Nord Lead 2x Q's

[Chas]

Hey Guys,

Can I play pianos, EP's, organs through a Nord Lead 2x? Or is it more for synthesising weird sounds?

I want a lightweight keyboard that I can take on stage for indie/folk/acoustic work to play pianos, EP's, organ.

BUT, I also need a keyboard that can do all the psycho synth stuff in the studio too. Which Nord should I be looking at? Should I be looking at Nords??! Are there better synths for this?

[BlackGnosis]

To me Its a paperweight. :3

Its beyond me why people get them, but if you got oodles of effects pedals laying about and dun mind giving up a majority of your polyphony to pull off some REALLY COOL NORD-ONLY SOUNDS, then definately get it and play with it. its an okay signal processor from what I've seen and its got a near rhodes sounding patch for an epiano but its noticable that its not an epiano :3. why not try it out at some places? find some one who lives n ear you that has one and play around with it, listen for what it REALLY is.... Oh and ask if you can pull the extras off it so you can get a taste of it without about 500 usds in effects backing it. :3

*edit* The onboard effects can be given minor tweaks to sound epic awesome, but I'd stick with that 2080 you've got for those sounds for the time being .

[nathanscribe]

I would say the 2X is far from a paperweight... it's a pretty decent synth, and proved very useful while I had one. I regret selling it, thinking I wouldn't miss it, but I do. And as far as I recall, there was no way of putting anything through the 2X as it lacked an audio input. And it doesn't have any onboard effects either.

As for the sound, it does a good line in all-round bread & butter VA stuff. Have a play if you can, see if it sound like what you want. It can certainly do pseudo-EP/organ, but it's not going to do acoustic stuff. It's also capable of some mad synth tones, but isn't the wackiest thing out there. What it does best is the plainer stuff, I thought. It's not a replacement for a rack of old Rolands etc., but it's easy to use, sounds good, and you can use it as a 4-part multitimbral unit.

[meatballfulton]

I want a lightweight keyboard that I can take on stage for indie/folk/acoustic work to play pianos, EP's, organ. BUT, I also need a keyboard that can do all the psycho synth stuff in the studio too.Should I be looking at Nords??! Are there better synths for this?

Forget about Nords. You should be looking at sample based synths...Roland Juno D/G/Stage, Korg X50/M50, Yamaha MO6/MO8. These will cover both your stage and studio needs.

[braincandy]

meat is right--a rompler will be your best bet as you're wanting something that does a little bit of everything, including acoustic instruments. The ones he mentioned were good choices--it would be down between the M50 and Juno-Di for me as they're both very lightweight and cover a lot of ground sonically.

[balma]

Yamaha Motif, Roland Fantom, Korg Triton, or if you have more $$$, a Kurzsweil.
Wanna go cheap, get a Emu Halo , a Yamaha W5/7, or, any protean rompler with the vintage keys or Perfect Piano ROM.

Those synths will provide you with those sounds, and if wanna do something else, synth sounds, pianos, effects, and other stuff, they will do, but way more limited than a VA

[anoteoftruth]

I agree with the guys above.

I'm a proud owner of a Nord Lead, and I absolutely love the thing. But for indie/folk/organ sounds, piano sounds etc... it's a no go...

I suppose you could create some pretty decent organ patches actually, but for clear piano sounds forget it. You could get a simulated piano, very synth sounding, at best.

But if you are looking for something with a lot of synthesis possibilities, the Nord Lead is great. It's virtual analog, and imo a pretty decent one for polyphonic patches. Does'nt come anywhere near the Moog's when it comes to monophonic, but the monophonic lines with it can really have some character of its own.

Truly depends on what kind of music you want to make.. I make everything from experimental hip hop, to straight up Folk. For folk I stick mostly with acoustic traditional instruments, but I love throwing some custom synth sounds in there to make it interesting, a la Radiohead, Grizzly Bear, Damon Albarn style etc.

You COULD get one of those digital all in one ROMplers for sure... and it could serve a good purpose for you as it does for many, but personally I absolutely hate them. Your buying software in a pretty (sometimes ugly) package when you do that.

I'd suggest getting 2 different instruments.. one for the synthesis aspects of what your doing, and one for the more realistic instrument type sounds your looking for. Just my 2 cents.