Summary - Audio quality is excellent. There is no detectable noise or audio glitches. The samples are fairly dry, and certainly many of the sounds would benefit from a little effecting.

Wizoo Powered Nord will certainly appeal to those people looking to add a virtual analogue synthesiser to their sonic arsenal. The Nord Lead is an excellent and popular instrument and Wizoo have captured the essence of the machine excellently, and whilst no one is going to exchange the synth for this collection it may certainly earn Clavia another sale or two as it an excellent advertisement for the Nord.

I imagine people who use sample CD's fall into two basic camps, those who want an instant fix and are looking to use a sample to solve whatever need one has and those who use the sounds found on a sample CD as an inspiration and mould them to create something more unique. Certainly parts of this collection will appeal to the latter category of musicians and they therefore would get probably get the most from this collection. If your just looking for a collection of "patches" for your sampler then you'll probably only find about 75% of the collection of interest, the Waveform and Additive sections being of lesser interest.

There are some excellent examples of classic analogue sounding sounds in this collection, the bass, poly and pad sections are all excellent, with the bass and lead sections not far behind. As with any budget or mid price release you always want more of the sections you like...

I'm always a little bit suspect about samples within collections designed for you to do something else with, here we have waveforms and additive samples. To my mind part of the value, and hence part way to accounting for the high cost of sample CD's, is in tapping into the creative talent and resources of the producer. With sounds your supposed to do something else with yourself this element goes out the window somewhat. It's only a small part of the collection in this case so wouldn't worry too much.

As a representation of the Clavia Nord synthesiser and as a collection of excellent analogue sounds this collection certainly succeeds. There isn't a lot of complexity in the samples so if your looking for complicated soundscapes, or evolving pads then this isn't a collection for you, but if your looking for a solid collection of usable sounds with a analogue flavour then this collection is well worth considering.

Overall - Value for money 8/10 - Usability 8/10 - Documentation 10/10 - Sonic Quality 9/10. A Nord Lead in your sampler - 8/10

Click here to go to the Wizoo website - They have demo tracks online