Kingkorg vs Nord Lead 2x

[Reptilian]

I am about to buy one of those two.

 

I already have a Virus (which has not arrived yet to my studio), a Micron, a Moog Phatty and a Mopho.

 

Which one would you pick?

 

Kingkorg:

Sounds a bit digital and modern (not bad), but different to what I have. I dont know what the Virus is going to give me, but judging for the videos and demos, is not the same exactly.

It has vocoder, good point for the KK (I haven tried yet the vocoder of the Micron, but I am waiting for a Roland DR-HS5 that I have bought in Ebay).

It can reproduce some soft and sweet leads for hip hop ganstha or some pieces that requiere a lead which is not a rock lead.

Not good basses IMO, but very good leads

 

Nord Lead 2x:

 

Better sound in general

more analog sounding

sounds with more body

better basses than KK

I could get some good leads, very good indeed for rock and heavy electronic

no vocoder (ouch!)

I dont know if this can reproduce soft leads like KK, but if the Virus can and the Micron's vocoder is good enough, maybe this is the one I should select.

 

I have been thinking about this for weeks, I cannot decide (to buy the Nord rack and KK?, to sell my Micron and buy the Microkorg (to replace a KK) and the Nord Lead 2x?). I only have space for 1 extra keyboard and 1 module. I cannot afford a Microkorg, for example, without selling my Micron, but the Micron, is, you know, fat and nice.

Please your kind opinions since I am fu***ng freaked out with this decision. If I could, i would pick all of them.

ps: please do not post things like "why do you want more" etc etc. I like to have different tastes for different music.

thanks!

[cresshead]

nord 2x sounds flat not alive to my ears..yeh you get 4 channels to play with but i've never like the sound really.

 

the king korg sounds really nice to my ears in comparison.

 

 

[Reptilian]

Really?, this is the first time I read to a person who doesnt like the Nord's sound. Do you like the analog or more classic sound or do you prefer more modern sound?.

[NielsM]

 

 

I can't speak much for the KingKorg, as I have only tried one briefly in a music store. The interface of the Lead is definitely superior, and I prefer its approach to subtractive synthesis as an integrated whole. The Lead 2x has been my weapon for the past few years, and there are lots of great things to say - and some not so.

 

Sorry to disappoint, but the Lead doesn't sound particularly analog. It does, however, have a distinct sound, which may very well be just as good or better yet. It is cutting and distinct, strong in the treble and mid ranges. Better basses than the KK? The bass from the Lead is underwhelming. Run dry, there's not much beef to be had. You could beef it up with an equalizer (just as those 'thin' bass sounds on the KK have gotten beef by cranking the low EQ... silly indeed). What I do, however, is use a dedicated overdrive/distortion - sounds much better to me, and gives a lot of capability. Let's face it, although distinguishable as such, the digital distortions in synthesizers don't really sound that good. They don't do what a proper distortion does, anyway. I use a distortion with a three band EQ (Subdecay Super Nova Drive), and it's AMAZING. Talk about serious leads and basses. But while we're at it, you have a Phatty and a Mopho. They should keep you plenty satisfied for bass, I suspect.

 

The Nord will give you some awesome lead sounds. Regarding those smooth leads suitable for the gangsta hip hop... now that shouldn't keep you from the Nord. Any synth with decent oscillators, a filter, portamento and a bit of delay can do this stuff.

 

The comment that it doesn't sound all that good is something that I might be able to expand on. The filter is weak - inducing resonance sucks way too much body out of the tone. The LFO's are really poor - when going into high rate, instead of generating an audio frequency, it becomes an indistinct blurry BLURPYBLURPYBLURPY thingy. It's not pleasant, and it sure as **** isn't supposed to sound like that, coming from a synth that mimics analog behaviour. Thirdly, the way that the oscillators beat against each other can, on some sounds, be slightly annoying. With a smoothed S&H waveform, LFO1 can be set to modulate OSC2 slightly, thus creating *that* drift. You then, however, have only one LFO. Rather annoying. The tone of the oscillators, however, is great.

 

I hope that gives you an idea of the Lead. It has its downsides, but for me there's currently no viable alternative out there - it's a live player's dream come true, and I sure hope that Nord will follow up with a Wave2 that will display similar muscle. I was very disappointed in the Lead 4.

 

 

 

If intended for studio and recording, I don't know what intruiges you with the Lead, however. You've already covered your VA bases with the Virus. The logical choice would seem to be adding an analog poly - a Prophet 08 module or a DSI Tetra - or something cool and old, like a Juno 60 - to give you that lush analog poly sound that's currently not in your arsenal.

[AnotherScott]

 

I haven't used either synth, though I've used other Nord and Korg synths. In this case, I find the KK more appealing. I think the Korg will have more of a range of different sonic characters... it gives you a much wider selection of different waveforms and kinds of filters to work with. Other than that... it has the tube, the integrated fx, 3 osc vs. 2,  patches that display their names, 5 octaves, vocoder, and deeper editing abilities. 

 

The Nord has some advantages, too... you might simply want the Nord sound... the wheel and stick is arguably better than the joystick... 4 sounds at a time instead of 2 (and routable to their own outs). And the synth itself is a bit knobbier... for example, you get ADSR knobs for VCA and another set for VCF, instead of toggling the function of a single set.

 

But I think the Korg seems more capable and flexible overall. The Nord may be able to do a bit more manipulation directly from dedicated front panel knobs/buttons (i.e. direct controls for things like LFO shape and filter keboard tracking/velocity response, whereas the Korg puts you into menus for those things), but I think the Korg does give you enough direct access to the essentials, the Nord doesn't have SO much more there, and I think the Nord advantage there is more than offset by just how much more of the deeper editing can be done via the Korg menus that can't be done at all on the Nord. The Korg seems to have more parameters you can edit, more ways to edit them, and more ways to route/combine them. 

Also, something I noticed in the KK manual is that there is lots of MIDI CC support. So if you wish there were some more hard controls for specific functions, if you have some other box with assignable knobs and buttons, you can probably create them.

 

---

Reptilian wrote:

 

 

I cannot afford a Microkorg, for example, without selling my Micron, but the Micron, is, you know, fat and nice.

---

For a while, I owned both the Microkorg (original) and Micron. As much as I liked the Micron, I ended up selling it and keeping the Microkorg. Both had great sounds, but the Microkorg was much more pleasant for sound editing, and also much better for patch selection in live performance.

 

Which Virus are you getting?

[liliththekitten]

I'd keep a Micron over a MicroKorg but the MicroKorg sounds better in the bass frequencies and it's a lot more fun besides.

That said, a Micron or Miniak can be sold or bought (used) for ~$200 so you could always get another one of those in the future

I can't imagine KingKorg to be bad as a bass synth, I think the Legacy Collection, Prophecy, MK, etc to be all quite good in that department.

[GurArch]

 

NL is quite a different concept with no onboard dsp - so when comparing that is obviously one thing to remember.

I had Nord Rack 2, not the 2x, but loved it to death. Both phatness and clarity and the same time.

I listened to KK demo recently - and it's amazing sounding - it seems. But when you removed all the effect - what is it then?

You can make anything sound alive, and big and I don't know what with DSP.

 

And most of all - what can you do with the filters.

I had pure disappointment in that area - a Roland SH-.32 - which looked really interesting on paper - but when wanting to tweak - there wasn't much you could do, really. Many, many waveforms - but very little you could do with it.

 

I would really like to spend some time tweaking KK.

Are there a lot of waveforms due to that filters are not that useful - and is it really interesting to work with?

 

I could not make a choice without working with them for some hours.

I know NL sound awesome, and I like the simple and effective way to determine how velocity should affect a parameter in envelope, just turning the knob to min and max, and you have the dynamic response you want.

 

My  $0.02...