While the Nord Modular G2 definitely has a lot to offer and may well be considered a worthy successor to Clavia's most fascinating synthesizer model ever, there is a downside to it, as it is sadly not backwards-compatible to its predecessor. This is nothing short of tragic for owners of the original Nord Modular who have created lots of patches over the years, for buying the new model means starting from scratch. The hardware of the G2 required a completely new editor software and for the time being there is no way of importing a patch created with the previous software.

Unfortunately that's not the only problem some aspiring upgraders will have to face. Development of the previous Modular software has been halted by Clavia years ago and the latest version (3.03) dates from 1999. It runs very stable and without a flaw on operating systems of that time, but can't be installed on current computers equipped with Mac OSX or Windows XP. On the other hand, the Modular G2 software requires a host computer that runs at least Mac OSX or Windows 98 Second Edition.

Nord Modular G2, the 3-octave keyboard version

That means: long-time Nord Modular users who want to upgrade to Modular G2 will either have to start from scratch or keep their trusted original Modular and probably run into trouble when trying to use both systems with the same host computer. Clavia must be aware of this tricky situation, as it might make some users stick to their old Modular rather than buying its successor. Especially so as, while the Modular G2 certainly is a very fine instrument, the previous model has its merits, too, and some users might have to think hard to find enough reasons why to spend money on Clavia's latest incarnation of its Modular line.
 
 (rh 06/MMIV, pictures rh and clavia)

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