Melbourne Instruments NINA: Not just a pretty face!

A walk through the beautiful NINA by Melbourne Instruments
You can buy one here through my affiliate link!
link.perfectcircuit.com/t/v1/...
instagram: / mattjohnsonjamiroquai
music: matt-johnson.bandcamp.com
matt-johnson.bandcamp.com/album/with-the-music-album

[@lundsweden]

Every synth Matt demonstrates sounds warm, funky and outstanding! I'm starting to think it's Matt that sounds good, not so much the gear!

[@untml]

most gear sounds good in the right hands

[@vaiman7777]

I wasted 1000’s over the years on guitars and amps for the same reason. Give Matt 4 Volca synths and he’d produce better music than 98% of YT.

[@balmey]

Matt is warm and funky

[@paulmapp8306]

yep.... I have several synths mat has demo'd and I dont sound anywhere near as good lol.

[@lundsweden]

@@paulmapp8306 My either, he's like an English version of Herbie Hancock!

[@cp-the-nerd]

Even with no intention of buying another synth at the moment, I listen to every one of Matt's videos for the music.

[@chrisstaubyn774]

I have a NINA and even I'm blown away by how impressive this review highlights what makes NINA so impressive. It was very much worth the pre-order.

[@skippyfast5115]

NO YOUR NOT HAVE IT ALREADY YOU LUCKY B...:)

[@frywolny]

Best presntation of Nina so far Matt. This istrument is brilliant, sounds warm, big and bit gnarly, love it. Let us know where can we get those patches ;) Cheers!

[@ScottWozniak]

Never thought we'd see such a resurgence of wavetables! I welcome all of it! 🧡

[@Standard.Candle]

The wavetable import can accept "Serum format" tables! Dubstep incoming in 3... 2...

[@craigmoran893]

wavetables really sound a ton better going through analog guts.

[@kosmikmusa]

I have been doing electronic music since eighties and first time ever I feel like this is THE ONE !

[@skippyfast5115]

YEs it is the One and only like Highlander there can be only one this is it! a shorten my hardware list Form Acces Virus Ti2, Summit, Oberheim,

[@didadere7212]

The best analog synth ever made. Kudos to manufacturer.

[@godot5082]

it's hybrid

[@FFrrEEddRRiiKK1]

However, these fantastic instruments are nothing without amazing keyboard masters like yourself.

[@cloudburstflight2748]

Every time you demo a synth it makes me want to buy it. But Nina is really unique and has the best UI I can think of.

[@cloudburstflight2748]

This time your video made me buy it😀

[@MichaelMichael-em3gx]

You are the sound magician! 🤩

[@l4pulp3]

Man, bro... You made my night. How many thx for this jamirofloyd session ❤❤

[@quantumeseboy]

Love it! Looks like a lot of fun.

[@rekindle]

You're killing the game with your reviews Matt! + great to see these new synths from Argentina, Australia etc it's a golden age for sure

[@holidaygames]

Wish we could like a video more than once. The music at the end is epic and awesome!

[@DoctorJezz]

Matt, your reviews are becoming a de facto benchmark even beyond your insanely valuable technique posts - thanks so much once again ... you're really killing it man - incredibly well done 😎🙏

[@toddtrillo7445]

You sold it to me just on the intro alone , thanks Matt that was a awesome overview of the Nina , one of my favorite overviews of it

[@1vootman]

It's absolutely great sounding. I'm getting a NINA

[@OswaldoVonSchnoobenstein]

This thing is adorable. I love it. Absolutely love it. I would love to have this in a mix on my albums.

[@vero_jamiroquai]

Very nice sound ! Really 😊

[@Wildbadger]

Beautiful playing, you bring the best out of these machines. I seldom hear anything this jazzy in other synth demos.

[@kicksNCY]

fabulous sound

[@georgetaylor3126]

These vids are so inspiring, thanks Matt!

[@keithedwards3594]

Another brilliant review. Love this sound.

[@richyr777]

Awesome Matt, love the review on this amazing synth!

[@RedMeansRecording]

Wow this sounds absolutely insane

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

Yeah it's pretty cool!

[@sonja1049]

That sounds really amazing! You're a magician x ... very interesting, thanks for sharing

[@DavidLee07]

Sounds punchy and the motorized faders are a huge plus for programming. It reminds me a little bit of early Thomas Dolby, which is a great thing in my book. Thanks a lot, Matt!

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

Totally!

[@apexone5502]

That synth has superb levels of sound.I love the warm textures of each sound. It is on par with old school ‘70s synths in my opinion. Your highly skilled playing really sells the device. Good stuff.

[@Kung_Fu_Jesus]

25:47 is just stunning. Thank you for sharing your talent Matt, exceptional demo too good of a game-changer synth

[@luciousfl0w]

Just the man I wanted to see demo-ing this synth!

[@benkohut3121]

Oh man that intro jam was wonderful

[@insidestraight4659]

Damn, what an incredible synth.

[@jono6794]

You give the best reviews of synths!

[@FUNKINETIK]

I’ve been following the progress of NINA since Melbourne Instruments first demo’d their prototype at NAMM. I love it, the sound is amazing and the functionality is a game changer. Great demo Matt, liking the ‘Knee Deep’ bit @23:35 and @29:40. P E A C E : )

[@jasoneboles]

Great review! I like that whenever Matt speaks, his jacket also has something to say!

[@marquiselektrek8452]

Hey Matt, great review! Love the synth, and love your matching his and hers "Red and Black" outfits! 😊 You're the man Matt! 😎

[@dankeplace]

13:00 I've got a pad here, my god that sounds godly, gorgeous, so warm and generous. 15:45 perfect example of how nice this sounds, 3 parts split, that's 3 players in 1. 4 parts would be amazing too. Having heard what you've done, I am going to go play one myself, luckily we have them in store to do so, great vid, thanks Matt. 19:00 on wards is just exactly how easy it is to make something very very basic, into some serious moving sounds, simple motif that keeps going and going. Thx for making me check the price locally lol. May take me a while to get one, but I think it's well worth it due to a) sound b) functionality c) size. So good!!!

[@dankeplace]

People complain too much of the cost of this, with quality comes a price. Then some complain that it's a gimmick? The same probably don't understand how important it is to see what patch is doing what when changing to a new one. When you change patches on the fly during a set and you don't know where your settings lie and when you do try to adjust, you get some weird jumping due to previous tweaking on previous patch. I can only say that seeing the knobs reset is an amazing feature, especially for people who love to tweak. Another issue people complain about is the durability of the motorised knobs, their failure rate. These are coreless designs based on drone tech, proven tech too given they're required to keep drones in the air. Now their RPM is much much lower than 40K - 80K RPM operating of a drone function. I think I worked it out to be something like 320 RPM which gives it a prolonged life. Then add the sound of this, and we have a real winner that is innovative. Analogue bliss with a true analogue workflow...

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

yeah its really different. I think the designers can be very proud of themselves

[@untml]

most of the comments here seems positive, glad to see that.

[@newignis]

Imagine all preset synths having motorized knobs. That would be something !

[@VEsound]

Brilliant presentation & demos as usual Matt ❤ Really nice instrument for sure. The morph feature (which can clearly sounds exciting!) reminds me the Yamaha DX200: creative terroritories to discover!

[@DerrickMckenzieOfficial]

What a synth and what a great tune too!!! Love it mate!! Very very cool synth and well demo’s!!!

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

thanks mate

[@GNeuman]

Brilliant review as ever, Matt. Thanks!

[@elipuebla2537]

This thing sounds fantastic .wow.

[@AGDugros]

Very impressive!

[@deps2450]

great work matt!

[@awilsonator]

Awesome 👍

[@HanHuman]

Smooth sounds

[@mcgyrus]

Best demos as always

[@LomaGnome]

Nice breakdown, and explanation, really cool unit.

[@sneakyalien101]

Lovely looking and sounding synth. I would love for Matt to make a video about the Fender Chroma Polaris. I think the tones that can be coaxed out of the Chroma Polaris are right up his street - it is like a Polyphonic ARP synth and you can hear the soul of ARP instruments in the Polaris due to its heritage. Would love to hear Matt make it sing in a way I can't :)

[@hirsapurba1599]

Very nice sound, I like it....

[@Johndctrains]

🔥🔥🔥🔥great video Matt! 😃

[@Goettel]

Sounds greats and almost perfectly color matches your EP ; - )

[@regmonmusic]

Very nice!

[@nickhenderson2075]

Great synth Matt. The sound of that filter very ARP. Reminds me of my Tonus 2600 filter wise ❤

[@drofdissonance]

You make it sound so good 😅

[@skippyfast5115]

just waiting on mine as it will arrive soon Darn its a great sound Its all i was looking for its a combination of all the synths i was looking for heard it played ed with it Bought it!

[@seedmole]

Very cool. 4-layer multitimbrality plus multiple outputs means it's actually a pretty good value proposition -- now of course you'd get more notes of polyphony by buying 2 or 3 polysynths in the $1000-$1500 range, but putting that many notes to use is tricky, and having a studio setup that allows proper access to that many synths' controls at once is much trickier than just having one desktop style synth in reach.

[@skippyfast5115]

Quality is tripple 5 star what synth under 1.000 would you recommend that can do this with 12 voices?? only one i know is Deepmind 12 but that is not this League You can stack Analog Four Mk1 only of the same kind of quality but that is 4 voices or Modal Argo/ Modal Cobalt , Minilogue XD burt still this NINA beats the sound engine i have heard, and a second hand summit is like $ 1.600 if you can find one for that price so no there is none, than you need again sequencers and arps and they are all in there and very easy to use.

[@skippyfast5115]

i know heard it played with it blown away by it bought it!

[@domingoleija3436]

Interesting machine 🥁

[@stevehunt2125]

Impressive synth, great review thanks Matt

[@isaac.anthony]

Amazing synth!

[@Standard.Candle]

Excellent review Matt! Nice to see you showcasing the new firmware, they've done a lot of work since launch. I was going to ask for some custom patches from you, but just noticed you're giving some away for free! I can't wait! I'd give my right plum for the patch @26:27

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

ok its in!

[@DerrickMckenzieOfficial]

I want one!! 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾😃😃😃

[@robaire.b]

What an amazing sounding synth. And who better to show what it can do. Great review

[@samuelmckahey7226]

Excellent review.

[@betohale]

I tried it at NAMM last week and had its designer explain it. It’s outstanding.

[@betohale]

…and your demos are always excellent!!

[@sneakyalien101]

23:46 to 24:02 Wow - Gorgeous music.

[@AnnularFrisson]

Motorized faders and pots are the future. Synth companies have known this for years but weren't willing to use anything but dirt cheap components. We want quality, immediacy, recallability, and a good feel. Just buy the good fucking parts!

[@pawnotdaw4559]

Nice. Especially nice to the Low track

[@fadplastic]

Nice little nod to Bowie and Eno at the end! 😊 23:00

[@vaiman7777]

Matt could demo a frying pan and I’d watch (and probably buy). Golden fingers! Thx

[@skippyfast5115]

O and the Sub bass that comes from it is also Epic!

[@acimbobby]

Matt you fought that Nina and made her produce those beautiful sounds. It's going in a way synths need to go, very good run down using something that is so complex. It has not much in the way of limitations IMO

[@TheCALMInstitute]

Hearing someone who's a great keyboardist is just SO MUCH more enjoyable than the people who just smash the same key a thousand times and turn a knob. DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH 😫

[@jedgould5531]

Terrific underrated player. Quite the gentleman at the radio station when I got my Matt Johnsons confused. 🙄

[@sasarasa88]

the smile when turning to look at the camera

[@MrQmason]

A one voice synth with only one key working is going to sound good in Matt's hands

[@samhvidberg5612]

As a resident of Melbourne I really want to use that as a reason to buy it.

[@KiR_3d]

Sounds awesome! My only one "complaint" is that here is no any type of BP or HP filter. But wavetables makes things different! Your demos are lovely, Matt! I'm always playing a rythm on something (now it's a plastic bottle with a home leechee wine that is still not ready so it changes the tone while you're playing on it). Demos are toooo short :)) If you have a big video with these, could you make a separate video for YT with long versions?

[@odalv7278]

yes, but hopefully other manufacturers will take a note and implement motorized knobs in other synths that imo are already a way ahead to this...

[@darkcognitive]

Awesome stuff as usual Matt. Love the idea of this synth, I enjoy the morphing between patches my Polybrute does, and it’s cool to watch it happen on the nobs on the Nina in real time. Quick question: I noticed you have your monitors on their side, is there an advantage to having them like this vs upright? Are they designed to go on their side, or is it just the fact you prefer the look of them that way? I’m curious, i noticed a lot of other people have one upright set, and another set on their side, but always wondered the reason why.

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

you can usually have them either way, I've been told this is the best way for this speaker but I'm nom expert about that!

[@bartni]

Now, that's something unique. Price is unique too, haha.

[@JuanUys]

3:16 I like that it has analogue AND digital oscillators. A lot of folks always make it sound like you have to make a choice between the punch of analogue and the smorgasbord of digital wave tables.

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

Yeah cool Combo

[@marzzz1]

23:00 omg one of my favorite Bowie songs!

[@anthonyalexander7246]

You da man

[@1AaKaAlex]

Hey, how good is the interaction with a DAW when i can control so my plugins its insane awsome.

[@martattacks]

That really clean but still very warm sound and the fm-y capabilities sort of remind me of the UDO Super 6's character and versatility. Plus those paradigm-shifting encoders... what a marvellous machine. I so wanna have one. I kind of stretched my budget with the Super 6 already this year, though, and this beast is even like double the price, as well. So.... not going to happen, I'm afraid. 😢

[@chrisstaubyn774]

I have both the S6 and NINA. I personally think NINA is the better of the two synths, but you can't go wrong with either.

[@martattacks]

@@chrisstaubyn774 Yes, I thought so myself. I love my S6, but boy am I craving for self-aligning knobs. Having to move every knob and fader to the current setting to pick up a visual representation of the current patch has annoyed me for donkeys on various synths.

[@chrisstaubyn774]

@@martattacks The lack of any screen makes the S6 a prime candidate for motorized knobs and faders.

[@HanHuman]

Clever synth

[@gwsound]

A year ago they launched the proto of the moving knobs. Great to see and hear the results. It’s on my wishlist now 😊. Thanks for the video. Any news on your own track releases?

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

its hard to find the time but I'm on it!

[@jono6794]

I'd be interested in your opinion of the Native Instruments MK3 if you've used one.

[@user-wz2uv1zs8o]

👌👌💎💎

[@balmey]

Random question: do any of these synths do volume compensation opening and closing the filter??? Like compression i guess, although maybe dynamic compression

[@untml]

VCF volume/low frequency compensation is usually an edition of buffered feedback of the resonance.

[@jimbotron70]

What's the advantage of motorized pots when you can do it in software? And sooner or later they will inevitably fail, so could someone explain it to me?

[@nikherold290]

that alternate pan voice thing you show at 21:45 is such an essencial thing in poly synths for me, it gives the sound space to breath... wow, such a versatile synth :') who's robbing the bank with me?

[@lundsweden]

I'll drive the getaway car if you go in! 😉

[@CB-zu4md]

Many thanks Matt for yet another great video. As you walk from the boat to your desert island, will you be carrying Nina or the 3rd Wave desktop?

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

Not sure!

[@CB-zu4md]

😊

[@koalemos1679]

I’ll never afford one but this is dope. Self moving knobs needs to be standardized.

[@marcbrasse747]

Dear Matt: there are more people who do good KZbin demo’s in descriptional sense but you always make these beasties sing as well which adds lot of extra depth. Would you agree that this can sound a lot like a polymodded Prophet5 or is that just my preconception of what the more experimental side of the Prophet sounds like? Anyway: a great sounding synth with almost perfect ergonomics but at a steep price.

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

Yes sometimes it can make prophet 5 type sounds. Very warm and fat

[@casperleonardo3013]

Hey Matt I’m a big fan, I was wondering if you could add to the funk keys tutorials with a video on your approach to left hand comping for improvisation. (Voicings, voice leading, syncopation and Rhythm)

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

yes I should do one

[@browe]

Just killing it, sir, with your lovely, informative, fun instrument overviews. I would have never predicted that back with the first record when Stuart Z. influenced my bass approach, now in 2023 you'd be an inspiring influence as a synthesist! :D

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

Thanks Brian, I can't take credit for that album that was Toby Smith :)

[@synthmaven]

Can this also be used to control other hardware and virtual synths?

[@MattJohnsonJamiroquai]

I'm guessing yes but don't quote me!

[@pintuvijayan2724]

👌👍. From God's own country. Kerala