Nord Lead 3 - Digital Aliasing Issues

[Erotic Cabaret]

Sure I'll post a demo of a sound with deleterious "rumbling" frequencies from the Nord. It is SUCH a problem with this instrument.

I scrutinized the graphical representations of audio recorded without the JDI and audio recorded with the JDI and the latter looks considerably smoother. It's unbelievable.

[Erotic Cabaret]

Alrighty, here is a demo of the "rumbling frequencies" that I often get from my Nord Lead 3. The first sound was recorded in mono through a JDI. It is panned center. The second sound was recorded in stereo with unison activated. Try listening on laptop speakers. It's really disturbing.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/hoe3uo

Recorded at 24bit/88.2khz. Mixed without compression or FX or panning at 24bit/44.1khz.

Normally I have to use notch filters to take out said rumble, but I hate to use too much EQ. This problem is only present on certain types of sounds.

[Erotic Cabaret]

Anybody check out that demo yet on laptop speakers?

[aeon]

I played your recording here on both a Dell laptop’s internal speakers and the internal speakers of my iMac, and no rumbling was to be heard.

Are you exciting a resonant frequency with the Nord that causes your laptop to sympathetically vibrate and distort?

Not related exactly to your issue, but I thought I’d mention that I tend to highpass most string and pad sounds anyway for reasons of timbre and mix.


cheers,
Ian

[Erotic Cabaret]

Hmm, well my MacBook Pro rumbles quite a lot with these sounds. I have to notch filter the heck out of them in the mixing process in order to avoid this, so, yes, I would say that the NL3 often produces undesirable resonant frequencies. It's annoying, especially since I don't have this problem with my Prophet.

Interestingly, when I played the demo on my mom's MacBook Pro, I didn't hear rumbling. Still, I can tell that there are "problem frequencies."

[Erotic Cabaret]

I just tested the demo on my brother's HP. Definitely heard rumbling...

[aeon]

Well, I'd hardly call a set of laptop speakers a worthwhile audio monitor system - at least as it concerns diagnosing a synth.


cheers,
Ian

[Erotic Cabaret]

I think it a perfectly legitimate test. I always test DAW mixes on my laptop speakers to see if there are any frequency issues on small speakers. Often the Nord is causing problems in mixes.

Listen to any professionally produced record...you'll never hear frequency issues on small speakers. The only exceptions are records produced in the last 10 years because too many people record synth bass in "stereo" these days.

[madtheory]

That's because commercially released tracks are mastered, and one of the functions of mastering is to ensure a reasonably consistent sound on a wide variety of speakers. The Nord is a high quality synthesizer capable of generating speaker destroying frequencies. Use with care. And use proper monitor speakers for mixing.

[Joey]

maybe you should buy a different synth if you have so many problems with it

what it REALLY sounds like is that you aren't satisfied with the way the synth sounds, and are chalking it up to some kind of technical defect rather than the overall character of the synth

also - as for testing mixes on laptop speakers, this is a great idea IF you know how to mix and master - as mentioned before, other music does not do that because it is mastered properly. the other issue could be that perhaps you have a torn cone in your macbook speakers, as those are notoriously bad and tear often

also - the nord 3 does not alias very often, if ever, you should learn what aliasing sounds like first o_O