Performance Synthesizer
Reviews : Keyboard
Clavia are as well known for their
instruments' red livery as they are for the quality of their virtual
analogue synths. The new Nord Wave has definitely got the colour scheme,
but can it live up to the sonic reputation of its forebears?
Photos: Mark Ewing
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With its distinctive appearance and mould-breaking
return to the immediacy and sound of analogue, the Nord Lead set a high
standard when it appeared back in 1995. The series spawned three
distinct hardware incarnations, plus the revamped (and still current)
Nord Lead 2X. Now, some seven years after the Nord Lead 3, we see its
logical successor.
You'll be pleased to hear Clavia have finally
acknowledged built-in effects as a good idea, but it is the inclusion of
sample playback that marks an entirely new direction — and a new name!
Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the Nord Wave: a keyboard that
combines the essence of the Nord Lead with a hearty chunk of
quick-booting sample RAM.
Other than the text printed boldly on the panel,
there aren't many visual clues to this move into fresh territory. There's a much-needed LCD, so you can name your patches — as on the Nord
Lead 3. However, the LED-ringed encoders that set that synth apart from
its siblings have been retired (like the Nord Lead 3 itself) in favour
of a return to the original style of knobs. Rather than wallow in
elaborate comparisons with previous models, let's just pitch in, making
them whenever necessary.
Wave Rider
The Nord Wave is first and foremost a performance
instrument. Its 18 notes of polyphony are fine for most lead roles and
the added bonus of two 'slots' (A & B) available to each patch, is
an effective means of layering different sounds or quickly switching
between two related sounds. Think of each slot as a self-contained patch
that includes all the parameters that have a grey background on the
panel. Each slot thus has unique EQ and chorus settings, but not reverb,
delay and tube simulation, which are global. This system has served
Clavia well in the past, but whereas previous Nord Leads featured four
slots, the Nord Wave has just two, both of which share the single stereo
audio output.
The Nord Wave's generous patch library urges you to
spread out and experiment. There are eight banks of 128 patches, making a
massive total of 1024 which is, in effect, doubled if both slots are
used. It's never difficult to find your way around, either: the use of
categories and alphabetical sorting can greatly minimise the time spent
searching through the banks. Only three of these banks are initially
populated, and they feature prime examples of the factory string, choir
and organ samples, as well as acoustic and electric pianos, basses, and a
smattering of pads, leads and wibbly noises. If anything, it's
analogue-type voices that are thinnest on the ground, but a few hours of
knob-twiddling revealed the Nord Wave to be as adept in this department
as the Nord Lead 2x. Indeed, the Wave's tone seems closer to that synth
than the more blatantly digital Nord Lead 3.
Synthesis
As is often the case, I didn't receive a manual with
the review model. After skimming the on-line version and sitting with
the synth for five minutes, I realised it wasn't going to be necessary.
Clavia's ethos is to banish operational ambiguity as far as possible, so
there's minimal menu-hopping, and everything is laid out before your
eyes. Any buttons with alternate (shifted) functions have an associated
LED to inform you when these are in use.
Stripped down to the essentials: the rear panel of
the Nord Wave, featuring MIDI In and Out, stereo audio outs, pedal
connections, headphone socket and USB port for computer interfacing.
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Nord Wave synthesis consists of a familiar
twin-oscillator section, LFO and ADSR envelope architecture with an
additional two-stage modulation envelope, six different types of filter,
a dual-band EQ and chorus. Keeping things compact, the keyboard is four
octaves long and the whole instrument weighs only 6kg. Happily, Clavia
have retained their wonderful and unique pitch-bender and also the thin
modulation wheel, transposition buttons and chord memory. The last is
nifty: you play a chord, which the synth memorises, assuming the first
note is root. Chord memory then triggers up to three notes relative to
every note you play which, with practice, becomes a slick performance
trick.
If you've followed any previous reviews of Clavia
synths, you'll know about their system of 'morphing', a slick method of
bringing patches alive via performance controllers. However, although
the keyboard is capable of generating velocity and aftertouch data, I
was disappointed to find that aftertouch is not available as a morph
source. The Nord Lead 3 could exploit aftertouch as a morph source, so
why not the new kid on the block too? I wonder if this omission reflects
a lack of confidence in the keyboard action, as the aftertouch response
is a tad stiff.
There are three morph sources: velocity, keyboard
position and mod wheel/control pedal, while aftertouch can only be
routed to a fixed destination — vibrato. This is a rare menu-based
parameter: an LFO devoted to pitch. On the subject of morphing, I should
point out that a green LED associated with each 'morphable' control
lights during morphing. It isn't as pretty or informative as the Nord
Lead 3's implementation, but at least you can instantly tell which
parameters are affected.
Strangely, the transpose buttons affect any notes
currently sounding unless you first enable 'Global Octave' mode,
although I can't see why this is not the default behaviour. And if I was
baffled by transposition, I was positively miffed to see that there's
no arpeggiator! I particularly loved the Nord Lead 3's arpeggiator; it
would have been a killer on the Wave, especially as a means of
triggering sampled drums, basses and so on.
There are a couple of further hints at a battle to
keep costs down. The rear panel has MIDI In and Out but no Thru, whilst
audio output is via a single stereo jack pair, shared by both patch
'slots'. Add control and sustain pedal inputs, a headphone socket and a
USB port for sample and patch transfer and that's the rear panel
covered.
Mellotron Samples
Clavia are rightly proud of their library of
Mellotron samples. The Nord Wave arrives with over 160MB of its RAM
ready-populated with samples, many taken from the Mellotron collection
(and it still boots in less than 15 seconds!). At the time of writing,
the free Mellotron library on Clavia's web site weighs in at over 250MB
and features classic strings, choirs, brass and many more. Whilst these
samples are good — marvellous, in many cases — don't expect to find
every single note sampled, as would be required to exactly mimic a
Mellotron. However, what you do get sounds authentic enough and is
audibly superior to similar samples in my Emu Vintage Keys and Roland
JV2080. And don't forget, having this library is just the start. You can
do what original Mellotron owners never could and put these
other-worldly sounds through a quality analogue-type synthesizer. This
alone might be reason enough to own a Nord Wave.
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I mentioned earlier that each patch functions like a
two-part performance; you can even specify bi-timbral operation and
control each slot from a separate MIDI channel. Curiously, though, there
is no keyboard split function: active slots are always layered over the
full range. Thus, should you wish to play one slot from the keyboard
and sequence the other externally, you must first ensure that the
externally controlled slot is set not to respond to keyboard input. For
troubleshooting MIDI problems, the MIDI status LED flashes, with visibly
shorter blips whenever incoming data fails to match any channel the
Nord Wave is set to respond to.
Very sweet.
For editing operations, you must select a slot to
tweak — there's no option to edit both simultaneously. I looked, but in
vain, for a knob 'pass-thru' or 'catch' mode so that I could tweak one
slot, then select and tweak the other without risk of audible parameter
leaps. There is no patch-compare facility either, but as you can copy
the contents of slots freely and there are lots of banks to fill, that's
not so much of a drawback.
Oscillators
Much of the Nord Wave's sonic versatility arises
from two fully featured oscillators, only the second of which
incorporates sample playback. It follows that to layer two samples
necessitates use of both slots, with a corresponding halving of
polyphony.
Each oscillator features the expected modelled
analogue waveforms and a decent FM implementation. An unlabelled encoder
is situated beneath the waveform button, and depending on which
waveform type is in use, allows you to choose from the range of waves,
samples or FM algorithms on offer. In addition, oscillator one has a
'Misc' option. Currently this is a noise source, the Shape knob serving
as a low-pass filter making the noise more pink and rumbly. Perhaps we
can anticipate further additions to Misc in future, so that it's even
more miscellaneous! When the square wave is selected, the Shape knob
controls its pulse width, but choose any other waveform and nothing
happens, which seems like an opportunity missed.
The Nord Wave's Wave Manager software provides
simple but effective non-destructive sample editing, and also handles
various library tasks.
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Sticking with Oscillator 1 a little longer, its Wave
option has 62 digital waveforms. The manual uses the term 'wavetable'
to describe these, but don't expect this to equate to the Waldorf (or
Access) meaning of the term. These waves are static, single-cycle
jobbies, not open to having either their position in the table or their
waveform modulated in any way I could deduce. Wave is still fun, though,
with lots of buzzy, fuzzy and decidedly electronic noises ready for
action.
Both oscillators have a simple yet eminently usable
FM section featuring 19 different two-operator FM algorithms. The Shape
control adjusts FM amount and feedback simultaneously. This, although
less flexible than it might be, produces a wide variety of FM tones with
minimal effort. There is no sine wave in the oscillator section, but
you can create one by setting oscillator type to FM and Shape to zero.
'Where would we be without the rich, grungy tones of
oscillator sync?', I hear you ask! Activate sync and a hidden
oscillator pops into life, its frequency controlled by the Shape
setting. You don't hear this directly, just its effect on Oscillator 1.
This was where I particularly missed aftertouch as a morph source — I
wanted to modulate the Shape parameter with pressure and I wanted it
bad! Sync only works with the modelled analogue oscillators.
When we turn to Oscillator 2 we finally encounter
the trump card of the Nord Wave, the gene that makes it the black sheep
of the Nord Lead family. Select the Samp option to gain access to a
maximum of 99 user samples, either sourced from Clavia's library or from
your own. Given that there is a whopping 180MB of Flash sample memory —
that's right, it remains after power off — I felt that offering only 99
possible sample locations was pretty stingy. Assuming that the
restriction isn't due to the two-character display used, perhaps a
future OS upgrade can change this. As you turn the encoder, the sample
number is incremented in the display and, helpfully, the sample name is
also shown on the main LCD. Samples are prepared in the supplied Wave
Manager software and may be either mono or stereo. It's highly
satisfying to dial up a lush stereo string patch, then give it the full
Nord hands-on treatment. If hardware samplers had had a user interface
like this, the species might still be flourishing today!
We'll look at Wave Manager and the creation of user
samples shortly, but in the pursuit of neatness, let's first round off
the remaining oscillator features. Oscillator 2 has another new sound
source: Swav. This is a subtly different digital waveform
implementation; its waves are similar to those of Oscillator 1 but with
the crucial difference that a short sample attack component is grafted
on. With this in mind, Clavia chose more realistic waveforms for
Oscillator 2. In conjunction, a decay control sets whether the waves
will fade out over time. Either Swav or Samp waveforms are eligible for
decay: combine either with a 'synthy' waveform from Oscillator 1 and voilà
— realistic S&S-type synthesis! The 'Skip Sample Attack' button
activates an alternate start point in the Samp or Swav wave. In the case
of Samp you set this via the Wave Manager software; for Swav, the
alternate start points are fixed, immediately post the attack component.
Continuous control over sample start, as on the Korg ESX1, for example,
would be better still.
The last bottle in the oscillator spice rack is Osc
Mod (Oscillator Modulation), which comes in two zingy flavours:
Frequency Modulation and Phase Modulation. The former is capable of
atonal, strident results, the latter sounds more like FM as Yamaha made
it famous. Osc Mod turns Oscillator 2 into a modulation source for
Oscillator 1 and does so for all oscillator types. If you set both
oscillators to FM, more complex (four-operator) FM is possible.
Filter
Clavia have programmed many different filter models
over the years. The Nord Modular series and the Nord Lead 3 offered
complex filter types that transcended the primal urge to be 'Moogish'.
In the Nord Wave, just six different types have been chosen, each with
an alternate personality courtesy of the 12dB or 24dB slope switch. Even
though there is but one low-pass filter model, it's a cracker,
perfectly suited to analogue synth mimicry. The Comb filter offers
anything from gentle phasing to almost sync-like tones. It is less
ringing and metallic than some comb filters, but in a synth where
controllability and musicality score higher than warped freakishness,
this makes perfect sense.
Switching to the Multi setting, we obtain a filter
with three resonant peaks. The distance between the peaks is fixed, with
the centre frequency set by the cutoff, and resonance controlling the
overall depth. This filter produces a rich, electronic overlay to any
oscillator source, and is capable of turning a sampled string ensemble
into an ethereal mush in seconds.
Speaking of ethereal mush, the Vocal filter is my
personal favourite after the low-pass. It employs two resonant peaks
which can be manipulated to resemble vowel sounds. The resonance control
varies the distance between the peaks, and cutoff frequency applies a
shift, which can be quite dramatic over its full range. I was able to
generate some beautifully expressive choir patches using the morph
function with this filter: I set velocity to raise the cutoff frequency
whilst the mod wheel swept the resonance. As with the Comb and Multi
filters, you must set resonance to anything above zero to hear any
effect.
Finally, keyboard tracking of the filter is
available via a button, with four discrete options from zero to full
tracking. Another button maps velocity directly to filter envelope
amount.
Effects
As a long-term advocate of onboard effects,
especially for their convenience in live situations, I'm very happy to
see them make an appearance here. Each slot has unique chorus and EQ
settings. The delay, reverb and a tube amplifier simulation are global,
affecting both slots equally.
The two-stage equaliser offers ±15dB boost or
attenuation and has fixed frequencies of 4kHz and 100Hz for treble and
bass. EQ can make a tremendous difference to a synth and does so here,
the high end being particularly well suited to airy strings. If you set
the gain to anything other than zero, a red LED lights to tell you.
The stereo chorus is every bit as good as that of
my old Roland Juno 6, ranging from slow and deliciously swirly — like a
languidly stirred cappuccino — to lightly fuzzy and warm. The third,
combined setting is so rich it could lead to unseemly rumbles if taken
late in the evening. A lush yet usable ensemble.
Turning to the delay, we see that its time is set
either via a knob or by the tap tempo button. Its range is between 64ms
and 2.26s, and either mono or stereo modes are on offer. Unfortunately
there is no MIDI sync option, although the tap tempo button is a
substitute of sorts. For sequenced stuff I'd have liked MIDI sync — and I
suspect I'm not alone. The delay's feedback has just four settings,
ranging from one repeat to near-looping. This is another case where a
continuous control would have been superior, as 'playing' the delay
feedback is an integral part of many vintage synth performances. As
there seems plenty of free panel space left, it's a pity that one more
knob couldn't have been added. Still, I shouldn't complain too much: at
least it does have a delay, it is easy to use and sounds good.
Moving on, the reverb is a pleasant encounter, with
simplicity the order of the day. Five reverb types are provided; there
are room, stage and hall simulations, the stage and hall having bright
or mellow personalities. A single Amount knob is the only control
available, but fortunately, each 'verb sounds good enough to use 'as is'
— it could certainly save you an effects box on stage.
If the reverb is a simple affair, it's in the
Profumo league compared to the Tube Amp effect. With just on/off and
Amount settings, this simulation of a tube amplifier adds big, hairy,
swinging attitude to synth solos and basses. Used sparingly, it instils a
lovely yet warm presence, but I felt it maybe got a bit too much, too
soon on the dial. The global nature of these effects is something you
can live with, but is most limiting in the case of the Tube Amp, which
would be ideal on a distorted solo but would wreck anything mellow
layered with it.
Wave Manager
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I've deliberately left the software component of
this review until last, not least because the Nord Wave is an instrument
designed to be played rather than moused around with. Despite being
someone who prefers to keep music-playing and computer operation far
apart, I had previously been impressed by the no-nonsense software for
Clavia's Modular synths, and I was quickly won over by Wave Manager.
Indeed, once you accept that it's logical to keep all computery stuff
out of the synth, why not put it where your sample libraries (probably)
reside!
The system requirements are a PC running XP or
Vista, with a minimum of 512MB of RAM. For a Mac, 512MB is needed too,
along with OS 10.4 or later. As a punter rather than a reviewer, you'll
probably get a DVD with your Nord Wave, so you'll need a DVD drive and,
of course, a USB port to connect to the synth.
Having installed software and drivers, the important
concept to grasp right away is that each project created in Wave
Manager is your means of generating a new sample-based 'instrument'. A
mere 99 of these instruments can be stored in the Nord Wave's 180MB of
flash RAM. You can choose to have instruments uploaded automatically
when created, and if you do so, it's crucial to begin a new project when
you load a fresh batch of samples: changing the samples but keeping the
project name the same will mean the original being overwritten. This is
one area where a printed manual might have been good after all,
especially as the program does not feature built-in help.
The Nord Wave's front panel embodies Clavia's pleasing 'physical controls whenever possible' philosophy.
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There are several ways to assign user samples when
you create a new instrument. The editor can recognise the key or note
number when it forms part of the sample's name — FluteC3 or Piano_44,
for example — and can automatically map these onto the appropriate keys.
This is one of several time-saving features. Alternatively, the editor
will extract multiple samples from within a single WAV file. Specify the
note interval between samples and the threshold level at which a sample
is considered to have ended, and let it work its magic. At any time you
can manually change a sample's root note and upper key limit, and since
an instrument may have up to 91 non-overlapping zones that's 91
different samples. If you use so many, you'll certainly need those
transpose buttons!
Think of an instrument as a conventional multisample
in which samples can be freely mixed, whether looped or non-looped,
chromatically tuned or at constant pitch across the keyboard.
Effortlessly, I assembled a bunch of drum loops over a short range of
keys, a bass over a couple of octaves and a solo flute higher up. USB
transfer to the Nord Wave happened without me even needing to think
about it.
Editing is non-destructive, which is what you want
to hear, given the likely importance of your sample collection! Stereo
or mono WAVs at up to 24-bit are supported, and their loop information
is recognised. And although Wave Manager doesn't attempt to replace your
existing audio editor, its crossfade looping implemention is quite
effective and could prove sufficient for most applications.
As you play notes on the keyboard, you can see on
screen which samples will be triggered; you can audition them via your
computer's soundcard, set the alternate start position of a sample,
modify the gain and tuning of individual samples, transpose the whole
thing and more. You needn't even be connected to a Nord Wave, so can
assemble projects off-line for later upload. Naturally, the software
also serves as a librarian for individual patches, banks or samples, and
supports intuitive dragging and dropping of its various file types.
It does take a while to back up the entire Wave
across USB — about eight minutes — but 180MB is a decent amount of Flash
RAM, especially when you take into account the lossless compression
algorithm Clavia have developed to reduce sample sizes by up to a third.
Management of available sample memory is mostly seamless; a bar shows
used space, free space and space yet to be deleted from RAM. My only
problem arose after purging several megabytes of wholly unnecessary
accordions. When I attempted to return this liberated space to the fold,
the synth and software simply hung on me. A quick email to Clavia
prompted me to install a brand new OS (1.08), fixing this very issue.
Sorted!
Conclusion
I've approached this review as if the Nord Wave was
simply the latest Nord Lead. I accept it isn't called a Nord Lead, but
it easily could be. It's my favourite of them to date! This is an
elegant demonstration that a fair number of carefully chosen features is
a viable alternative to the 'zillion possibilities, zillion hurdles'
school of synthesizer design.
The Nord Wave has evolved out of a very particular
design mindset; it will either click with you, or not. A musical
instrument should not be judged purely against a spreadsheet of feature
lists and big numbers: it should feel right, being versatile, immediate
and intuitive, so you are inspired to play it and keep playing. That
said, however, I can't help it if I have high expectations of my
hi-tech. I get greedy, especially when out of my preferred budget zone.
So yes, I was disappointed that there's no arpeggiator. Or keyboard
splits. And that the aftertouch implementation was so limited. To a
lesser degree, I sulked a bit because MIDI sync was not available to the
LFOs or the delay. However, I was glad to see effects included at long
last, and very pleased that both the reverb and chorus sounded so good.
I never once missed not being able to sample on the
Nord Wave — surely this is what computers, screens and mice are for
anyway? But that thing I said earlier about big numbers... well, since
you can use samples, and since there's lots of memory to put them in,
why oh why can only 99 instruments be loaded at once? I realise that
each of these could potentially be a mighty multisampled monster, but
there are times when you need to access hundreds of individual loops or
one-shot samples without first organising them into multisamples, no
matter how easy that is to do.
Make no mistake, when you start to build your own
instruments you really appreciate the Nord Wave's strengths. Not that
the provided samples, the Mellotrons especially, are anything less than
wonderful. But Nords are for programming and this one raises the bar in
terms of the uniquely rich, organic tones it can produce. If it only
possessed Ableton-like warping, for tempo control of loops, it could
contain most of my live set!
Hearing realistic pianos, strings and choirs
alongside smoothly accessible modelled analogue sounds is no mere
novelty. In fact the Nord Wave, as of today, is in a league of its own.
The last time a new synth grabbed me quite this much was the Roland
V-Synth, back in 2003, and that instrument is still the closest rival I
can think of. Yet as the V-Synth can't create multisamples and its
virtual analogue engine is way less convincing, they complement each
other rather than covering the same ground. Somehow Clavia keep managing
to leap ahead of the pack by creating these classic,
simple-yet-powerful instruments. A winner.
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