The Nord Modular is a modular synthesizer created by the Swedish company Clavia

The Nord Micro as the name suggests is a cut down version of the famous Nord Modular synthesizer and comes in the form of a small interface with 4 assignable knobs. That said, it is still one of the most powerful modular synthesizers in the world and comes at a fraction of the price to that of the standard Nord Modular system.

Using the software which you are required to download from the Clavia website you can drag and drop modules such as oscillators, filters, sequencers and FX onto your computer screen and patch them together using virtual patch leads to create sounds. You can save these patches and load them into one of 99 memories within the controller and use them afterwards without needing to be connected to a computer. It can therefore be used for live performances as well as in a MIDI studio.

The Nord Micro provides for extensive sound sculpturing. Practically anything is possible with the Nord Micro although there are of course some limitations when compared to it's full size counter-part such as limited polyphony, withdrawn multi-timbral capabilities and considerably less DSP power.

However, the latest version of the software (2.1) includes many new features such as a ring modulator, vocal filter, 14-Band FilterBank, digitizer and FM sine wave to name a few.

Although I have not used the Nord Micro as such I am a huge fan of the Nord Modular synth range. The Nord is often used as the primary synthesis teaching equiptment in many universities and colleges.