Nord Modular G2 review

[digit62]

Got new yesterday that my G2 will be delivered first week of March.
Taken the time to order a Quiklok Z series rack to build my little setup.
Next week i'll get a brand new Acer laptop, still contemplating on what
interface i'll get to hookup to the notebook(Novation got a new one out which offers audia and midi).
Strange however that Clavia's website stays silent on the new G2 except for the news which is now already 2 months old. The G2 doesn't even have its own dedicated pages yet which strikes me as odd since it would assume you want to promote this stuff as much as possible.
Any reason why they are so conservative? eg. send 2 emails to them requesting information on the dimensions of the G2(since i relay needed them for my quiklok setup and they are NOT posted on the site - same for any other technical info on the G2) but no reply at all to the messages.
This again seems weird...

Anyway T-minus 12 days and counting


Happy blips
Digit62

[mosc]

Maybe Greg can send you the measurements. Consider yourself lucky to know your arrival date.

Clavia is notorious for not responding to customers' requests for information and help. They actually believe the Nord Modular Code404 list will take care of that. I'm quite surprised that they have been able to stay in business for these years. Their products appeal to people who become very devoted to them, almost fanatical, despite of the company's limitations. That's good for Clavia, but one could have said the same about Waldorf and look what's happened to them.

[egw]

Yes, I surprised Clavia hasn't posted the manual and other G2 info yet.
Here are the dimensions:
665mm x 280mm x 92mm

[digit62]

musicshop called today that my G2 is in(and my Quiklok rack).
Have taken the day of tomorrow. Also got a brand new Acer Laptop
to hook upto the set.
Guess i sleep is not going to be on the agenda the next few weeks.


Digit62

[mosc]

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Hey, great news here too. Alto Music just called and mine is in too. I should get it delivered here to electro-music.com headquarters on Tuedsay.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

[egw]

[tee]

I’ve been following this thread for a while since I am quite interested in Clavia’s G2 (as many of you) and it endless possibilities and the easy use of it. Earlier in the thread the comparison of the G2 and the Nord Lead’s was discussed and I would like to add a question. I’ve got my eyes on a Nord Lead 3 for a great price, but I am still thinking about the G2. Would it be a complete waste to in the end have both or would they complement each other. I like the tweaking as well as making sounds or using presets from non modular synth.

I’m new to the site and the forum, so short presentation of myself will come shortly.
TEE

Clavia has by the way posted the specification etc for the G2 on their web site

[egw]

Depending on what you're trying to do, you might want to supplement the G2 with another synth. Maybe something with some polyphony. I don't think the Nord Lead is a good choice, all of its sounds should be covered by the G2. Go for something with a different character. There are lots of possibilities. Look at your requirements for playing style, performance functions, size, price, etc.
I use an XL-7, which has lots of polyphony for a good price and a nice control surface.

[Cyxeris]

Perhaps some liquidated Waldrof gear would be worth a look at this time. Just a thought.

[djfoxyfox]

[Cyxeris]

[tee]

Thanks for your responces, which sort of took me down the road I was already taking. You've mentioned various options worth concidering and I thought I thought the Access Virus C out there too. Any comment? After this I guess i should move my posting to a more fitting forum space.
TEE

[mosc]

Tee, welcome. If you are a keyboard player consider something like the Kurzweil PC2x, which I use, or maybe a Yamaha Motif. If you want a rich palette of pads, pianos, organs, insturmental sounds, percussion, and even a few sampled leads, then get a sample or wavetable based device as a compliment. The Virus is another VA device.

If you aren't interested in the keyboard type sounds, then don't get a second synth. The G2 should provide all of the VA you'll need. Focus you time on it.

Contrary to what many people say, I don't think the Nord Modulars have "a sound". The patch makes the sound, not the insturment. That's not true of some of the older synths, like the original Moogs or Buchlas for example. They only had a few modules and no processing capability. The Nord Modular and the G2 have so many modules and an infinitely variable way to hook them up, that there is no characteristic sound, per say. The G2 even has phyiscal modeling capability. In fact, just to make this point, Rob Hordjic went so far as to make a Nord patch that emulated a vacuum tube!

The G2's primary weakness, IMHO, is the lack of presets. To me that is no problem, but I can see that this is not the best insturment for people not interested is patching. If that is your case, the the Virus, ION, Andromedia or a Waldorf might be places to look.

[Tim Kleinert]

Hi. I'm interested in the G2 too -very much so- and have some questions that maybe somebody here knows an answer to:

1) The G2 has 4 slots, meaning four part multitimbrality. Is the DSP power shared dynamically around these slots? Or does every slot have it's own fixed and allotted amount of DSP power?
I heard something about every slot having it's own DSP, 4 DSPs in total, but I'm not sure...

2) Same thing for memory. Does the total of DSP memory (2.6 seconds of audio) have to be shared among slots? Or does every slot have this amount of memory?

3) I've read many comments on the G2 not being big on polyphony. I'm just wondering what kind of voice figures I'm about to expect.
Let's take something like an basic analog synth patch of the complexity of a NordLead1. What would you estimate the amount of voices? Or a 4-operator FM patch? Just that I have some kind of idea...

I also read that the max polyphony is 32 voices. 32 per slot? or for the whole synth?

4) I also heard Hans Nordelius say something like "it can hold up to 8 DSPs...". Does that mean that it is possible to upgrade the instrument with additional DSPs?

Sorry for these maybe plain questions. But I've studied many reviews and articles and nobody spells it out really specifically.

D'be grateful for some info.

Nice site here, by the way. Thanks for being able to use it.

cheers,
shoshin

[egw]

There are 4 DSPs, but they can be shared dynamically. Or at least semi-dynamically. When the patches are loaded, the resources are allocated across them to allow more polyphony for the patches that request it. Once allocated, these resources remain that way until the patches are changed. So it is not dynamic on a per-note basis, like some synths. A patch has to fit within 100% of a DSP. Additional voices can use the other DSPs.

A basic analog or FM style synth patch should yield you around 12 voices (that's with 33% dsp usage). With 50% usage you get 8 voices, etc. When I get around to it, I hope to create a list of the dsp resources used by each module. BTW you can play with the editor for free, to get a feel for the G2, but it won't display the usage numbers (or make any sound) unless you have a G2 attached.

The old NM had an expansion board which doubled the number of processors to eight. We all hope that this will happen too with the G2. But no announcement yet from Clavia.

BTW the polyphony calculations can sometimes be misleading. You can create a patch with multiple oscillators doing different things, e.g. sequencers and drum machines, but it still only counts as one voice unless you want to play chords on the keyboard.

[mosc]

I've had my G2 for about 3 days now. I'm more impressed with it than I thought I would be. I is certainly more than just a new version of the NM. It's suitablity for live performance is much greater.

The most impressive thing to me, or maybe I should say the most unexpected thing, is that it is a fabulous tone mudule for use with a keyboard. As a keyboard player I find the G2 is much more usefull than I thought it would be. Forget the 3 octave keyboard here, use it with a good midi controller keyboard. But the sounds it can make are just glorious.

You can think of it more than a polyphonic MiniMoog, or a Rhodes emulator, or a Clav, or B3 type organ. You can make just splendid pads, lead synths, electro pianos, vibes, mallets, bells, and much more.

A great thing this synth has the the ability to layer the four slots. I know, a lot of synths can do this. In the G2 there is a performance mode where controllers from the individual patches can be assigned to a global knob map. This is really like controlling all four patches at once from the front panel. Very powerful.

My remarks I made in an earlier post in this tread about you needing another module for your keyboard work are hereby retracted. Especially when they come out with the expander module, this is a keyboard players machine.

If the G2 isn't enough for you, then get two.

[Tim Kleinert]

egw -thanks for the insight.
But I don't understand how 12 voices use 33.3% and 8 voices use more than that (50%). Strange logic...

hey mosc -you mention the G2 as sort of a "rhodes emulator". What's the polyphony like with such a patch?

What about the memory -those 256 kiloWord (2,5 sec)- does that exist only one time, or four times? (once per DSP?)

Can one tweak morph ranges from the keyboard or only via editor?

sorry for pestering with questions... I'm just very interested.

[egw]

What I meant was that a patch that uses 33% of a dsp will give you 12 voices.
Memory works the same way, the 4 processors each have 2.5s.
I believe you can tweak morph ranges from the panel, as well as doing all editing functions except adding modules or patch cords. But I never do editing from the panel - it's much easier through the editor. I only use the panel for real time functions.

[mosc]

[Tim Kleinert]

Thanks very much for the info, guys.

Concerning Nord apparently lacking 'analog sound': This kind of statement is always made by people who don't know what 'analog sound' is. For them, it is a mysterious and holy term. If you try to talk to them about it scientifically, it's as if you are committing heresy. I was like that too...

...until I discovered how a NordLead3 (which I just had sold to a friend because it didn't sound 'analog' enough for me -too bad) could sound damn close to an Obie if you abused the LFOs for simulated voltage jitter, incorporated slight mistracking and tweaked the filters right.

So, now I'm wiser.

Understanding the sonic characteristics of analog circuitry is actually one of the reason why I'm interested in the G2, since the modular architecture is most suited to model these components -multiple saturation stages, voltage jitter, mistracking and so forth.

Another is physical modeling. I heard there's a basic waveguide module and more modules are planned. Great.

[mosc]

Great point about the subtile mistracking and voltage jitter. There was also hum, noise, and distortion in every module. Also, as I discovered just recently when I started playing my Moog Modular after several years, there were weirdnesses when the voltage controlled modules were driven beyond their design limits.

When I was demonstrating the G2 to Zynth a few days ago, see: http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-1597.html, I set up a very simple patch: a sine wave of constant frequency (about 500 Hz) and amplitude being modulated by a sub-audio square wave of constant frequency and amplitude. This gives a two note tone.


Each transition of the frequency of the sine produces a small click. On the G2, there was a tiny difference in the sound of each click and this seems to cycle through about every 6 or 7 transitions. At first I thought this was a bug in the G2, but then I realized is was truly an artifact of the patch. On the G2 the oscillators are rock steady, 24 bit at 96 KHz. The clicks sound different because the modulation is changing at a different point in the sine's phase each time. The square and the sine are probably related by some factor of 6.

I set this up on the Moog after Zynth left and you can't hear this because

1) there is some slew in the square wave
2) there is some slew in the pitch change of the sine
3) the frequency response of the Moog is considerably rolled off compared to the G2
4) there is frequency instability in the two oscillators
5) there is a lot of hum and noise to listen through.

Like you say, I could patch the G2 to emulate all these errors.

[mosc]

[digit62]

Not getting enough sleep lately.
The G2 is awesome.
Excellent manual - the editor is a dream to use - you can get lost for hours tweakin' away.
This baby has got it all - fat, screaming, esotheric and especialy weird !!
It definitly separates the men from the boys.
Could this be the ultimate modular

Gotta run

[mosc]

[digit62]

Hi all,
just picked up news fm the Clavia website http://www.clavia.se/News/G2Expansion.htm

seems that they will be shipping an expansion card as of April which doubles the polyphony which is cool of course but...

somehow you gotta feel a bit cheated since my feeling is they should fit these machines with max features when it ships and not cash in on expansions afterwards.

anyway will order it this weekend

blip
Digit62