Nord NL4 User manual
User Manual
Nord Lead 4
Nord Lead 4R
OS Version 1.x
Part No. 50407 Copyright Clavia DMI AB
Print Edition: 1.0
CAUTION - ATTENTION
RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK
DO NOT OPEN
RISQUE DE SHOCK ELECTRIQUE
NE PAS OUVRIR
CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK
DO NOT REMOVE COVER (OR BACK).
NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE.
REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED PERSONNEL.
ATTENTION:POUR EVITER LES RISQUES DE CHOC ELECTRIQUE, NE
PAS ENLEVER LE COUVERCLE.
AUCUN ENTRETIEN DE PIECES INTERIEURES PAR L´USAGER.
CONFIER L´ENTRETIEN AU PERSONNEL QUALIFE.
AVIS: POUR EVITER LES RISQUES D´INCIDENTE OU D´ELECTROCUTION,
N´EXPOSEZ PAS CET ARTICLE A LA PLUIE OU L´HUMIDITET.
Instructions pertaining to a risk of re, electric shock or injury to persons.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS
SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS
Warning - When using electric products, basic precautions should always be followed, including the following:
1) Read these instructions.
2) Keep these instructions.
3) Heed all warnings.
4) Follow all instructions.
5) Do not use this apparatus near water.
6) Clean only with dry cloth.
7) Do not block any ventilation openings. Install in accordance
with the manufacturer’s instructions.
8) Do not install near any heat sources such as radiators, heat
registers, stoves, or other apparatus (including ampliers) that
produce heat.
9) Do not defeat the safety purpose of the polarized or
grounding-type plug. A polarized plug has two blades with one
wider than the other. A grounding type plug has two blades
and a third grounding prong. The wide blade or the third prong
are provided for your safety. If the provided plug does not t
into your outlet, consult an electrician for replacement of the
obsolete outlet.
Additional Safety Information
No naked ame sources, such as lighted candles, should be placed on
the apparatus;
Do not use the apparatus in tropical climates.
WARNING: To reduce the risk of re or electric shock, do not expose
this apparatus to rain or moisture.
The apparatus shall not be exposed to dripping or splashing and that
no objects lled with liquids, such as vases, shall be placed on the
apparatus.
The maims plug is used as the disconnect device and shall remain
readily operable.
The lightning ash with the arrowhead symbol within
an equilateral triangle is intended to alert the user to the
presence of uninsulated voltage within the products enclosure that may be of sufcient magnitude to constitute
a risk of electric shock to persons.
Le symbole éclair avec le point de èche à l´intérieur d´un triangle
équilatéral est utilisé pour alerter l´utilisateur de la presence à
l´intérieur du coffret de ”voltage dangereux” non isolé d´ampleur
sufsante pour constituer un risque d`éléctrocution.
The exclamation mark within an equilateral triangle is
intended to alert the user to the presence of important
operating and maintenance (servicing) instructions in the
literature accompanying the product.
Le point d´exclamation à l´intérieur d´un triangle équilatéral est
employé pour alerter l´utilisateur de la présence d´instructions
importantes pour le fonctionnement et l´entretien (service) dans le
livret d´instructions accompagnant l´appareil.
10) Protect the power cord from being walked on or pinched
particularly at plugs, convenience receptacles, and the point
where they exit from the apparatus.
11) Only use attachments/accessories specied by the manufacturer.
12) Use only with the cart, stand,
tripod, bracket, or table specied by the
manufacturer, or sold with the apparatus.
When a cart is used, use caution when
moving the cart/apparatus combination to
avoid injury from tip-over.
13) Unplug this apparatus during lightning
storms or when unused for long periods of time.
14) Refer all servicing to qualied service personnel. Servicing
is required when the apparatus has been damaged in any way,
such as power-supply cord or plug is damaged, liquid has been
spilled or objects have fallen into the apparatus, the apparatus
has been exposed to rain or moisture, does not operate normally, or has been dropped.
Il convient de ne pas placer sur l´appareil de sources de ammes nues,
telles que des bougies allumées;
L´appareil n’est pas destiné á étre utilisé sous un climat tropical.
L´appareil ne doit pas étre exposé á des égouttements d´eau ou des
éclaboussures et de plus qu´aucun objet rempli de liquide tel que des
vases ne doit étre placé sur l´appareil.
Lorsque la prise du résau d’alimentation est utilisée comme dispositif
de déconnexion, ce dispositif doit demeuré aisément accessible.
Trademarks: The Nord logo is a trademark of Clavia DMI AB. All other trademarks
mentioned in this publication are the properties of their respective holders.
Specications and appearances are subject to change without notice.
Copyright © Clavia DMI AB
| 3
Nord Lead 4 User Manual
1 Introduction
Thank you! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Synthe sizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Morph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Effec ts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Progra ms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Perfo rmance s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Nord Sou nd Manag er . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Control s & connec tions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Panel Overview
The Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Progra m & Perfor mance are a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Displa y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Synth an d Effect a rea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Knobs & dials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Knobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Dia l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
LED-di al . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Master Le vel knob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Selec tor button s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
On/Of f buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Shif t button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3 Getting Started
About Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Selec t a Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Edit a Prog ram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Storing a P rogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Selec ting Perf ormanc es . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Editing a Pe rform ance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Saving a Pe rform ance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Layeri ng two Prog rams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Creatin g a Split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Settin g the Split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Creatin g a Perfor mance fr om scratch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Shif t and turn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Perfo rmance s and Progr ams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Storing a s ingle Pro gram from a P erform ance . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Arpeggio with Mst Clk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Synce d Delay rep eats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Pattern s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Exter nal Syn c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
MIDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Multiti mbrali ty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4 Morph & Mutator
Morphing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Availab le Morph d estinati ons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Morph Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Velocit y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Wheel a nd Contro l Pedal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Assig n a Morph sou rce to a desti nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Morph Lo ck Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Morph C ontinuou s Destin ations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Impuls e Morph bu ttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Impuls e Morph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Impuls e Morph Prote ction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Impuls e Morph Me rge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Mutator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
5 Nord Lead 4 Reference
Master Le vel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
MIDI LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Morph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Dial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
LED Disp lay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Perf Mo de / Execu te . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Execu te . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Slot A ~D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The Men us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Hold, Hol d Enable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Chord Me mory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Octave Sh ift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Global O ct Shif t. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Mst Clk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Pattern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Morph Lo ck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Impuls e Morph 1 ~ 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Pitch Sti ck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Shif t. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Mod Whe el . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Voice Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Unison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 0
Dly Vib . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Mono/L egato. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Glide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Bend Ra nge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
LFOs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
LFO 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Waveform Se lector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
LFO Dest ination Se lector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Amount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Mst Clk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Arp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
KBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Imp Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
LFO 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Arpeggio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Arpeg gio Dire ctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Arpeg gio Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Arpeg gio Rang e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Modulation Envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Dec/Re l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Destin ation sel ector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
AR mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Imp Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Amount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Oscillators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Oscill ator Waveform s elector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Sound In it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Osc 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Fine tun e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 3
Semi Tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Oscillator Modulation (Osc Mod) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Frequen cy Modul ation (FM). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Oscill ator Sync (S ync) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Osc Mod A mount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Panic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Oscillator mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Osc Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Amp Env . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Sustai n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Relea se . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Filter Envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Filter En velope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Sustai n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Relea se . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
4 | Nord Lead 4 User MaNUaL v2.x
Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Filter Fre quency ( Freq). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Filter Re sonanc e (Res) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Envelop e Amount (E nv Amt) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Keyboar d Tracking (KB Trac k). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Type selec tor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Low Pass 12, 24, 48 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
High Pas s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Band Pas s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Ladde r M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Ladde r TB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Velocit y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Amp Vel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Crush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Compre ssor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 9
Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Talk1, Talk2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Comb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Delay, Reverb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Tempo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Feedba ck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Dry/ Wet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
On/Of f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Reverb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Dry/ Wet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Reverb S elect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 0
7 Nord Sound Manager
System re quireme nts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
The Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
The Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Parti tion Memo ry Indi cator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Right-C licking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Selec t in Instru ment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 2
Upload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Downlo ad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Renam e. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
File For mats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
The Quick Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Transfer Per formances to the L ead 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Deleti ng a Perfo rmance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Downlo ad a new Per formanc e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Upload s ounds fro m the Lead 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Organi ze the progr am part ition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
Search B ox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Auto Sele ct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Nord Sound Manager reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 4
Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 6
Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Progra m - Perfor mance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 6
Search B ox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Loc - Locat ion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
Name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Categor y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 6
Ver – Versio n Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Footer Ar ea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 6
Parti tion Memo ry Indi cator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Cancel B utton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Messa ge/Text Ar ea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 6
Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
9 Synthesis Basics
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
The “bui lding bl ocks” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
The Oscillators and waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
The Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The Amplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
LFOs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6 The Menus
System Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
1 - Memor y Protect – O n, Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2 - Transpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3 - Fine Tune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4 - Sustai n Pedal Pola rity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
5 - Ctrl Ped al Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6 - Ctrl Ped al Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
7 - Ctrl Ped al Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
8 - Impuls e Morph Prote ct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
A B C D - Slot Out put Routi ng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
MIDI Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
G - Global C hannel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
A, b, c, d - Slot Ch annel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
t - Soft Th ru Chann el. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
1 - MIDI Inte rface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2 - Local Co ntrol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3 - Control C hange (CC ) Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4 - Progra m Change Mo de . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
5 - Pitch Ben d Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
6 - Send CC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7 - Dump On e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
8 - Dump Pro gram Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 3
Sound Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
1 - Mst Clk K bd Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
2 - Delay Mo de . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3 - Vibrato R ate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
4 - Vibrato A mount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
5 - Impuls e Morph Me rge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Mutator Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Pattern Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
11 MIDI
Slot MIDI C ontrol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Exter nal Syn c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Soft Th ru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Panic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
USB MIDI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Transmit Pro gram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Recei ve single Pr ogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Recei ve a Program B ank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
MIDI Controller list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
MIDI Imp lementa tion Char t. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
12 Appendix
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Audio Connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Headph ones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
1, 2, 3 & 4 Outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
MIDI Connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
MIDI OUT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
MIDI IN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
USB Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
USB MIDI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Pedal Connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Sustai n pedal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Control p edal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
13 Index
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 0
Chapter 1 INtrodUCtIoN | 5
Introduction
1
emulations of classic, vintage analog filters, the Ladder M and the
Thank you!
First we would like to thank you for purchasing the Nord Lead 4. The
Nord Lead 4 is built on Clavia’s legacy of making virtual analog synthesizers for almost 20 years and we hope you will have as much fun
owning the instrument as we had developing it.
To us, details are everything - and an intuitive user interface is just as
important as the actual sound. We are musicians ourselves, and know
by experience how frustrating it can be to have to wade through menus
and page-plus buttons to change a setting.
That is why we have a physical button or knob for every sound related
parameter on the Nord Lead 4 front panel. We also know the importance of building our instruments as light as possible - some times it is
a long walk to that gig.
Ladder TB filters. The filter has a drive control which allows the addition of some distortion to the signal in the actual filter “circuitry.”.
• The Arpeggio, the LFOs and the delay can be synchronized to
master clock with individual divisions to create great rhythmic soundscapes.
Morph
The Morph function lets you continuously control defined ranges of
several parameters in a Program using only a single control source.
This allows you to produce radical changes in a sound in a very fast
and easy way.
The Impulse Morph buttons take real-time, instant sound manipulation
and creativity to the next level.
Features
The Nord Lead 4 is a virtual analog synthesizer with an extensive set of
functions which allow you to shape the sound in a variety of ways. The
Lead 4 is multi-timbral; its four independent slots make it possible to
layer up to four sounds on top of each other.
Synthesizer
In an classic analog style synthesizer environment, each of the
Nord Lead 4’s four slots consist of 2 oscillators, 2 LFOs, 1 modulation
envelope, 1 amplifier envelope and a multi-type filter section with an
envelope as well. There is an extensive effects section comprised of
six different FX units, and a selectable delay/reverb at the end of the
signal path.
• Oscillator 1 can produce analog style waveforms and wavetables.
The traditional analog waveforms (Pulse, Triangle, Saw and Sine) can
also operate in oscillator sync-mode and the OSC 1 MOD section allows the routing of Oscillator 2’s pitch to modulate Oscillator 1’s pitch
- Linear Frequency Modulation.
• Oscillator 2 can produce analog style waveforms and noise. The
color and resonance of the noise can be adjusted. The pitch of the
second oscillator can be shifted +/- 60 semitones.
• The LFOs have a wide array of modulation destinations and several
waveforms. The cycle of an LFO can be restarted by keyboard triggers and/or by pressing an Impulse button.
• The Modulation Envelope also has a wide array of modulation destinations and can function either as an attack/decay or as an attack/
release envelope. It too can be triggered by either the keyboard, or
an Impulse button
• The filter section has envelope and velocity controls and the filter frequency can be set to track the keyboard. The filter has no fewer than
seven different characteristics: Low Pass, 12 dB slope, Low Pass 24
dB slope. Low Pass 48 dB slope, Band Pass, High Pass and two
Slots
The four Slots make it easy to stack sounds in layers or to create split
keyboard performances. One Slot can be active for manipulation with
the knobs on the panel, while the others are making sounds in the
background.
Effects
Each program can be processed with the radical new FX section, and
a selectable delay/reverb.
Programs
There are 400 program locations in the Nord Lead 4. All of these can
be used to store your own programs.
Performances
Combinations of four separate programs with interlocking master clock
synchronization, with layer, split or isolated MIDI control capabilities can
be stored in the 99 Performance memory locations.
Nord Sound Manager
The Nord Sound Manager is delivered free of charge with the Nord
Lead 4 and will act as a librarian utility for the programs and performances in the unit.
This application is compatible with computers running Windows XP,
Windows 7 and 8 or Windows Vista. It can also run on a Macintosh
with Mac OSX 10.7 or later.
Controls & connections
The Nord Lead 4 has a 49-key keyboard which responds to velocity.
It is also equipped with a modulation wheel and wooden pitch stick, 4
line level outputs, 1 headphone output, MIDI IN & OUT, a USB port with
MIDI capabilities and inputs for a sustain pedal and a control pedal.
6 | Nord Lead 4 User MaNUaL v1.x
Panel Overview
2
The Front Panel
The front panel on the Nord Lead 4 has two main areas, which are
identified by their background black and grey colors. We’ll familiarize
ourselves briefly with the panel here and describe the functions in detail
in the following chapters.
Display
The display is normally used for displaying the current program or
performance number. It also displays menu settings, pattern numbers
and the value of a parameter when you turn a knob.
By holding the Copy button and turning a knob, you can see the
current value of a parameter.
We’ll describe the functions in the Program and Performance areas in
greater detail starting at page 8.
Synth and Effect area
The synth area is where all the action happens. Every vital sound
generating function in the Nord Lead 4 has a dedicated knob or button,
and they are all there for you to go ahead and get crazy, to design the
sound as you wish. The traditional synthesizer specific functions are
augmented with a powerful set of modulation effects and a selectable
delay/reverb. All the settings of the parameters on the panel can be
stored in a Program.
A Performance in the Nord Lead 4 can contain up to four programs,
which means that you can use four individual synth engines. These are
controlled through the same panel, one at a time. You choose which
section to control by pressing any of the Slot buttons. There are powerful performance features that allows you to synchronize functions to a
master clock and to manipulate settings in real time, with for example
the Modulation Wheel or the Impulse Morph buttons.
Program & Performance area
The Program and Performance area starts at the Master Level in the
top left panel corner, and then sweeps down right towards the keyboard.
The parameters and functions in this area are used to select programs and performances, to set global and MIDI functions and to add
expression to your performance with the Pitch Stick, Mod Wheel and
the Impulse Morph buttons. This is also where you find the four Slot
buttons, which you use to activate one or several of the Nord Lead 4
synth engines.
We’ll describe the functions in this area in greater detail, in the reference chapter that begins at page 20.
Chapter 2 paNeL overvIew | 7
Knobs & dials
Knobs
The knobs control the continuously variable parameters in the Nord Lead 4 synth engine.
• A parameter value can be totally different from the
knob’s physical position when you load a Program.
As soon as you start turning the knob, the value will
‘snap’ to the knob’s physical position.
Most of the knobs have a green LED indicator below them. This LED is
used for indicating when a parameter is connected to a Morph source.
Please refer to page 13 for more information on morphing.
The Dial
The Dial is used to select the programs
and performances. When an item in the
menus is selected, the Dial is used to
change this setting.
LED-dial
This dial in the Oscillator 1 section has an associated
LED display which shows the selected Wavetable
number.
Buttons
Selector buttons
Selector buttons are used to activate
one setting in an array of two or more.
Selector buttons have a set of round or
triangular LEDs to indicate the current
setting. Press the button several times
to cycle through the possible options.
On/Off buttons
On/Off buttons are used for activating a parameter
or a group of parameters such as effects. The LED
next to them indicates the On or Off status of the
function.
Shift button
Quite a few buttons have a secondary function,
which will be available if you hold down Shift while
pressing the button. The name of the secondary
function is printed below the button.
Master Level knob
The Master Level knob controls the overall amplitude for the audio outputs, the line level outputs
and headphone output. The Master Level knob’s
actual position indicates the output level.
8 | Nord Lead 4 User MaNUaL v1.x
Getting Started
3
About Programs
Complete sound settings are stored in the Program memory of the
Nord Lead 4. This memory area consists of 400 Programs. Every Program can be edited and replaced as you wish. A complete set of the
factory Programs is available on the Nord Lead 4 CD and on the www.
nordkeyboards.com website.
Select a Program
1 Use the Dial to select a Program. The programs are organized in
4 banks with 99 programs in each, displayed in the LED as 1._1 -
1.99, all the way up to 4.99.
2 Press and hold the Shift button and turn the Dial, this changes the
“bank number”; 1, 2, 3 and 4.
3 Performances are indicated with a initial letter “P” in the display,
press repeatedly on the Perf Mode button to alter between Program and Performance mode. Stick to programs for a while, we’ll
get to the Performances in a while.
Edit a Program
Editing a Program is just as easy as grabbing a knob and changing a
setting, or pressing a button to select a different setting. The knob’s
physical position doesn’t always reflect the setting in the Program that
is active, but as soon as you start turning a knob, the parameter’s value
will snap to the knob’s position.
1 Go back to Program Mode, select a program and turn for ex-
ample the Filter Freq knob.
The parameter value will be shown briefly in the LED.
When you have edited a Program, an dot (.) will appear in the Display
to the right of the Program number. This is to alert you to the fact that
the program has been edited but not yet saved.
If you select a new program without saving, any edits you have made
will be lost and the Program will have its original settings the next time
you select it.
Storing a Program
If you are happy with an edit that you have made, you should probably
store the Program. But before we can do this, there is a Memory Protect function that is set to On when the Lead 4 leaves the Nord Factory.
This needs to be turned Off in the System Menu before you (and your
cat) can store anything.
1 Hold Shift and press the System button. You may have to use the
Dial to select the 1 Memory Protect setting.
2 Hold Shift and turn the Dial to set the Memory Protect to Off.
With the protection turned off, we can now store our edited program.
3 Hold Shift and press the Perf Mode/Store button.
The Display starts flashing and the original Program location is
shown.
4 Select a new location where you want to store the Program by
turning the Dial.
To select another bank, hold Shift and select another bank with
the Dial.
The Program that occupies the location that you select will be
active on the keyboard, making it possible to verify that you do not
accidentally overwrite something you wanted to keep.
Chapter 3 GettING started | 9
5 Hold Shift and press the Store button a second time to confirm
your choice.
Your edited Program has now replaced the previous one in the
location you specified.
• To cancel the procedure, press any buttons on the panel before you
press Store the second time.
• With Memory Protect set to Off, a double tap on the Store button
while holding Shift will store a Program in its original location.
The programs in the 100 and the 400 series in the Nord Lead 4 memory are identical. This means that you can start saving your edits at
once, and as long as you have decided in which of these two banks to
do this, you do not risk overwriting anything that you might find useful.
If you at some point like to restore the entire memory content
of Nord Lead 4 to the Factory Settings, this can be done with a
backup file from the Nordkeyboards.com website and the Manager. This will be described later in this manual.
Selecting Performances
1 Press the Perf Mode button repeatedly to select either Program
Mode or Performance Mode.
Programs are numbered from 1.xx to 4.xx and Performances always
begins with the initial letter “P” in the LED. A Performance can use up
to four Slots at once, all with different programs. Program 288 to the
left, Performance 43 to the right.
3 Hold Shift and press the Store button a second time to store the
Performance.
Your edited Performance has now replaced the previous one in
the location you chose in step 2.
Slots
The Nord Lead 4 has four Slots labelled A, B, C and D. Each slot represents a complete synthesizer setup, a complete sound if you wish.
The Slots can be used for layering sounds or quickly switch between
sound settings. The Slots can also be used when the Nord Lead 4 is
controlled via MIDI.
1 Make sure the Nord Lead is in the Program Mode, by pressing the
Perf Mode/Execute button until a number between 1.xx an 4.xx is
indicated in the LED. Performances begin with a “P”, and this is
not what we want for this exercise.
2 Press the Slot A button, its LED should be the only one lit.
3 Play on the keyboard and turn the Dial. The various Programs that
you call up should make different sounds as they are recalled.
4 Press the Slot B button, so that its LED light up instead of Slot A’s.
5 Turn the Dial and choose a different Program for Slot B.
2 Turn the Dial to scroll through the 100 Performances, P01 to P99.
Editing a Performance
1 It is as easy to edit a Performance as it is a Program. Just grab a
knob and turn it.
Since a Performance may be using 4 different programs at once,
you need to make sure which of these program you are editing.
The Slot that uses the program that is in focus on the panel, is the
one with its Slot LED blinking.
2 If you want to replace one of the Programs in a Performance,
press and hold the Slot button for the program to be changed and
turn the Dial until you have found the Program that you want.
Saving a Performance
A Performance in the Nord Lead 4 can contain one program for each
slot, with a split set on the keyboard and the Hold feature active. There
are 99 Performances, all of these are used in the Factory setting.
By pressing the individual Slot A and Slot B buttons, you can quickly
switch from one program, to another without turning the dial.
Layering two Programs
6 Press and hold the Slot A button and then press the Slot B
button. Both the Slot A and B LEDs are lit and both programs will
be active on the keyboard.
The blinking LED
indicates the Slot
which is in focus
for editing with the
controls on the
panel (or selecting
another Program),
sometimes called
“panel-active”.
Press the other
Slot button to
move the focus.
The last 10 Performances in the Factory settings - P89 to P99 - are
duplicates of the first 10. You can use these to save your edits without
having to worry about overwriting something you’d like to retain.
1 Hold Shift and press the Store button.
The LED display starts flashing with the current Performance
number.
2 Use the Dial to select a new location if you do not want to over-
write the original Performance.
10 | Nord Lead 4 User MaNUaL v1.x
Creating a Split
7 Press and hold Slot A and press the Slot C button. If you do this
right after the previous exercise, Slot B is removed, Slot A and C
will then be the active ones.
8 Hold Shift and press the Split button. This splits the keyboard in
two halves, where you can have Slots A and B to the left, and
Slots C and D to the right.
Storing a single Program from a Performance
1 Make sure that the Program you wish to store is in the Slot that is
active (its Slot LED is blinking).
2 Hold Shift and press Store once.
3 Release the Shift button and Press Perf Mode once to switch to
Program Mode.
4 Turn the Dial to select a location for the Program.
5 Hold Shift and press Store to confirm your intentions.
Copy and Paste settings
It is possible to copy all the settings in one slot to another. This can be
useful if you for example need to move a sound from the lower part (A
and B) to the upper part (C and D) in a split configuration.
1 Make sure that your source Slot is in focus by pressing its button.
The Slot LED should be blinking.
2 Hold the Copy button and press on the source Slot button.
“cPY” will be displayed in the LED display.
3 You can now turn the dial to select a different Performance, or
even switch to Program Mode.
Setting the Split
Hold Shift and press and hold the Split button. A note number will be
indicated in the LED display. While still holding the buttons, play a key
on the keyboard, this key will be the lowest key of the upper range.
Creating a Performance from scratch
By holding and pressing Slot buttons you can select any combination
of the four Slots. When you select two or more Slots at the same time
you are in effect creating a Performance, even though it is not Stored
yet.
To Store a combination of Slots that you have made, hold Shift and
press Store once. Then press Perf Mode, turn the Dial to select a
location (P xx) and confirm by holding Shift and pressing once again on
Store.
Shift and turn
If you ever wanted to change a variable parameter, like for example
the filter frequency or the output levels on all Slots at the same time,
hold Shift and turn the knob. The sounds in the Slots will retain their
parameter relationship, at least up until the point when one of them hits
the wall so to speak. This special editing process will even consider any
Morph settings.
4 Hold Shift and the Paste button, and then press the Slot but-
ton where you want your settings to be copied to. “Pst” will be
displayed in the LED display and the settings will be copied to the
edit buffer of the Program/Performance, the dot to the right in the
LED will be lit to indicate this.
The content of the copy buffer will remain until you copy another setting or parameter, or turn off the Nord Lead 4. This means that you can
paste the same data to several destinations.
M If you want to keep the new settings you have created by coping,
make sure that you save the Program or Performance before you
select a new one.
Follow the same procedure to copy individual parameters.
1 Hold the Copy button and turn a knob. The parameters current
value will be displayed in the LED.
2 Hold Shift and Paste, and turn another knob. The setting of the
source knob will now be copied to the second parameter.
The Copy/Paste functionality can be used to copy Morphs from
one program to another, and to copy Impulse Morphs within one
program or to another.
Performances and Programs
A Performance contains 4 separate Programs, one for each Slot.
The Slots do not have to be active on the Nord Lead 4 keyboard in a
Performance; you could control one or more Slots from an external
MIDI source.
When a Performance is created, the settings for all four Slot Programs
are copied to the Performance (regardless of whether those slots are
active or not), becoming separate and independent entities. This allows
changes to be made to either the original source programs or to the
Performance Slot programs without affecting the other.
Chapter 3 GettING started | 11
You can change the range of the arpeggio with the LFO 1 Amount/
Arpeggio with Mst Clk
Let’s try some things with the arpeggio and the Master Clock (Mst Clk)
feature.
1 Hold Shift and press Sound Init (the Osc 1 waveform selector) to
start with a basic sound.
Range knob, from one to four octaves, but let’s stick with 1 for now.
The LFO 1 Waveform selector doubles as the arpeggio direction selection. Press repeatedly to listen to the various directions.
Synced Delay repeats
Keep the arpeggio running and we’ll add more things.
2 Hold Shift and press the LFO 1 Waveform selector three times.
The Mst Clk and the Arp LED should both be lit. Notice how the
three left LFO Destination LEDs light up. This indicates that the
arpeggio is stopped.
3 Hold down a key or a chord and press the Run/LFO 1 destination
selector. The three right LFO Destination LEDs light up and the
arpeggio starts running.
4 Press Shift and Hold to activate Hold Enable, and then press Hold
to hold the notes you play. Each Slot has an independent Hold
Enable control, providing greater flexibility when creating
Performances.
1 Turn both Delay knobs fully counterclockwise, press Feedback
once to light up the “1” LED, activate the Delay and then Hold
Shift and press Delay On a second time to synchronize the delay
repeats to the Mst Clk.
2 Turn the Delay tempo knob which now is selecting the Mst Clk
divisions, to “8d” and turn up the Dry/Wet mix until you hear the
delay repeats.
The arpeggio will play quarter notes, and the delay repeats will be dotted eight notes (the first repeat will “move” the following repeats by half
an 1/8).
3 Lets add a synchronized LFO sweep. Hold Shift and press the
LFO 2 Waveform selector once to light up the Mst Clk LED.
4 Select the Triangle waveform and Filter destination. Turn the LFO
2 rate knob (which now sets the division to the Mst Clk) to “2b”
(2 bars) and turn up the LFO 2 Amount knob a bit past the 12
o’clock position. If the LFO 2 Amount doesn’t seem to do anything, try closing the Filter Frequency a bit.
You will now hear quarter notes from the arpeggio, with delay repeats
that are synched at 8 notes, and the LFO 2 that opens up the filter
once every 2 bars.
5 Press and Hold the Mst Clk button and turn the Dial. This will
adjust the tempo (indicated as beats per minute in the display)
and you’ll notice that the three rhythmic things we have running all
change to reflect any new tempo that you set. A tempo setting will
be stored in a Performance.
5 Turn the LFO Rate knob, which now sets the division of the
arpeggio, to the Mst Clk and hear the arpeggio speed up or down
as the divisions change. Find the quarter note division (“4”) and
leave it there.
6 Feel free to adjust the filter and envelope settings to a short, nice
sound, I’ll wait here. Oh, you’re already done? Great, let’s move
on.
12 | Nord Lead 4 User MaNUaL v1.x
Patterns
Let’s change the cyclic arpeggio from the example above to a pattern.
Each program can use a single pattern in either LFO or Arpeggio. Patterns are only available when LFO/Arpeggio is synced to Mst Clk.
1 Make the arpeggio play just one note and turn the LFO 1 rate
knob clockwise all the way to meet the “Pat” symbol. The rhythm
of the arpeggio will now follow the pattern. A pattern does not
contain any notes, just rhythm.
2 Hold down Shift and the Mst Clk/Pattern button and turn the dial
to select the pattern. The patterns are grouped in types, which are
labeled to the right side on the panel. Some patterns are in 4/4
and one bar long; others have other time signatures and lengths.
Pattern changes can be made on the fly using the Impulse Morph buttons. Hold down an Impulse button (or activate Morph Lock), hold Shift
+ Pattern and turn the dial to a desired pattern number. The selected
pattern will then be used when the Impulse button is held down.
Now we’ve experimented a bit with the Mst Clk in one slot. If you leave
this arpeggio running, you can select another slot and start all over to
add new things. As long as Mst Clk is selected, everything in all four
Slots may be synchronized to each other, following the one tempo that
you set.
External Sync
If you route MIDI Clock to the MIDI Input on the Lead 4, the Mst Clk
tempo will automatically lock to this incoming clock. Since the Lead 4
does not have any transport controls like Start, Stop etc, it is not suitable of being a transmitter of MIDI clock.
MIDI
Leaving the Nord Factory, the Nord Lead 4 is set to send and receive
on the Global MIDI Channel 1, using the USB MIDI interface. This
means that what you play on the keyboard will be transmitted as MIDI
Notes on MIDI Channel 1, and incoming MIDI on channel 1 will play the
current Program or an entire Performance on the Nord Lead 4.
The Slot that has its panel in focus (the blinking Slot LED) will be transmitting (and receiving) any CC data that occurs when you turn a knob
or press a button on the panel.
All MIDI settings are made in the MIDI Menu (you did see that coming,
yes?) on a Global basis. Anything you change in the menus will affect
the whole instrument, until it is changed the next time.
Multitimbrality
If you want to use the Nord Lead 4 as four independent synthesizers
controlled via MIDI, this is achieved by setting MIDI Channels for the
individual Slots, in the MIDI Menu.
E When you assign a separate MIDI Channel to for example Slot D,
this will make that Slot to always react to incoming MIDI, even if it
is not active on the Nord Lead 4 panel.
In the following sections you will find a chapter about the
powerful Morph function, a panel reference, a chapter that is
totally devoted to the Nord Sound Manager and a chapter that
describes a bit what this “synthesis” thing is all about.
Chapter 4 Morph & MUtator | 13
Morph & Mutator
4
1. Press and hold 2. Turn 3. Play and use the Mod Wheel
Morphing
Morphing allows you to be very dynamic and creative in your sound
design, and is all about being able to control virtually any important
sound related parameter from the three Morph sources: the Modulation
Wheel & Control Pedal, the Keyboard and the Impulse Morph buttons.
The Impulse buttons provides you with up to 7 different instant Morph
settings for each program.
There are 36 available continuous Morph destinations and 21 “switches” to choose from. This gives you plenty of real-time control possibilities to augment your playing style. A Morph is very simple to set up
and use, and all Morph assignments that you make are stored with the
Program or Performance.
Many, if not all of the factory Programs have morph assigned parameters. If a Program uses the Velocity or Wheel Morph, the green Morph
Vel or Wheel indicators on the panel will be lit to indicate this.
• If for example the Wheel indicator in the Morph Prog section is lit for
a Program, you can move the wheel and experience how the morph
will influence the sound.
A Morph Source controls the range from the parameter’s original
position in the Program to a position you define when you set up the
morph.
This means that you can control a very small range on one parameter
at the same time as you control a very large range on a another parameter. One parameter can be controlled clockwise, and another can be
controlled counter clockwise.
Available Morph destinations
f you reach the limit of available Moprh Destination within one program, the next Morph assignment will simply not be activated. You can
also hit the ceiling if you copy and paste Morphs. In this case, “ErF” will
be displayed in the LED and the paste operation will not be executed.
Morph Sources
Let’s have a look at the Morph Sources:
Velocity
This Morph source uses the Note Velocity from the Nord Lead 4 keyboard and from any incoming MIDI messages.
• A key velocity of 0 represents the parameters original value.
• A key velocity of 127 represents the parameters maximum morphed
value.
Wheel and Control Pedal
Uses the modulation wheel and a pedal connected to the Control
Pedal input as the Morph Source.
Incoming MIDI Control Change messages on CC 01 and CC 11
will also act as a Wheel/Ped Morph source.
• The bottom position of the Modulation Wheel and/or Control Pedal
represents the parameters original value.
• The top position of the Modulation Wheel or Control Pedal represents
the parameters morphed value.
If the Control Pedal is set to control the overall volume of the Nord
Lead 4, in the System Menu, the wheel will be a solitary Morph
source when Wheel is selected.
14 | Nord Lead 4 User MaNUaL v1.x
Assign a Morph source to a destination
1 Hold down a Morph Source button.
If this source has any previously assigned Morph destinations, the
current destination LEDs will light up.
2 Operate a Morph Destination parameter.
The selected Morph Destination’s green LED will indicate that a
Morph is active. Previously engaged destinations will be unaffected.
3 Release the Morph Source button.
When the Morph source is operated, the parameter’s value will
change accordingly and influence the sound.
To edit a morph range from a Morph Source:
• Press the corresponding Morph Source button and turn the destination’s knob to a new position.
To clear all morphs from a single Morph Source:
• Hold Shift + the corresponding Morph Source button.
To clear a single Morph destination:
• Hold down the corresponding Morph Source button and turn the
parameter knob to its original position, where the green Morph LED
will be turned off.
To copy and paste a Morph setup
• Hold Copy and press the Morph button(s) for the source. “CPy” will
be displayed in the LED. Hold Shift and Paste buttons, then press
the Morph button(s). “Pst” will be displayed in the LED.
Morph Lock Mode
Morph Lock Mode provides you with a great overview that can simplify
setting up and adjusting multiple Morph Destinations at once.
1 Press and hold one of the Morph Source buttons and press the
Copy/Morph Lock button.
The Morph Source button flashes continuously, and green LEDs
will show any of the Morph Destinations that are assigned to this
Morph source.
2 Operate a Morph Destination parameter.
The selected Morph Destination’s green LED will indicate that a
Morph is active.
Press any of the Morph Source buttons to exit
Morph Lock Mode.
When the Morph Lock Mode is active you can:
• Operate any Morph Destination to set-up or adjust a morph.
• Hold down the Shift button and operate a Morph Destination to clear
it.
Morph Continuous Destinations
A Morph Source can control virtually any important sound related knob,
Each one of these Morph Destinations has a green LED next to it,
which will be lit when a Morph is active for this parameter.
Parameter name
LFO 2 Rate / Clk Div Amp Env Decay Filter Env Amt
LFO 2 Amount Amp Env Sustain Output Level
Mod ENV Attack Amp Env Release FX Amount
Mod ENV Dec/Rel Filter Env Attack Del. Tempo/Clk Div
Mod ENV Amount Filter Env Decay Delay Amount
OSC 2 Fine Tune Filter Env Sustain Rev. Bright
OSC 2 Semitones Filter Env Release
Reverb Mix
Impulse Morph buttons
Impulse Morphs are for
fast, instantaneous parameter changes. The
Impulses can be used
to change switch-type
parameters, something
that the other two
Morph sources are not
able to do. The Impulse Morph buttons do not display that they are
used in a program in the same way as the Velocity and Wheel Morphs
do.
There are three buttons that can be used in combinations for a total of
7 different Impulse setups for each Program.
M It is not possible to change a Shift-parameter with the Impulses.
You can for example turn the arpeggio on or off, but you cannot
use the Impulse to activate the arpeggio from a normal LFO 1
operation or change from a keyboard triggered Mod Envelope to a
Impulse triggered Mod Envelope.
Impulse Morph
The Impulse Morphs are not continuous, they change the parameters
instantly. They can also change switch type parameters, for example
turning the arpeggiator on or off.
Available Impulse Morph destinations
Oct Shift Mono Mode Glide LFO1 Wave
LFO1 Dest. LFO1 Rate LFO1 Amount LFO1 Clk Division
LFO2 Wave LFO2 Dest. LFO2 Amount LFO2 Clk Division
Mod Env Attack Mod Env Decay Mod Env Amount Mod Env Dest.
Osc1 Waveform Osc1 Wavet. Sel Osc2 Waveform Osc2 Fine tune
Osc2 Semitones Osc Mod Select Osc Mod Amount Osc Mix Amount
Amp Env Attack Amp Env Decay Amp Env Sustain Amp Env Release
Filt Env Attack Filt Env Decay Filt Env Sustain Filt Env Release
Filter Select Filter KB Track Filter Drive Filter Freq
Filter Res Filt Env Amount Output Level Voice Mode Unis.
Chord Enable Arpeggio Run Arp Range Arp Direction
Arp Tempo Arp Clk Division Pattern Select Delay Clk Div.
Delay Dry/Wet Dly Feedback Reverb Type Reverb Bright.
Delay Tempo FX Type FX Amount
Parameter name
Glide OSC 1 MOD Amount Filter Freq
LFO 1 Rate / Clk Div OSC MIX Filter Res
LFO 1 Amount / Arp Rng. Amp Env Attack Filter Drive
Chapter 4 Morph & MUtator | 15
Impulse Morph Protection
The Impulse Morphs have a protection feature that only affects these
Morphs. If this is On, you have to put the Impulse Morph in Lock mode
for any adjustments to stick, otherwise any new parameter settings will
be discarded as soon as you release the Impulse button.
This allows you to do parameter changes during the heat of a performance, while not “ruining” a previously set up Impulse Morph. The
protection disables the Morph Clear command as well.
1 Hold Shift and press the Slot A button to enter the System menu.
Mutator
The Nord Lead 4 is equipped with a powerful program generator, the
Mutator. This is accessed by holding Shift and pressing the Slot D
button, and then selecting a strength of a Variation or Mutation
process.
Let’s have a look at the three
different generation methods,
Variation, Mutation and Random.
2 Use the Dial to go the setting 8.
3 Hold Shift and turn the Dial to set this to Off.
Even if the Impulse Morph Protect is On, putting the Impulse in
Lock Mode will override the protection.
M All changes made to any Impulse (or other Morph) setting must be
Stored to the Program/Performance to be retained.
Impulse Morph Merge
The Sound Menu has a Impulse Morph Merge feature that allows you
to combine settings from Impulse Morphs 1, 2 and 3, to create “mixes”
of these to Impulse Morphs 4, 5, 6 and 7.
1 Make settings to Impulse 1, 2 and 3. If you try and avoid to use
the same parameter in more than one of these, the merging will
be more complete.
2 Hold Shift and press the Slot C/Sound button to enter the Sound
Menu.
3 Turn the Dial until you reach item 5. The LED display will show
“rG”.
4 Press Execute to merge the first three Impulse Morphs into the
remaining four.
Impulse Morphs 1 and 2 will now be merged to become number 4,
Impulse 2 and 3 will be merged to number 5, Impulse Morph 1 and 3
will be merged to number 6 and 1, 2 & 3 will be merged as number 7.
To avoid clashes and conflicting results, if there are overlapping
parameters, these parameters will be omitted from the merge. If
1 and 2 for example contain settings for Filter Freq, the merged
result in number 4 will not have any setting for Filter Freq.
E Any settings that were in Impulse Morphs 4, 5, 6 and 7 will be lost
when you execute the merge.
1 We will begin exploring the
Mutator options by initializing a Program - hold Shift and press the
Osc 1 Waveform selector button.
2 Turn the Osx Mix knob to hear both oscillators, and set the wave-
forms so that you can tell oscillator 1 and 2 apart.
3 Hold Shift and press the Slot D button to enter the Mutator
process.
The available settings are printed on the right side of the panel.
4 Select A1 and press Perf Mode/Execute once.
The A indicates that this is the Variation mode and the “1” is the
least dramatic process level. Listen to the sound and try to hear
any likeness to the original sound that you had before you pressed
Execute.
5 Press Execute again, without changing the mode or level - A1.
The Variation process will start all over again, and it will again use
the original sound that we made in step 2, as the source, not the
Variation created in step 4.
6 Listen to the sound and see if you can find out what parameters
have changed.
16 | Nord Lead 4 User MaNUaL v1.x
7 Turn the dial to A5 and press Execute. This will most certainly
generate a program that is quite different from the initialized sound
in step 2.
There is a chance that you need to make some adjustments in
order to make this sound keyboard-playable.
8 Hold Copy and turn the dial one step at a time counter clockwise.
The display will count down from -1 for each step. This is the
Undo feature, and if you step backwards all the way, you will
eventually reach the original sound.
There are 10 undo levels, if you’ve pressed Execute more than
10 times, you need to restore the original program by selecting it
again.
Mutator Process Strength
Some parameters are excluded from the Mutator processes. Output
level is one of these, you don’t want programs that are silent. Another
thing to notice is that switches are not changed in Level 1.
Lets try the Mutation process.
1 Initialize the program and make some adjustments to the oscillator
mix and waveforms so that you can tell them apart.
2 Hold Shift and press the Slot D button to enter the Mutator
process.
3 Select b1 and press Execute. This is the least dramatic Mutation
level, and you should be able to hear a sound that is not too far
away from our starting point.
4 Press Execute again. The Mutation will now use the previous mu-
tation result and generate new settings on the basis of that.
This is the difference between the A and the b processes. The b/
Mutation will always continue from a previous result, the A/Variation will do another variation of the original source program.
If a Mutation is going in the right direction, you can continue with
another Mutation.
5 Select RND with the Dial and press Execute.
This will be a true randomization. Almost any parameter in the
Lead 4 will be randomized, and you may have to adjust several
things for the result to be playable on the keyboard.
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