Clavia Previewed Nord Lead Anniversary Model Ltd. Edition At Musikmesse 2008

A sunny day in Sweden, 25 years ago Hans Nordelius went to work with a vision and a brand new company to go to. He was eager for the technological future to arrive, to be able to complete all the extraordinary ideas that were in his mind. The very first products from Clavia involved digital audio and samples, technologies that were well and truly in its infancy back in 1983.

13 years ago Clavia launched the original Nord Lead, which made a huge impact on the synthesizer community and the MI business. This was the first commercially available hardware synthesizer on the market that used digital technology to emulate analog synthesis. The Nord Lead was Clavia's first keyboard instrument and was to lead the way, not only for the MI business but also for the direction of Clavia as a company.

In order to commemorate this first 25th anniversary for Clavia, we have created a Anniversary Model Limited Edition, of the Nord Lead synthesizer. This collectible model will be made in a limited production run that will consist of only 299 units.

The Nord Lead Anniversary Model Ltd. Edition shares the internal specifications with the Nord Lead 2x and will be easily recognizable with a custom printed front panel and the inverted color scheme on the keyboard. These individually numbered units will be delivered with a certificate of authenticity, signed by Mr Nordelius.

Specifications:

Polyphony

20 voices. 4 part multi timbral.

Special features

Velocity Morphing: each function, controlled by a knob, can be controlled to respond to keyboard velocity. Wheel Morphing: each function, controlled by a knob, can also be controlled by the Modulation Wheel/Control Pedal to continuously fade between two sets of values.

Performance controllers

4 octave velocity sensitive keyboard with octave shift buttons (+/-2 oct.) Keyboard Split, two sections. Modulation Wheel Pitch Stick (with no dead zone at zero crossing) 1 pedal input for sustain 1 for expression pedal. Patent pending for the Pitch Stick.

User interface

3 digit display, 26 knobs and 27 buttons for program editing.

Oscillator section

OSC 1 generating sine, triangle, sawtooth or pulse with adjustable width, waveforms. OSC 2 generating triangle, sawtooth or pulse (with adjustable width) waveforms and can also generate noise with a color control. OSC 2 can be hard-synched to OSC 1. Linear deep frequency modulation of osc 1 from osc 2. A wide range of new waveforms with a strong formant character is achieved with the new synch-able noise, where noise can be synched to OSC 1.

Filter section

12 dB (2-pole) low pass, 24 dB (4-pole) low pass, band pass or high pass and notch with 12dB low pass. Cut off, resonance, envelope amount, envelope amount controlled by velocity. ADSR envelope. Filter keyboard tracking can be set to full, half or off. Filter distortion.

Amplifier section

ADSR envelope, gain control.

Modulation section

LFO 1 generating triangle, saw, pulse, LF filtered noise and random staircase routed to OSC1+2, OSC 2, filter, pulse-width and FM amount. LFO 2 produces a triangle waveform, routed to OSC 1 and 2 or amplifier. It also controls the rate for the arpeggiator. Arpeggiator: Range: 1 - 4 octave. Modes: up, down, up/down, random. Hold function. Echo can be set between 1 to 8 repeats. Modulation envelope (attack, decay) for OSC 2 pitch, FM amount and pulse width.

Performance section

Play mode: Poly, legato, mono, unison mono, unison poly. Manual mode. Four program slots for layering possibilities. Portamento/auto portamento.

Percussion kits

10 "analog" drum kits. Each percussion kit consists of 8 independent sounds, configured in 8 zones across the keyboard.

Memory

Programs (single sounds): 297 (3 x 99) user, 693 (7 x 99) factory. Performances (multi sounds): 100 user, 300 (3 x 100) factory. Percussion kits (multi zone sounds): 30 (3 x 10) user, 70 (7 x 10) factory.

Audio Out:

4 outputs. Each slot has its own output. Modes: stereo, mono and multi-timbral mode. Headphones output. High resolution low noise 24 bit DACs.

MIDI features

All control knobs and switches for program editing send and receive control change messages. System exclusive bulk dumps. One program or all programs. MIDI clock synchronizing LFO 1 and LFO 2/arpeggiator restart. Triggering of the filter and amplifier envelopes and velocity control from separate programmable MIDI channel and note numbers.