Nord Wave 2

[RudyS]

Did someone already get this? Tim?

 

I"m still doubting about this one, would like to hear some opinions.

[Morizzle]

Sounds great, and most importantly it comes with a "Jump" preset.

 

[video:youtube]

[RedKey]

Out For Delivery Today...

[jeffincltnc]

For a guy who plays a Nord Wave 2, J3PO doesn't look very happy to be there in this video. He is always pouting.

 

Anyway, I digress. I really like the videos coming out on the Wave 2. I will be putting Jupiter X through the rounds here later this month. If I don't fall in love with the Jupiter X I can see myself giving Wave 2 a spin. They are really apples and oranges otherwise.

[RandyFF]

I really like the videos coming out on the Wave 2. I will be putting Jupiter X through the rounds here later this month. If I don't fall in love with the Jupiter X I can see myself giving Wave 2 a spin. They are really apples and oranges otherwise.

Apples and oranges? How so?

[ProfD]

For a guy who plays a Nord Wave 2, J3PO doesn't look very happy to be there in this video. He is always pouting.

I Just thought he was really into the music he's playing.

[John Salazar]

Anyone know how much free space is on the top right side? I'm thinking of paring this with a Gemini DSP Sound module and a set of hardware MIDI drawbars (D9X) for an a true all-in-one single board solution. Not the end of the world if a module can't fit in that open space but it would be pretty dang convenient.

[bjosko]

I do not know if there are room for a module, but another essential point if you want to drive another module are if it trigger midi from a high point, which I do not think.

Also, the pianos are perhaps not quite up to the same level as a Electro or Stage ?

I do not know if it can load Nords piano format, or only from the general sample section.

You might try and ask over at norduserforum.com , there are some users with more experience with the model.

[ElmerJFudd]

I do not know if there are room for a module, but another essential point if you want to drive another module are if it trigger midi from a high point, which I do not think.

Also, the pianos are perhaps not quite up to the same level as a Electro or Stage ?

I do not know if it can load Nords piano format, or only from the general sample section.

You might try and ask over at norduserforum.com , there are some users with more experience with the model.

 

It can load the Nord library, including the pianos. Nope it can't. Ha! of course it can't, otherwise you wouldn't need a Stage.

 

Can an owner share if it can do high trigger point over MIDI to drive an HX3 or Mojo module etc?

[ElmerJFudd]

Anyone know how much free space is on the top right side? I'm thinking of paring this with a Gemini DSP Sound module and a set of hardware MIDI drawbars (D9X) for an a true all-in-one single board solution. Not the end of the world if a module can't fit in that open space but it would be pretty dang convenient.

 

Do you already own the Gemini? If investing in the Nord Wave 2 and their sample library, Is be inclined to get a Mojo desktop with the drawbars included.

[jeffincltnc]

Wave 2 can load the Nord Sample 3.0 library (.nsmp3), but not the Nord Piano (.npno) format that is limited to State/Electro/Grand/Piano instruments. The .npno instruments are the grands, uprights, EPs, harpsichord, DX, vibes/marimba, etc. that are multi sampled.

 

The Wave 2 loads the smaller .nsmp3 files which cover the broad range of sampled orchestral, mellotron, synth samples, etc. but the pianos and EPs in this category are small single level instruments and don't have the full piano engine level functions.

[John Salazar]

Anyone know how much free space is on the top right side? I'm thinking of paring this with a Gemini DSP Sound module and a set of hardware MIDI drawbars (D9X) for an a true all-in-one single board solution. Not the end of the world if a module can't fit in that open space but it would be pretty dang convenient.

 

Do you already own the Gemini? If investing in the Nord Wave 2 and their sample library, Is be inclined to get a Mojo desktop with the drawbars included.

 

I don't, but I would probably get the Gemini + D9X over the Mojo desktop due to the additional EP sounds.

[bjosko]

If EP (and organ) are your main goal with the Gemini, I would have gone for a Wave 2 and a Mojo61. The Mojo61 have the same EP as the Gemini, and as a bonus, you got the drawbars, nice keys, better controls and fewer cables to connect.

 

Ok, you will have to carry a board extra, but the M61 are light.

[AnotherScott]

Can an owner share if it can do high trigger point over MIDI to drive an HX3 or Mojo module etc?

Manual says nothing about a high trigger option internally, much less sending one over MIDI (which even boards with high trigger don't always do). If there's no documented control to enable it, I'd say it's a safe bet you can't enable it. ;-) It's rare to find it on any board that's not an organ, since it disables velocity. The only non-organ I'm aware of with a high trigger option is King Korg. (I don't know whether or not it sends it over MIDI.)

[RudyS]

The W2 is not very suitable as controller. You can only send from the general midi channel. There is an option to have every part send on their own channel, but this setting is temporarily and not stored. So every time you change a patch you have to set this in the global menu. Actually, this is one of the things holding me off at the moment.

[ElmerJFudd]

The W2 is not very suitable as controller. You can only send from the general midi channel. There is an option to have every part send on their own channel, but this setting is temporarily and not stored. So every time you change a patch you have to set this in the global menu. Actually, this is one of the things holding me off at the moment.

 

This information is disappointing. Ruins the idea of a Wave 2 w/ an organ module being a way to get an Electro with a serious synth engine. I guess the Nord Stage 3 Compact is still king of the roost. Unless you go Electro and pick up a JU-06 or something like that.

[AnotherScott]

This information is disappointing. Ruins the idea of a Wave 2 w/ an organ module being a way to get an Electro with a serious synth engine. I guess the Nord Stage 3 Compact is still king of the roost. Unless you go Electro and pick up a JU-06 or something like that.

For that approach, you'd want to go with the older Electro 5 rather than the 6. The 5 had more usable MIDI functionality, you could attach that Roland module and split the keyboard with a Nord sound on the bottom and the Roland sound (alone or layered with a Nord sound) above. You can no longer split internal/external sound sources on the Electro 6.

[ElmerJFudd]

This information is disappointing. Ruins the idea of a Wave 2 w/ an organ module being a way to get an Electro with a serious synth engine. I guess the Nord Stage 3 Compact is still king of the roost. Unless you go Electro and pick up a JU-06 or something like that.

For that approach, you'd want to go with the older Electro 5 rather than the 6. The 5 had more usable MIDI functionality, you could attach that Roland module and split the keyboard with a Nord sound on the bottom and the Roland sound (alone or layered with a Nord sound) above. You can no longer split internal/external sound sources on the Electro 6.

 

Thanks for that, Scott. These Clavia/Nord guys are crafty business men.

[AnotherScott]

These Clavia/Nord guys are crafty business men.

My guess is that it was not so much specifically a decision to drop a feature (i.e. for market/product segmentation), I think it probably fell by the wayside because the conceptual architectures of the machines are pretty different. The Electro 5 was based on the idea of there being an Upper section and a Lower section, and you chose the sound you wanted for the section. The Electro 6 (like the Stage series) takes the opposite approach. Instead of going to a section (range of keys) and assigning it a sound, you go to a sound and assign it to a section (range of keys). Basically, the E6 is no longer based on the the idea of "what do you want to do with this bunch of keys," but rather "where do you want to play this sound." So what they were doing on the E5 in this respect wouldn't have been consistent with the operation of the rest of the board on the E6, that approach wouldn't mesh with the new paradigm. The way to do it would have been, well, what they did on the Stage... create an Ext function as another sound that could be assigned to keys. But unlike what they did on the E5 where it was merely a couple of other menu options a user could invoke, the Stage approach to adding a MIDI split requires more hardware, something like this:

That is, it wasn't just a matter of programming in some MIDI routing options, but actually including additional hardware at additional manufacturing cost. And with a control section like that, you just know they would hear even more loudly, "how could you implement MIDI controller functions with no pitch and mod controls??" AKA if you give a mouse a cookie... ;-)

[ElmerJFudd]

[video:youtube]

[DJkeys]

Originally Posted by RudyS

The W2 is not very suitable as controller. You can only send from the general midi channel. There is an option to have every part send on their own channel, but this setting is temporarily and not stored. So every time you change a patch you have to set this in the global menu. Actually, this is one of the things holding me off at the moment.

 

This information is disappointing. Ruins the idea of a Wave 2 w/ an organ module being a way to get an Electro with a serious synth engine. I guess the Nord Stage 3 Compact is still king of the roost. Unless you go Electro and pick up a JU-06 or something like that.

 

Actually, you can send from the individual layers and the settings are stored per program.

 

According to the manual, the setting per layer (send and receive) is stored if the Global channel is set to Off:

 

When a Global MIDI channel is set, i.e. not set to Off, this page defines

the receiving MIDI channels for Layers A/B/C/D.

When the Global MIDI channel is set to Off, the channels defined on this

page will both send and receive MIDI, and are stored per-program. In

this scenario a Store operation needs to be performed for the settings to

be recalled when the program is loaded again.

 

-dj

[RudyS]

What is then meant by 'In this scenario a Store operation needs to be performed for the settings to

be recalled when the program is loaded again'?

[Adan]

So it sounds like each program can send on up to 4 different channels, which can be specified per program. If so, that would be extremely useful. Maybe Dr. Fortner can verify this. I'll drop a post over at Gearlab.

[DJkeys]

I just selected an empty patch and turned the global channel off. There is a message (!send on layer channels) that comes up. I then programmed a different channel for each layer and stored the program. Returning to the program with the global channel turned off, it remembers each of those channel assignments. If you turn global channel back on, it turns the layer assignments off. But they are remembered on a per program basis and will be instantiated whenever global channel is disabled.

 

-dj

[RudyS]

Thank you for confirming that DJkeys and sorry for the wrong information. I misinterpreted the manual. I can"t my original post however.

 

This feature might be thing to push me over the edge.