Keyboard Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 49) AUDITION As a no-money-havin’ high schooler in the ’80s, the keyboard rig of my dreams included a Prophet-5 for ballsy analog sounds, a Yamaha DX7 for the percussive, bell-like stuff analog synths didn’t do so well, and an Emulator II sampler for absolute recreations of real instruments. A summer’s worth of greasy restaurant jobs later, I managed to afford the DX7. If there’d been anything like the Nord Wave — the new keyboard from vaunted Swedish synthmaker Clavia that combines virtual analog, sample playback, and FM synthesis — back then, I would’ve gladly spent many more months saying, “Fries with that?” to afford it. The question is, how lust-worthy is it today? Modeling, sampling, and FM soft synths are plentiful and cheap, but computers typically aren’t known for being tight, integrated, instantly fun-to-play performance axes. Fire engine-red slabs with “Nord” on them are, however, and the Wave lives up to this legacy, with bells on. Still, it isn’t the only hardware keyboard that can combine virtual analog and sampled sounds in the same patch, so let’s dig more deeply into what makes it unique. OVERVIEW The Wave’s personality is clearly more virtual analog than sampler or workstation. It looks and handles like a virtual analog synth, stealthily caching most of its sample-based abilities in oscillator 2. You could take it to some analog-nut keyboard event, play a concerto on a grand piano patch, and probably finish before anyone got hip. That’s not to diminish its sample-playback power, which is formidable. The big deal here is that while the Wave comes preloaded with some excellent samples courtesy of Sonic Reality and Kirk Hunter (try “Bjorn Again” for a piano/cello layer you won’t be able to stop playing), you can replace some or all of them with ones that you import via USB and the capable Nord Wave Manager software (see “Wave Manager” on page 50). Technically, the Wave isn’t a sampler, as it doesn’t record audio or have onboard sample editing — you get WAV files into it by importing. Approximately 185MB, while small by soft sampler standards, is generous sample memory for a keyboard. Even though Clavia’s intention is for you to use samples more as “wet synthesis clay” than for straight-up emulations, you’ve got room enough to load up sounds that dwarf the factory presets on most all-around workstations and stage pianos. True, the Wave’s 18 stereo voices of polyphony is more in the virtual analog league than the sampling workstation one, but it is dynamically allocated, meaning that the Wave ties up only what it really needs at a given instant. Where workstation keyboards use RAM for userloadable samples, the Wave uses flash ROM, like the kind in digital camera cards. So, even though it’s rewritable, everything stays put when you power off, and there’s no waiting for samples to reload when you power on. I’m not aware of any other current keyboard that does this. The Wave is always in two-part polytimbral mode, in that each sound program has two “slots,” though many factory programs only use one. Each slot consists of a full two-oscillator patch with all associated panel settings except for the reverb, delay, and “tube” overdrive, which are shared by both slots. You can layer the slots, but oddly, there’s no way to assign a slot to either half of a simple keyboard split. Since you can choose each slot’s MIDI channel, though, you could hook up an inexpensive MIDI keyboard devoted to slot B. In an undocumented feature, you can also copy the current slot to any other — hold down the slot button and rotate the dial. Instead of the Nord Lead 3’s endless encoders with position-indicating LED “halos,” the Wave has the plain-Jane knobs of the Lead 2X and Electro. Clavia says that endless encoders would have added about $500 to its list price. SOUND ENGINE As you read what follows, remember the Wave’s dualslot design, and say “times two” to yourself after each section. You could think of the Wave as a four-oscillator, dual-filter synthesizer that saves on knobs (though it’s got plenty). Oscillators. When its six-way mode button is set to SAMP, oscillator 2 is the primary home of sample playback in the Wave, and its LED dial chooses from among the factory multisamples as well as anything you’ve imported. Apart from this, oscillator 1’s WAVE setting (not to be confused with the WAV files that live in the SAMP bank) contains 62 short sampled waveforms similar to those in ’80s digital synths such as the Prophet-VS and Korg DW8000. Clavia threw these in to give you even more sonic clay; tonally, they range from Hammond-like to pipe organ-like to nasal and robotic. Oscillator 1 also has a MISC mode, which at this time is just for a noise signal — I’d prefer a separate noise knob that didn’t tie up an oscillator. Oscillator 2 includes a bank called SWAV filled with 22 more acoustic samples. Their quality is nowhere near that of the SAMP bank, as they’re meant for mangling, not realism. If all this makes you think the Wave is entirely a sample-playback synth, fear not. Sawtooth, triangle, and variable pulse waves have their spots on each oscillator’s mode button, and like on Nords past, they’re modeled, not sampled. There’s a lot more going on with FM than a glance at the panel reveals. Each oscillator can be a self-contained, two-operator FM synth, with its LED dial selecting from 18 frequency ratios. Turning up the oscillator’s Shape knob increases the FM amount or feedback. In musical terms, that means harmonics get louder and sometimes raspier in relation to the fundamental. Independent of all this is the “Osc Mod” section. There, oscillator 2 can modulate either the phase or the frequency of oscillator 1, whatever modes or waves are in use. A little bit is great for, say, imprinting the pluck from a sampled guitar onto an analog waveform; a lot means you’ll have to address Janet as “Miss Jackson.” Filter. Doing justice to the oscillators got me going in a tech-speak direction, and I feel a backlash coming on: The Wave’s filter can slam your ass while taking the top of your head off. It can be incredibly musical and warm, or dish out bleeding-ear aggression, in either case rivaling the authenticity of filters on real analog synths. How smooth is it? I stepped through all of its modes, swept the cutoff and resonance, and octave-shifted the keyboard to the point where dogs in the next county howled in pain. Even so, I couldn’t coax any hint of aliasing, zipper noise, or other digital telltales out of it. Outstanding. Its modes include the expected lowpass, highpass, and bandpass (listen closely to the beginning of Robert Palmer’s “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On,” for a great example of a bandpass synth). Not as expected, Find original sound examples of the Nord Wave at www.keyboardmag.com. VITAL STATS OS VERSION REVIEWED 1.00. SYNTHESIS TYPES Analog modeling, sample-playback, and FM. KEYBOARD 49 synth-action keys, velocity- and aftertouch-sensitive. DISPLAYS 2 line x 16 character backlit main LCD, plus 2-digit LED for each oscillator. POLYPHONY 18 stereo voices. MULTITIMBRAL PARTS 2. AUDIO OUTPUTS 1/4" L and R, 1/4" stereo headphone out. PEDAL INPUTS Sustain, sweep/expression (continuous control). MIDI CONNECTORS In, out. USB CONNECTOR Type B for communication with Nord Wave Manager software and OS updates. INCLUDED SOFTWARE Nord Wave Manager (free download). OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES GB61 gig bag ($80), NHC61 hard flight case, ($225). DIMENSIONS/ WEIGHT 34.3" W x 10.8" D x 3.9" H; 13.3 lbs. 03-2008 keyboard . 49 http://www.keyboardmag.com http://www.keyboardmag.com
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