Nostalgic question - nord lead

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Popey
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20 Aug 2019

Hi I recently moved house and found a box of old computer music magazines from early 2000's which made me think back to my early days in the studio and the synths I used to love. Obviously (due to title) one of these was the nord lead keyboard that I used to use in virtually every project and I wondered if there is a good vst emulation anyone is aware of?. A online search brought up a few user made kontakt emulations but comments were not positive so wondered if their any good nord lead inspired synths in the vast array of vst's. More of a nostalgia thing I know but interested in finding out.

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Nirude
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20 Aug 2019

Hi, just last week or two weeks ago I downloaded this. Even tough it is a bit old, I had never tried it before.
I downloaded some Trance-soundbank to it and I think the synth sounds very good!

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/synth1 ... chiro-toda
3d man.

Soeno
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20 Aug 2019

I also have a Nordlead 2 and only heard from Synth 1 and Omnisphere withe the new hardware synth integration which includes Nordlead. Hardware can be used as controller but for the sounds alone no hardware is nessesary.
https://www.spectrasonics.net/products/ ... dex.php#hw

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rcbuse
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20 Aug 2019

Considering the history of the Nord Lead and Reason I would suspect that good ole Subtractor sounds very close.

Popey
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20 Aug 2019

Hi thanks everyone for the responses and I will definately try synth1 considering it's free (not that I am tight). I hadn't thought of subtractor but your right Peter jubel was involved with both nord lead and reason. Coming to reason later than most i have actually never used it due to things like Europa and external vst but I am probably missing out and will spend some time with it to see if I can get that warm virtual analogue sound (I have legend which I love but from memory of using the nord i believe the two sound slightly different). I even looked at buying the original nord lead but after seeing prices I think that will have to wait a while. Omnispere looks awesome but again haven't got a spare £500 at present.

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Boombastix
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21 Aug 2019

rcbuse wrote:
20 Aug 2019
Considering the history of the Nord Lead and Reason I would suspect that good ole Subtractor sounds very close.
There's some Nord history here in the Nord forum, a few posts down, interesting stuff: https://www.norduserforum.com/nord-lead ... 14989.html
I'm glad that I still have my Nord 1. :P

Synth 1 has been compared to Nord, and failed. It only mimics the layout, it does not have the Peter Jubel DSP code.

The thought that Subtractor can be close is interesting. In my opinion the biggest issue with Subtractor is its envelope, straight up n down, nothing "analog" here, and they restart from zero when re-triggered. If replacing the the internal envelopes with the Blamsoft envelop RE, you now get "analog" behavior of the envelops, and the Subractor goes from "sterile" to fat and lively. I was surprised what a difference that it made and even the old filter DSP code made a good job compared to newer ZDF filters. :shock:

Add a Synapse RingMod and Subtractor starts to sound like a $4000 hw mono-monster...almost :lol:
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Popey
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22 Aug 2019

Thanks for the link boombastix made for interesting reading about nord lead 1 sound compared to other later versions. May have to look at the blamsoft envelope re's in the props shop.
I tried synth 1 and it is good for free but didn't seem to be similar sound wise. I am going on memory so could be mistaken but recall the nord sounding so warm (if that makes sense).

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Boombastix
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25 Aug 2019

Popey wrote:
22 Aug 2019
Thanks for the link boombastix made for interesting reading about nord lead 1 sound compared to other later versions. May have to look at the blamsoft envelope re's in the props shop.
I tried synth 1 and it is good for free but didn't seem to be similar sound wise. I am going on memory so could be mistaken but recall the nord sounding so warm (if that makes sense).
"Warm" is used to describe many things, sometime people use it for slight saturation, sometime just because a sound is missing some high frequency content :shock: , sometimes because there is more bottom end.

Some early digital synths sounded a bit thin because they had near perfect saw tooth waveforms, with the diagonal portion of the waveform being perfectly straight. But analog synths like the Juno had its diagonal line bend and that adds more sub bass. The Virus did that to their saw, so many like it because it sounds fat - "bent saw" tooth it is.
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