Nord User Forum

[iamdave]

I have a Nord Electro 5 hp. Love it. Through headphones it sounds great.

But plugging it into live speakers it sounds maybe half as good at best.

Even QSC K speakers.

I've tried eq'ing to no avail.

What might I be missing?

[harmonizer]

Are you talking about acoustic piano sounds, or others?
If acoustic piano sounds, which acoustic piano samples from Nord have you tried?
Are you running with mono or stereo amplification?

[anotherscott]

I have a Nord Electro 5 hp. Love it. Through headphones it sounds great.

But plugging it into live speakers it sounds maybe half as good at best.

Even QSC K speakers.

I've tried eq'ing to no avail.

What might I be missing?

Lower priced speakers just don't sound as good as headphones. Simple EQ can't really solve this.

My experience was that the QSC K8 did not sound very good for piano (and not just Nords). The EV cheaper, lighter ZXa1 sounded noticeably better (though can't go as loud as the K8). Still not as good as headphones, but for me, it passed the threshold from being "not good" to being "good." The RCF TT08A sounded even better than the EV, but it's quite a bit pricier. The JBL PRX625 sounded even better than the RCF, and is much cheaper, but is bigger and heavier. (It's discontinued, but I expect that the PRX725 and PRX825 probably sound comparable.) I am looking forward to checking out the QSC K8.2 which is supposed to be a notable improvement over the K8.

[iamdave]

Yea, let be more specific, sorry.

I've used k8/10/12 etc.

I don't have issues on EP's, organs or anything else really. But on all acoustic pianos, I notice a massive difference.

Basic headphones obviously are ok, but still sound much better than live speakers to me. My akg headphones sound a ton better. Don't recall what model they are. They're about a $75 - $100 set that's 10 + years old.

Anyhow, I'm going mono out of the left channel. Could that be it? Is that not mono and I'm just getting half the signal?

Aside from this, I am a raving Nord fan. Love this keyboard and it's tones. Love that I can download new stuff when it comes out, move it around. They give a lot of options in # of keys and weight etc.

I've had such a long journey finding a keyboard that wasn't heavy, have 70 some keys, and acoustic pianos as well as EP's and organs + horns and strings that would all work on one keyboard. I've tried almost everything. Nord to the rescue. The clincher for me was doing sound for a band one day and a guy used a nord. 1st Nord I had heard in person. Yikes. That got me excited and on my Nord journey. Anyhow, I'm blabbing now. lol!

[anotherscott]

I don't have issues on EP's, organs or anything else really. But on all acoustic pianos, I notice a massive difference.

Yes, acoustic piano is the toughest thing to get sounding good. Any half-decent speaker will be fine on all the rest.

I'm going mono out of the left channel. Could that be it?

It could be a factor. Use the Mono button on the front panel to make sure the Nord is sending out a signal optimized for mono. You should also then be able to compare even the difference between mono-through-speaker vs. mono-through-headphones. Also, I've seen that some people think the Royal Grand 3D sounds better in mono than many of the other pianos do, so be sure to check that one.

[iamdave]

Right, piano is where the rubber hits the road for sure.

Yea, I forgot about the mono button. I'll give that a try. That and the Royal which I've downloaded.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it.

[harmonizer]

Royal Grand was the first acoustic patch I found that really sounded right in mono on my Nord Electro 3. I used it for several months, with the "mono" button turned on, taking the sound out of the L output jack, going into my EV zxa1. I have an old Electro 3, which has limited piano bank memory, so I was using the "L" size of the Royal Grand.

The Royal Grand sounded very nice as a solo instrument, while playing at home, but it did not really "cut" through for playing in a covers band, so I recently swapped it out for the Amber Upright "L" size. I added some comments on this just this morning, here: nord-piano-forum-f10/amber-upright-t13462-20.html

[cphollis]

Welcome to my passion. How do you reproduce the headphone experience for you, the band, and the audience?

The Nord boards bring the killer sound, how do you translate that to others? It's been one of my passions over the years

First, bring money. Sorry, but amplifying your own ears is short money. Amplifying everyone's ears is longer money. Sorry.

Regarding the KSC K8 series, they're decent. The K10s and K12s are more PA focused. And, as I've posted before, the new K8.2 s are serious bang for the buck.

Spending more, the next step up is the RCF TT08s (~$3k) and my uber FAS 12ac units (~$7.5k). No, it's not linear. You pay more for proportionally less.

You want to deliver the killer sound? Sure, let's talk. Budget and use case matter

[LudovicVDP]

Strange thing. I always experience the opposite situation as you Iamdave.
Every time I use my (good) headphones, I don't like the sound of the acoustic pianos. Every time it surprises me.
But when I play live (on K10 when it's with our own PA) or in rehearsal or on my (not that good) studio monitors, then I'm more than convinced.

[iamdave]

The mono button certainly helped. Running right/left also helped in stereo or into the same speaker even.

It'd be nice if the board recognized you were plugged only into the left and then assumes you want mono as stereo wouldn't make sense then.

Maybe I'll save my patches as mono as I know I'll forget once again and go to a gig and go "what?!?!" lol!

Thanks, folks.