Clavia Nord Lead 4 in the Studio

You all know by now I guess I have a thing for Clavia synthesizers. I still remember the first time I saw Jean Michel Jarre play the Nord Lead 1 when he introduced it during his concert in Rotterdam. I just had to have one. It was the first virtual analog synthesizer back then. In the mean time Clavia did quite some improvements and just introduced the 4th model: The Nord Lead 4. This time it has an extra effects section, just like they did on the Nord Wave.

In the effects section there is also a drive button, that gives the sound a subtle overdrive effect. I really like that. It has again become a more mature synthesizer than the Nord Lead 2 I was used too, even though I have the impression that the Nord Lead 2 sound a bit more 'raw'. As you can see in the picture on the right there are actually 4 Clavia's in my studio now. I'm doubting if I will keep the Nord Lead 2 but, the Nord Modular G2X en Nord Wave are actually quite different synthesizers. I had to let one machine go, since the studio is full. So if something goes in something has to go out. This time I sold the M-Audio Venom. It was nice for a while, but not special enough to keep. For now I will be making some presets for the Nord Lead 4. Hopefully that will give me some inspiration to start some new music soon. Keep an eye on this blog. More news is coming soon. I'm actually rebuilding the studio a bit and of course I will keep you posted on the blog on this project.

Mobile Studio for upcoming Collaboration ......

As some of you might already know, I'm currently working on a collaboration album together with Remy Stroomer. Progress on that project is going well and we hope to release that album later this year. I'll update you on that when there is more certainty. There is another collaboration coming up though. You might remember that in 2010 I released a collaboration album together with Ron Boots called 'Refuge en Verre'. The album was the result of a long weekend in a rented house together with both our families in the Belgian Ardennes. Well we are going to repeat that soon. In the picture is the stuff that I will be bringing along, so a notebook with Cakewalk Sonar installed, a Clavia Nord Wave and the Roland SH-101 and I heard Ron will bring his Korg Kronos. So we'll have a nice set to work with. We are going to improvise there just like last time and if it works out, who knows :) I'll keep you posted. I'm really looking forward to this holiday and also to playing together with Ron Boots again :) More information on 'Refuge en Verre' can be found here: http://www.synth.nl/Refuge

Nord Wave DVD Arrived

Today I got another surprise in the mail. I finally received the DVD with samples that Clavia promised when I received the Nord Wave. I haven't opened it yet but on the DVD it also states that it holds new versions of the Operating System for the Nord and a new version on the editor software. I will try it out soon and if something spectacular comes up I will let you know :) But I don't expect much to be honest compared to the current version. Basicly this software enables you to upload your own samples to the Nord Wave. As you can see in the picture on the right I have three Nords stacked on top of each other in the studio now. Isn't that a pretty picture? :) Well I love it anyway! And the nice thing is that these are three completely different synthesizers all together.

The first one I bought was the Nord Lead 2 that you see in the middle. I still know why I bought it as well. I visited the Jean-Michel Jarre concert in Rotterdam. He played mostly tracks from his just released Oxygene 7-13 album and most of the leads where coming from this synthesizer. So the next week I went to the shop and tried it out and I must say it is a very good VA (Virtual Analog). The second one I bought was the Nord Modular G2X. You see this one on top. This is basically a modular synthesizer in a DSP. The editor that comes with this synth is superb I think. You can draw up your own modules and connect them as you want. It sounds like nothing else in my opinion.

The last one I bought not so long ago was is the Nord Wave. A very nice concept where you can use a complete sample (not wavetable) as an oscillator and you can even modulate with this. You can build very complex stuff with this. Nice on this synthesizer is also that they added some basic effects section with Delay, chorus, reverb and a very nice distortion (overdrive). So far the delay is not midi syncable. That is the only downside on this synthesizer in my opinion. Besides that I like it a lot. And one of the reasons I also bought is was the fact that Clavia has bought the rights to the original Mellotron samples and put them in there :) I just love those Mellotron strings and choirs. You will here them for sure on my next album. In the future I plan to do more in dept reviews of some of my synthesizers with some sound samples etc. But at the moment I don't have the time for this unfortunately. But this is definitely a synthesizer to check out! And no it is not a Nord Lead 4! The only thing I must say to end this post is that most of the presets are crappy. Clavia should have done a much better job on them. So test it out yourself more thoroughly than browsing presets. Play around with these presets until you hear what this beast can do.