Nord (Clavia Nord) is a Swedish virtual analog synthesizer and organ manufacturer. Nord keyboards are handmade in Sweden by Clavia DMI AB.
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Clavia was founded in 1983 by Hans Nordelius together with Mikael Carlsson in Stockholm, Sweden. In a basement in a suburb of Stockholm he created the Digital Percussion Plate 1, which was released later the same year allowing drummers to play sampled sounds with great feel and dynamics. The sounds were stored on removable EPROM cartridges in 8-bit format.
In 1984 the brand name ddrum was introduced. Hans and Mikael teamed up with Bengt Lilja to create the first digital pad construction featuring real drum heads and hoops. Most other pads on the market at this time had a plastic or rubber surface. The ddrum versions 1 to 4 all became very successful and many people still regard them as being the best triggering digital drum system around. Clavia has since stopped manufacturing digital drums and the ddrum brand name was sold.
The Nord Lead synthesizer was released in 1995. It was Clavia’s first synthesizer and the first on the market to emulate analog synthesis. With the Nord Lead Clavia introduced the term virtual analog, which since then has become widely accepted and synonymous with this form of synthesis.
Magnus Kjellander joined Clavia in 96 and brought with him a new approach to the company in terms of software design. Magnus is the head of Clavia's software engineering department and the first unit that he was involved in completing was the Nord Modular. Introduced in 97, this was the first digital modular synthesizer.
The Nord Electro was introduced in 2001 to create emulations of classical electro-mechanical keyboards. The Nord Lead 3 was also released in 2001. In 2005 Clavia released the company's first stage keyboard with the Nord Stage. In 2007 the 2nd generation of Clavia's tonewheel model was released in the dual manual Nord C1 Combo Organ. 2007 also took the Nord Lead synthesizer concept to the next level with the introduction of the Nord Wave; a virtual analog synthesizer capable of using any standard audio file as an oscillator source - making it a digital sample player in a virtual analog environment. The Nord Stage EX series was introduced in November 2008, with a 256 MB capacity for the piano memory and a new color scheme on the panel. Just a month later, the first Nord Electro 3 left the assembly line. Also in the year 2008, Clavia celebrated its 25th anniversary, with the Nord Lead Anniversary model as a result. In 2009 the Nord C2 Combo Organ was introduced featuring an updated tonewheel model. And most recently, in 2011 Nord has created the next generation of it's Stage Keyboards with the Nord Stage 2 and an upgrade to the Nord Electro 3 with the HP (hammer-action portable) version.
Today, Nord continues to develop instruments aimed at the performing musician. Nord products are distributed in the US by American Music & Sound.
The Nord factory is located in the area of Stockholm called SoFo, in the district of Södermalm. It occupies three stories of an old industrial brick building close to the major music shop district. Nord keyboards are assembled by hand using Swedish parts suppliers whenever possible. Most of the assembly staff are active musicians.