post processing to warm up the nord?

[intellijel]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone had experimented with tube preamps or other devices to route the outputs of their NM through to warm up the sound?

I love the concept of the Nord but it sounds too thin and digital to me. I had considered the Avalon U5 but I wonder if that will be too clean.

Any suggestions?

[elektro80]

You want to add distortion? Transformers would be good.

We have discussed such stuff in many threads here already but at the moment I cannot find any of them.

Apart from a few documented issues ( that aren´t really problematic at all ), the NM synths don´t really sound "digital". Main point is that what you get depends on your patching. Clearly, if you set up a very clean and simple little patch.. pretty much a VCO into a filter ( with no special fancy stuff going on ) and then into a VCA with some sort of plinky envelope, then it will sound thin.. and quite possibly far thinner than an old analog 1 VCO synth. This is as expected, but this does also not prove that you cannot get thick and evolving sounds out of the NM synths.

[elektro80]

There is no single device that will add the kind of distortion that will work all the time. Analog warmth is basically a mix of various kinds of distortion. When you need one particular type, it is just a matter of adding it.

The Avalon might be cool. The GT Ditto Box is nice as well. Generally DI/line drivers can be very useful for all sorts of stuff. A Ditto Box ( or almost any much cheaper and vintage line driver can be used for say feeding a 1:1 transformer ( old bad ones or new good ones - or any combination of these will do ). The fun shit starts to happen when you throw too much gain into it. Different transformers will sound different when given this treatment. As for the overdriving, easy generally does it best.

Recording your synth off speakers is nice too. Compressors are excellent.

The rule is that all the old warmth adding tricks you would use when recording vintage synths works just as well with new gear.

Arrgh, and then when you had to do all sorts of magic shit in order to get rid of the annoying Roland SH synth sound.

Still, the NMs and the G2 really don´t need much "warming" of any kind if the patches are good.

[intellijel]

Hi thanks for the tips!

With the Avalon I wonder how subtle the results will be. The GT Ditto box looks really interesting to me since it has a tube and is also a lot cheaper. (I feel with Avalon that you are paying a premium for the brand name).

I agree that there are some patches on the NM that do sound warm (I like some of the pads) I have just found that a lot of the more atonal sounds always seem so thin and compared to the real analogs I have (Korg Mono/Poly, SH-101, oberheim matrix etc.)

One thing I wanted to experiment with is putting a true analog filter on the output and triggering it with CV generated by the Nord (via a midi2cv converter). I have a waldorf miniworks that I could use for this and I have been investigating some other filter options.

To be honest the weakest point for me with the nords (I have a nord lead 2 as well) is the inability of the filters to self oscilate properly. This is a huge difference in comparison to the mono/poly in terms of becoming "alive" and organic sounding.

cheers,
Danjel

[sonifr]

i think you're on the right track with adding a real analog filter after the Nord's outputs. in my experience, anything that combines a true analog circuit with the NM1 increases it's appeal for me. i've run mine through my Sunn TC-50 and the spring verb and gain sound wonderful on it. also, my dear friend OAO3 and i have both got some lovely atonal sounds by sending our Nords through his ring-mod pedal. the combination of the Nord sound with a real analog oscillator isn't quite digital or analog, but it sounds a lot thicker and warmer to me.

sonifr