its marketed as a techno synth, but honestly, I would suggest a virus before this for that kind of music.

I wish it sounded a little nastier at times. If they release a synth without built in effects, you kind of expect that it sounds so good it wouldn't need them, unfortunately the nord lead 3 sometimes needs a little something to boost it along and fit it into a mix.

For the most part, its been solid, however I two problems with this synth:

1-Sometimes when I have it set to a certain octave range, it seems to want to go back to the default octave range. It doesn't happen often, but its annoying.

2-Too many knob tweaks seem to overload the processor, and make it a bit stuttery. I generally record every knob tweek possible, so I need to stay conservative with this one. 'Normal' use won't warrant any problems tho.

Otherwise, its been tight. It gets a bit hot on the top/back of the unit when its left on for a long time tho.

No need to use this

If it were stolen, I would probly use the insurance money to buy a virus or a polyevovler, honestly. This is an awesome preformance synth, but as far as studio work is concerned, you might want something with more to offer as a studio centerpiece. I can't really say much more without sounding redundant, but I will say its an inspirational synthesizer. It makes me want to tweek knobs and make pads. I wouldn't rate it a ten, because for its price I might like a bit more, but it easily gets a nine.

It doesn't have built in effect which is really not important for me since I can use effects from Virus TI. Features like Stack, Stack Detune and advanced FM make NL3 very useful tool for creating fat leads and other dance/techno stuff. Missing 3rd oscillator.

Sound perfect but presets sucks. However it's very easy to tweak interesting sounds by yourself.

I use it for dance. Tried it 3 years ago and finally could afford to buy it right now. I have also Virus TI Polar and must say that Virus is more powerful tool. But NL3 definitely is easier for using and creating new programs. It's much more inspiring than Access.
Manual should be printed instead of PDF but it's nothing really important since instrument is extremely easy and intuitive.

As I said it's still HOT but too expensive for now. Through these 3 years Clavia could release new instrument or lower the price. 3 years ago that was a dance-hit machine (used by Safri Duo and others). Now the same perfectly sounding filters, stacking & detune still produces THAT unique sound never being replaced by any other synth and being strong competition even for the latest Virus TI. Thanks to advanced FM synthesis which TI doesn't have, it's much easier to produce techno chunks and club bells. However through these 3 years, Access evolved and Clavia not.

Finally, instrument for $1,6k should have built-in effects.

This synthesizer has the best user interface of any electronic musical instrument ever made. 'Nuff said. As a guy whose rig also includes a Waldorf Q keyboard (55 knobs) and a Waldorf XT (44 knobs), and who used to own a Nord Lead 2, I can vouch that the Nord 3's interface is superior to all of them!

Y'all probably know all this already, looking at the other reviews herein. It's got all the modern amenities. The only thing I would've liked to see is a sp/dif digital output, like the Q has.

I have not heard a more immediate, detailed, wonderful sounding digi/analog synth. It's got incredible fidelity and also has amazing warmth. It's a first-rate analog emulator, and gives some great FM/additive stuff to boot!

Solid construction. no nonsense from the Clavia folks. This is in a rack in my studio, so getting tossed about and gigged isn't that big a concern for me, although I can attest that it's of very rock-solid construction. Likewise, my NL2 keyboard was built like a brick house, so I trust Clavia implicitly. Never hangs or anything like that either!

Have not had occasion to deal with the Clavia folks for service issues, but the web site is rich with additional user sound banks, etc., which is really nice of them!

The Nord 3 truly takes the virtual analog concept that extra step, adding very useful, easy-to-implement FM/additive synthesis features which take advantage of the synth's "digitalness" and harness it to allow more user sound design than any of its competitors. A very strong instrument.

i bought an NR3 yesterday, and i think is easy to use (it's great), all parameters are there, nothing hiden(almost).

Polyphony is enough for me, cause i have more synths, like supernova, virus b, ks-rack, ms-2000, ms-2000r, a-station, jp-8000, etc... but there is something wrong, i mean, effects, and presets. i think presets aren't good, a lot of pianos, fm pianos, it sound like an electronic organ (casio pt-20), sorry for casio company.

i think people who buy this synth like jarre sounds, or dance sounds, for example, and when i was proving presets, it lets down to me.

midi capacilities are good.

sounds are thick not fat like clavia web says. if you have a virus or supernova, i think you'll see the diference. i tryed to find big sounds when i bought it, but i don't. perhaps i thought its was a good, good synth.

and without effects the sounds are too , i don't know how to tell it. in other words, they aren't heavy sounds.

no coment

i don't know

i prefer novation, sorry.

A stunning interface. IMHO, as close as it will be possible for a multi-patch polysynth to matching the immediacy of a monosynth. The knobs feel good and are responsive. The multi-stage LED collars are the business!
Kudos to Clavia for using useful values (e.g. Hz for filter cutoff) rather than the corresponding MIDI value (i.e. 0-127).
Needless to say editing is a piece of cake as far as most parameters are concerned. There are a few weirdies that require the use of the shift button but they're for more obscure parameters anyway.
The manual seems fine...

The NR3 has far more limited modulation possibilities than the Virus or the Q. It lacks the extensive modulation matrix of both machines for one. The modulation that is possible sounds fantastic, though: very clean with no discernible break-up of the sound.

It also lacks their effects units. So no flangers, phasers, reverb or delay. Actually it's only the last one that I miss. And I can always run the NR3 through either my virus or q's effects. :)

On the other hand, it does have some architecturally specific 'effects' which really add to its sonic creation abilities. It has a very good and intelligently implemented type of FM known as Dual Sine FM. While not capable of the range of sounds that FM7 is (it has only 4 operators versus FM7's 8), it is much easier to use and still produces a wide range of tones.

It also has various forms of oscillator modulation. I'm not going to go into them but they can all change the basic sound of the oscillators pretty radically if you apply them correctly.

There is also distortion at the filter level, as well as some interesting possibilities for filter 2.

Oh, it also has sync and unison possibilities that don't use up an oscillator or polyphony to achieve.

I think that the NR3 sounds great. Its oscillators sound rounder and more pleasing to me than those of any other VAs I've heard, softsynths included (I've heard most of them). It also seems to sit more easily in the mix than most of my RAs do, while retaining a lot of the same edge. The envelopes click a bit when they're set to very short times, but this is appropriate behaviour so perhaps I shouldn't complain.

It's sawtooth wave has a delightfully raspy buzz without the lumpiness or hollowness that so often characterises VA saws: you can really hear the teeth. The pulse wave is also very pleasing. The 'classic' filter reminds me a lot of the ladder filter in my AS modular - it has that same sort of nonlinearity. Resonance has been modelled well. It has a particularly yummy quality when you slowly sweep a resonant filter. Its basic tone is similar to the nord mod (not surprising, really), although, to my ears at least, the NR3 sounds quite a bit rounder: more refined and sophisticated.

It excels at digital sounds. Some of the FM-type electric pianos presets are definitely going to be pressed into my tracks (with suitable tweaking) as basses. There's a clarity to the sounds that really pushes them out of the speakers. I don't use organ/piano type sounds generally but there are certainly some here that I would use. The plucked sounds are also appealing.

It also has the morph function of previous nords: you can allocate a whole bunch of parameters to a controllers. Best of all: when you use the controller, you can see the LEDs on the collars of the parameters it affects moving as you do it!

It would be an asset to any form of music that relies on electronic sounds.

Hmmmm, I am going to deduct a point for the weediness of its output, though. Very soft.

Seems fine - it's made of metal. I would definitely feel comfortable gigging with it without a backup. But I haven't yet so I can't give it top marks.

I've had a nord mod for ages but I've never needed to get in touch with the company. Upgrading is easy and their ongoing support for the NM has been exemplary (can't wait to see what goodies are in OS 4.0).

If it was stolen I'd definitely get another one, even if that meant selling something else.

I wish it had a delay unit but I can live without it.

I debated long and hard about this purchase: with the quantity and quality of softsynths out there these days I wondered if it was wise to spend a fair whack of cash on a 'softsynth in a box'. Within 5 minutes of setting it up in my studio I knew I'd done the right thing. I have owned many synths (RA, VA, other digital) in my time and this is definitely one of my faves. It feels great and sounds even better. What more can I say?