Issues of the leading music tech magazines around the world have had their hands full with the Nord Wave. Here are a few quotes that we'd like to share with you: Keyboards - Germany "We are constantly surprised with how quick and easy it is for samples to be transformed into complex synthesizer sounds - or in a mixed sound, where the characteristics of samples and virtual-analog generated sounds can be united in a very interesting manner. The great Morph function supports these characteristics and makes it possible to perform both expressive and dynamic manipulation of the sounds. The Nord Wave is a first-class performance instrument and a very efficient sound design tool at the same time." Keyboard Magazine - Japan "Digital? Analog? It does not matter!! The Nord Wave is a symbol of succession and evolution. Whenever you touch and play the Nord Wave, you can feel Clavia's passion for development and love for their products. It must be a pioneer of the synthesizers of the next generation for sure." Future Music was kind enough to give the Nord Wave a Platinum Award, and according to our resident metal commodities broker, this could be quite valuable. Please ship to Åsögatan 142, Stockholm. "With the Wave, Clavia have made a very worthy and potentially classic successor to the Lead series. It sounds as good - if not better - than its predecessors but where it really stands out from ROMplers and the Nord Lead's before it is in the amount of direct front-panel control over the sampled waves, and their slick and simple integration into the sound-creation process." "The sampled waves that are included from the factory sound superb, authentic and are very inspiring to play." "Add to this what's already one of the best virtual analogue synthesis engines available and all in all the Wave looks like a force to be reckoned with in the same way that the Nord Lead has done for the last 12 years. Yup, Clavia have done it again!" In the May issue of Sound on Sound, Mr Paul Nagle took the Nord Wave through its paces, leaving no sonic stone unturned. Here are a few excerpts from his review: "Speaking of ethereal mush, the Vocal filter is my personal favourite after the low-pass. It employs two resonant peaks which can be manipulated to resemble vowel sounds. The resonance control varies the distance between the peaks, and cut-off applies a shift, which can be quite dramatic over its full range. I was able to generate some beautifully expressive choir patches using the morph function with its filter: I set the velocity to raise the cutoff frequency whilst the mod wheel swept the resonance." "Effortlessly, [using the Nord Wave Manager] I assembled a bunch of drum loops over a short range of keys, a bass over a couple of octaves and a solo flute higher up. USB transfer to the Wave happened without me even needing to think about it." "Make no mistake, when you start to build your own instruments you really appreciate the Nord Wave's strengths. Not that the provided samples, the Mellotrons especially, are anything less than wonderful. But Nords are for programming and this one raises the bar in terms of the uniquely rich, organic tones it can produce." "Somehow Clavia keep managing to leap ahead of the pack by creating these classic, simple-yet-powerful instruments. A winner." Here is a part of the Nord Wave review in the japanese Sound & Recording Magazine March issue. The review is made as a round-table talk by two professional synthesizer programmers. "The Nord Wave is, so to speak, the Nord Lead 4. The 4th generation... its playability is perfectly refined. And about the sound, Mellotron is really unique, especially the rub sound of the wine glass edge is impressive. I like it!! The string sounds with peculiar "tape" taste is also effective, isn't it? If I have to choose only one synthesizer, I will take the Nord Wave without any hesitation." Keyboard Magazine -US This review will be published in the March issue. "[The filters] can be incredibly musical and warm, or dish out bleeding-ear aggression, in either case rivaling the authenticity of filters on real analog synths. How smooth is it? I stepped through all of its modes, swept the cutoff and resonance, and octave-shifted the keyboard to the point where dogs in the next county howled in pain. Even so, I couldn't coax any hint of aliasing, zipper noise, or other digital telltales out of it. Outstanding." "It brings sampling to the knob-laden retro table at such a low profile that at first you don't realize how darned powerful this baby is. If you're in the market for a true synthesist's synthesizer, I strongly urge you to get your ears around a Nord Wave." The Swedish Musikermagasinet were very kind in its comments on the Nord Wave Manager: "[The Nord Wave Manager] has a fantastically effective and simple-to-use function that allows you to create a loop in a samples release part. You can set the start point and the length of the loop. The result is presented graphically on the screen but also - if you wish - sonically through the computers audio card. Everything is done in real time, any adjustments you make is immediately monitored during the playback of the loop. You can also set the length of the crossfade that can be necessary to create a seamless sounding loop. And when everything is sounding as you wish, you are just one press on a button away from making the samples available in the Nord Wave. If this sounds complicated, you got the wrong impression, it is the exact opposite. I have the distinct impression that the Nord Wave Manager takes care of most of the work with excellent results."