Nord Micro Modular Software

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Práxedes Jamal

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Aug 5, 2024, 1:40:57 AM8/5/24

to dremrodogpa

Thefinal stages of my Clavia Nord Micro Modular procurement started in London during the last days of 2002. I was visiting Turnkey on the Charring Cross Road to see what pretty delights stood shining in their racks (and to gaze again at the big old modulars downstairs). One of the first new products that really caught my eye was the diminutive and nicely styled Korg MicroKORG. I saw the display model on its shelf, saw some boxed on the floor, but didn't get a chance to play one. Two days later I popped back during my final pre-flight London visits and secured a few minutes to try it out. The synth section seemed nice, and the vocoder reminded me of what fun vocoders actually are. I left the store kind of wanting one, but not really wanting to pay over 600 Euro for the pleasure.

Once back in Dublin the researching began. The immediate revelation was that the MicroKORG was just a slightly cut down MS2000R, which was now available in rack form at about 650 Euro. Goodbye MicroKORG. Other vocoding competitors included the Clavia Nord Micro Modular (con: I thought would be a bit clean. pro: a modular), and the MAM VF11 (con: just a pure analog vocoder. pro: just a pure analog vocoder I knew to be fairly nice). The Nord was 600 Euro new, the MAM only about 350 Euro new.

I then decided to try out the MS2000 again. MusicMaker was given a visit, and I quickly came to the conclusion that the MS2000R's synth section was just another weak sounding Virtual Analog synth. I don't mean to be bitchy, but if I want retro I'll use the Minimoog, Micromoog, CS-5 or Juno. If I want Virtual Analog I've got my excellent AN1X, which has more polyphony and can already imitate a lot of my analogs very skilfully. So I didn't need a vocoder with a dodgy VA stuck to the side. Goodbye Korg.

On the other hand, I was now reckoning that a second-hand Micro Modular would only set me back about 350 Euro. I had wanted a Micro Modular about eight months before when thomann.de had been doing an amazing deal on them. Sadly the deal was now over, and I had been too broke to buy one at the time. But this meant that I'd already downloaded the editor and most of the demo sounds. Although the demo sounds didn't drive me wild, the editor options (ie, the modules and interface) exceeded all my current desires for a modular system (as hardware modulars of this size cost a personally impossible amount of money).

The plan became simple - get the Micro Modular, and if the vocoder didn't impress me enough just get a MAM VF11 as well. This would bring the total price up to what I should have paid for a Korg, but leaving me with an excellent virtual modular system and a pure analog vocoder. Ebay became the hunting ground (Micro Modulars in Ireland = rare) and I succeeded in winning the first available auction by a tiny 3 Euro margin.

Anyway. Everything you read up to this point was written before the Micro Modular actually arrived. It's here now, and so I must try and describe it in some tangible manner.

In terms of basic sound the moogs still rule top notch. They've got a greater depth and quality when it comes to oscillators and filters. They're snappier and just more "analog". No real surprise here, I guess I just have to mention it for the record.

But the Micro Modular wasn't designed to play "you're so great" to a bunch of overpriced thirty year olds, and the guys at Clavia would be quite upset to read such a limiting comparison. In terms of being an individual instrument, the Micro Modular is simply mind-blowing. Words are hard to find that describe the fantastic feeling of pulling down a module at will and patching it across to another one. The sounds it creates are completely unique, and whack all over any basic synthesizer in terms of complexity and user satisfaction. Yes this is a modular, and I can think of no flip side to having one of these. It completely sates my modular appetite, as having an analog modular would just leave me feeling limited in terms of module selection, numbers of said modules, and the amount of money I had left in the world. I can save patches, it NEVER crashes, and the polyphony is fine for me at a single voice with heavy patch loading (where was I going to get a modular with greater polyphony than one). And I can plug it out from the computer and play it - because it's a real synthesizer. Of course, Im not really playing it unless its plugged into the computer and happily patching itself into oblivion and back.

So if you like to program and mess around with sound you need one of these. To be honest, its worth it for the vocoder alone, its worth it for the synth section alone, its worth it for being a modular, its worth it for treating external signals, Its worth it for its pure red dinkiness.

Advanced Programming Techniques for Modular Synthesizers (this is hardcore)

Code404: the nord-modular forum

The official clavia nord modular page

The official clavia nord modular links page

Still not convinced?? Read the reviews at harmony-central.com:

micro modular & regular modular

So if you've read my rtpMIDI Adventures post from 9th May 2022, you'll note that I had problems accessing the PC ports on my Nord Micro Modular. Well, here's how I eventually got to access a Nord Micro Modular in 2023.

I tried bypassing my new rtpMIDI network and attached the Nord directly to my Windows 11 computer. Ruling out rtpMIDI and the iConnectivity mio XLs, I tried several MIDI interfaces and it now seemed that the problem was either computer hardware or operating system related.

NOTE: Nord only had a beta version of the Modular editor software for OS X but I also found this great website which is trying hard to keep the editor alive for this platform; -engine.com/micro-modular-1.

Anyway, with no fan, one would expect the Cube to be nice and quiet but by today's standards, the electromagnetic hard drive makes this cute little thing way too loud to have in a recording environment. I built my studio computers myself and they're seriously quiet but I still keep them in a cupboard in a separate room to the control room. Even tucked away in that cupboard, I wasn't convinced that I wouldn't hear the Cube.

SIDE NOTE - For anyone insane enough to try remote access to a computer this old, please note that changing the computer's desktop background to a solid colour (unlike that shown above), really speeds things up.

No desktop peripherals are attached to the Cube but hooking up a VGA emulator ensures that the screen resolution of the Cube via remote access is a full 1920 x 1200. The only connections are power, Ethernet and USB (for the MidiSport).

this "album" is really a cool idea. when i saw Rastkos video a few month ago I was excited and bought soon after a micro. it's a fantastic device. I love its sound.

"nord coast" is a nice concept ;-)

Hi, I'm wondering.. What did you mean when you wrote "you need to jump through hoops to get the editor to work on a modern Mac operating system" - Is there some method of using the OSX Micro Modular Beta Editor on non-Snow Leopard computars?? Please do let me know. I'm after setting up a Mid-2007 Mac Mini for the purpose of screensharing to it from a modern computar and just using it to run the Rosetta/Snow Leopard -compatible Micro Modular Editor from Clavia.

Clavia never got around to making a stable editor for MacOS X and I no longer have any Mac capable of running MacOS9.2.1 to edit the beast and If I had I've already forgotten how Opcode OMS worked to set up the midi routings from scratch.

Even thought the MicroModular was considered a '1 voice' synth it was possible to create polyphonic patches for it.

If I recall correctly I squeezed out 9 voices out of the thing before it choked...

Oh yeah. I loved how easy the UI was, and connecting things. That set the standard for me. Higher level, not too low, easy on the eyes, just right (for me). G2 Editor works on the latest Windows, does G1's editor???

@samu Yes, it was actually a stripped down one-DSP version of the Modular which could be expanded to 8 DSPs if I remember correctly. With "current editors", do you mean alternative ones that run on latest OSes?

Making the editor talk to the Modular can be a challenge indeed, mainly because finding an appropriate MIDI interface and drivers is an art.

@StudioES said:

I think for its time, it was maybe the most revolutionary instrument ever. And that mailing list was the greatest - coming home daily and opening up amazing patches right from an email - are you kidding me?

@rs2000 from the point of view of someone who I consider a Drambo expert, is there anything you miss from the Nord Modular environment when using Drambo? Software UI? Specific DSP modules? The hardware itself?

@Grandbear said:

Hmmm, Drambo has evolved a lot since 2020 and the modules I'm missing are becoming less and less.

One of my favorite features, the Morph Groups and N-to-1 / 1-to-N switches have been added now and there's a new Formant OSC too.

Other significant additions are the Wavetable Oscillator and the Analog Filter modules, giving me a sound quality that I wasn't able to get from the NM.

I have to say that after diving into Drambo and getting more and more Nord Modular type modules over time, I'm now not looking back anymore except for good memories and yeah, a little box that can be powered on and used almost instantly.

But even that can be done now in a better way using an old iPhone (I'm using a 6 Plus) or iPad Mini attached to a class compliant MIDI controller with audio interface.