Unsound Practices Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 A Christmas gift for me from my wonderful partner... Last Christmas I was given a Nord Electro 2/73 so that I did not need the van to go to most practices. I am looking at a light weight synth to compliment my Electro for practices and pick up gigs. I've narrowed it down to the Alesis Ion and Nord Lead 2X. If you had to gig/jam with an Electro and one of those two 'boards, which would it be and why? Genre is dance rock, old and new, from the 'Stones to The Killers. In a perfect world, said synth would compliment my main live rig (PC1x/ES7) as the Electro does with its superior Hammond emulation. FYI I have two AN cards and a DX card in the ES7. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. EDIT: It turns out the Ion is about US$1,000 here , and a demo NL3 is available for US$1,400. Hmmmmm "More tools than talent" Motif ES7:Kurzweil PC1x:Electro 2 73:Nord Lead 3:MKS-80:Matrix 1000:Microwave XT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tusker Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 They are both good. Let me suggest considering their stable-mate as well: the NL3 and the Micron. Personally, if you wanted to tweak live. I'd spend on the NL3 if I could. If you want to play the presets only, look at a Micron too. NL2 has a distinct sound. IMO it is classy, but not vintage analog. Ion does a better job of nailing vintage analog. To my preference the Nord interfaces rule for intuitive tweaking while playing. NL3 has aftertouch while NL2 and Ion don't. Ion has some effects the others don't, but none of them has a full effects processor with reverb and delay with the exception of the Micron. So you may or may not need to add an outboard processer, depending on your style. "Dance rock" sounds like it's in need of tempo synced delays. Hope this helps, Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 I'd go for the NL2X if polyphony is important to you. You can stack and split several sounds before you start running out of voices. The NL2X goes well with the Electro, since it is red (and the sound goes well with it too)! The Ion has filter modeling, which may give you more sound variety and it also has a display for patch naming that is lacking on the NL2X. It also has some built-in FX, whicht he NL2X does not. It is a bit of a personal preference thing for you - neither would be a bad choice. I personally think that the NL2X would be a great choice due to polyphony, sound that cuts like crazy and overall cool interface and form factor (small, everything on the left side of the panel). Regards, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 NL2 cuts through on stage and has lots of polyphony. MAKE SURE to play with the pitch stick before deciding. There is no way I can play some of my leads with that "thumby-stick". Robert This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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