@AudioPilz, oh man, that second jam had a wicked little bass line running on it, tops work! Erm, have you actually ever released any music, because I have to say, you're bloody good!
Amazing finale jam! For all the humour in your shows, it's sometimes easy to forget that you're actually a flipping talented electronic composer/arranger! Excellent stuff :-)
The Nord Lead2, Waldorf Microwave II, and Access Virus were “the sound” of late 90s electronic music. They were the DX7, Wavestation, and D50 of their era. Ubiquitous.
I read on a Keyboard magazine review by Jim Aikin several decades ago, that the wooden pitch stick mechanism is made out of a fighter jet stick. For those who have never used one: it is the best pitch bend controller by far. No neutral spots. It bends pitch as soon as you touch it. I currently own NS3, NW2 and NL4.
I bought a Nord lead 2X for $900 last year. At first I assumed I had paid too much until I realized just what a power house it is. 4x multi timberal, 20 voices and a fantastic UI. It can do bread and butter subtractive but I think it's main strength lies in the weird robot FM digital funk you can program with it. For R&B, house and other genres like that it's amazing.
I got my NL2X second-hand well over 10 years ago. Still learning things on it. I have a Roland aJuno2 with an outboard controller I don't love but it does the job. Much prefer the Nord for sound design.
Everything Nord has ever made is shit. Soulless, cold, flat and outright bad sounding. You always know an artist is going to dissapoint, and the sound is going to suck when you see a red keyboard on stage. God awful stuff.
The Nord Lead line has always been one of my favorite flavor of synth, so this was quite a treat. I would love to see you cover the Nord Modular series!
Such an awesome synth! I had the rackversion and loved it to bits. Harsh, in your face and surprisingly easy to lay into a mix. As opposed to the Virus B I had at the same time, which I just couldn’t get to fit in a mix whatever I tried. Could be my lack of skills though. Awesome video again!
Those second and third jams are some of the most intense tunes you've done on Bad Gear. MAD props! MAD props! "... dedicated space for all the Volcas." The Arturia Keylab 88 really shines in the "Society for Stacking Things On Top of Other Things" category. I think you need to wander up to the modern day and take a look at what hath the Cult of Uli™ wrought in the Deepmind 12, which seems to be a more Juno Juno than Roland's current Junos.
Love this video! I had a Nord Lead 2 for several years, I picked it up after seeing the jazz pianist Hiromi making use of one. But then one day, someone sold a Nord Lead 3 into the music store I was working in at the time, and I just couldn't resist. I ended up trading in the 2 to help cover the price of the 3, and I've never regretted the decision. The NL2 was a fantastic synthesizer, but the additional polyphony, built-in after touch, the enhanced FM synthesis capabilities, etc. all made me absolutely fall in love with the NL3, which I still have to this day.
Great Episode this synth was used on Trance records back in the 90s some of the patches sound familiar. Also some sad news if anyone in the comments doesn't know 3 famous synth celebrities died recently Vangelis died 2 weeks ago, Andy Fletcher (Depeche Mode) died a week ago, Dave Smith (Sequential) died 2 days ago. Synth channels on RUclips have been making tribute songs to all 3 legends would be cool if you did tribute tracks to all 3 audiopilz.
This may be my favorite Bad Gear episode yet. It was hilarious yet informative, and you showed it off at its best with the icecap melting suomisaundi psytrance jam.
My feelings towards the Lead 2 are pretty neutral, but damn… that poor synth! WHO DID THIS TO YOU?! Thank you for saving this one from an abusive home AudioPilz, you’re making the world a better place for synths everywhere
The Nord sounds very good especially when you added the compressor. Good enough to write a song or put down a dance groove IMO. Thx great vid as always .
The NL2 has a sound of it's own although adding some effects really brings the sound alive. I found it always sits well in tracks. Mine had to have a new power transformer but otherwise it's been a solid and reliable instrument. I still love the look of it. You've shown off the sounds really well.
My friend had the original Nord lead. In 1996 I thought it was amazing. A few years later I got a Korg MS2000r because it was $799 at the time, the Nord Lead was a lot more. I still think the Nord Leads are really cool.
just looking at this beat up lead reminds of a willhaben ad like two years ago - someone was selling the keyboard version of the nord modular g2 with literally half of the keyboard missing price: 2200€ condition: lightly used
SUOMISAUNDIIIIIIIIIIII hahahaha - great episode! i'd always thought i wanted a nord lead based on Synth1 being my most-used softsynth and it being based on the nord lead (though not an emulation), but when i realized just how much was added to that software that doesn't exist on this piece of kit, i couldn't justify it any more. it still has a distinct sound i quite enjoy, though!
Yes love it. The Nords definitely sound good in a mix. Your second jam instantly brought back memories of RhythmDroid's live jams on his RS7000 - very funky basslines.
It's a cool idea btw. 8000 has this reputation of a synth capable only of '90s trance supersaw' patches or something. I wonder what else BadGear could do with it!
@@AudioPilz In the shops I wanted to like the NL the most but I felt the AN1X had the better sound. They were all too expensive so never had either. Just looked at used prices on the AN1X, it's crazy.
Presumably it's been chucked in the boot of a few cars/vans on the way to and from some live shows. You have to play a few shows so you can earn the money to buy a flight case. But why would anyone buy a protective case when there's so much other bad gear to buy?
Love that comment at the end. I have my Hydrasynth Deluxe at last and got a Syntakt too for a sequencer and drum computer that brings some other synths and effects along for the ride. Now I'm looking at the spare space around that Syntakt and noticing that with a bit or caution a Norand Mono could probably share that spot. But it would definitely be much less tight to work out on that huge expanse of empty space on the nord lead 2
I remember a freebie VST synth Synth1 being sort of recreation of this machine. It was very versatile vst, you could sculpt almost any sound out of it even if the filter sounded a tad plastic (which by could be said about the actual nl2 by this video)
I've had my nord rack 2x for 17 years and have no intention of selling it. Can be cold but that sound has it's place. At least it hasn't disintegrated like my juno 106. Great review!
Well, that was a disappointment. I wrote a rather long comment and it deleted 99% of it when I posted it. I'll have to come back later and re-write that. I agreed with @ UnreaLSD Sounds. I have a NL3 as well and it's the bees knees.
@@tedstahl3794 4 op FM, way more oscillators curves and FM algorithm, bidirectional filter envelope, aftertouch, arp apart from the LFO, internal clock.....and the best: instant visual recallability. Only downside are the old 18bit 41 kHz DAC's
@@genomenoid Indeed! The NL3 has over 500 slots for saving patches, the ability to name patches, and one of the best knob-per-function interfaces ever made because upon dialing up a patch, you can instantly see what's going on. Add to that the four morph channels that are easily assignable and allow you to drastically modify a patch quickly and easily without painstakingly going through a complex modulation matrix - It's a programmer's dream! And it's RED! ;)
I was surprised to see this on here lol. The Nord does have a distinctive sound (bendy portamento and vague rough FM sound). But I still like it, I have a NL2X. Needed a bit of red in the studio.
I bought my NL2 for $200 US because half the keys weren't working. 20 minutes after opening it up I had it fixed and fell in love with it. The factory presets have the same presets as the original Prophet 5, and they sound excellent! I had to sell mine awhile back but have been looking for another deal ever since. And since this video was made I expect the price to up again. Stop showcasing the gear I want! You keep jacking the prices up! STOP IT!
Ain't it grand when you can scarf a total bargain from the "not working or for parts" bin and get it going again? Currently on the workbench I have an Alesis QS8.1 that I got for less than the price of dinner at a decent Italian place earlier this year. :D
@@AudioPilz No, no, the impact of the show cannot be overestimated! Informing subscribers early of upcoming gear and getting in trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allowing frontrunning on used gear sounds like a fun idea 😄
Mine has a Rudess's autograph on it! He-he B-] Also I don't know it's FM, filters or the thing itself is alive, but the Nord is capable of doing most bizarre organic sounds and noises. If you want, for example, fx for your scary movie about birds-mutants from Mars yet you're not completely insane to be able to handle a dx7 - Nord might be the choice.
you didn't mention how crazy aliasing this synth has. I mean it's almost as if they tried to make it sound aliased like that on purpose. I mean this has to be the most aliased synth ever.
I liked you video a lot ! Thank you !!! Nice joke about the space left on the Nord Lead to put the Volcas. Lot of tracks that I danced to in the 90th where made with a combination of Roland TR-909, TB-303, and a Clavia Nord Lead. Nowadays, I create a little music, and I often use the vst named Synth1 (a free emulation of a Nord Lead, between the 2 and 3, with an ugly but perfectly usable interface), it may not have the character of an analogue synth, but it has lot of capabilities and its alwais an easy synth to fit well with the rest of the mix.
I always wondered why so many bands in small bars and lounges in Brooklyn and Downtown used Nord Keyboards. Maybe they are versatile enough and take a beating and weren't as likely to get stolen as other stuff. Maybe the sound is not the best, but they seem to offer a very wide-ranging audio palette for small jam bands. Bad Gear with a purpose!
Well, Nords traditionally have good, neutral sounding pianos / leads / hammond emulation which are basically all what you need for a typical jam band, I guess.
They are really well made and reliable, which does add to their appeal. And for the piano/organ oriented ones, you're not brand locked. I have a Kawai stage piano, which only contains sounds from sampled Kawai pianos. The Nord PIano and the Stage have sounds from a load of different sampled instruments so you have far more flexibility.
Nord Leads had an interface, actual knobs. And they were very easy to understand, being subtractive synths. In the '90s synths didn't have knobs and it was a competition on who makes the most convoluted rompler with the worst interface possible. So of course a thing with the immediacy of controls, very simple synth engine that did things well enough and also small-ish footprint would've stood out.
@@wrmusic8736 Ahhh, the menu pages and buttons... they are just such joyous fun, and I don't resent the MANY hours wasted trying to make sense of them.... I use a Korg 01w which is frustrating at times, but it's not terribly bad. The Yamaha CS1x was a complete hell experience to program though. I'd love to know what variety of hallucinogenic the Yamaha design team were using when they thought a matrix grid of abbreviations was a sensible way to control the thing....
I used to stand in front of the Nord Leads in the music store and wanted one of those synths. I bought a Nord Lead (first version) 2 years ago and it's still my favorite synth! I can't live without it anymore.
The NL2 came out at the same time as the JP8000 and the AN1x, both of which were a lot cheaper and had more stuff. But the NL2 had the rep from the NL1 which was a total game changer, looked gorgeous and felt great to use. Bedroom producers (hordes of them!) bought either the Yamaha or the Roland. Pros generally bought the NL2.
NL2 sounds as good as NL1, but does more. I had both at the same time and kept the NL2 (well, rack 2) over the expanded NL1. It also sounds better to me (more organic grunge) than NL2X and beyond. Great synth! A bit of a shame you missed off the hidden easter egg synth engine in there "pelles mode" though :)
yeah definitely i had in my hands both NR2 and NR2x once and did some comparision of same patches and old NR2 definitely sounds more raw and aggresive, NR2x is more smooth and not that raw .. probably it's because of better D/A converters which ironically removes some kind of aggresive raw character from sound .. (NR == nord rack, rack version without keys)
@@raysubject actually in bass the 2X is greater and thicker, more grungy. Have them both, luv them both. 2x more for bass, 2 for the rest. Really great synths!!
I got a Rack 2 earlier this year and I love it. Lots of ahhh, there’s THAT sound moments. I haven’t even started messing with layering yet. I’d imagine you could make epic morphing pads on this thing.
Got both a NL1, NL2 (& NL3+ NMG1) here. Did some hard 1 to 1 comparisons between the 1 & 2, and came to the exact same conclusion as you. NL2 sounded just as good, with more of everything.
Bizarre but awesome take you got there with the NL2 in Jam1. Got a lot of potential there, Nord's in general have a very an-or-ganic take on synth sounds (NL3 and Wave user here). Really like it.
I don't need to pause and read the wall of hate this time. The fact that Hiromi Uehara has been using this synth for her entire career counters any argument against it's absolute awesomeness.
Autechre used a Nord Lead 1 for entire tracks. On their Cichlisuite EP I think it’s basically entirely a Nord Lead. Crazy capabilities, and that was just with 4 note polyphony
The strange thing with most '90s-00s VAs was that the more oscillators you added, the more boxy and predictable the patch sounds - instead of getting more massive or more nuanced.
At least half the churches I've seen with big online music presences are heavily invested in Nord - Leads, Stage Pianos, they're everywhere in worship music nowadays.
@@mrz80 yeah…probably the best deal in organs, pianos and those kinds of “basic tones.” It’s pro level without being pretentious or super expensive, especially if you get it second hand, not that most churches are hurting for money, lol.
This was my dream synth for many years. I finally bought a "decent" condition 1st gen keyboard model in 2017, upgraded it with the voice expansion, used it for a few 3-hour jams, and since then it's kinda sat in my studio as more of a display piece that I've used in a noise album and taken to a band jam once before realising it's not a great bass machine haha. Still love it though, and would never get rid of it (though am considering swapping for a NR2 for portability). It's so easy to get that mid-late 90s Autechre sound out of it.
I sold my Matrix 6 during some hard times in college. A couple months later I'd caught up and went back to Daddy's Junky Music and amazingly, it was still there, along with a NL2 which I also bought. I returned the NL2.
Great as ever - thanks! I always wanted one of these - still do - great design and I really like the sound. Autechre used a lot before they migrated to MaxMSP
I had the good fortune to borrow one of these puppies while working on an album a number of years ago. I was able to get some amazing sounds with it. Loved it through and through.
Audiopilz: *slaps roof of YT channel*
Full Tracks, Extended Jams, Sample Packs: www.patreon.com/audiopilz
Still the sickest synth channel on RUclips! Will he ever miss a beat folks?
@@williamtell1477 unlikely 😄
@AudioPilz, oh man, that second jam had a wicked little bass line running on it, tops work! Erm, have you actually ever released any music, because I have to say, you're bloody good!
Still waiting on that Quasimidi Quasar review.
😎🤘😎🤘😎🤘
Amazing finale jam! For all the humour in your shows, it's sometimes easy to forget that you're actually a flipping talented electronic composer/arranger! Excellent stuff :-)
Thank you so much!!!
He is misleading. He can extract a terrific tune from a set of pots...
yeah man the songs he makes are always so good! hes very talented man! inspiring
100%
True that. The multiple tracks featured in the video as well as the third eye candy slam jam at the end is funny but awesome at the same time.
The Nord Lead2, Waldorf Microwave II, and Access Virus were “the sound” of late 90s electronic music. They were the DX7, Wavestation, and D50 of their era. Ubiquitous.
Agreed!
Nailed it.
Ice as cold
Being ubiquitous means they where the most reliable to get things done at the time. So that's a compliment 😉
@@AudioPilz Still waiting on that Quasimidi Quasar review.
These things have SUCH an iconic stage presence/look, you know when you see one of these, even for just a moment. Brilliant design for purpose.
Yeah, it's so RED!!!
@@AudioPilz ohhhh yeah. But theres no way you're mistaking it for a Yamaha YC either.
The space for Volcas killed me lol
I especially love the one with the inverted colors for the keys 😮
The first version with the splayed back is the killer though
Nice timing for bringing up the OG Prophet ... RIP Dave Smith, another man/legend
RIP, the man, the legend! He will be missed
I've had this for almost 20 years and don't remember ever using it on a track. May I suggest the Nord Micro for a Bad Gear episode?
Hey Joris, thanks for the suggestion! Nice to have you around! (Trying to get my heart rate down and myself out of fanboy mode;)
@@AudioPilz Haha I'm the fanboy here, your channel is my fav atm, I think I've watched every episode.
Happy to hear that, thanks!!! Stick around!!!
I read on a Keyboard magazine review by Jim Aikin several decades ago, that the wooden pitch stick mechanism is made out of a fighter jet stick. For those who have never used one: it is the best pitch bend controller by far. No neutral spots. It bends pitch as soon as you touch it. I currently own NS3, NW2 and NL4.
Wow, didn't know that! Thanks for posting!
5:09 "I personally had no issues with it" while panning over a bunch of broken keys 😂 Love it 👌🏻
😀
It's had the pentatonic minor mod
Needs urgent A&E treatment. One shouldn't mock
@@willdavidson3073this made me spit out my coffee LMAO
I bought a Nord lead 2X for $900 last year. At first I assumed I had paid too much until I realized just what a power house it is. 4x multi timberal, 20 voices and a fantastic UI. It can do bread and butter subtractive but I think it's main strength lies in the weird robot FM digital funk you can program with it. For R&B, house and other genres like that it's amazing.
The multiple outputs are so great!!!
the synced noise is great, kind of a tiny wavetable. filter is smoother and more musical then on the NL2.
Eli died from Dysentery. Love the Oregon Trail.
check out the Nord Modular G2 / G2X
I got my NL2X second-hand well over 10 years ago. Still learning things on it. I have a Roland aJuno2 with an outboard controller I don't love but it does the job. Much prefer the Nord for sound design.
This is literally one of the best synths ever manufactured
...and still often criticised
with all due respect, no it isn't
Then you would like the NL3, which is the only one they made with encoders instead of pots, for seamless tweaking and morphing.
Everything Nord has ever made is shit. Soulless, cold, flat and outright bad sounding. You always know an artist is going to dissapoint, and the sound is going to suck when you see a red keyboard on stage. God awful stuff.
@@hepphepps8356 Cry moar!
No matter what subject/synth you choose to cover/review, it’s always so entertaining.
I really love your channel!
Thanks!!!
the second jam was my favorite piece of music I've heard from you! Funky af. More like that please!
Thank you!!!
This content just got exponentially better with every single video. Now it's my absolute must watch.
Thank you so much!!!
The Nord Lead line has always been one of my favorite flavor of synth, so this was quite a treat. I would love to see you cover the Nord Modular series!
I have a G1 here, let's see if I can find an excuse to put it on the show;)
@@AudioPilz I still have mine with it's dedicated laptop for programming, I think It's à pentium 4
That Nord Lead 2 looks well loved.
Such an awesome synth! I had the rackversion and loved it to bits. Harsh, in your face and surprisingly easy to lay into a mix. As opposed to the Virus B I had at the same time, which I just couldn’t get to fit in a mix whatever I tried. Could be my lack of skills though.
Awesome video again!
Thank you!!!
i agree. Much more fun than the virus.
I LOVE how you title your jams.
Thank you so much!
I just got to love the that you included polar bears in the SUOMISAUNDI video. That's attention to details.
Thanks!
That was a really nice ambient piece you made to test if it could sound “warm”! Great video as always!
Thank you!!!
I just route everything through my Analog Heat. Instant warmth.
Yet another great demo. Hope you are well.
Thank you so much!!! All good!
Those second and third jams are some of the most intense tunes you've done on Bad Gear. MAD props! MAD props!
"... dedicated space for all the Volcas." The Arturia Keylab 88 really shines in the "Society for Stacking Things On Top of Other Things" category.
I think you need to wander up to the modern day and take a look at what hath the Cult of Uli™ wrought in the Deepmind 12, which seems to be a more Juno Juno than Roland's current Junos.
Thanks! Cult of Uli™ - nice one!!!
Love this video! I had a Nord Lead 2 for several years, I picked it up after seeing the jazz pianist Hiromi making use of one. But then one day, someone sold a Nord Lead 3 into the music store I was working in at the time, and I just couldn't resist. I ended up trading in the 2 to help cover the price of the 3, and I've never regretted the decision. The NL2 was a fantastic synthesizer, but the additional polyphony, built-in after touch, the enhanced FM synthesis capabilities, etc. all made me absolutely fall in love with the NL3, which I still have to this day.
Thank you!!!
My god...It's a flipping beast. The second jam sounds Mr. Scruff like. Very nice!
Thank you!!!
@@AudioPilz Absolutely no problem You're entertaining
Anytime you do a trancey sort of jam you absolutely kill it man. That last one was really nice. 👏
Thank you so much!!!
Great Episode this synth was used on Trance records back in the 90s some of the patches sound familiar.
Also some sad news if anyone in the comments doesn't know 3 famous synth celebrities died recently Vangelis died 2 weeks ago, Andy Fletcher (Depeche Mode) died a week ago, Dave Smith (Sequential) died 2 days ago.
Synth channels on RUclips have been making tribute songs to all 3 legends would be cool if you did tribute tracks to all 3 audiopilz.
Thank you!!! Yeah, it's a big loss, RIP. Great idea!
This may be my favorite Bad Gear episode yet. It was hilarious yet informative, and you showed it off at its best with the icecap melting suomisaundi psytrance jam.
Thank you!!!
Probably one of my favorite montages. * Penguin raises beak to the sky * Whoooooosh!
Thanks! Arctic animals are hot!
I went from "yeah, I still don't get the Lead" to "oooooh! NOW I get it" with the last jam. Very, very nice.
It took me a while to get it too
I used to have one of these shame I sold it tbh!
I'm contemplating getting the rack version
Plainly Difficult is watching AudioPilz!
Seeing you here makes me worry that Nords contain some sort of toxic substance that will get misplaced and unalive people in a Brazilian Village
Love your channel too!
@@AudioPilz try the 2x rack
I was hoping youd do this one, thanks man!
Thanks for watching!
I don’t know how you did it, but you managed to find the Jankiest NL2 in the world 🌎 great video as always
Thanks!
Love the last tune! I think you did a great job of bringing the character out! (Room for volcas! +1)
Thank you so much!!!
My feelings towards the Lead 2 are pretty neutral, but damn… that poor synth! WHO DID THIS TO YOU?! Thank you for saving this one from an abusive home AudioPilz, you’re making the world a better place for synths everywhere
That's what touring with a band does to your body
someone doing a Trent Reznor impression... god i get so mad whenever i see him smash a synth!
@@AudioPilz ooof, ain’t that the truth 😂
@@AudioPilz a band of chimpanzees on acid?
It’s been well-loved 😉
The week-end won't be as good without our weekly dose of bad gear show to begin with ! Thanks a lot !
Thanks! Have a nice weekend!!!
Cool video as always! Got a killer VST of this one so missing the wood and stone parts..
Thanks!
That was awesome!! I especially liked how you showed us your moves in detail while you were making the second example song.
Thank you!!!
The Nord sounds very good especially when you added the compressor. Good enough to write a song or put down a dance groove IMO. Thx great vid as always .
Thank you! Agreed!
The last jam is just outstanding. Thanks!
Thank you!!!
I own a Nord Lead 2X and it sounds amazing. I love it.
Nice!
The NL2 has a sound of it's own although adding some effects really brings the sound alive. I found it always sits well in tracks. Mine had to have a new power transformer but otherwise it's been a solid and reliable instrument. I still love the look of it. You've shown off the sounds really well.
Thanks!!!
My friend had the original Nord lead. In 1996 I thought it was amazing. A few years later I got a Korg MS2000r because it was $799 at the time, the Nord Lead was a lot more. I still think the Nord Leads are really cool.
MS2K is great in its own right tho
just looking at this beat up lead reminds of a willhaben ad like two years ago - someone was selling the keyboard version of the nord modular g2 with literally half of the keyboard missing
price: 2200€
condition: lightly used
No lowballin', I know what I got;)
Wow that thing still sounds incredible! 🤯
It's a classic!
Nice! I liked every composition, man! :D
Thanks!
SUOMISAUNDIIIIIIIIIIII hahahaha - great episode! i'd always thought i wanted a nord lead based on Synth1 being my most-used softsynth and it being based on the nord lead (though not an emulation), but when i realized just how much was added to that software that doesn't exist on this piece of kit, i couldn't justify it any more. it still has a distinct sound i quite enjoy, though!
🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮Thanks🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮
YES!!! Been waiting for the one!!
😀
Yes love it. The Nords definitely sound good in a mix. Your second jam instantly brought back memories of RhythmDroid's live jams on his RS7000 - very funky basslines.
Thank you!!!
I had a Nord Modular and to this day I still miss it.
Have one here. LOVE it!
@@AudioPilz I hope it's on the list for an episode in the future 🙂
Of all the things I never expected would end up on Bad Gear!
Expect the unexpected;)
I hope you do the jp8000 it ticks all the supersaw boxes.
Great suggestion, thanks!
What a classic
It's a cool idea btw. 8000 has this reputation of a synth capable only of '90s trance supersaw' patches or something. I wonder what else BadGear could do with it!
I support that. I have enough to complain about that unit. :D
I just picked one of these up recently. My first Roland synth too.. I like it
Lolz "pristine condition". Love it! The Yamaha AN1X should be next... if you had one.
I really want one of these
@@AudioPilz In the shops I wanted to like the NL the most but I felt the AN1X had the better sound. They were all too expensive so never had either. Just looked at used prices on the AN1X, it's crazy.
Those broken keys tell a story of frustration and hate.
And unabated debauchery 😂😂😂
Presumably it's been chucked in the boot of a few cars/vans on the way to and from some live shows. You have to play a few shows so you can earn the money to buy a flight case. But why would anyone buy a protective case when there's so much other bad gear to buy?
Love that comment at the end. I have my Hydrasynth Deluxe at last and got a Syntakt too for a sequencer and drum computer that brings some other synths and effects along for the ride. Now I'm looking at the spare space around that Syntakt and noticing that with a bit or caution a Norand Mono could probably share that spot. But it would definitely be much less tight to work out on that huge expanse of empty space on the nord lead 2
Thanks! Yeah, so ergonomic!
Being one of the first of its kind and still holding its own nearly 30 years on is super impressive. Well done, Nord.
Agreed!
Oh man, I love that sound, esp in the awesome jam 2. If I could learn how to coax that out of one of the MPCs synths I'd be so happy.
Thanks! I've yet to try one of the newer MPC synths
I remember a freebie VST synth Synth1 being sort of recreation of this machine. It was very versatile vst, you could sculpt almost any sound out of it even if the filter sounded a tad plastic (which by could be said about the actual nl2 by this video)
yes this plugin still works and nailed the sound very well!
Always liked Synth1!
Daichi's Synth1 is still the first one I go to!
I've had my nord rack 2x for 17 years and have no intention of selling it. Can be cold but that sound has it's place. At least it hasn't disintegrated like my juno 106. Great review!
Thank you!!!
I was between this and the 3. I got the 3 and no regrets after some considerable time of producing with it
Patch management is certainly more convenient
@@AudioPilz I agree with @
relegated
Well, that was a disappointment. I wrote a rather long comment and it deleted 99% of it when I posted it. I'll have to come back later and re-write that. I agreed with @
UnreaLSD Sounds. I have a NL3 as well and it's the bees knees.
@@tedstahl3794 4 op FM, way more oscillators curves and FM algorithm, bidirectional filter envelope, aftertouch, arp apart from the LFO, internal clock.....and the best: instant visual recallability. Only downside are the old 18bit 41 kHz DAC's
@@genomenoid Indeed!
The NL3 has over 500 slots for saving patches, the ability to name patches, and one of the best knob-per-function interfaces ever made because upon dialing up a patch, you can instantly see what's going on. Add to that the four morph channels that are easily assignable and allow you to drastically modify a patch quickly and easily without painstakingly going through a complex modulation matrix - It's a programmer's dream!
And it's RED! ;)
Hey! I DID mess around in the 90's. You take that back!!
I assume you didn't mess around when messing around;)
I was surprised to see this on here lol. The Nord does have a distinctive sound (bendy portamento and vague rough FM sound). But I still like it, I have a NL2X.
Needed a bit of red in the studio.
NL2X is the one to get!
Yeah, I was just thinking how surprised I was to see this bad boy on the show! It’s a classic of its era if you ask me ❤️
Terveiset Suomesta! Hyvät on soundit ja jatka samaa rataa!
Translated: Greetings from Finland. Great sounds and keep on making the same things!
🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮
I bought my NL2 for $200 US because half the keys weren't working. 20 minutes after opening it up I had it fixed and fell in love with it. The factory presets have the same presets as the original Prophet 5, and they sound excellent! I had to sell mine awhile back but have been looking for another deal ever since.
And since this video was made I expect the price to up again.
Stop showcasing the gear I want! You keep jacking the prices up! STOP IT!
I think you're overestimating the reach of this show;)
Ain't it grand when you can scarf a total bargain from the "not working or for parts" bin and get it going again? Currently on the workbench I have an Alesis QS8.1 that I got for less than the price of dinner at a decent Italian place earlier this year. :D
@@AudioPilz No, no, the impact of the show cannot be overestimated! Informing subscribers early of upcoming gear and getting in trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allowing frontrunning on used gear sounds like a fun idea 😄
If you live In The states, I have a lead 2x with none functioning pitch & mod wheel (common problem) everything else is perfect. $500 plus shipping.
@@pin.2hot woah, that's a bargain price. Can you send me pics?
Amazing video as always. Your tracks blown me away every episode !!!
Thanks!!!
Mine has a Rudess's autograph on it! He-he B-]
Also I don't know it's FM, filters or the thing itself is alive, but the Nord is capable of doing most bizarre organic sounds and noises. If you want, for example, fx for your scary movie about birds-mutants from Mars yet you're not completely insane to be able to handle a dx7 - Nord might be the choice.
You had me at birds-mutants;)
Love these videos but special shout out to this knackered nord lead and especially the trance tune which deserves a full length version
Thanks!!!
you didn't mention how crazy aliasing this synth has. I mean it's almost as if they tried to make it sound aliased like that on purpose. I mean this has to be the most aliased synth ever.
TBH I like aliasing quite a bit. It's like the digital equivalent to filter distortion;)
I liked you video a lot ! Thank you !!!
Nice joke about the space left on the Nord Lead to put the Volcas.
Lot of tracks that I danced to in the 90th where made with a combination of Roland TR-909, TB-303, and a Clavia Nord Lead.
Nowadays, I create a little music, and I often use the vst named Synth1 (a free emulation of a Nord Lead, between the 2 and 3, with an ugly but perfectly usable interface), it may not have the character of an analogue synth, but it has lot of capabilities and its alwais an easy synth to fit well with the rest of the mix.
Thanks!!! Synth1 is great!
discoDSP did a nord lead VST, not sure if it's still around
I always wondered why so many bands in small bars and lounges in Brooklyn and Downtown used Nord Keyboards. Maybe they are versatile enough and take a beating and weren't as likely to get stolen as other stuff. Maybe the sound is not the best, but they seem to offer a very wide-ranging audio palette for small jam bands. Bad Gear with a purpose!
Well, Nords traditionally have good, neutral sounding pianos / leads / hammond emulation which are basically all what you need for a typical jam band, I guess.
Great for bread&butter sounds!
They are really well made and reliable, which does add to their appeal. And for the piano/organ oriented ones, you're not brand locked. I have a Kawai stage piano, which only contains sounds from sampled Kawai pianos. The Nord PIano and the Stage have sounds from a load of different sampled instruments so you have far more flexibility.
Nord Leads had an interface, actual knobs. And they were very easy to understand, being subtractive synths. In the '90s synths didn't have knobs and it was a competition on who makes the most convoluted rompler with the worst interface possible.
So of course a thing with the immediacy of controls, very simple synth engine that did things well enough and also small-ish footprint would've stood out.
@@wrmusic8736 Ahhh, the menu pages and buttons... they are just such joyous fun, and I don't resent the MANY hours wasted trying to make sense of them.... I use a Korg 01w which is frustrating at times, but it's not terribly bad. The Yamaha CS1x was a complete hell experience to program though. I'd love to know what variety of hallucinogenic the Yamaha design team were using when they thought a matrix grid of abbreviations was a sensible way to control the thing....
I used to stand in front of the Nord Leads in the music store and wanted one of those synths. I bought a Nord Lead (first version) 2 years ago and it's still my favorite synth! I can't live without it anymore.
Yeah, these are for the big kids;)
Definitely not bad gear. I have one and still love it.
You know the drill, one person's Bad Gear...;)
The NL2 came out at the same time as the JP8000 and the AN1x, both of which were a lot cheaper and had more stuff. But the NL2 had the rep from the NL1 which was a total game changer, looked gorgeous and felt great to use. Bedroom producers (hordes of them!) bought either the Yamaha or the Roland. Pros generally bought the NL2.
The NL is super sturdy too!
Hey my favorite synth made the list
It was about time!!!
Friday is a good day because I get to see another mind-blowingly great piece of equipment called "Bad" gear
You know the drill! Have a nice weekend!
@@AudioPilz Hehehe you too and thanks for the vids! Keep 'em coming!
I wanted one of these for a while still can never talk myself into purchasing one
Have you tried the Synth1 plugin?;)
@@AudioPilz no not yet
@@AudioPilz i just wish there was a way to make the GUI less cluttered x(
Try the Discovery Pro synth by DiscoDSP
@@Ferrichrome ok
The Nord Rack 2X has the best feeling build of any gear I own.
NL2 sounds as good as NL1, but does more. I had both at the same time and kept the NL2 (well, rack 2) over the expanded NL1. It also sounds better to me (more organic grunge) than NL2X and beyond. Great synth! A bit of a shame you missed off the hidden easter egg synth engine in there "pelles mode" though :)
Wow, just googled that. Astonishing! Thanks for posting!
yeah definitely i had in my hands both NR2 and NR2x once and did some comparision of same patches and old NR2 definitely sounds more raw and aggresive, NR2x is more smooth and not that raw .. probably it's because of better D/A converters which ironically removes some kind of aggresive raw character from sound .. (NR == nord rack, rack version without keys)
@@raysubject actually in bass the 2X is greater and thicker, more grungy. Have them both, luv them both. 2x more for bass, 2 for the rest. Really great synths!!
I got a Rack 2 earlier this year and I love it. Lots of ahhh, there’s THAT sound moments. I haven’t even started messing with layering yet. I’d imagine you could make epic morphing pads on this thing.
Got both a NL1, NL2 (& NL3+ NMG1) here. Did some hard 1 to 1 comparisons between the 1 & 2, and came to the exact same conclusion as you. NL2 sounded just as good, with more of everything.
Bizarre but awesome take you got there with the NL2 in Jam1. Got a lot of potential there, Nord's in general have a very an-or-ganic take on synth sounds (NL3 and Wave user here). Really like it.
Thanks! Yeah, it's got a lot of nordic mystery in there
Now we know where Reznor's old synths go....
They're all welcome here...
Great video! You’re right that it’s not a replacement for an analog poly synth, but you showed that it sounds fantastic all the same.
Thank you!!!
I don't need to pause and read the wall of hate this time. The fact that Hiromi Uehara has been using this synth for her entire career counters any argument against it's absolute awesomeness.
OK, she would be able to pull it off with a Casio Rapman;)
How did you know that I needed this video right now? A++ would subscribe again! :-D
Thank you!!!!
There is a free Nord Lead 2 plug-in, Synth1, that ironically sounds quite analog.
This plugin is great if think it could load or store the preset of nl but I am not sure.. There was also a one voice nl modular demo software..
Love that plugin!
@@mrudo8663 Synth1 didn't load NL2 patches, but has a bank of converted NL2 patches available.
@@AudioPilz I know, right? It has more features than the OG Nord Lead. It is my workhorse synth now.
Nordlead, THE synth lead.
Best synth sound i know since winter's coming.
It sounds even more jazzy when you snap off ALL the white keys. 😜
Perfect blues synth
Autechre used a Nord Lead 1 for entire tracks. On their Cichlisuite EP I think it’s basically entirely a Nord Lead. Crazy capabilities, and that was just with 4 note polyphony
Great for drums too
The strange thing with most '90s-00s VAs was that the more oscillators you added, the more boxy and predictable the patch sounds - instead of getting more massive or more nuanced.
Odd but true! Great observation!
I just had a new friend gift his to me for me to try out for a couple weeks, and I’ve never really played keyboards before, LOVE the sounds!
Nice!
Could you have censored out the broken keys too!? Keep up the good Bad Gear!
Thanks! Hey, I didn't make any extreme closeups this time;)
I choose to believe that I singlehandedly inspired this video with my Synth1 comment in the System-1 video.
There's some truth to it!
Personally, the Nords are the only virtual analogs that are worth the money...they look great, sound great, and are built like tanks.
Obviously very rugged!
At least half the churches I've seen with big online music presences are heavily invested in Nord - Leads, Stage Pianos, they're everywhere in worship music nowadays.
@@mrz80 yeah…probably the best deal in organs, pianos and those kinds of “basic tones.” It’s pro level without being pretentious or super expensive, especially if you get it second hand, not that most churches are hurting for money, lol.
This was my dream synth for many years. I finally bought a "decent" condition 1st gen keyboard model in 2017, upgraded it with the voice expansion, used it for a few 3-hour jams, and since then it's kinda sat in my studio as more of a display piece that I've used in a noise album and taken to a band jam once before realising it's not a great bass machine haha.
Still love it though, and would never get rid of it (though am considering swapping for a NR2 for portability). It's so easy to get that mid-late 90s Autechre sound out of it.
Not the worst display piece;)
4:00 watching stranger things I see?!
;)
I sold my Matrix 6 during some hard times in college. A couple months later I'd caught up and went back to Daddy's Junky Music and amazingly, it was still there, along with a NL2 which I also bought. I returned the NL2.
Wow, a Matrix6!!!
@@AudioPilz oh it was such a dumb move to pawn it and I didn't deserve for it to still be there!
Omg torille!!!!
🇫🇮
This is my second synth a bought and i still love it.
Nice!!!
Nothing worse than playing the keyboard live and having the pummice stone mod wheel move on its own 😢
Worst!
hux flux did some crazy stuff with these and the nord modulars along every other synth or plugin they used.
Love the Modular
Easy to see why Nords appear on stage in so many musicians' live setups
They're really robust!
Great as ever - thanks! I always wanted one of these - still do - great design and I really like the sound. Autechre used a lot before they migrated to MaxMSP
Thanks! Max and Nord are quite similar aesthetic-wise
I can now report that I have a Nord 2X and it is very very beautiful
I had the good fortune to borrow one of these puppies while working on an album a number of years ago. I was able to get some amazing sounds with it. Loved it through and through.
Nice!!!