Hi !
I'm planning to buy a nord rack 2.
Is the Nord Rack 2 adequate for Dance/funky music ? I like SOFT analog sounds in particular. I'm also looking for a good analog drum kit.
===> Is it possible to create new sounds that are VERY different from one another ?
===> Is it possible to split the keyboard so as to use the arpeggiator with the left hand and the lead sound(s) on the rigth hand ?

Do you think that the demo MP3 files presented at http://www.dlc.fi/~juccis/nordlead2.html
are representative of the real sound of the nord lead. (I like demo track 2 and the rest, but not track 1).
Are there many sound bank to download from the net.
Are there user pages ?
In view of these questions, do you think that the Nord Modular would be more adequate ?

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Hi mamat
I own a nord 2 rack and can honestly say that it is one of the best pieces of kit that I have ever bought. The range of timbres that you can get is quite remarkable from nice round Juno style basses, to tight percussive Oberheim SEM type snaps and squarks. I have also compared with many other virtual analogs (JP8000,AN1X,Z1,) and it is much tighter than the others, although the roland has nicer pads (FX probably) neither it or the others come as close as the Nord at replicating the sounds of old synthesizers. The machine is splitable, 4 ways, and these can be assigned different MIDI channels and/or note ranges. The arppegiators are independent to each sound.
I have recently tried the Nord modular and although it is a very powerful and good sounding machine, the reliance on having a PC in tow to do any serious editing, unfortunatly make it less immediate, and the machine I tried had a number of bugs which were rather frustrating.
I hope this has been of some help to you

simon

Mamat,
I just got my Nord 2 rack in the mail about 4 hours ago, and I have to say that it is even beyond
my expectations. I had heard nothing but good things about this synth, but now that I have it and that I can listen to it's
fantastic sound I'm totally impressed. I had a JP8000 for a while but sold it to get this and I'm very glad that I did. In my humble opinion this is a more professional and much better designed instrument with a much better filter and a more agressive, gritty sound (although indeed as Simon noted the JP's pads are perhaps somewhat smoother sounding). I also have a Korg Prophecy and a Waldorf Pulse, and compared to everything the Nord seems at least as good if not better overall, in terms of sound, design, and intuiteveness. It blows anything I've owned or currently own away in terms of raw power with 16 voices and 4 parts! Also I love the way it looks with the little green lights and the red paint. It's cuter than my girlfriend! (okay I don't have one right now, maybe that's why!) Anyway, if your into electronic dance music (like myself), I don't see how you could be dissapointed with the Nordlead. That is definetely it's specialty! I checked out those ausio samples and in my opinion they don't REALLY do it justice. I mean, they're allright, but just from having it for a few hours I can tell that there are just so many many different sounds that you can make with it.
Hope you get one,
G.

The Nord Lead is really in a seperate class from all of the others and I do not like placing it in the "virtual" category because it is -very- distinct. When all of those "want-to-bes" die out, the Nords will remain. However, I would have to choose a Doepfer Modular over the Nord Modular, but that's just my opinion as I perfer actual patching.

Simon, Guillaume and Buinu :

Thank you very much for your replies. :-)

Mamat