Company history

IT ALL STARTED BACK IN 1983…

DDrum

In 1983 founder Hans Nordelius created the Digital Percussion Plate 1 – the first drum pad allowing for dynamic playing using sampled sounds. The DPP1 was an instant success and soon thereafter the brand name ddrum was introduced. The innovative ddrum pads featured real heads and hoops and gained huge popularity – many people still regard them as the best digital drum triggering system around!

In 1995 Clavia released its first synthesizer, the Nord Lead. Its unique take on emulation of analog synthesis, combining a distinctive sound with an intuitive user interface made it an instant classic. Magnus Kjellander joined Clavia in -96 and brought with him a new approach to the company in terms of software design. The Nord Modular, released in 1997 was the first digital modular synthesizer, possibly the most flexible, innovative synthesizer that has ever been on the market.Nord Lead Anniversary

In 2001 the first Nord Electro was released, introducing stunning emulations of classic vintage electro-mechanical instruments with a level of portability generally not associated with the original instruments…

The Nord Stage surfaced in 2005, combining many of Clavia’s new areas of expertise in one – acoustic and electric piano sounds, organ emulations, effects and even a synthesizer!

The Nord C1 Combo Organ saw the light in 2005, incorporating our 2nd generation tone wheel modeling, rotating speaker simulation, dual manuals and surprisingly lightweight (15kg). Nord Wave took the Nord Lead-concept to a new level in 2007 with its capability to use any audio file as an oscillator source in a virtual analog environment, combined with the compact, user friendly interface of a Nord product. 

In 2008 we released the Nord Electro 3 and the exclusively licensed sounds from the Mellotron and Chamberlin.  The Electro 3 became one of the most successful products we’ve ever made. 

In 2010 the streamlined Nord Piano was introduced, a lightweight stage piano that featured advanced String Resonance and the unique Nord Triple Pedal with pedal noise.

We let the Nord Stage 2 out of the bag at NAMM 2011, sporting a new synth section with sample playback support, more memory, the C2 organ simulation and the Nord Piano Pedal Noise. Nord Stage 2 raised the bar for how a Stage piano should sound and behave. 2012 was an adventurous year for us, with the launch of the Nord C2D, our first organ with physical draw bars as well as the virtual analog drum synthesizer Nord Drum. On top of that we also released the Nord Electro 4 family with the acclaimed Nord C2D tone wheel simulation and introduced the Nord Piano 2 that allowed splitting and layering sounds from the Nord Sample Library. 

In 2013 we celebrated our 30th anniversary as a musical instrument company by releasing the Nord Lead 4, Nord Drum 2, Nord Pad and the Nord Piano 2 HP! At NAMM 2014 we announced the Nord Lead A1 – our award-winning analog modeling synthesizer.  2015 began with the release of the Nord Electro 5 – a redefined classic and the first Nord instrument ever with a large OLED display. We also updated our flagship model in the Nord Stage 2 EX including doubled memory for Nord Piano Library and a new HP76 model.

We’ve come a long way from the little basement workshop we started out in back in 1983 – a journey fueled by curiosity, persistence, dedication and love for music!