I’m pleasantly surprised Nord has published a soundset by a techno artist. I got the impression they had completely rejected taking into account techno/electronica musicians as a market segment and concentrated solely on gigging pop/rock/jazz musos. Maybe the Nord Wave 2 hasn’t sold as well as they thought and are now trying to entice techno/electronica musicians? Still I strongly doubt Nord will now consider / listen to the latter when designing future products.
Judging by the time between the 1 and 2, at least 5 years before a potential 3rd wave. If there were a rack version, I’d be tempted. Not going to happen though.
In need of a new keyboard and want something playable for all types of piano and music. Was thinking of getting a virus tI2 but would a nord wave cover a lot of territory versus pigments with a virus desktop and cheap midi keyboard? Wanting weighted keys but that puts everything into expensive territory.
Wave 2 is a semi-weighted, but I use it as my primary keyboard and love it. If you need fancier keys, take a look at the Nord Piano line, but you lose the layered samples. The Wave 2 is an extremely fun and fast interface.
I do want layered samples, but at the same time if I’m ITB hybrid type setup could i just layer samples that way?
I’m stuck between the following:
Nord Wave
Hydrasynth Deluxe
Sequential Rev2 16 voice
Roland A-88
Arturia Polybrute
When I think holistically the weighted roland 88 makes sense, to learn proper piano and have a midi keyboard. Though do fully weighted keys ruin playing synths and vice versa a 61 key synth wont allow you to learn piano? Last consideration is its tough paying like $1200 USD for a midi keyboard when you can get a full synth in addition for a little more…
Have consolidated my setup heavily to a nord drum 3p, polyend tracker, elektron A4 and pedals.
Consider the Nord Electro series. Gives you the Nord Pianos, organs and sample synths. The only thing I really miss from the Nord leads is the pitch bend and mod wheels.
I’ve actually got a PolyBrute, stacked on top of my Wave 2! The PolyBrute is definitely a light synth keybed, whereas the Wave 2 feels much more significant for piano-style playing. I practice piano regularly using Melodics and my Wave 2.
It’s got all of the expression you’d need for normal piano stuff as well, along with a 4 layers multi-timbrality.
If I were to play out, the Wave 2 would be the only thing I’d bring, aside from maybe an OT if there wasn’t a drummer.
I don’t know if that helps, but maybe gives some perspective?
My experience with the Wave 2: It’s super versatile and usable. IMO the architecture with the four layers is fantastic because you can do a lot of things with it. I have some super fat sounds using layers, as well as some patches with multiple split points and 3-4 different synth sounds, which is great for live playing with my band.
Also the Wave 2 is indeed usable as a “stage piano”, although the sample library does lack some important sounds (e.g. organs are basically non-existant, probably because the Nord Stage and Electro have dedicated organ modules). Obviously you can load your own samples, so this is not a huge deal, but it’s not a 100% “out of the box” experience.
Regarding the keyboard: It is very high quality and allows for very expressive playing, also for piano sounds. Originally being a pianist and only then a synthesist I must say that for piano sounds I still prefer a weighted keyboard. I wouldn’t say that always playing one type of keybaord completely ruins the other, it will just take some getting used to if you were to switch (that’s why I prefer to have both types of keyboard around, but obviously that may not be an option…)