We hand
picked some of the planet's best synthesizer sound programmers to create
their individual - and ultimate - Nord Wave sound banks. And we sure got
some awesome sounds to share with you. The mission was to bring out the
big, bad synthesizer in the Nord Wave, and to exploit its unique sonic
character to the limit. The banks reflect the
musical heritage and sound preferences of each and every programmer with
plenty of personality. Look e.g. for vintage and skyscraper huge sounds
in the US bank, modern characters that cuts through the everyday mush
in the progressive Canadian and Italian banks, and a unique mix of Belgian-French
haute couture from our friend Xavier Tribolet in the French bank. The German bank is as efficient as the country's rail-
and highway system and the Dutch entry will make you think of tulips,
the bestest of beer and excellent craftsmanship. The Future Music UK bank
was conceived as a special project with the magazine. No less than three
entire programming teams were set to work on a mission, which will blow
your mind. Note: These new programs
do not use any additional samples, so you do not have to reorganize anything
in your Wave's sample partition as long as you have kept the factory samples.
If you want a list of the samples included in the Wave's factory setup,
click
here.
Download the banks to your computer hard drive and unzip the file.
Launch the Nord Sound Manager.
Navigate to, or create an empty bank in the Wave
Use the Bank Down function from either the menu or the toolbar in the Sound Manager.
Browse to the downloaded bank on the hard drive and download it to the Wave.
By using this method, you will get the programmers preferred order of the programs. Count on that some of the most spectacular stuff will be in the first 20 or so programs in every bank, although we know there are some real gems further in. If you use drag and drop from a folder to the Sound Manager, the programs will not be organized in that order.
NORD WAVE SUPER SOUNDS FACTORY PROGRAMS
From the Nord Wave Super Sounds we have put together a versatile selection of the the most interesting and useable patches that our highly acclaimed sound designers have created. This will ship as the default internal memory with the coming Nord Waves from now on. Click here to download
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE NORD WAVE SUPER SOUNDS
The US and FM Banks by Christian N. Martirano
- CM
Christian's career in the music industry is long and illustrious. Not only has he previously worked for several other major keyboard manufacturers, his current company Design Sounds is well known for arranging, sound design, installations and recording services. When we met at the 2009 NAMM show, Chris immediately
found our soft spot for the massive chords, textures and solos from
the British progressive era, when bands had names that made you think of law
firms and bible chapters. If you have been around any kind of synthesizers
before, you have almost certainly played on programs that Chris
has designed. Chris's work is so in-demand that we could only ask
him to make us 50 sounds, but you are gonna love all of them.Website: Design
Sounds.com
Use the player buttons below the pictures to listen
to demos of the Banks.
One of the great and prominent features in the Nord Wave is the two ”oscillators on steroids”. Few other hardware synthesizers have the kind of flexibility that the Wave offers in this regard. Not only do you have a bunch of great sounding traditional analog style waveforms and sync capabilities, there is also a large selection of digital waveforms, sample playback capabilities with 180 MB of user replaceable samples and no less than 38 FM algorithms. These FM algorithms have 1, 2 or 3-operator structures, with or without feedback and allows you to produce the sounds that are very similar to the original DX or TX units that made FM and digital synthesizers very popular in the mid eighties. The added bonus in the Wave is of course that the FM algorithms are then routed through the virtual analog architecture that allows you to further sculpt the sound using the envelopes, multi-mode filters and other functions in the Wave. We asked Chris Martirano from Design Sounds to recreate some of the best known FM sounds from yesteryear and the results are nothing but spectacular. We got the #15 bass, several variations of the sparkly electric piano, the FM brass and loads of other great sounds.
In 1996 together with two adventurous
mates Boosta becomes the founder of Subsonica, a group that gathered
four studio lp's (all gone platinum), a double live album and won
a long list of prizes, including a couple of MTV European Awards
as Best Italian Act.
As a remixer, Boosta reconstructs many major Italian acts (Vasco Rossi, Morgan, Cristina Donà) and international acts. Placebo, Beastie Boys, Client, Jentina, Depeche Mode, Skin have asked for his duties. As a Dj he rocks with a tremendous success all major Italian clubs, he gets in front of a crowd of a million people at Zurich's Street Parade, he faces Ibiza's dance floors with a great response, exploring territories that start from tech-house and reach sci-fi electro, passing through breakbeat patterns.
As a Nord Wave programmer he is certainly going to leave his mark on the eardrums of the Nord community.Website: Boosta MySpace
Xavier Tribolet was born into a family of musicians. As a child he began studying piano and percussion and on hitting his teens, he turned to rock and jazz, attending Jazz Seminaries at the Conservatory of Liège. He has recorded and toured as a Musical Director, drummer, pianist and arranger with many high profile artists such as Yael Naim, Bernard Lavilliers, Sanseverino, Clarika, Maurane, Tina Arena, Michel Fugain, Axelle Red, Malia, Marcia Maria, Pierre Rapsat, Dave, the House Grammy Winning Artist Junio Jack, William Sheller, Dick Annegarn, Ariane Moffatt etc. As a long time Nord user, Xavier immediately found himself busy with the Nord Wave. As well as you will enjoy listening to his "fa-Boulez" creations, take your time to investigate how he has achieved them. Website: Xaviers MySpace
Two clips that uses only Xaviers
Wave sounds. The second demo is multi tracked by Xavier himself
but uses no other effects than the ones in the Wave.
The Dutch Bank by Gertjan Essenstam -
GE
Gertjan Essenstam is a musician/composer/producer with a lot of experience in sound design and computer music. He works as a fully professional musician since 1998. Before that he was a synthesizer salesperson at Feedback Musicstore in Rotterdam and also worked as sales representative and demonstrator for ddrum and Nord.
Gertjan still does the Nord demos for our Dutch distributor M-Works. He is also a ADP-audio (Apple Distinguised Professional) for Apple which entails giving courses and demo's for Logic Pro (which may be some kind of computer thing, we think… ). Gertjans band is called AllgoRhythm
and is sure to feature a lot of Nord's. It comes as no surprise that Gertjans Nord experience
is clearly hearable all over his excellent sounds.Website:
Gertjan Essenstam
Sebastian Johnson is an upcoming sound designer, exceptionally skilled and experienced with all kinds of synthesizers from modular systems to the latest releases. He's a true representative of the essence of the entire German music scene, with all of it's glorious forefathers in the earliest synth era to the hard driving forces of today and well into the future.
Sebastian's skilled touch and sensitive ears that made the Nord Wave go beyond the boundaries and reach new heights.
Brian Hogue is the frontman & creative force behind Canada's Industrial Rock Band "C0ndu1t". From movie score elements to hardcore industrial and everything in between, C0ndu1t pushes the boundaries both sonically and lyrically. Words like "cerebral" come up more than "electronic" or "industrial". A very visual element can be found in the music created by the band. It can defiantly pick you up and drop you off in a bad neighborhood without a map back home. A cinematic journey for the ears and the mind... Brian's remarkable sound sculptures will make you look at your Wave with brand new eyes.Website: C0ndu1t
Just how do you
go about choosing a bank of new presets to represent the UK? We
challenged Future Music, cutting edge UK music technology magazine,
with this exact question. Accepting the challenge with gusto, Future Music's
writers (who are also artists/producers in their own right) delved
into the heart of their Waves and compiled this amazing bank of
sounds thought to best represent the current UK trends. Look out
for a "making of" feature in an upcoming issue of the Future Music Magazine. The demo player can be found below Marc
Adamo's picture.
The contributors are:
Freemasons - This red hot remix and
production team have worked with everyone from Beyonce to Kylie,
mixing international smashes such as Beyonce and Shakira's 'Beautiful
Liar' and 'Work' for Kelly Rowlands. They also went top ten under their own name
for 2008's 'Univited' from their smash hit 'Unmixed' album. This
grammy nominated team are always ahead of the game. Watch out
for future hits from Sophie Ellis Bextor and X-factor winner Alexandra
Burke in 2009. Website: Freemasons
MySpace
Bruce Aisher
- Bruce's provided synth twiddling and keyboard choppery on Dido's platinum selling 'No Angel' album. Since then he has had a string of club hits including 'It's Gonna Be... (A Lovely Day)', a US Billboard Club Chart No.1 and UK Top 40 hit, while developing his bands 'Suicide Sports Club' and new electro-poppers 'Go Control'. He has performed globally, from V-Festival in the UK to Creamfields in Argentina, written songs for US Top 10 movie 'The Invisible' and hit TV series 'Num3ers' as well as remixing under alter-ego 'Gutterstylz'. Website: Gutterstylz MySpace
Marc '01' Adamo - Always
at the forefront of the underground techno and electro, Marc Adamo
has been remixer of choice to dance music's hall of fame, with a
list of credits including Dave Clarke, Chicks on Speed, Xpress2,
Adam Freeland, Alter Ego and more. As a producer he has collaborated with Larry Tee and Princess Superstar on the chart topping 'Licky' single and is currently working on the second Product.01 album with Rochelle Vincente Von K and Steven Hague. As a well renowned tech-head and author, his new book, the electronic music production bible 'Secrets of House' will be out this autumn.Website:
Marc Zero One
The Nord Wave Factory
programs contain lots of stuff from a couple of our regular contributors.
We'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to some of the
call signs that you may have seen in a Nord display. Use the player below to have a listen to the demo of the Swedish sounds.
Palle Dahlstedt
has performed a Noh theatre solo in full costume and mask in Japanese
TV, composed for Egyptian dancers at the Library of Alexandria,
written manuals for Microsoft and played a modular synth with wooden
sticks in Northern Iceland. His music has been used in stress research
on newborn babies, and he keeps colonies of virtual sonic creatures
in his laptop. He has a PhD in how to make computers compose, and has co-founded the unique international master's program Art & Technology in Göteborg, teaching artists from thirty five countries how to integrate advanced technology in their work. Palle's call sign in the Wave programs is PD. Website: Palle's
MySpace
Åke Danielson has successfully
been part of The Meteors, Time Bandits and is at present a member
of the Boudewijn de Groot Band in the Netherlands. He is teaching Recording and Sound Synthesis
at the Rotterdam Conservatory (Codarts). Åke is also the man
who has created all the demos on this page, and several other soundclips
all over our website. We also know him as AD.
Nick Jarl began his musical
career as a synth/keyboard player in various bands in southern Sweden.
In the late 80's he and a band member went to London with a newly
recorded demo to try to break into the British music scene.
Nick's international writing career took a flying start when his song-writing skills received appreciation from one of the world's most successful producers and songwriters, Max Martin. In the year 2000, they co-wrote, "You make me feel", that was featured on Westlife's 7-million selling hit album "Coast to coast". Nick really knows what works, not only as a song writer but definitely also as a sound designer. You can recognize his sounds by the label DLX.Website:
Nick's MySpace
Henrik Johansson is a composer located in Stockholm who amongst other things create music for television and commercials. He has done sound design work for other soft- and hardware manufacturers and took to the Nord Wave like a duck to water. There is an almost gentle vibe to many of Henrik's sounds that is much appreciated. As you probably can guess by now, his programs are labeled HJ.
Nicklas Anlert is one of the excellent employees in the Nord factory. He has worked in the Nord assembly line building synths since 2000, and is a true synthesizer enthusiast. The Wave sounds are not his first design work
for Nord, he has previously contributed with a bank for the Nord
Lead 3. If you want to hear some of the music Nicklas has made, have
a look at Entourage's
MySpace. Nicklas can be spotted by his NA initials in the program
names.
Wave enthusiast Rikke Lind put together a series of three Wave banks aimed for the club-oriented Nord users. The Wave Trance Banks contains a total of 384 sugar fresh programs divided in three separate banks and is a mixed selection of pads, basses, leads and chords for the trance / techno / dance / pop-scene. The banks will all be available for free download, starting with the first one below. With it's distinct sound and unique features the Nord Wave is a perfect companion for the dance chart producers. Where else are you able to mix the traditional waveforms with FM- Wavetable- and sample-synthesis? The Wave Trance Banks can be recognized by the ending WTB signature. More of Rikke's work can be found here. As a bonus, a dedicated drum kit with sounds from the three synth banks, is made available too.
Demo song (multi track recording) featuring only sounds from WTB; KingPinPluck, SpaceRide, BoinkBass1, Ana Kick2, WaveFront, Ana Clap1, ChordLead1, StraightPad and more. No other keyboards or software were used, and all sounds can be found in the Wave Trance Banks.
Last but not least: Thanks to everybody else who has contributed
to the Wave programs and isn't mentioned here. Many users, current and
former Nord staff members have made some whacky, wonderful, exquisite
and fantastic programs to be found all over the factory set.
CompatibilityAll the programs
available on this page are in the Nord Wave Program (.nwp) format.
They are compatible with the Nord Wave from OS version 2.02
or later. You use the Nord Sound Manager application to transfer the files
from the computer to the Nord unit. More archives may become available
online as soon as they have been completed by the Nord crew.
The US and FM Banks by Christian N. Martirano
- CM
The Italian Bank by Boosta - BO
The French Bank by Xavier Tribolet -
XT 
The Dutch Bank by Gertjan Essenstam -
GE
The German Bank by Sebastian Johnson
- SJ
The Canadian Bank by Brian Hogue - BH
The Future Music UK Bank
The Swedish Banks
