The End - No more Nord Modulars ?

[Happy]

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/in- ... y-613549/3

"When we made the Nord Modular, we had a very nice community around it, but the demands from that community were increasing all the time
so the work developing a system like that takes a lot of software engineers.
We were draining the company on the R&D department, for a very small market.
So we almost killed ourselves. After that we said no more modular systems.

“We still use the m odular system in our work, almost daily. It’s very important to me. We use it almost like a laboratory;
when you’re thinking of an idea for a new synthesiser you can use that to build it up, so it’s still a good system.
I want to improve it but if I even whisper about improving it my software engineers and my partner go crazy…”

It's 2015... !

- There is an undeniable increase in demand for modular and vintage products
- Moog does it... "Maybe it's time to go back" http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/nam ... ers-614085
- Open hardware/source does modular: http://axoloti.be/axoloti-patcher/ (get one until the 28th of Januari
- DSI does it - releasing modular Eurorack modules
- Korg does it - releasing vintage gear (MS20, ARP Odyssey)
- Tom Oberheim does it - Releasing vintage gear
- Existing Nord modular hardware is failing and needs repairs.
- Existing G2 open source software available (http://nmedit.sourceforge.net/)
- 2nd hand vintage hardware is very expensive and hard to find
- More and more people exploring music and hardware cost have come down.
- Lots of G2 educational material, patches etc... available. (http://www.electro-music.com/forum/forum-43.html ,http://www.electro-music.com/forum/topic-29489.html, http://rolandkuit.com/SoundLab1.html, http://rolandkuit.com/SoundLab2.html)

So why not ?

- 1U rack module
- USB for (MIDI) control
- USB/ADAT/SPDIF Audio in & out (Thunderbolt/FW optional ?)
- MIDI class compliant USB interface
- Desktop Software Backward compatible with G2 (inherit current community & avaialble information) -
- G3 enhancements (whatever Nord likes to do )
- State of the art hardware processors and DSP (ARM?)
- Open client , hardware, firmware source and API(Let the community build the software instead of loading the Nord engineers) so that is it port-able to Linux/Mac & Windows
- Sub US$500 retail
- Release the boards as a DIY kit like the Korg MS-20's ? Exclude the the power supply (just DC in). U1 rack casing as an option for DIY Assembly.

Give it one year? Just a hardware box with some boards will be a good beginning, if only for synthesis newcomers and education.
Or at least release the hardware design and code to let community create new value by something new and at least backwards compatible with the G2.

[neolithic]

well i'd buy one, but it doesn't mean they'll make one!

[Mr_-G-]

Hm... that Axoloti thing seems to be a great idea.

[Roland Kuit]

Yes happy,

That is the sad true story behind it.
But there is always a future...always!

[neolithic]

Not so many years ago, if you told me that all of the following were going to be true in 2015, I would have assumed you had been eating strange mushrooms:

- Moog remake the Modular
- Korg sell the MS20 again
- The Arp Oddysey is for sale again
- A new Sequential Circuits Prophet (and maybe a new Elka Synthex?)
- Not to mention that I can have dozens of powerful synthesisers and a DAW running on a touchscreen computer the size and weight of a small book!

Hooray for the future, for the future is now! Bring it on!

[Happy]

Thanks for all you feedback!

Looked a bit around through data sheets and stuff and also found also this great guy named Markus Fuller opening up the G2
(Really nice bunch of video he has and very enjoyable to look at)

The G2 and Stage 2 share the exact same DSP, DAC, processor and perhaps also memory. BTW the Access Virus only has a different CPU. I wouldn't be afraid to bet that the Lead's and Electro's use the same chips as well, perhaps with here and there more or less memory and a different way of processing (Guess the Electro and Stage use DMA to access the memory - sample data) and the Lead/G2 perhpas not. No one seems to open up the newer products anymore so maybe Markus could give a helping hand here. to see what is going on in those newer boxes like the NE3/4/5 and the NL 2/3/4/A1.

The Freescale is 32 bit and allows up to 4GB memory. Based on the specification it looks like the NS2 has about 1.5GB and the NE5 around 2GB. That should mean there might be some space left for expension to 4GB to create a 4 instruments multiti-timbral NE5R (Rack) , perhaps with less voice count per instrument or for example 1 Piano and 3 samples based instruments ( Clavia please ?)

Anyhow, back to the G2. The bottom line is that component availability wise, these Cirrus and Freescale parts are readily availalble. So can't really get my head around why it would not be possible for re-release the G2, at least the rack version (with expansion card standard ), unless
the Freescale CPU and DSP reach their EOL status soon, but that could affect the whole range of current Clavia products and cause the Nord, as well as all Access Virus products, go belly up. So that should be very much unlikely in the short term.

So far for speculation.

Just almost put my money down on a 2nd (or whatever counts of "hands") G2 for 2 grand on ebay, but then told myself it could break down any moment from old age.
Looking at Markus video and the condition/looking of 2nd hand G2's the only reason to buy a G2 would be a form of GAS, We'll that's just me.

So, I have put my money on an Axoloti. This a ARM M4 with a ADC only, so no DSP, it it will have to do all the heavy loading of the arithmatic, but it allows to play around and getting into some programming of the processor code as well and into modular somehow, that must be fun.
[Wonder if placing some analog stuff like a VCA or VCF and EG after the DAC would be fun to make a kind of hybrid analog/digital synth], A crazy idea, yes.

We'll see and time will tell... the possibilities are endless.
Never say never.

[neolithic]

...So can't really get my head around why it would not be possible for re-release the G2...

The reason is not technical - it's commercial. Clavia is a small company and don't have the resource to support both software and hardware for the G2. But like you say, never say never...

[nordland]

i think we'll never see a new nord modular, and honestly as i've gone fully software i don't really mind. i still think nord had the best modular UI though.

my question is : what is the software equivalent nowadays to you ?

u-he bazille ?
uhe zebra ?
max with beap ?
max with oscillot ?
reaktor ?

this is nice :

[Happy]

Thanks for the links. This is very nice. Though the thing, for me, with software is that it could put a strain on the processor and other hardware in the PC. I have seen stories about people having glitches in their DAW when having many tracks open and to resolve that just to remove/close any other applications. So, personally I prefer to put my money onto something I can hold in my hands and leave only Audio /MIDI recording and playback for the Software. But that's is just me. Other people's mileage may vary.

[nordland]

Max for Live is nice but it's not very stable. Not sure Max for Cats is very stable either.
i'd kill for a nord modular plugin... i'm sure modern computers are more than able to run it.