

In the studio, the A1 is still four-part multi-timbral. But, they still have incredible arpeggiators, thick and juicy oscillators and some lush, fat filters that can scream with the best of them.

They aren’t as well equipped as the Nord Lead 4.

These days, Clavia offers the Nord Lead A1, which is the spiritual successor to the older Nord Leads. The bright red keyboards have an enormous range of flexibility and expression, are extremely portable and while they may appear tiny, the internal synthesizer is more than robust. Nord Lead A1īack in the day, I jumped at any chance I could to use a Nord Lead, or Nord Lead 2 on stage. And I loved the internal effects, as they really could make many of the more acoustic patches sound extremely real and alive. I found it extremely easy to make a quick batch of performance presets before a show. In addition to the action and the functionality, the Kross-88 is extremely light for a weighted keyboard and has a large range of ‘bread and butter’ patches that will help fill out any kind of set, regardless of genre.
