Nord Lead

The Nord Lead is a popular virtual analog synthesizer, which is being built by the Swedish company Clavia since 1995.

History

With the Nord Lead Clavia published in 1995 his first virtual analog synthesizer. Goal of the developers was to emulate the sound of famous tone generator such as the Roland TB- 303 and Minimoog among others. The 4 -voice Nord Lead could be upgraded with an expansion board on 12 votes and gained cult status in a short time.

1998 appeared the 16 -voice Nord Lead 2 with some improvements ( Distortioneffekt, improved filter algorithms, etc ), which is still produced in an expanded form as the Nord Lead 2X.

The 24 -voice Nord Lead 3 appeared as a complete revision of its predecessor. Of particular note are beside now 3 instead of 2 oscillators and extended frequency modulation capabilities rotary encoders with LED rings.

In June 2013, the Nord Lead is now in the 4th generation on the market. What is new is that for the first time and internal effects (reverb, delay ) were installed with. Also, the rack version was no longer referred to as " Northern rack" but also with " Nord Lead ".

Today, many artists use the Nord Lead devices, including The Prodigy, Pet Shop Boys, Kraftwerk, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Chairlift, Kaiser Chiefs, The Crystal Method, Jean Michel Jarre, Billy Idol, Mando Diao and Hiromi Uehara.

Models

• Nord Lead, Nord Rack (1995-1998)
• Nord Lead 2, Nord Rack 2 (1998-2003 )
• Clavia Nord Lead 2X, Nord Rack 2X
• Nord Lead 3, Nord Rack 3 (2001-2007)
• Nord Lead 4, Nord Lead 4R (2013 )