Nord has presented to the world his new creature, the Nord Wave 2. An old-fashioned synthesizer, with features to give and take.
The Wave 2 comes loaded with possibilities, with synthesis GOES (virtual analog), wavetable, FM synthesis and Sample. Plus, with its four multitimbral parts, it may be the only synthesizer you need.
Build quality and possibilities for your live performances are hugely important to Nord keyboards. He Wave 2 It is no different: its panel contains knobs, buttons and sliders to adjust and vary the parameters of your sounds in real time. Its keyboard, as always, is a paragon of quality, with 61 semi-weighted keys with aftertouchwith 3 division points.
The Oscillator
The oscillator section is where the Wave 2’s main difference lies with the rest of the synths: the four synthesis possibilities make it an ideal instrument for both poppers as for machineheads. From the typical saw and sine waveforms to samples from the Nord Sample Library 3.0, passing through the most esoteric wavetables and FM synthesis, with their formants and harmonics, everything fits in this Wave 2… Well, not everything, but you have 1Gb to load samples from the Sample Library (you can delete the included memory locations). More than enough to not get bored for a few years.
He LFO generates triangle, square, sawtooth, inverted sawtooth or sample & hold. It can be routed to Filter Frequency, Oscillator Tuning and Oscillator Modulation. LFO frequency can be synchronized with the clock master.
He arpeggiator has a classic mode (with up, down, up-down, random and zig-zag modes) and includes a polyphonic modeaccompanied by another mode gate editable on your OLED screen:
Includes a multimode filter12 or 24 dB/O, with high-pass, low-pass, band-pass, high-pass+low-pass, and ladder filter modes Moog Style. It also has overdrive for the ADSR filter and envelope.
The amplifier section features ADSR envelope and a modeTransient Attack” for more agile sounds.
Subsequently, there is the effects section, which includes Tremolo, Pan, Ring Modulation, Chorus, Ensemble and Vibe. They also have an eq with overdrive, reverb and delay. And this for each part of the 4.
Wave 2 Connectivity
Connectivity is going well, but without fuss. Personally I miss the 4 individual outputs of the Leads, which allow each of the multitimbral parts to be output through a different output to help with mixing. Everything else is included: L and R jack outputs, headphones, 5-pin MIDI input and output, USB for MIDI and for synchronization with the Nord Sample Editor, and a foot control input:
All this, of course, comes at a price, especially coming from Nord’s Stockholm crafts factory, which we were lucky enough to visit a couple of years ago. €2500 may be a lot of money, but the Wave 2 is worth it. Every euro cent.
- Seen on MusicRadar.
- Follow Nord online
- Buy it:
- Nord Wave 2 in MadridHifi
