I had my first Clavia Nord Wave hands on experience the first day it was available at JAM and after playing a couple of presets I dug into the depths of wavetables and samples versus subtractive synthesis. The layout is great! Nord Lead 2X meets Nord Lead 3, but it reminds more of the NL2 due to the lack of the fantastic (and expensive) knobs and LEDs on the NL3.

The first sound I tweaked was a simple and slightly detuned saw oscillator patch (mindXpander and Laserdance fans will recognize it as the classic staccato chords, one of the main ingredients in the production) and after that I tweaked a bassdrum using nothing but resonance and the tube effect. The tube effect is really neat and can really make the patches scream like on the Nord Lead 2 (which had a distortion effect with a setting of on or off). What’s missing though, when it comes to filters, is the fabulous filter LP+notch found on the Nord Lead 2.

Well, I could spoil the nice surprises which you’ll find when you try out the synthesizer yourself - but I won’t. Just go down to a store near you and give it a go.

So, would I want one? YES!