Pros: The keyboard feel and expressivity for controlling sustained sounds such as strings and pads. You can bring out inner lower lines, say with your left hand, while playing on this synth keyboard better than any keyboard I have ever played.
The FM and virtual analog osc's sound great. The outputs are very transparent. Layering of 4 parts gives the synth it's sound. Easy to program. The software for program management works well. The effects are good but an external reverb is a good idea. The synth is designed for performers/keyboardists but fits into the studio. Well built, while being lightweight and compact size.
Cons: Sample memory is limited to 1 Gig. Useful but not enough to create competitive piano and string programs. Look at the sample part as a sound design add on feature. This is not meant to be a sample playback synth. There is not enough patch storage locations on board. For ex., if you want to keep the factory programs and add more programs you only have 2 banks of 25 program slots open. If this synth had say 10 Gigs of sample memory along with its FM and virtual analog osc's it would be a powerhouse. At current lowered pricing this is still a good value synth.

First of all, I want to acknowledge the consistent professionalism and assistance from Jason Filloramo who makes purchases even more pleasant. Nord stands on its own and the quality and aesthetic appeal are of a high level. Its most important attribute is its complexity mixed with a user friendly process of customization. The free Nord Sample Editor and Nord Sound manager that are available through the Nord website are very useful and invaluable. The only weakness of the Wave 2 is in it's piano capabilities, but with sampling, or with software & tweaking, that can be overcome. The machine is easily portable and there are great value cases on Amazon. So, I will be growing my capabilities gradually on an upwards scale, without any limitations from the Wave 2 itself.

The main attraction of the Nord Wave 2 is being able to load samples into it and use them as oscillators - or mix them with other types of synthesis using layers. Yes, it does have great sounding virtual analog and FM capabilities too. But if that's all you want, you might find it in a cheaper keyboard elsewhere. Samples really expand the possibilities of this synth, but that also means putting a little extra work into creating your own sample content to get the most out of it.

A lot of the samples I use are coming from my Eurorack modular setup. That stuff is fun to use, but it has two major weaknesses: saving patches, and generating polyphony. The Wave 2 solves both of those problems for me.

I was a long time user of the original Nord Wave, and the upgrades in the "2" answered all of my gripes about the first one. The Wave 2 adds: a lot more sample memory (expanded to 1GB, vs only 180MB on the original), 4 simultaneous synth layers (2 on the original), an arpeggiator, the ability to split sounds across they keyboard, plus another octave of keys. I do think they could have included more than 1GB of memory, and that's why I took off half a star in my rating. But it's still a nice upgrade over the old version.

Everything about the user interface is designed for ease of use and fast adjustments on the fly, meaning it's a great live performance keyboard. The synth engine only has one LFO (plus vibrato that can *sort of* act as a second), yet it has 4 sources available for morph control. That should be a clue that this keyboard was designed to be played and manipulated in real-time instead of menu-diving through endless pages of parameters.

This synth probably conjures a wide variety of opinions from potential buyers. It might not have enough deep-programming options for some people, while other people will be excited about the sample-as-oscillator paradigm and the immediate user interface. Competitors for this synth include the Sequential Prophet X and the Waldorf Quantum. Personally I found the Nord Wave 2 easier to use than those, and that means I get more done with it - and have more fun in the process too.

A great keyboardists synth and really enjoy playing on it, but after a while of gentle use, the slider heads broke one by one.. disappointing for such a great sounding synthesizer. Definitely either a design or materials flaw there.

I really love playing this synth. I have had analog synths, and to my ears, this covers this ground perfectly. I love the Nord layout and can modify the sounds and effects quickly for nailing the sound I want to track. The quality it top notch. You get what you pay for when buying a Nord.

The Nord Wave 2 has become the main synth in my studio for meat-and-potatoes sounds. I use it on every track I make, usually fillings roles like synth-lead, comping harmony voice or synth-bass. It's very fast when it comes to dialing in the sounds I'm looking for, and being able to quickly create new sample sources for it makes it pretty much useful forever...it's not going to get out-of-date or pushed out by newer gear.

One thing that I often use the Wave 2 for is to sample my other analog gear, especially older gear that drifts out of tune. I sample the analog gear with the dead-simple free sample editor from Nord, then build sounds as needed that *never* drift out of tune and take away a lot of the hassle and time spent tweaking my vintage gear.

All in all, it's one of my favorite synths.

I'm loving my Nord Wave 2. The handy Sample Editor 3 makes sampling a breeze. The Sound Manager is also useful to have. I love it all--analog modeling, wavetables, FM, and sampling!

I've had numerous Nord synthesizers. Currently I own the Nord Stage 3 Compact, the Nord A1, and the Nord Wave 2. I have no other keyboard hardware. I love the immediacy, accessibility, and sound. I was hesitant to purchase the Nord Wave 2 as I was worried it might be redundant, but I figured it would eventually replace the A1. I've very much enjoyed the Nord Wave 2 thus far. What sets it apart is the magnificent layering possibilities and how quickly you can juxtapose Analog, Wavetable, FM, and Samples. I enjoy crafting sounds but I lack a sophisticated understanding of synthesis. I know enough to get by. With the Wave 2, you can start with a sample (or 2, or 3, or 4), or an Analog wave form, or an FM configuration, mess with it, and in the process come up with something very interesting, and learn about what your doing while you're doing it. The interface is brilliant and that is the best feature of this instrument. There are more sophisticated, more powerful, and more groundbreaking hardware synthesizers. But if you just want to play and explore sound design in the process, and you want to do so in a seamless, transparent way, this is a perfect instrument. At this point I find the presets disappointing and with several outstanding exceptions I don't think they saw off the full splendor and possibilities of the instrument Typically however, Nord adds many designer sound banks and with the Nord Wave 2 this will be very helpful. As for the samples, they are pure sounding, especially the much improved guitars, the mellotrons, the choirs, the tuned percussion, and the strings. So load them up, mix and match, add some wave tables, FM, or Analog for ballast and off you go!

The LFO can only have an effect on one destination at a time and there are only three total choices for destinations. This is stupid. All the layers in the world don't matter when you can't create basic analog sounds that require 2 things being modulated at once. Nord instruments are normally extremely well thought out so this is baffling! I think even the Stage which has a less complex synth engine can have two LFO destinations. If you enjoy unnecessary limitations this is the synth for you. The interface overall is wonderful but this and some other limitations really bring it down.

This could be so much better than it is with just a few tweaks. There are many basic analog sounds that you can't even do without a ton of fiddling (if at all) due to Nord's limited oscillator configuration setup. Basically, you choose a pre-programmed configuration (shape, detune, sync, etc) and then adjust a parameter from that. So if you want to adjust the pulse width and also detune, you can't conventionally. Nord provides various unison modes, but these pan the voices around and only detune by predetermined amounts, not the same as physical knobs on a synth.

One LFO would be alright except it can only modulate one destination at a time, and there are only three choices in total. Yep, you read that right. Completely silly. Synths from the 70's could do more in this department.

Glide (or portamento) only works monophonically. Again, I thought we were past this on a modern synth.

The keys are not the same as a conventional synth keybed. The best synth action I know of is the one on Sequential synths. That one feels great to play. This is heavier and more stiff.

You can't actually do that much with the samples. Even the original Wave could do more if you really wanted to transform them. You can layer them...great, an old Motif or Fantom could do that too. Nord samples are still only one velocity layer so it's essentially like a 4-layer patch on a Fantom X or similar except the Fantom has more options.

Really, for this price, this is not worth the money. If sample loading is important, get a Prophet X. Alternatively a Korg Kronos will do everything the Wave 2 can do plus a ton more. The only advantage the Wave 2 has over a Kronos I can think of is the physical interface of the Wave is going to be superior.

Nord needs to stop putting so many unnecessary limitations into their synths. They sound great, I'd love to keep one around but could never justify the price for the lack of standard synth features that have been around since the 70's.

Action is heavy, hard to play for a synth. The semi-weighted action makes more sense for the stage series.
I think the action could be much lighter for a synth.

Presets could be better. I felt many of the presets could have been better programmed for the synths abilities.

Based on the retail price, I was not impressed with this synth, and had to send it back. :(

I hope the next Nord SYNTH, has lighter action keys for fast play. I hope the Wave 3 or Lead 5 fixes that.
The original wave had better action and better presets. I wish those carried over to the Wave 2.

This is an awesome keyboard. It is essentially 4 synthesizers, each with a complete set of controls, Amp, Filter, Effects, LFO, Arp, etc. Each layer can be stacked or split in multiple ways, and each one can be a VA oscillator, Wave Table, FM, or sample. This is my sixth Nord instrument, so I guess you could say I am a fanboy. I shamelessly admit that. The Wave 2 is much larger and heavier than any of the previous leads, lots of stuff crammed into this board. Two OLED displays, an arpeggiator which has programmable rhythms (saved with each program), 48-note polyphony and a rich sound make this my favorite Nord so far. Check it out!

I am a proud owner of the original Nord Wave, which I still use to this day...A LOT ! So, as you can imagine, I have been waiting for the rumored Wave updated model for years. Which is why I jumped on the Wave 2 immediately (without playing it first) after it's introduction at NAMM 2020. So, I finally received it after waiting for months for Clavia to finally get it out to dealers in the U.S.
First impressions...WOW !! This is not a Wave...it's bigger, heavier, and has a LOT MORE displays, knobs, and faders...it looks more like a small Stage Compact. After digging in for about 3 hours, my conclusion was "Oh yea...this is definitely a Wave...a wave on steroids. There's just a lot more controls on it, from a 5 octave keyboard (YES !!)...two OLED displays, and 4 sliders (each one, in essence, a Wave...calling it a Wave 4 may have been more accurate). YET...with all the increased ability to control it, it's surprisingly easy to manipulate...as easy as the original Wave is. I have easy modified a few of the programs to fit my own tastes...without reading the manual !! For example, I took one of the programs, which utilized 2 of the 4 layers (each one is like the original Wave), and added additional instruments as an academic exercise to create a orchestral GIANT of a instrument (using program D:14 Dynamic Strings, if you're interested).
So, if you're wondering it this was in my opinion a good purchased, you've probably gathered that my answer is a resounding YES !!! So much here to work with...yet it's so simple to do intuitively, without the manual. As I find out more about this piece, I may do a follow-up on it. A big thanks go out to my Sweetwater sales agent Will Newbill, who worked remotely during COVID social distancing to get me this instrument.
And, if any of you are looking to pickup my used Nord Wave (Wave 1 ?)....FORGET IT. It'll only be found years from now at my estate sale. HA HA. Way to go, Nord...you've hit another one out of the ballpark !!