Nord User Forum

Schorsch wrote:Yes I would count it as different since volume and octave are for me a parts of the sound, but that’s a highly subjective statement and others may think different. However, this shows the beauty of the tonewheel and drawbar concept

We might be getting too off topic here, but as long as we agree we are just nerding out, I would disagree that it's as simple as doing (9^9)-1. If by "sound" we mean just that, "sound", the total number is much less than that.

I have a hard time agreeing that a note played with the 8' out and the same note played an octave below with the 4' out are two different "sounds". Sound is precisely the only thing they have in common. It's literally the same tonewheel being triggered. If you consider them different "sounds", then also the exact same registration should be considered different depending on which manual it is played on.

And also the foldback thing. Imagine you pull the 1' out and nothing else. As you go up in the keyboard range, at some point the notes will repeat themselves. So you'll have two keys sounding exactly the same. Now if you add the 16', only one of those two keys will sound the same, the other wouldn't. How are you going to consider them? Different but only in certain parts of the range?

If it's mathematics that we are to rely on to make this calculation, it is an extremely difficult one to make.

True "sound" combination are much less and all of them boil down to which amount to fundamentals plus which amount of fifths plus the only third you have, which being very high in the register, is going to be affected by foldback as well.

Lastly, I would definitely not take amplitude into consideration. If you do, then the number is literally infinite because 888 can sound the same as 111, depending on the Leslie volume.