---

AKAI
ALESIS
CLAVIA
E-MU
ENSONIQ
KORG
KURZWEIL
ROLAND
WALDORF
YAMAHA



HARDWARE

AARDVARK
ECHO
EDIROL
FATAR
MIDIMAN
TERRATEC

Clavia Nord Lead 2 Virtual Analog Synthesizer

First there was the analog age, great fat basses, screaming leads, warm pads, and lots of knobs to tweak your own unique sounds. Then came the digital age, clean digital sounds, samples, lots of polyphony, MIDI, presets, reliable machines. It was fun for a while, but we were missing something. Finally Clavia combined the best of both worlds, and the Nord Lead was born. We got our knobs back, and the good old analog sounds in a digital environment. The fat bass is back, and now we can save and reproduce the results of our tweaking. The sound generation used in Nord Lead synthesizers is called 'virtual analog'. Instead of analog components they use digital signal processors (DSP), programmed to emulate analog synthesis. The programming is made very carefully to reproduce the warmth and richness of the traditional analog sound. Clavia has analyzed analog synthesizer design in detail and implemented the research in several digital models. The Nord Lead employs mathematical simulations of the electronic signal generated by analog oscillators, instead of using waveform tables. This makes it possible, for example, to sweep the pitch smoothly over a very wide range and allow for true pulse width modulation. Also, the character of the Nord Lead filter has a typical analog behavior when swept with a high Q-value. But it doesn't stop there; the technique opens up for much more sound possibilities than "just" analog sound. You can create crisp or really nasty "analog-digital" sounds that widely exceeds the limits of competing products. That's one of the reasons why the Nord Lead synthesizers has become so popular around the world. The Nord Lead synthesizer does it all... and more. Awesome leads, booming basses, frantic techno - at your fingertips. Every function has a knob, just like it used to be in the good old days. No more complex menus! Total real time control and instant accessibility make it a breeze to shape the sounds exactly the way you want them. The fact that the sound generation is software based makes it possible to upgrade the Nord Lead synthesizer with new functions as the development proceeds.

FEATURES :

• 16 voices. 4 part multi-timbral.
• Velocity programming: Each function that is controlled by a knob, can be programmed to be controlled by velocity.
• Morphing: Each function, that is controlled by a knob, can also be controlled by the modulation wheel / pedal to continuously fade between two sets of values.
• 4-octave velocity sensitive keyboard (Nord Lead Only)
• Octave Shift buttons (5 oct.) (Nord Lead Only)
• Keyboard Split, two sections (Nord Lead Only)
• Wooden Pitch Stick, designed to change the pitch continuously without any dead spots. (Nord Lead Only) It gives you complete control of the pitch and allows you to make true and natural vibrato. The effect increases exponentially as you move it further from the center.
• Modulation Wheel for modulating a number of selectable destinations. Looks great, feels great, works great. (Nord Lead Only)
• 1 pedal input for sustain and 1 for expression pedal.
• Oscillator 1 generating sinus, triangle, sawtooth or pulse with adjustable width, wave forms.
• Oscillator 2 generating triangle, sawtooth or pulse (with adjustable width) wave forms and can also generate noise with a color control.
• Oscillator 2 can be hard "synched" to oscillator 1.
• Linear deep frequency modulation of osc 1 from osc 2.
• A wide range of new waveforms with a strong formant character is achieved with the new synchable noise, where noise can be synched to Osc. 1.
• 12 dB "2 pole" lowpass, 24 dB "4 pole" lowpass, bandpass or highpass.
• Cut off, resonance, envelope amount, envelope amount controlled by velocity. ADSR envelope.
• Filter keyboard tracking can be set to full, half or off.
• Filter distortion.
• ADSR envelope, gain control.
• Lfo 1 generating triangle, saw, pulse, LF filtered noise and random staircase routed to Osc 1+2, Osc 2, filter, pulse-width and FM amount.
• Lfo 2 produces a triangle waveform, routed to Osc 1 and 2 or amplifier. It also controls the rate for the arpeggiator.
• Arpeggiator: Range: 1 - 4 octave. Modes: up, down, up/down, random. Echo can be set between 1 and 8 repeats.
• Modulation envelope (attack, decay) for Osc 2 pitch, FM amount and pulse width.
• Play mode: Poly, legato, mono, unison mono, unison poly. Manual mode.
• Four program slots for layering possibilities.
• Portamento / auto portamento.
• 10 analog drumkits. Each percussion kit holds 8 independent sounds, configured in 8 zones across the keyboard.
• 40 user-programs, 59 factory programs and 100 factory performances. An additional 297 (99 x 3) user-programs, 100 user-performance programs and 30 drumkits can be saved on a PCMCIA 64 (or more) kilobyte battery backed SRAM card.
• 4 audio outputs. Each slot have its own output. Modes: Stereo, mono and multitimbral mode.
• Headphones output. High resolution and low noise, 18 bit DAC.
• MIDI features : All control knobs and switches for program editing send and receive Control Change messages.
• System exclusive bulk dumps. One program or all programs. MIDI clock synchronizing LFO 1 and LFO 2/arpeggiator.
• Triggering of the filter and amplifier envelopes and velocity control from separate programmable MIDI channel and note numbers.
• Nord Lead 2 Dimensions : 865(W) 265(D) 105(H) mm. 34.0"(W) 10.4"(D) 4.1"(H).
• Nord Lead 2 Weight: 14.7 lbs.(6.7 kg.)
• Nord Rack 2 Dimensions: 435(W) 210(D) 105(H) mm., 19" rack mountable, 4 units high.
• Nord Rack 2 Weight : 4.5 kg: